The movie just came out last Friday, and I definitely watched every trailer and promo video on YouTube at least five times before actually going to the theatre. I was excited yet also a bit wary coming into it - Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite books of all time, and I wanted it to get the adaptation it deserved. I watched the film the day after it came out, and I’ve taken that last couple of days to think over my opinions - sending a ten minute audio to one of my friends and talking to another friend over the phone for an hour about our thoughts! And now I’m really excited to talk about this with you guys. Also - sorry in advance that this is so long - I didn’t realize I had so many thoughts until I started typing them all out!
Before you read any further, please be aware that there are a crap ton of spoilers below - so if you haven’t watched the movie yet, go watch it and then come back to discuss your thoughts!
Let me start by saying that overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It really felt like the book had come to life on the screen, and the essence of the book was well preserved. The set design was amazing, and I loved how they brought Rocky to life. The message of the movie was really powerful, just like it is in the book, and the cinematography was extremely well done.
I’ve seen some videos on Instagram and YouTube explaining how this was Ryan Gosling’s passion project for YEARS and its evident that a lot of love and care was put into this movie. Everything from the scene blocking to the visuals to the acting was done with intention and close attention to detail.
I absolutely LOVED the visuals of this movie - the scenes in space were gorgeous. Their depictions of the Tau Ceti solar system and planets were incredible. For example, I loved how the movie showed Rocky’s collection device as it plunged into Adrian’s atmosphere. I also liked how they depicted the ships from space, so you could see what the Hail Mary looked like as it was in centrifuge and the airlock setup, among other things. It also highlighted the vastness of space to the viewer, which I appreciated.
The set designs also felt extremely realistic - especially the Hail Mary itself. The ship looked exactly as I had pictured in my head, and I liked seeing the ways in which Grace and Rocky used the space during their scenes. I also loved the aircraft carrier set.
I’ll add that the acting in the movie was solid - I felt that each actor accurately portrayed their character in the way that I had imagined in the book, and the actors had good chemistry with each other (Ryan Gosling’s chemistry with a giant puppet is impressive).
Now let’s get into some of my thoughts on the movie experience compared to the reading experience.
I came into this movie knowing that they were going to have to fit an incredibly detailed and long storyline into the span of about two and a half hours, and I expected certain parts to be rushed or just not included due to this constraint. However, I felt that the Earth scenes especially suffered from this.
One of the main things that bothered me about the movie is that the only character on Earth that the audience gets to know in any depth is Stratt. Of course I love Stratt, but I really wanted to get to know the other members of the project. For example, the characters of Yáo, Ilyukhina, DuBois, or Shapiro have barely any dialogue in the movie. While I will admit that the book also doesn’t go super in-depth into their characters, readers were still able to understand the crew’s dynamics and knew of their main personalities. The movie does an excellent job of portraying how Grace was deeply saddened by the deaths of his fellow crewmates, but we still don’t know very much about what these people were actually like when they were alive. We never really see Grace bond with anyone from Earth except for Stratt in the film, which is unfortunate.
Speaking of Grace and Stratt…what was that romantic-ish tension between them??? In the book, there isn’t any romantic tension between their characters, although many people on the project assume that the two of them are an item. I don’t think that adding this tension was a bad idea per se, but I also don’t think it was necessary to include in the movie.
Stratt’s character is also altered slightly from the book - I thought that the book did an excellent job of developing her efficient, objective, no-nonsense personality. In the movie, she is definitely portrayed as strong, efficient, and commanding, but she is softer and lacks the callousness that she maintains in the book. But the whole idea behind her intense personality is that she’s forced to be cold and emotionally distant in order to do her job effectively, which emphasizes the large scale and importance of project Hail Mary. This didn’t come through in the movie as strongly as I would have liked.
But back to the other characters missing from the film - most of the characters who worked on the design and construction of the Hail Mary weren’t included in the movie, which made me really sad. We never see Lokken get roped into designing the centrifuge of the ship, or meet Dr. Lamai as she designs her medical robots, or learn about how Steve Hatch designed the beetles. I felt like these interactions in the book helped to show just how much of an international effort Project Hail Mary really was. You get to see how so many brilliant minds from all over the world work together when the Earth is in danger. But the one character I especially really wanted to meet was Dr. François Leclerc, the French climate scientist who Stratt recruits to mitigate the coming ice age. He and Stratt eventually decide to send nuclear missiles into Antarctica to release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere - and his agony at this decision really hit me emotionally in the book. You can see how much his heart breaks at doing the very thing he’s spent his entire life trying to prevent, which emphasizes the danger of astrophage.
This brings me to one of the main things I didn’t like about the film - the astrophage didn’t seem nearly as problematic in the movie as it did in the book. In the book, we get explanations of changed weather patterns, decreased food output, and extinction. Stratt literally paves the Sahara Desert with astrophage breeders and nukes Antarctica to add some greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The fact that Stratt takes such drastic measures emphasizes to the readers just how severe the astrophage problem is. In her last conversation with Grace, Stratt tells Grace what she thinks will occur on Earth while the Hail Mary travels to Tau Ceti - and its quite a horrific picture. The moment when Grace is at the school and realizes that his students are going to bear the brunt of these dangers of astrophage is very impactful to readers in the book as well. When watching the movie, the danger of the astrophage just didn’t come across as strongly.
While the book slowly gives the reader details about the situation on earth - first introducing the Petrova line, then the decreasing luminosity of the sun, followed by the discovery of astrophage - the movie introduces the astropage problem in one sweep as Grace explains the situation to his students. I prefer the method of the book, since it allows the mystery of the astrophage problem to build up over time, and adds more nuance and scientific background to the mechanisms of astrophage survival. The movie explanation felt a bit rushed and incomplete, and the lack of buildup also deprives the audience of understanding the gravity of the problem (as I’ll get into later). However, I can’t blame the movie producers or script writers for this one because I understand that they had to sacrifice some of the backstory to fit within the limited time frame of the movie, as well as cater to a possibly less-scientifically oriented audience.
Speaking of the science in the story - I think those who read the book and watched the movie will agree with me when I say that the book was much more science-heavy than the movie. I guess it is easier to go in-depth into the different scientific experiments that Grace runs in writing than to show it on a screen, but I feel like we lost a bit of the context that led to the creation of Project Hail Mary.
For example, we miss out on a lot of the scientific details regarding astrophage biology in the film. In the book, I really loved learning about the ways astrophage use Einstein’s equation to turn energy into mass, discovering how astrophage provide radiation protection. Astrophage temperature being a constant 96.415˚C is quite important to the design of the Hail Mary and it is never discussed in the film at all. The design of the Hail Mary is incredible - the centrifuge to provide gravity, the spin drives, the medical robots - are all fascinating to read about. I liked that these details were included in the movie, but the scientific details weren’t explained. But once again - limited time, less scientific audience - I guess it makes sense. I’ll say that I really appreciate the scenes in which Grace performs experiments to discover the astrophage breeding cycle, because it felt exactly as I had imagined when reading the book.
ALSO - can we please talk about that unbalanced centrifuge?!?! As a STEM girl who has spent hours of her life centrifuging cells and blood samples, I can confidently say that the first rule of using a centrifuge is that it MUST be balanced. Watching Grace put both of the eppendorfs right next to each other in the centrifuge in order to spin down the sample of astrophage killed a small part of my soul, not gonna lie. And I’m sure that the other scientists out there will agree with me on that (my scientist friend was most definitely bothered by the centrifuge scene).
We miss out on other scientific details, such as the experiments Grace performs when he first wakes up and discovers he’s not on Earth - I found these experiments extremely interesting, and since its the reader’s first introduction to Grace, it shows his incredible resourcefulness and intelligence. This didn’t really come through in the movie. Instead, Grace immediately discovers he’s in Tau Ceti by checking the screens near the pilot’s seat, gives his crewmates a space funeral, and then drinks vodka while the ship is in zero gravity. I didn’t like that the movie changed Grace’s reaction upon waking up so much from the book - it’s understandable that Grace would be upset or sad, and I guess that showing him drinking vodka from a straw is a way to represent this, but I really wanted to see the cool science he does to understand the situation that he is in. In the book, Grace’s immediate use of science to understand his situation adds to his character’s resilience and curiosity and that didn’t come through as strongly in the film.
Another big shift in Grace’s reactions is his initial reaction to the appearance of the Blip A. Can someone explain why Grace, an extremely curious scientist who’s all alone in the Tau Ceti solar system, is suddenly running away from what is likely first contact with intelligent alien life? His reaction didn’t make much sense to me, and I would have preferred to see Grace’s excitement and nervousness as he prepares to contact the Blip A instead of watching Grace attempt to run away from the ship in the film. While the Hail Mary looked as I had imagined, the design of the Blip A seems very different from the book - in the book, it is described as being a large angular ship consisting of flat panels, while the film shows it as composed of many thin tubes. The Blip A design just felt off for me.
When discussing the movie with my friend, she pointed out that Grace doesn’t seem like a very good teacher in the movie compared to the book. We only see Grace teach in one scene - the scene that introduces the astrophage problem. However, while in the book Grace calmly explains the Petrova line and the potential discovery of alien life to his students, the movie Grace first turns down his student’s questions and concerns about the issue. In the book, Grace is the “cool science teacher”, and ignoring his students’ questions doesn’t exactly align with that persona. However, I will say that I loved the “beanbag is lava” scene, it felt similar to how I imagined it when reading the book. I also liked how that beanbag was used as a symbol throughout the movie of Grace’s role as a teacher and his duty to his students and all the humans back on Earth.
I really loved the first meeting of Rocky and Grace - the two of them in the tunnel with Grace’s duct taped lights and their attempts at explaining units of measurement and their language was exactly how I had pictured it. I like how the characters go from hesitant and wary of each other to having bonding moments, and Grace’s fascination with Rocky really comes through then. My friend and I both agreed that the introduction of Rocky into the film, and the subsequent friendship between Grace and Rocky, is one of the best parts of the film.
I loved how the film portrays Rocky - he appeared similar to how I expected from reading the book, and the voice the producers chose for Rocky was absolutely perfect. I appreciate that they kept Rocky’s unique patterns of speech in the film, such as “Amaze amaze amaze”, "question?", the confusion between “time go” and “go time”, and of course the hilarious “fist my bump”. Grace and Rocky’s friendship felt genuine and was a core tenant of the movie. I loved the introduction of Grace’s hugs to Rocky’s xenonite ball in the movie - it was so heartwarming! Another aspect of the movie that warmed my heart - the Eridian gesture for good bye added a whole other level of emotion. As my friend pointed out though, Grace absolutely butchers the heck out of a very simple gesture - why is he just rubbing his elbow instead of walking his fingers along his forearm?
The scene when Rocky comes into the Hail Mary and declares himself as Grace’s movie was really fun, as well as the scenes where Grace is discussing his lack of privacy with his new roommate. These bits of humor weren’t exactly contained in the book and I enjoyed seeing them in the movie. In general, I think that the movie did a fantastic job of preserving the sense of humor that is so unique to Andy Weir. I love the science and humor that are characteristic of his books, and the film did an excellent job of keeping some of the jokes from the book and adding some extra scenes or lines that fit in with the essence of the movie.
Another addition to the film - in the movie, the Hail Mary ship has a room where Grace can project videos from Earth to remind him of home. I liked that this addition emphasized Grace’s homesickness and I enjoyed watching Grace get to show some of Earth to Rocky.
But back to Rocky and Grace.
Once again, we don’t get to learn as much about Eridian biology as we do in the book. I really liked learning about how the Eridian body worked, it was interesting to see how Andy Weir imagined a possible intelligent extraterrestrial life to be.
We also don’t get to appreciate the miracle of xenonite in the movie - in the book, Grace is amazed by xenonite, and the fact that Eridians can produce this incredible material is incredibly important to the design of the Blip A and many of the experiments that Grace and Rocky run together. However, considering the time limitations that the producers had, the removal of these details is understandable.
I liked how the film showed some parts from Rocky’s perspective via echolocation, allowing me to put myself in the perspective of Rocky (which I never really did when reading the book - oops). The scene where this hit me the most was when Rocky breaks out of his xenonite ball to save Grace from being crushed by his chair. Seeing Rocky’s view of Grace in that moment was the first time where I realized just how traumatic that was for Rocky, who had already witnessed every single one of his crewmates die and now is forced to observe as his new friend almost dies as well.
After Rocky saves Grace in the movie , we don’t get to see Grace’s attempts to help save his friend by blowing the soot off of him - instead, we see Grace sadly talking to Rocky and hoping he heals. I feel like Grace’s desperation to save Rocky doesn’t come through as strongly in the film because of this. Grace also lifts Rocky back into his ammonia environment, getting severe burns as he does so, in order to save Rocky. This is the first scene in which Grace (and the readers) realize the lengths that Grace is willing to go through in order to save his friend.
One of the major emotional moments in the book that I feel was missing in the movie was the scene in which Grace realizes that he’s a coward. When he remembers how Stratt had to drag him kicking and screaming onto the Hail Mary, he comes to the realization that he’s not brave or selfless, and that really hits him deeply in the book. He feels really saddened and ashamed by his lack of courage and selflessness, and in the movie those emotions didn’t come across as strongly for me.
I also felt that the gravity of Grace’s decision to save Rocky wasn’t strongly portrayed in the movie. In the book, Grace’s options are very clear - he can save his friend and Erid by going to find Rocky, which also leaves him to starve to death on Erid - or he can return to Earth and be welcomed as a hero. In the movie, the stress and emotion Grace feels at having to make this decision weren’t very strong for me - I didn’t feel Grace’s inner turmoil as strongly as in the book. The book explicitly states that Grace literally pulls on his hair and sobs as he processes the implications of his choices. The fact that Grace chooses to save Rocky is HUGE - it shows Grace’s growth from coward to brave and selfless, and I personally felt that this character growth is underrepresented in the film.
I also really wanted to see the scene in which Rocky and Grace reunite - it would have shown Rocky’s sense of desperation and fear before Grace came to rescue him, and their reunion scene in the book emphasized their strong friendship.
I did really like that the film added an idea not contained in the book - that all you need to be brave is someone to be brave for. I resonated with the message that people can do very courageous things when they have someone who believes in them and/or is counting on them, and I felt it was extremely relevant to Grace’s situation. The book describes that Grace kept picturing Rocky’s carapace in his head as he decides to return to the Blip A instead of returning to Earth, demonstrating that Grace makes his decision due to his deep friendship with Rocky and knowledge that Rocky needs his help in order to save his species.
Lastly, I wanted to comment on the overall message of this movie. As pointed out to me by one of my friends, Project Hail Mary is different from many other films dealing with intelligent extraterrestrial life because it spreads optimism and cooperation. The most developed relationship in the film is the friendship between an Eridian and a human who work together to save both of their species. They have jokes, share stories, exchange knowledge, and gain a lot of joy and fulfillment from each other’s company. It’s quite a refreshing message compared to that of the many movies and TV shows where intelligent extraterrestrial life and humans are hostile and/or engaged in war with each other. In terms of cooperation on Earth, the film portrays leaders and scientists from countries all over the world working together. In my opinion, this was especially evident in the meetings for the project - we see people from all over the world sitting at desks with official placards and microphones, making the worldwide cooperation aspect feel very realistic. Seeing how people and countries from across the globe were willing to put aside their hostilities in order to defeat a common problem was refreshing and uplifting, giving me hope that humanity can choose cooperation over violence in difficult situations. Upon the end of the movie, the viewer leaves with a feeling of hope and optimism for the future, and for humanity in general. This was very similar to the message of the book, and I’m so glad that the power of that message was able to be portrayed in both the movie and the novel.
My overall thoughts?
Project Hail Mary is an extremely well made film that I have zero regrets about watching. The movie maintained the character of the story very well, and I really felt that I was watching Grace and Rocky save the stars on the screen just like they did in the book. I had a great experience watching the movie, and if I hadn’t read the book, some of the nitpicky details I ranted about here would have gone unnoticed. While I did love these details in the book, my annoyance at their absence in the film stems from my desire to see the book to be exactly transferred into a movie format, which I know isn’t realistic.
On its own, watching the film is a great experience and you can tell that a ton of effort, time, care, and passion has been dedicated to its production. I’d definitely rewatch this movie, as I’m sure there are a ton of details that I will only notice upon a second viewing.
Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments, and keep your eyes open for more posts soon!