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Ep. 30: 'Project Hail Mary,' Ryan Gosling & What Makes Good Sci-Fi
33 Plays6 days ago
In this episode of 'Adaptation: The Book to Movie Podcast,' Nate and Chris break down 'Project Hail Mary' by Andy Weir and its dazzling film adaptation directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
They discuss what makes Rocky such a special little guy, why Weir's brand of science fiction is spot-on for modern audiences, and what it means to be a crowd pleaser.
UP NEXT: 'Howl's Moving Castle' by Diana Wynne Jones and its film adaptation by Hayao Miyazaki
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Hosts: Nate Day
Producer: Nate Day
"Adaptation Theme"
- Written by: Chris Anderson, Jem Zornow
- Performed by: Chris Anderson, Jem Zornow, Nate Day
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction: Hosts and Topic Overview
00:00:29
Nate Day
Welcome to Adaptation, the book to movie podcast. I'm Nate.
00:00:33
Chris
And I'm Chris.
00:00:35
Nate Day
And today we are talking about Project Hail Mary written by Andy Weir and its film adaptation directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Had to make sure I got the correct pairings of names there. Sorry, Phil and Chris.
00:00:52
Nate Day
But before we dive into our conversation, how are you, Chris, doing?
00:00:57
Chris
I'm doing great. How are you doing? na
00:01:01
Nate Day
I'm doing pretty well. it's It's sunny and warm here finally. It feels like spring has sprung and makes me anxious to stop being at work and go outside.
00:01:05
Chris
Oh, good.
00:01:14
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:01:16
Nate Day
You been reading anything good lately?
Personal Reflections: Mood, Weather, and King Lear
00:01:19
Chris
I finally finished fricking, do you remember when we did Hamnet? I was like, I should read some more Shakespeare. Maybe I'll, I don't know, enjoy it more.
00:01:27
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:01:29
Chris
So I fired up King Lear.
00:01:31
Nate Day
Oh, I love King Lear.
00:01:33
Chris
written King Lear?
00:01:36
Nate Day
Yeah, sure. Any, any version. What are you talking about?
00:01:41
Chris
I assumed you would have consumed like, didn't didn't Ian McKellen do a adaptation of it
00:01:50
Nate Day
uh, I don't think he did. think Anthony Hopkins did one recently and. Al Pacino is doing one later this year, I think.
00:02:03
Chris
right wow okay well you're not going to be happy then i despised it
00:02:04
Nate Day
So, yeah, that was King Lear's my favorite one.
00:02:12
Nate Day
Despised it.
00:02:14
Chris
It was like twice as long as I wanted it to be.
00:02:19
Nate Day
Wow. Okay.
00:02:20
Chris
i don't know.
00:02:20
Nate Day
Okay.
00:02:21
Chris
I just did not. I guess I'm not the Bartolator I thought I was. I don't know what, but isn't that a good word?
00:02:27
Nate Day
Bartolator, that's a good word. is that a real word?
00:02:32
Chris
It's a real word. It was, I remember distinctly in sixth grade when we did our Shakespeare unit, Mrs. Estes had a word of the day and one was Bartolator because she was a huge Shakespeare nut. And that's literally all it applies to people who are Shakespeare nuts.
00:02:47
Nate Day
Wow. Well, i I wonder what the transcription is going to pick up on, if it's going to get that right.
00:02:55
Chris
There's no way. There's no way.
00:02:58
Nate Day
We'll find out.
00:02:58
Chris
Well, I, i I was super on board with it for maybe the first half and then it just felt like it was dragging. I don't know.
00:03:08
Nate Day
Well, and that's kind of, we've talked about how before the characters, any characters sort of waffling over what's right or not in a story where it's pretty objectively clear are not your favorite stories either.
00:03:22
Nate Day
And that that's a story about a lot of bad people getting a lot of good opportunities.
00:03:23
Chris
True.
00:03:27
Nate Day
So that actually doesn't stun me that you didn't like it.
00:03:28
Chris
True. Okay.
00:03:32
Chris
I also completely misunderstood the interaction with him and his daughters in the very opening scene. And so having to go back and rewire how I was viewing the characters, which is 100% my fault as the reader.
00:03:41
Nate Day
Oh.
00:03:48
Chris
i don't know. Just not fault.
00:03:49
Nate Day
Well, it's also Shakespearean English, so you've got to give yourself and it's written as a play, not a book.
00:03:49
Chris
I don't know.
00:03:55
Nate Day
So there's a lot of sort of gaps that you have to fill in when you're reading it in 2026.
00:04:01
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I don't know. I feel that I cannot give up on reading Shakespeare, but it's going to be a long time before I convince myself to try something else.
00:04:11
Nate Day
Well, we've got a Shakespeare episode later this year, so you better patch that up.
00:04:17
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah. hopefully you've been enjoying watching stuff more than I have reading.
00:04:22
Nate Day
Yeah.
Experiences: Project Hail Mary and Other Screenings
00:04:24
Nate Day
Yeah. I honestly, I haven't been to the theater that much again. Still the beginning of the year has been a little slow. i think the only time I've been two times I've been to the theater since we last recorded one was to see project Hail Mary and the other was to see the 50th anniversary IMAX screening of Tommy, the who's Tommy.
00:04:46
Chris
whoa Oh, that had to be awesome.
00:04:47
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:04:48
Chris
Uh-huh,
00:04:48
Nate Day
It was so awesome. I was the youngest person in the audience by 32 years at least. And it was so fun to watch it with these people that like clapped and cheered every time.
00:04:55
Chris
uh-huh.
00:05:00
Nate Day
You know, that movie is full of like Tina Turner makes an appearance and Elton John makes an appearance and Eric Clapton makes an appearance. So it was really fun. All these people like cheered when their favorites came on to do obviously very famous songs from The Who and It's a, you know, like 10 out of 10 energy movie as it is. So that was a really fun screening.
00:05:22
Chris
And had you, I assume this wasn't the first time you've seen it.
00:05:25
Nate Day
It was.
00:05:26
Chris
Oh, wow.
00:05:27
Nate Day
i know. I loved it. it's i I really loved it. And, yeah, i'm I'm glad that the first time I got to see it was on the big screen and in IMAX.
00:05:39
Chris
Yeah, what a cool way. I've still never seen it.
00:05:50
Chris
Uh-huh.
00:05:51
Nate Day
And of course, you know, it's a musical set to to rock music. So it's a lot of fun.
00:05:59
Nate Day
But speaking of Project Hail Mary, let's let's dive in. Tell me a little bit about this book.
00:06:06
Chris
Okay. Yeah.
00:06:07
Chris
real quick before I discuss this book, a couple, called them disclaimers, that's not right. Corrections, I suppose, from last episode.
00:06:16
Chris
I think I called it the suspension of reality, Tolkien's writing, what I meant was suspension of disbelief.
00:06:25
Nate Day
Oh, okay.
00:06:26
Chris
I don't know if that if you were like enraged by that. I was enraged at me by that. The intentional avoiding...
00:06:32
Nate Day
I was not enraged.
00:06:33
Chris
okay was. I was like, how did I mess that up? So for anyone unfamiliar, I was talking about writing and the more global idea. Suspension of disbelief is like the proper noun idea of intentionally avoiding logical thinking when dealing with a piece of work for the sake of enjoyment.
00:06:52
Chris
So I said that incorrectly. Perhaps I'm the only person that was enraged by that. That's fine. And I also objected with myself. I made a statement that modern authors were not dealing with language on the cool level or caliber that Tolkien did.
00:07:12
Chris
and immediately want to correct myself. I'm sure there are other examples, but particular particularly R.F. Kuang and specifically like Poppy Wars didn't go a ton into language, but her book Babbel definitely does in a very cool way that I would argue is akin.
00:07:32
Chris
And bonus points, a lot of it takes place at... Oh my gosh, what is that stupid university where Tolkien lived and worked forever?
00:07:43
Nate Day
Oxford.
00:07:45
Chris
Yeah, geez, Oxford. Boy, i am losing it.
00:07:52
Nate Day
That's all right. This has been Chris's correction corner.
00:07:57
Chris
So if anyone was enraged by those two statements of mine as much as I was, apologies and corrections. Okay. Project
Background: Andy Weir and His Works
00:08:05
Chris
Hail Mary, we're ready?
00:08:06
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:08:08
Chris
Cool, great. Okay, a very, very contemporary novel. This was published by Andy Weir in 2021. is obviously a current working author.
00:08:20
Chris
I think I mentioned to you at the very end of the last episode that I would have a cool show note for for you for this one. He has three now very famous novels.
00:08:34
Chris
And for, I guess, I don't know if it was celebration of this or what, a YouTube channel that I happen to love and frequent where this guy repairs old books and makes new books. It's a bookbinding channel.
00:08:48
Nate Day
That sounds like something you would love.
00:08:50
Chris
Way more exciting than it sounds, I promise. But Andy Weir contacted him and asked him to make a special set of these three novels for him.
00:09:03
Nate Day
Cool. on
00:09:04
Chris
Super, super cool. Does these crazy designs and leather working. So I'll find the first one from that series and send it to you to put in the show notes.
00:09:13
Nate Day
Yeah, please do.
00:09:14
Chris
Highly recommend. Really cool to watch. So Andy Weir, a computer programmer from Davis, California. Went to UC San Diego, but did not finish college.
00:09:26
Chris
From what I was reading, he began... programming when he was like 15 professionally worked at Blizzard for a brief time early on. The company behind League of Legends and Warcraft, famous and controversial. There's a really cool book about that, too, I suppose. Maybe I'll send you that if people are interested.
00:09:49
Chris
But shifted from that to writing comics, to writing a lot of work, actually, that I was unfamiliar with.
00:09:58
Chris
Comics, kind of long form series, short stories. But his big breakout and and crazily, his first published full novel was The Martian, which I assume you're familiar with.
00:10:12
Nate Day
Yes, I love the, I've never read the book, but I love the movie.
00:10:16
Chris
think everyone saw the movie incredible matt damon i think right so absolutely insane for your first book i was reading online i think i caught it past this point but at least initially when it came out you know new author first big publication it was like 99 cents on on kindle and obviously blew up right yeah it's crazy
00:10:17
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:10:20
Nate Day
Mm-hmm. Yep.
00:10:25
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:10:36
Nate Day
Whoa.
00:10:42
Nate Day
Good for him.
00:10:44
Chris
Yeah, right? so So cool, so cool. So that was his first one. i didn't even look up the publication order, but it's these are his big three. The Martian first, and now Project Hail Mary and Artemis, which I have not read yet.
00:10:58
Chris
But you need to hear the the awards list is just insane. I'll skip past The Martian since that's not what we're talking about, but it has like
00:11:11
Chris
15 awards that it was either nominated for or won. But for just Project Hail Mary, won
00:11:20
Chris
The year it came out, Dragon Award for science fiction novel, Goodreads Choice Awards won. The next year, the Suen Award for translated work.
00:11:30
Chris
It's been translated into tons of languages, tons and tons. His books are famous around the world.
00:11:34
Nate Day
Love it.
00:11:37
Chris
Audi Awards for Audiobook of the Year, which is very cool. I guess I was going to talk about it later, but I'll mention it now. I saw a very cool interview with the gentleman who recorded the audiobook for this, and he they asked him what he does to prepare. And I don't remember if he said he does this for all books, but for this one specifically, he deliberately did not read it himself first so that
00:12:03
Nate Day
Cool.
00:12:04
Chris
his reactions would be essentially what I'm paraphrasing his words, essentially what, what the reader's reactions would be. And that's exactly how it comes across.
00:12:12
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:12:16
Chris
This was my second reading of project Hail Mary. The first one I read a physical copy. So this time I tried the audio book and it's, it's spectacular. That's exactly what comes across like at these big, incredible, incredible,
00:12:28
Nate Day
That's so awesome.
00:12:31
Nate Day
I've heard from people too that the audio book is good, like it potentially even a superior experience.
00:12:35
Chris
So good.
00:12:37
Nate Day
Like it's quite famous for its audio book.
00:12:40
Chris
Yeah, that's...
00:12:42
Chris
I guess I don't know if I would agree, but kind of. I can definitely see the argument. I do not out of hand disagree.
00:12:48
Nate Day
Sure. Yeah.
00:12:52
Chris
Yeah, interesting. It's very good. the The narrator, we've talked about this before. The narrator makes or breaks.
00:12:58
Nate Day
Yeah. A hundred percent.
00:12:59
Chris
an audio book.
00:13:00
Chris
You know what? For this one, too, I would probably agree.
00:13:03
Chris
I think I would specifically recommend the audio book to people for Project Hail Mary.
00:13:04
Nate Day
Wow. Cool.
00:13:09
Chris
which I hadn't thought about before you brought it up. I mean, the book is still excellent, but yeah, the audio book's fantastic. Absolutely killer.
00:13:17
Nate Day
Cool.
00:13:17
Chris
I mean, won an award for it. So that was for just the award, just the audio book, a second audio award for science fiction
00:13:19
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:13:28
Nate Day
Cool.
00:13:30
Chris
uh, nominations, nominations, the locust, the Hugo, which are the big, big sci-fi novels.
00:13:34
Nate Day
Oh yeah. Hugo's huge.
00:13:36
Chris
And then another sci-fi novel, the Geffen award in 2023. I mean, just people loved it.
00:13:42
Nate Day
Racking them in. Yeah.
00:13:44
Chris
Yep. And clearly for good
Analysis: Project Hail Mary Themes and Plot
00:13:45
Chris
reason. The Goodreads, oh yeah, right here, 4.5 stars on Goodreads, which is crazy. Anything over four, I immediately consider.
00:13:54
Chris
And that's out of 1.3 million ratings.
00:13:54
Nate Day
yeah
00:13:58
Nate Day
That's unbelievable. That's an average, too. So, geez.
00:14:02
Chris
Yep.
00:14:04
Chris
That means... like half a million people at least gave it five so like it's crazy crazy numbers and very much like the martian and he has stated that this is his intention obviously but these are whatever his focus is making the scientific aspects very very accurate very specific much like uh
00:14:10
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:34
Chris
handmade a lot of her books as an actual doctor, she makes very, very accurate.
00:14:40
Nate Day
Oh, right. Yeah.
00:14:40
Chris
That was part of it, right?
00:14:42
Nate Day
yeah
00:14:43
Chris
I think his father was a physicist. He was a professor at UC Davis, something like that. So very much familiar with it, but still also himself deliberately researching and being meticulous about that in his writing, which was what The Martian was big for and of course what Project Hail Mary is big for. Kind of leaning into, I was thinking about how I would summarize that, preparing for this.
00:15:10
Chris
And I would say this is sort of a shift we've seen or I've seen perhaps it's been there all along and I'm just being exposed to the books now, but of the sci-fi genre, there is this focus now a lot of popular books in it leaning on the science part of sci-fi.
00:15:29
Nate Day
Right.
00:15:29
Chris
Does that make sense?
00:15:29
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:31
Chris
Where the very early, you know, the precursors, Ursula Le Guin, there was more science was involved and it was more the fi the fiction side.
00:15:40
Nate Day
Right. Yeah.
00:15:40
Chris
Right.
00:15:41
Nate Day
Yep.
00:15:43
Chris
okay. A lot of it, because the focal point really is how cool and how realistic the science feels, the plot itself is not super complex.
00:15:59
Chris
The Earth is dying. This mystery line named the Petrova line after the person who discovers it sort of appears in the night sky in out in space.
00:16:09
Chris
And they realize it's I was trying to describe it myself. I didn't look back into the book. how they described it. And so mine sounds like a kindergartner describing this book.
00:16:16
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:16:19
Nate Day
Good, because when it comes to science fiction, I'm kind of a kindergartner.
00:16:24
Chris
Well, that's that's the that's the brilliance. That's the brilliance, 100%.
00:16:26
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:16:28
Chris
That's exactly the goal, right? None of us are physicists.
00:16:29
Nate Day
Yep.
00:16:31
Nate Day
Right. Not many, anyway.
00:16:33
Chris
there
00:16:34
Chris
Yes, yes, I'm sure someone who reads it is, but I don't know them. oh they They realize it's these tiny mystery cell type beings sucking up the energy from the sun.
00:16:50
Chris
They name it Astrophage in the book.
00:16:55
Chris
And they can't figure out why, but it's sucking up the energy from the sun leading to an inevitable extinction event as the earth cools and everybody dies.
00:17:05
Nate Day
Here on earth. Yeah.
00:17:07
Chris
Yeah. So that's, that's the, not even the thrust of it. That's the whole story.
00:17:12
Nate Day
Right. Yeah.
00:17:13
Chris
How do we stop this?
00:17:14
Nate Day
yeah
00:17:14
Chris
Right. Okay. So it's we're following this junior high science teacher slash scientist turned astronaut who studies this stuff. I'm skipping vast swaths of cool information, but this is the summary.
00:17:31
Chris
And I only realized on my second reading here, they call it Project Hail Mary, Earth's Hail Mary throw at stopping itself from being destroyed.
00:17:43
Chris
And his name is Dr. Grace. They just call him Grace Ryland or Hyland. What's his first name?
00:17:50
Nate Day
I think Ryland.
00:17:52
Chris
That sounds right. They only say it a few times. And I...
00:17:55
Nate Day
Yeah, he he even identifies, at least in the movie, calls himself Grace quite a bit.
00:17:59
Chris
Yes, yeah, constantly, yeah. And I only realized this second reading through that that means it was the ship Hail Mary with its one astronaut, Grace. So it's Hail Mary full of grace, which I thought,
00:18:13
Chris
It gave me a chuckle.
00:18:14
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:18:15
Chris
I don't know. I'm not Catholic, but it it gave me a little chuckle, especially realizing, I didn't even think about that.
00:18:19
Nate Day
He's also the saving grace.
00:18:25
Nate Day
Yep.
00:18:26
Chris
I should have dug more into this. I don't know how deliberate that was. I mean, the the book obviously is not this like attempt to proselytize or something, but I did think that was, gave me a chuckle.
00:18:35
Nate Day
No. Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:40
Chris
the The crux of, I think, what makes it so cleverly written, and it's been so long since I read The Martian, I don't remember how we approached this problem in that book, but it's it's the problem of obviously a small cast of characters for the most part, for for the majority of the book.
00:19:01
Chris
And then, do I say this? The cool part is him doing crazy experiments and discovering things.
00:19:11
Chris
So how do you tell that story without it being this omniscient narrator monologue?
00:19:17
Chris
Brilliant solution. They send him into space. It's a four Earth year journey. And this is the part where anytime they start getting into the time dilation of space travel, that's where they lose me.
00:19:31
Nate Day
Yeah, I know. I don't get it. I don't understand what the speed of light means and I don't want to.
00:19:37
Chris
Nope. Nope. Every single time I think, okay, this time, because this is a pretty popular thing to write about.
00:19:44
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:19:46
Chris
three Three body problem, which we failed to make our episode about.
00:19:50
Nate Day
Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:19:51
Chris
Was this way down the scale of the science sci-fi? And I tried really hard to keep up with that one.
00:20:00
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:20:01
Chris
The same thing, that that book that I told you about last episode that I just finished, there is no anti-memetic division.
00:20:09
Nate Day
Right.
00:20:10
Chris
Same thing, the science part's super cool, they start getting into time and it just, I don't know why, that's just this like black curtain in my brain, loses me.
00:20:16
Nate Day
I know. Well, it's an extra layer on top of everything else, you know?
00:20:21
Chris
Yes, yes, another dimension, if you will.
00:20:22
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:26
Chris
i said I accidentally mentioned that in class one day, because we were talking about the change when we got to the geometry unit from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.
00:20:33
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:20:37
Chris
And a kid goes, okay, well, what's the fourth dimension? And I go, time. And they just stared at me. I'm like, no, no, no, no.
00:20:43
Nate Day
He's like, don't worry, don't worry.
00:20:45
Chris
ask Ask me no questions. We are not getting into that.
00:20:50
Nate Day
Oh, those poor kids.
00:20:52
Chris
But what a, oh, I didn't even describe it yet. I was about to start lauding it. Man, I am out of it today. Do I look crazy?
00:21:02
Nate Day
No, not any crazier than usual.
00:21:02
Chris
don't think so. I feel crazy. i I need to stay up. like I was telling you before we started recording, I need to stay up late tonight because we're going to a 9.15 showing of this movie.
00:21:13
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:21:15
Chris
So I made like a gallon and a half of tea. And I usually cut off caffeine about 2 p.m. at school.
00:21:22
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:21:22
Chris
And I am wired right now.
00:21:29
Chris
So the cool writing device.
00:21:31
Chris
The show don't tell aspect, whatever, it's in print in some ways as we've discussed previously, easier in some ways, definitely harder.
00:21:41
Chris
This is incredible. We start out with him already on the ship, Grace. And because it's a four Earth year trip, their worry is that this confined space, the three astronauts that they're sending, will start bickering and getting in fights and like kill each other.
00:22:01
Chris
I don't know if that's what real astronauts worry about, but that feels very realistic to me.
00:22:03
Nate Day
Right? Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:07
Chris
but So they put them in a medically induced coma. which again, I'm skipping a ton of very fun, cool flavor. They explain it to such a degree in the book that certainly for a layman like me, it's far beyond plausible.
00:22:23
Chris
It just sounds real.
00:22:24
Nate Day
Sure. Yeah.
00:22:27
Chris
And that actually even gets into how he ends up on the ship, everything. That's a pretty cool storyline that I think I'll leave alone, you know leave some parts to be on discoveries.
00:22:34
Nate Day
Yeah. Oh yeah, that is cool actually. But yeah.
00:22:39
Chris
i'm I'm so curious how they treat that in the movie, but I think, I think that's a cool tidbit for people to find on their own.
00:22:44
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:47
Chris
so he wakes up from this medically induced coma and the narrative is progressed through these memory flashbacks that slowly take time to come back to him.
00:22:58
Nate Day
Mm-hmm.
00:22:59
Chris
Super cool way to give us all of the details, all of the backstory we need while
00:23:08
Chris
the story itself is a relatively compressed amount of real time.
00:23:13
Nate Day
Sure.
00:23:14
Chris
And then eventually, you know, it's almost entirely what's happening. Yeah, very, very brilliant solution to what could easily have been boring, dry, or just not pragmatic.
00:23:31
Chris
that would That would not have been a fun story.
00:23:32
Nate Day
Right.
00:23:33
Chris
It would have been 2000 pages.
00:23:34
Nate Day
No. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:37
Chris
So super cool writing device. The other aspect is this incredible explanation of the science happening. You know, you had to make up an entire biological
00:23:51
Chris
thing, instance, that's de destroying humanity. But I do want to take a brief foray into a soapbox. It bothers me so much when shows and movies just refer to whatever's happening as science.
00:24:10
Nate Day
What do you mean?
00:24:12
Chris
I'm gonna go do science now.
00:24:14
Nate Day
I don't, I don't think I'm really picking up what you're putting down. What are their movies that say that?
00:24:18
Chris
did you Did you ever watch Orphan Black?
00:24:24
Nate Day
No.
00:24:26
Chris
Okay, that's shocking. First of all, go watch it. Super cool show.
00:24:30
Nate Day
Hmm.
00:24:30
Chris
This lady finds out she's part of this like secret government cloning program and there are a bunch of her all over the place.
00:24:38
Nate Day
Okay.
00:24:39
Chris
And they're constantly saying this. No, we need the science.
00:24:42
Nate Day
Just saying. Oh, okay.
00:24:45
Chris
No, we need to do the science first.
00:24:48
Nate Day
Yeah. Okay.
00:24:49
Chris
No, we need the data. No, you need to go do the experiments. It just, it rubs me the wrong way.
00:24:56
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:24:57
Chris
I was hoping that you would commiserate with me.
00:24:59
Nate Day
Sure.
00:24:59
Nate Day
I mean, I like specificity too. I wish I knew what you were talking about.
00:24:59
Chris
I don't know why.
00:25:05
Chris
So anyway, and they don't do it often in this one.
00:25:08
Nate Day
Sure.
00:25:08
Chris
Yeah.
00:25:09
Nate Day
Okay.
00:25:10
Chris
He meets an alien.
00:25:11
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:13
Chris
and names him Rocky. I'll leave the details, that part's super fun too.
00:25:17
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:25:17
Chris
But the other, you know, obviously for me, doubly exciting, there's this really cool sequence where he figures out how to communicate with this alien that he meets.
00:25:28
Nate Day
Yeah, super cool.
00:25:30
Chris
Kind of along the, what was, this was also a huge sci-fi movie like five years ago when they show up.
00:25:37
Nate Day
Arrival?
00:25:39
Chris
Yes, yep.
00:25:39
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:25:40
Chris
Fantastic. We dig into the linguistics, figuring it out, determining a Rocky doesn't have a mouth, so he produces notes and chords up to chords of like five notes at one time.
00:25:41
Nate Day
Yeah, great movie.
00:25:56
Chris
And Grace has to duct tape two computers together, one running the waveforms to track the notes and then building his own dictionary to translate.
00:25:56
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:26:07
Chris
Fantastic.
00:26:08
Nate Day
Yeah, it was cool.
00:26:09
Chris
Delightful.
00:26:10
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:26:11
Chris
And the combination of human science, understanding. See, there I go. Now I'm doing it. Crap. Okay.
00:26:19
Nate Day
Oh.
00:26:21
Chris
human Human understanding and knowledge compared to this other civilization and the realizations that they help each other have and the things they have to build to go through these experiments.
00:26:34
Chris
Just so good, fantastic. It was every bit as exciting.
00:26:37
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:26:40
Chris
And I think this is the true test of a book. I guess I would say movies probably similar. The re returnability, rewatchability, rereadability.
00:26:50
Nate Day
Oh, sure. That's definitely a big part. Yeah.
00:26:54
Chris
This one loses nothing on your second go around. I mean, obviously the movie is much more recent, but did that feel similar? Like, do you already know? Yeah, I'll watch this again in a year and it'll be fantastic.
00:27:06
Nate Day
Oh yeah. I, I saw the movie five, four or five days ago now and have considered going to see it again multiple times since then.
00:27:14
Chris
Wow.
00:27:15
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:27:16
Chris
Yeah, yeah. And I don't know. Usually that feels more clear.
00:27:22
Chris
the The cause
00:27:24
Nate Day
Okay.
00:27:26
Chris
And i don't I don't know what it is about this one, just that it's intricate enough to be interesting, but still a fun storyline. I'm not really sure.
00:27:36
Nate Day
The movie. Yeah. I mean, it's a serious crowd pleaser, right? Like it taps into very, very human emotions, you know, no pun intended.
00:27:47
Chris
Yes, yes.
00:27:49
Nate Day
and And, I think, you know, I'll talk about this a little bit too in the movie section, but it's a very funny movie, which is actually something that you have, uh, asked me about before and the it's visually dazzling.
00:28:05
Nate Day
I'm kind of giving away my whole spiel here, but yeah, there's, there's a lot I think that makes it returnable rewatchable.
00:28:13
Chris
Okay. Okay. Yeah, my last point was, I think one of the particularly appealing parts is the exact right amount of comedy that he mixes in.
00:28:26
Nate Day
Yeah, I'm curious to talk more about the how much of it is comedic because I was laughing almost the entire time.
00:28:34
Chris
It really is woven in about that amount. I think what makes Grace such a relatable character, it's like, frankly, it's the opposite of a lot of the characters in these stories that we've discussed. You are 100% his You 100% want him to succeed.
00:28:55
Chris
And there's an aspect
00:29:00
Chris
and there's an aspect that I guess I don't know if it was the intended purpose. It had to be at least somewhat. It's so pivotal to the story.
00:29:10
Chris
Not every single time, but many of the situations that have this kind of comedic relief valve, you at least a little bit pause, and they mention it explicitly a number of times,
00:29:26
Chris
the The crux of this story is earth is going to die. All humanity is going to go extinct.
00:29:30
Nate Day
Right.
00:29:33
Chris
Why would you be joking at a time like this?
00:29:36
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:29:38
Chris
And you kind of have to pause and step back and say, no, no we do this every day.
00:29:42
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:29:44
Chris
if If we didn't, it would be unbearable.
00:29:48
Nate Day
Right. Oh yeah. hundred percent.
00:29:51
Chris
When he he gets so excited, the very the The translation part I think is done so brilliantly because he's not suddenly magically communicating no problem.
00:30:06
Chris
it is He leaves Rocky's speech very stilted in the way that someone who has been speaking a new language for 10 days would.
00:30:14
Nate Day
Right.
00:30:15
Chris
And there's a hilarious part. he he gets Grace gets so excited at one of their breakthroughs that he tries to teach him a fist bump. And I assume they left that as is in the movie.
00:30:28
Chris
Yeah.
00:30:29
Nate Day
It must have. Yeah, because that's a pretty signature joke in the movie, too. Comes up a couple of times.
00:30:32
Chris
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
00:30:33
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:30:35
Chris
And that's exactly the amount. You know, he doesn't wear it out. But first, Rocky is saying, fist my bump.
00:30:38
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:30:42
Chris
And then at really the very late stage, final breakthrough, just goes, yeah, fist me. Thanks.
00:30:51
Nate Day
That was not, I don't think that was what they do in the movie, but right, right.
00:30:53
Chris
Grace is trying to explain no fist bump.
00:30:57
Nate Day
Yeah, that would have probably made its rating go up a line like that.
00:31:03
Chris
Really changed some things.
00:31:03
Nate Day
They probably had to eliminate that one.
00:31:04
Chris
Well,
00:31:08
Chris
well and they, even the, it's very comical for us distressing to Grace at the time when he's training the new astronauts and the very pragmatic straight laced people
00:31:21
Chris
nearly robotic astronaut that he's trying to train sits down for a meeting and just says, by the way, appropriate disclosure would dictate that I tell you this other, what is she astronaut or whatever. And i have engaged in a sexual relationship.
00:31:39
Chris
And Grace kind of just saying, cool, don't care.
00:31:43
Nate Day
Yeah. He's like, don't don't tell me that.
00:31:46
Chris
Right. And the other astronaut sits down and it's it's it's the the French guy, Dupois, some I don't know, insert French name here, and Dr. Shapiro. And she sits down for this meeting, the three of them, and she goes, oh, by the way, we have 15 minutes of personal time after this briefing. Would you like to go down to the...
00:32:11
Chris
hallway bathroom and have sex. And he goes, that sounds quite agreeable to me, Dr. Shapiro. And Grace is trying to ignore this, but also goes, don't need to know, don't need to know. Wait, do you call her Dr. Shapiro during sex? And the guy goes, of course I do. That's her name.
00:32:30
Chris
That's phenomenal.
00:32:30
Nate Day
That's pretty good, yeah.
00:32:32
Chris
They're on the verge of launching this mission that's taken them a decade to prepare all the research in the entire world. And and he, how human is that? Don't want to know, don't want to know.
00:32:45
Chris
Wait, is that what you call her?
00:32:47
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:32:48
Chris
Yes, that's exactly what you and I would do in that situation.
00:32:51
Nate Day
Uh-huh. Yeah.
00:32:52
Chris
Oh, it's delightful.
00:32:53
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:32:55
Chris
That's all I have about the book. Absolutely phenomenal book. So yeah, to answer your question, I'm very curious.
00:32:58
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:33:00
Chris
When I first heard it was Pretty Boy.
00:33:04
Nate Day
Ryan Gosling?
00:33:05
Chris
Yep. I questioned it, and that was before I had started my reread.
00:33:09
Nate Day
Yep. Mm-hmm.
00:33:12
Chris
And then now this time reading through it again, the the core of the story obviously stays with you, but those little interactions, you know,
00:33:21
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:33:21
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:33:23
Chris
And by chapter three, I was just thinking, oh no, Ryan Gosling was the exact correct person.
00:33:28
Nate Day
Really? That's good. I'm glad to hear that
00:33:32
Chris
just because I always like to include some of the writing as an example, I do have a good example of this that made me laugh out loud both times.
00:33:41
Nate Day
Great, let's hear it.
00:33:41
Chris
So the Iridians, Rocky, the the alien species that Grace meets, obviously he has to explain all of these differences, which we will not get into, but are very cool and very well described in the book. And he's describing sleep to Rocky.
00:33:58
Nate Day
Yeah, yeah.
00:33:59
Chris
And the way he does it in the book, and I hope they kept it in the in the movie, he he's like talking about how could I describe this? And he says, I can't imagine explaining sleep to someone who'd never heard of it.
00:34:11
Chris
Hey, I'm going to fall unconscious and hallucinate for a while. By the way, I spend a third of my time doing this. And if I can't for a while, I go insane and eventually die. No need for concern. 100% accurate, insane.
00:34:24
Chris
one hundred percent sounds insane
00:34:25
Nate Day
Yep.
00:34:27
Nate Day
Yep, it does.
00:34:29
Chris
And those are kind of sprinkled throughout
Film Adaptation: Screenplay and Direction
00:34:32
Nate Day
Well, this movie, the screenplay was written by Drew Goddard, who also interestingly adapted the Martian. So there's a lot of similarities, obviously in the the structure, but really kind of just, yeah, how how those movies came to the screen.
00:34:40
Chris
Oh, really?
00:34:49
Nate Day
They've got the same person interpreting them. And frankly, I think some people kind of maybe would call this like a ripoff or something like that of The Martian. And I thought At that point, I would point them to the fact that they were both written by the same guy and be like, I don't know.
00:35:05
Nate Day
It's kind of just like these guys schtick they do a really good job at it.
00:35:09
Chris
Yeah.
00:35:09
Nate Day
So I don't know. Just kind of an interesting talking point that's been thrown around a little bit over the past couple of weeks. Because it is about a guy that goes to space solo, right, and has to science his way out of it.
00:35:24
Chris
yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, can.
00:35:25
Chris
Yeah.
00:35:26
Nate Day
Yeah. The movies directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, like I said, they were mostly known for comedies as well. Particularly, they did the 21 Jump Street movies and the Lego movie, which was a pretty big hit.
00:35:40
Nate Day
I don't know, 10 or 15 years ago. And they also produce the animated Spider-Verse. movies So they've really come to be known as people that are really inventive with their medium and able to net a pretty big audience because of how well they understand humor in particular, but I think more specifically, the humanity in what makes things funny, I guess, maybe is a good way to put that.
00:36:11
Chris
yeah
00:36:13
Nate Day
So they did a really great job directing. Like you said, it stars Ryan Gosling as Dr. Grace and Sandra Hüller German actress, as the head of Project Hail Mary. This movie drops a lot of...
00:36:27
Nate Day
what I can only assume is sort of politicking in the book. There's, we don't know a ton about who put together Project Hail Mary or any of the other staff members on it besides a handful of people that are going to go to space.
00:36:40
Nate Day
Really, we just get everything from, i need to look up with the character's name because i she doesn't play an American either.
00:36:49
Chris
Strip, Strip, Strip, Strop.
00:36:53
Nate Day
Something like that. Let me look it up real time.
00:36:54
Chris
Yeah. Goodness gracious, I just finished reading this too. Strip, I think it's Strip.
00:36:59
Nate Day
Ava Stratt, S-T-R-A-T-T.
00:37:01
Chris
Yeah.
00:37:02
Nate Day
Yeah, I don't know if she's supposed to be German, but European of some kind.
00:37:02
Chris
Yep.
00:37:07
Nate Day
And those are kind of, with the exception of Rocky, those are kind of the only two characters in the movie. So really interesting dynamic that they have set up there. this this movie was made by Amazon MGM, and they began to procure the rights to the book in 2020 before it was even published because
00:37:26
Chris
Wow.
00:37:26
Nate Day
The Martian was such a huge success, both at the box office and it got lots and lots of awards nominations. And I think that's probably in the future for Project Hail Mary as well. One of the really cool things about this movie is that there was is supposedly no green screen whatsoever. So all of the incredible shots of outer space and the alien and the alien's ship and all of that is either practical or comes from computer generated imagery or is done by, projection, which is just kind of a cool, you know, like,
00:38:06
Nate Day
DIY do it with your hands filmmaking technique that I really like to see on screen.
00:38:09
Chris
Yeah.
00:38:10
Nate Day
And it looks incredible. Some, some shots, honestly, just like floored me, had me just with my jaw wide open. so Greig Fraser was the cinematographer and he's one of the best in the
00:38:24
Nate Day
game. So he's really just going full throttle here.
00:38:30
Nate Day
Rocky is also all practical. It's a combination of puppeteering and animatronics, which is incredible in 2026 because so many of the major blockbuster movies we see now have this over-reliance on computer-generated imagery and and animation.
00:38:36
Chris
Wow.
00:38:46
Chris
Yeah.
00:38:47
Nate Day
And it like outpaces the movie's budget, and then it looks like crap when it hits the screen.
00:38:52
Chris
yeah
00:38:52
Nate Day
and the other cool thing about doing it practically is that Ryan Gosling has said that it really helped his performance to be able to actually look at this thing and talk to it instead of it being like a tennis ball that they would
00:39:06
Nate Day
superimpose an image over later and he has to pretend to know what they're going to do. Like he, he saw the same Rocky that we saw. So he was able to deliver
00:39:18
Nate Day
supposedly a more realistic performance. I say that because we don't interact with aliens. so we We don't know, at least to our knowledge.
00:39:23
Chris
ahhaa
00:39:26
Nate Day
empty
00:39:26
Chris
So this is a very deliberate choice on the on the movie maker's part.
00:39:30
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah. Amazon claims that the trailer, which was released last year, racked up 400 million views in its first week, which at the time made it the most viewed trailer ever for a non sequel or reboot. We've sort of talked in past episodes about how metrics like that were kind of like, how did you get that number? right And how do you know that?
00:39:54
Chris
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:39:56
Nate Day
that people aren't like rewatching old trailers or something. But I think it's worth mentioning just to say that people have been really, really excited for this movie.
00:40:04
Chris
m
00:40:05
Nate Day
It had a budget of about $250 million, dollars which is obviously enormous. That's like too, too much. You really shouldn't be spending that much on a money or on a movie.
Film Economics: Budget and Financial Expectations
00:40:17
Nate Day
And about $50 million dollars of that was
00:40:20
Nate Day
tax credits and grants and things like that, that sort of took away from that overall budget. So you'll see some misreporting around the budget and, and what it needs to make to, to break even, but 250, I, I want to be totally honest. That's like, that's like suicide. I don't know what on earth they were doing to give a movie a budget that size.
00:40:47
Nate Day
It's projected to make between $63 and $65 million this weekend worldwide when it opens. We're recording this opening weekend. I got to see it a little bit early. And that's a pretty good opening, honestly, for really any movie this time of year, but especially a big budget one. I don't know that it will cross...
00:41:06
Nate Day
the the threshold it needs it needs to make like half a million dollars or half a billion dollars, excuse me, to to break even and then let alone turn a profit. So we'll see. But
00:41:20
Chris
Is that realistic at all?
00:41:22
Nate Day
I mean, it depends how word of mouth is this weekend. You know, if people start going back over and over again, then we could get there. But Amazon has said that they...
00:41:35
Nate Day
measure success differently than most studios because like in their minds, this movie, regardless of how well it does in theaters, it's going to drive people to subscribe to Amazon prime video where it will live presumably forever, which I, there's some problems with that logic.
00:41:49
Chris
Yeah.
00:41:55
Nate Day
It might not live there forever.
00:41:58
Nate Day
I mean, Amazon's got like money to throw away, so I don't really know why I feel like this needs a closer look.
00:42:02
Chris
yeah
00:42:06
Nate Day
But I also just think that we should be talking honestly about movies and why they're so expensive and what it takes to get one made and make it successful because I think that would help a lot of people understand movies why some things don't get made, right?
00:42:22
Nate Day
Because they have a budget of $250 million dollars and that's just insane.
00:42:23
Chris
Yeah.
00:42:30
Nate Day
Like you just shouldn't spend that much money on a movie.
00:42:33
Nate Day
but All of that being said, reviews have been really, really positive for the most part. It has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 78% on Metacritic, which we talked about, you know, is the sort of better measurement for an actual quality of of a movie.
00:42:33
Chris
Yep.
00:42:50
Nate Day
And i went to this screening And I walked really slowly out of the screening and out of the theater to my car because I wanted to hear what people around me were saying. And from what i picked up on, the the movie is a little bit more comedic than the book, but for the most part follows it really, really accurately. So for those that have read the book and are wondering whether or not they should see the movie, it sounds to me
00:43:20
Nate Day
you know we're recording this on opening day so we'll see what social media says tomorrow but it sounds to me like fans of the book would be pretty happy with the the end result
00:43:31
Chris
Okay.
00:43:33
Nate Day
so cool movie i'm really i really really loved it favorite of the year so far yeah it's really great i'm really excited for you to see it tonight
00:43:39
Chris
Wow. I hadn't... No, you... I cannot believe we didn't open discussing this. The Oscars just happened.
00:43:51
Nate Day
Yes.
00:43:54
Chris
And I've learned anything from you, it's that timing around those things is pretty important and deliberate.
00:44:01
Nate Day
yeah
00:44:03
Chris
So is this, is this like trying to get out and be the first good one for next year's Oscars?
00:44:14
Chris
Did they get set behind and they intended it to be part of this most recent one?
00:44:19
Nate Day
No, I think the first thing you said was correct. It's becoming more common for one big movie early in the year to be recognized at the Oscars later in the year.
00:44:30
Nate Day
Sinners is a great example. Everything, everywhere, all at once.
00:44:32
Chris
Okay.
00:44:33
Nate Day
Those are both movies that came out in the spring and got, I mean, sinners is the most nominated movie in the history of the Academy. So, so it's becoming a big thing.
00:44:43
Nate Day
I think that's a very much what they're shooting for here. They want this to be the big movie.
00:44:46
Chris
okay
00:44:47
Nate Day
And just having seen the movie, I can say that it's it's like a marvel of craftsmanship as well. Like I said, the cinematography, if it doesn't get nominated for cinematography, I'll be stunned if there's five better movies,
00:45:02
Nate Day
And a lot of the visual effects obviously bringing Rocky to life as well as they did. There's just a lot of things here that are so good that I think they will withstand a year's worth of
00:45:15
Nate Day
conversation about other movies. Right.
00:45:17
Chris
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:45:19
Chris
obviously, as you know, Well, not to your chagrin, you know me well. The Oscars do not matter to me.
00:45:27
Nate Day
Right.
00:45:27
Chris
I just was like, wait a minute. that's This is essentially as far as they could be, correct?
00:45:34
Nate Day
Sort of. Yeah. Yeah. The, the Oscars window is technically the first of the year to the end of the year, but they sort of drag it out so that they can have a few months where they can focus on campaigning.
00:45:48
Nate Day
it's a big deal, but, it's a lot of,
00:45:51
Nate Day
bullshit really it's because it's not a big deal but yeah i I do think that they're very much going for that they want this to be like the first movie of the year that signals just like sinners did last year when everybody was like you gotta see sinners they want everybody to think of project Hail Mary when they think of 2026 right yeah in cinema
00:45:54
Chris
Uh huh.
00:46:13
Chris
Yep. There we go. okay Yeah, that's, oh, that's fascinating.
00:46:20
Nate Day
Yeah, it's very, one of the reasons I love this award stuff is because it's also intriguing and political and sort of manipulative and it's a big game and it goes all year, every year.
00:46:32
Chris
Uh-huh.
00:46:35
Chris
Uh-huh. Yeah, there's a lot going I was shocked, maybe because you're my friend. You know what? Even if you were not the the massive cinephile in my life as you are, Sinners was awesome and super fun to see.
00:46:48
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:49
Chris
I had a lot of students who had not seen it until it won all these Oscars, and then they were like, okay is it worth it should i go see it i'm like are you kidding me what have you been under a rock for the last year
00:47:08
Chris
hadn't thought about that at all yeah okay yep hadn't thought about that at all okay all right fine
00:47:14
Nate Day
Yeah. So, sorry, sometimes I just got to show up somewhere and prove people wrong. It's kind of my thing.
00:47:24
Nate Day
What kind of discussion questions do you have for me?
00:47:27
Chris
Okay, so the timeline jumping. It is not even just a cool device. It's arguably necessary for the book's development.
00:47:38
Chris
I'm sure I will be proven wrong. But in my mind, I feel like that would be distracting for the movie. How do they deal with that? Is it like the whole, oh, hairstyle is different, time has passed? Or is it like just abundantly clear because of setting and the people?
00:47:55
Chris
What is that like for the movie?
00:47:56
Nate Day
yeah i would say it's pretty clear because of setting and the and the people right you're either on a spaceship or an aircraft carrier in neutral water so that everybody can legally do whatever they need to it's i think it's supposed to play like he's having these flashbacks he's remembering things after being in a coma for the majority of four years he's
00:48:08
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:48:22
Nate Day
got some like amnesia going on. And i I say, I think, because that is sort of one of the underdeveloped parts of the script is that to me, it doesn't, it's not necessarily clear that it's him having a flashback so much as the audience also has to learn what what happened and what led to him being in space.
00:48:25
Chris
h
00:48:44
Nate Day
But I don't know how important it is that we know it's a flashback either. But there is some some skipping back and forth, but it's it's pretty clear of what, I mean, it's crystal clear what time period you're in when you're watching any given scene. So I didn't find it distracting at all.
00:49:07
Chris
See, it's it's super clear. All of those details are like exact in the book. you know He wakes up, can't figure out why To get into the controls, the computer keeps asking him what his name is, and he doesn't know what his own name is until.
00:49:19
Nate Day
Oh, right.
00:49:22
Chris
Is that the same?
00:49:23
Nate Day
Yeah. I think so. At the very, very beginning.
00:49:28
Chris
Yep.
00:49:29
Nate Day
Why can't I remember the very, very beginning? I couldn't tell you because it's a really long movie too, is the other thing I'll say.
00:49:35
Chris
OK.
00:49:37
Nate Day
So they pack a lot in there. But yeah, I mean, that's a structure that has been used a lot in film, the sort of revealing the past as you move through the present or the future.
00:49:51
Nate Day
So it felt pretty natural to me, honestly.
00:49:51
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:49:51
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:49:54
Chris
Okay. Okay. Yeah, that was one of my, i guess, not worries. I feel like I knew I would probably see the movie, but usually in a movie, I find it distracting.
00:50:09
Nate Day
Interesting. Yeah. that I wonder if that's just a personal taste thing, you know?
00:50:14
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
00:50:17
Nate Day
Okay. I was curious how Rocky is described physically in the book because I really love how he looks in the movie.
00:50:27
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:50:31
Chris
We get spider looking dude, which Grace literally tells him we have spiders on earth and you look like that. Rocky, rock. rock
00:50:46
Chris
I don't have a different way to say it as an adjective. A rocky carapace, hence the name Rocky.
00:50:50
Nate Day
yeah
00:50:53
Chris
His sort of breathing gills apparatus are described as very akin to a car radiator
00:51:01
Nate Day
sure
00:51:02
Chris
And then the whole eating scene is described in great detail.
00:51:05
Nate Day
That is maybe the funniest scene.
00:51:08
Nate Day
i think the people next to me must have been so annoyed. i was laughing for like five minutes. I couldn't get over the eating scene. It is so funny.
00:51:25
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:51:30
Chris
But the don't watch is gross. No, no, no. I want to see. I want to watch. Yep, that was gross. just That's exactly how I would react.
00:51:40
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:51:41
Chris
Something's gross.
00:51:43
Chris
He also includes the very specific scientific term, which I've obviously never seen anywhere else, for an organism that only has one orifice. Maybe that's what, mono orifice?
00:51:57
Chris
Maybe that is exactly what he said. I wish I had written it down. And just the fact that that term exists is upsetting.
00:52:04
Nate Day
Yeah, but you love words that have weird backgrounds and stuff like that.
00:52:10
Chris
Yeah, but the full etymology is just the definition of the colloquialism, don't shit where you eat. That sucks.
00:52:19
Nate Day
Yes, it does.
00:52:21
Chris
That's bad.
00:52:22
Nate Day
Yeah. Well, I'm excited for you to see Rocky in that case because it sounds, based on what you're describing, it sounds pretty accurate to the book.
00:52:32
Nate Day
I just love it because i think it's so hard.
00:52:36
Nate Day
You know, we live in this world where we have like the image of an alien, right? The green guy with the bald, his head, or maybe he's gray, or we also have star Wars and Dune and star Trek that have put so many versions of aliens in front of us. So to come up with something truly inventive that I at least didn't feel like I'd really seen before big W.
00:53:00
Chris
Yes, 100% yes. That was one of the big things that stood out to me the first time I read this. This is truly a unique fleshed out, no pun intended,
00:53:11
Nate Day
Uh-huh, but not.
00:53:13
Chris
Devoid of flesh to out character. Yeah, yeah, no, that stuck out to me as well. And I did wonder to an extent, it's so clear and detailed in the book.
00:53:28
Chris
If I assumed they would really have to put a lot of effort into mimicking it exactly for the movie.
00:53:34
Nate Day
Okay. Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me just because, like I said, it's it's so singular.
00:53:41
Chris
Okay. How does the science come across in the movie? All of these, I'm talking about the specific experiments they're doing, these discoveries he and Rocky are having.
00:53:54
Chris
they' They're super interesting and very detailed in the book, but when I imagine trying to put that on the screen, it becomes like a dude in a lab coat with a beaker monologuing. And that doesn't sound exciting.
00:54:11
Nate Day
a lot of it is discussion between the two of them and it's sort of interwoven with language jokes because Rocky doesn't know what he's saying or do they can't figure out the word or he's saying something wrong or whatever, you know, you name it.
00:54:15
Chris
OK.
00:54:21
Chris
Uh-huh.
00:54:27
Nate Day
Then they, they do it in the movie. a lot of the science otherwise though is I have to assume
00:54:35
Nate Day
I'm trying to find a nice way to say it. I guess it's just sort of dumbed down, you know, to like layman's science.
00:54:42
Chris
Yeah.
00:54:42
Nate Day
And I say that because i could follow along with what they were saying. And if I were in that situation, if I were a fly on the wall in the real world between it a human science astronaut and I would just be shitting my pants. I wouldn't have any idea what anybody was saying, you know, i so it's, it's made digestible is what I'm trying to say.
00:55:10
Chris
which it it it is in the book as well for the most part.
00:55:14
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:55:14
Chris
But I think I understand exactly what you mean. There's a certain point where, all right, you've said three big numbers now.
00:55:22
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:55:22
Chris
You've reached your limit.
00:55:23
Nate Day
Right. Right.
00:55:23
Chris
Stop saying more numbers.
00:55:24
Nate Day
Well, and even more so than i i obviously was thinking a lot about The Martian during this movie and was expecting the science to be a lot like that movie, which was very much digestible, but maybe just a tiny bit out of grasp for me. You know, they start talking about like doing gravity slingshots and stuff in that movie. And I'm like, what? the I don't know what you're talking about. That's just too much knowledge that I
00:55:51
Nate Day
don't have any interest in having. And it never got Project Hail Mary never got to that point for me.
00:55:57
Chris
Okay, interesting. Yeah, yeah,
00:55:59
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:56:02
Nate Day
OK, what else you got?
00:56:04
Chris
Okay. I thought of this one late. but there are not a lot of characters. I mean, 90% of it is just him and Rocky.
00:56:13
Chris
Is that just what they do? Does it feel weird? Because even for, what did you call it when it's tiny, like an ensemble cast, like not a lot of characters?
00:56:21
Nate Day
No, an ensemble cast has a lot. I don't know if there is a term for an anti-ensemble.
00:56:24
Chris
Oh.
00:56:30
Chris
Okay. Well, if there is a term, this is it. in my I mean, it's basically the two of them.
00:56:35
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:37
Chris
And one's an alien. So... Is the movie just like 90% Ryan Gosling and that's it?
00:56:43
Nate Day
It's a lot of Ryan Gosling. Yeah. I mean, like wall to wall, but, this is, that's not too weird for movies.
00:56:47
Chris
Okay.
00:56:50
Nate Day
You know, if you think about it, something like cast away or the movie send help that I saw a couple weeks ago is another one where there's stranded on a beach.
00:56:59
Nate Day
it's a pretty common thing in movies.
00:57:02
Chris
Okay.
00:57:02
Nate Day
You know, it's, it's just a storytelling device
00:57:05
Chris
Okay. It felt strange to me when I tried to picture it on the screen.
00:57:13
Chris
It doesn't feel strange at all in the book, but you spend a lot of the book in his head. And so that was the part that made me curious.
00:57:23
Nate Day
Oh, no, not so much in the movie. he's He's kind of an out loud guy.
00:57:29
Chris
Okay.
00:57:29
Nate Day
A lot. There's a lot of verbal processing with Rocky.
00:57:30
Chris
Okay.
00:57:34
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talking to each other, talking to himself.
00:57:36
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:57:37
Chris
Okay. And Rocky, even in the book, he does even comment on it at one point. Like, who are you saying that to? And he goes, I'm talking to myself.
00:57:46
Nate Day
Oh, funny.
00:57:47
Chris
I feel like I'm picturing maybe like a play or something. It would feel stranger. All I can picture in my head is like camera following one dude talking to himself for two hours. And that does not sound entertaining.
00:57:58
Nate Day
No, i think I think you're maybe underestimating how much time Rocky gets.
00:58:04
Chris
Okay, good.
00:58:04
Nate Day
He's never like the star of the show, but but he balances it very, very well.
00:58:05
Chris
Okay.
00:58:10
Chris
Okay, cool.
00:58:11
Nate Day
Yeah, yeah.
00:58:11
Chris
Well, that makes sense.
Recommendation: Universal Appeal of the Movie
00:58:14
Chris
What would you or or not what but who would you who would you recommend this to?
00:58:19
Nate Day
I recommend it to everybody. This movie is such a crowd pleaser, and I don't think I've really done that yet. I mean, sometimes I do and say like,
00:58:25
Chris
oh
00:58:28
Nate Day
You have to work a little bit to find the things you enjoy. But this is one that I really think probably everybody that sees it is going to enjoy. i i've walked out of the screening thinking about how excited I was to tell you and Blair that it's good. i walked out thinking my parents would love this. My sister would love this.
00:58:48
Nate Day
And, you know, a lot of the people I just mentioned are not really science fiction people either. I can't even imagine one or two of them pushing back on,
00:58:53
Chris
Yeah. Wow.
00:58:57
Nate Day
wanting to, you know, my recommendation to see it and me having to be like, just trust me, just trust me. Because it it's very life affirming.
00:59:03
Chris
yeah
00:59:07
Nate Day
It's very human. It's very funny. Like I said, the science makes sense and it doesn't get into any muckiness. So I i don't have anybody that I wouldn't recommend this to.
00:59:21
Nate Day
Yeah, it's a good one.
00:59:23
Chris
Yeah, I would have asked that even the even the sci-fi aspect.
00:59:28
Nate Day
Yeah. No, i I like it. I think it's perfectly perfectly digestible.
00:59:36
Chris
Okay, no, that is high praise from you.
00:59:37
Nate Day
How about you?
00:59:41
Chris
Honestly, I would say basically the same. I think it sounds like maybe the book leans a little bit heavier, but certainly still a digestible amount. I called it a compromise between believable in accessibility.
00:59:54
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:59:55
Chris
I do because it's kind of a shift that I've seen in the genre. I just gave a few recommendations. If you do like this and maybe you're thinking maybe this is a genre I could be into more than I previously thought.
Comparative Literature: Sci-Fi Recommendations
01:00:08
Chris
Like I said, Three Body Problem also leans heavy on the sci part of sci-fi. The Blake Crouch books are very cool. I don't think we've talked about that. Do you know if they're making any of those into adaptations?
01:00:20
Chris
Dark Matter or Recursion?
01:00:20
Nate Day
don't even know what that is.
01:00:22
Nate Day
oh
01:00:22
Chris
Okay.
01:00:22
Chris
All right. I'll check online.
01:00:24
Nate Day
yeah, I don't know.
01:00:25
Chris
very much along the same vein, one of them's kind of a Schrodinger's cat on steroids, the very much the same vein, making what I'm sure is not genuinely plausible science at least seem plausible and digestible enough to be entertaining.
01:00:41
Nate Day
Yeah, totally.
01:00:43
Chris
And then if you if you truly find that this is a genre you didn't realize was your deal, Left Hand of Darkness is an example of Ursula Le Guin, really the forerunner of why we have this cool, cool genre.
01:00:58
Chris
Besides Isaac Asimov, of course, but I just highly recommend that. Left Hand of Darkness, go read it especially if you enjoy Project Hail Mary. Really cool side quest vein to go down.
01:01:08
Nate Day
Cool. What, how'd you rate the movie or the book, the book, I guess five stars.
01:01:13
Chris
Big five stars. Big five stars.
01:01:16
Nate Day
Sweet.
01:01:17
Chris
Yeah, I haven't rated the movie yet. Let me check. Let me confirm. okay so my first reading, I gave it four. But especially this time around, maybe it was what you were saying, and the audiobook is more entertaining, truly in its own right.
01:01:33
Chris
But I can see it was just so delightful to return to this text. And I could see, like I said, I haven't read Artemis yet. maybe Maybe I'll get to that in a year and go on a little Andy Weir tear.
01:01:45
Chris
haven't returned to The Martian in a while, so maybe that'd be worthwhile.
01:01:47
Nate Day
Yeah.
01:01:48
Chris
I could absolutely see rereading this.
Critique: Ratings and Concerns on Tone
01:01:52
Chris
There's not the same aha moments,
01:01:55
Chris
like we talked about with Lord of the Rings.
01:01:56
Nate Day
Sure. Yeah.
01:01:58
Chris
It's more just so delightful to read.
01:02:02
Nate Day
Yeah.
01:02:03
Chris
Yeah. Yeah. i don't I don't know. Big, big five star. No question.
01:02:07
Nate Day
Yeah. Cool. I'm in a pretty similar boat. When I left the theater, I gave it four stars, but the more and more I think about it, I might bump it up. I think I'm going to bump it up to a 4.5 on letterbox.
01:02:17
Chris
Wow.
01:02:18
Nate Day
Like I said, really visually stunning. Ryan Gosling is amazing. The score was fantastic. I don't understand. Some, some people are saying that the score is not good.
01:02:25
Chris
Okay.
01:02:28
Nate Day
i don't know. I'm, I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around some of the criticisms against this movie. because I thought it was just really magical. But i I will admit that there are some issues. I don't think it's perfect. I hate the ending. I hate, hate, hate the ending.
01:02:46
Nate Day
And I think part of that is, i don't know exactly where my brain came to this but it seems to be a little too pro for me.
01:02:59
Nate Day
And the fact that this is an Amazon movie. That's like the last company that I need to even have that cross my mind, you know, when I'm watching something.
01:03:07
Chris
Uh-huh.
01:03:09
Nate Day
So I was a little bit grossed out.
01:03:12
Chris
Interesting.
01:03:13
Nate Day
and And sometimes I feel that, yeah, and I'm trying to avoid spoilers here. So maybe I'll tell you when we hang up here, but,
01:03:18
Chris
know.
01:03:21
Nate Day
The other thing that I thought was sort of a flaw of the movie was that sometimes the humor, there was so much humor that I think sometimes it would undercut some of those more emotional moments.
01:03:35
Chris
h
01:03:36
Nate Day
I, that's probably just a matter of taste though. You know, some people are going to walk away feeling like this is the funniest movie they've ever seen and give it five stars for that. And that's a okay with me, you know?
01:03:49
Chris
huh i mean it should not be a comedy
01:03:50
Nate Day
but yeah ryan gosling cries a few times in the movie and he's only got tears on his face for about three or four seconds before he hits you with a joke and they cut to the next scene and i'm kind of like
01:04:06
Chris
Yeah.
01:04:07
Nate Day
this is a big deal like the well-being of everyone on earth depends on him and
01:04:13
Nate Day
you know I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of that.
01:04:13
Chris
Yep.
01:04:15
Nate Day
But like I said, that's these it's almost I love the movie so much that my gripes about it are almost not even worth whining about.
01:04:28
Chris
Okay.
Conclusion: Anticipation for Next Discussion
01:04:28
Chris
Okay.
01:04:28
Nate Day
Yeah, I really, really enjoyed it.
01:04:28
Chris
Yeah. Oh, I'm so curious now.
01:04:31
Nate Day
Yeah.
01:04:31
Chris
Okay.
01:04:33
Nate Day
Yeah. Cool. I'm excited you'll have to text me after you see it.
01:04:39
Chris
Obviously.
01:04:40
Nate Day
Yeah. Good.
01:04:42
Chris
too.
01:04:42
Nate Day
Well, thank you for joining our conversation about Project Hail Mary. Up next, we have a really exciting one, actually. We're doing Howl's Moving Castle, written by Diana Wynne Jones and the film, a anime film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. So I'm looking forward to branching into a new genre here.
01:05:02
Chris
me too
01:05:03
Nate Day
Awesome. Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to next time.
01:05:08
Chris
Bye.