re: Project Hail Mary - Discussion (Spoilers) *Now Streaming On-Demand*

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Gosling is gay


Starting to get that thought.

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I think maybe it's the long term relationship with multiple kids with smoke show Eva Mendes that makes me thing otherwise.

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This was a movie for children

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What? Just because a movie doesn't drop a hundred f-bombs and have scandalous scenes doesn't mean it's for children.

It was made to appeal to a wide variety of audiences. There was a lot of science that will go over kids (and apparently your) head.

Also the directors did The Lego Movie, so not sure what you were expecting.

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The increased focus on silly humor is worth noting for book readers who are expecting a more balanced tone.

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I mean guardians of the galaxy had a similar focus on "silly" humor. I don't think most people would consider that a kids movie.

I mean PHM opens with Grace regurgitating his intubation and finding two corpses. That's about as adult as you can get.

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some of the humor was overly childish, and the overall tone too consistently humorous, minimizing the serious adult themes that a book reader would expect.

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In my original post in this thread I did note that some of the tonal shifts with the flashbacks definitely could have been handled better. It did feel a little less jarring on second watch.

This thread needed a bump anyway.

Just saw it last night. My wife knew nothing about it, and I was very limited. I knew there was a Rocky and a friendship developed between he and Gosling. I knew a little of the mission but that’s about it.

My wife and I loved it. I thought it was well done throughout. I usually nitpick a movie to death while viewing, but this one was fantastic. There were some times when the pace bogged, but a technical movie like this can’t just accelerate from start to finish.

Initially I thought the ending was a little corny. On the way home from the theater I started rationalizing why Grace would turn his ship around for the true Hail Mary and pursue Rocky’s ship. On the surface it was asinine. Risking all to save an alien. Not seeing your mission carried to completion and saving earth seemed foolhardy. I understand he sent probes with the elements and data for earth to survive, but not seeing it home was an inherent risk to earth.

But all the layers in the decision started to make sense. Of course the friendship, the bonding, saving each others lives, the insanity of 4 years alone going home, etc. But what I think wasn’t extrapolated on was by saving Rocky’s world, there would be two efforts in saving the galaxy. Both from a different viewpoint. So it wasn’t really selfish on Graces part to not ‘carry the ball across the goal line’ by not hand delivering his results.

Not saving Rocky was turning his back on Rocky’s world and unknown worlds that his people wouldn’t be able to save. It made it a much more rational decision to throw that second Hail Mary and go after Rocky.

Also, with Rocky’s species being so mechanically gifted, I assume Grace knew they could oblige his survival of some sort.

JMHO

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Not seeing your mission carried to completion and saving earth seemed foolhardy. I understand he sent probes with the elements and data for earth to survive, but not seeing it home was an inherent risk to earth.

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Sending the four redundant Beatles home was the mission. Given his good fortune getting the fuel to get home, would getting himself home have increased the odds of success of the mission? IMO the change in odds would have been negligible, although the consequences were huge of course.

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Also, with Rocky’s species being so mechanically gifted, I assume Grace knew they could oblige his survival of some sort.

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Absolutely not. Grace fully expected to starve to death in 3-4 years, and this expectation was an important part of his redemption journey.

Somewhat late in the story, Grace finally remembers how he ended up on the ship. It wasn't until this moment that we realize what the story really is: the reluctant hero's journey to redemption. His expectation of dying if he turned around to rescue Rocky was the critical part of his redemption story, that he was finally willing to sacrifice himself for a greater good.

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Initially I thought the ending was a little corny. On the way home from the theater I started rationalizing why Grace would turn his ship around for the true Hail Mary and pursue Rocky’s ship. On the surface it was asinine. Risking all to save an alien. Not seeing your mission carried to completion and saving earth seemed foolhardy. I understand he sent probes with the elements and data for earth to survive, but not seeing it home was an inherent risk to earth. But all the layers in the decision started to make sense. Of course the friendship, the bonding, saving each others lives, the insanity of 4 years alone going home, etc. But what I think wasn’t extrapolated on was by saving Rocky’s world, there would be two efforts in saving the galaxy. Both from a different viewpoint. So it wasn’t really selfish on Graces part to not ‘carry the ball across the goal line’ by not hand delivering his results.

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Haven’t seen the movie, so I don’t know if they included it, but there’s a scene in the book where Stratt rips Grace a new one and describes exactly what he is that makes his decision at the end a complete character arc.

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I don’t think the species was mechanically gifted. Rocky was an engineer, which complimented Grace’s expertise as a biologist

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Rocky repeatedly makes things and mods to the Hail Mary out of scraps in days/weeks that would have taken entire teams on earth months/years to do.

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Somewhat late in the story, Grace finally remembers how he ended up on the ship. It wasn't until this moment that we realize what the story really is: the reluctant hero's journey to redemption. His expectation of dying if he turned around to rescue Rocky was the critical part of his redemption story, that he was finally willing to sacrifice himself for a greater good.

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I think the book did a little better job in explaining this. The courage it took for him to go on the mission to save Rocky and, by extension, Irid, was redemption for his utter cowardice displayed when he was first asked to go on the mission to save earth. The movie handled it well enough, but you cant get inside someone's brain in a movie like you can in a book.

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I'd say if you put me on that space ship against my will I'll sabotage the mission immediately upon waking up, I am going to spend the next 30 years doing whatever the frick I want cause that's what I want to do, you go sacrifice and starve to death while I stay here and enjoy the near half a life time remaining, suck my cock..

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But he didn't remember that until he was on the verge of saving humanity.