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

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is that why they showed that lady on an icebreaker at the end of the movie?

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Yes.

But in the book, Rocky tells Grace that scientists on his world have been monitoring the Earth's sun, and that it has been returned to its original luminosity.

The scene with the icebreaker did not take place in the novel.

You’re replying to a guy who used to post professionally taken photos of himself in his underwear on this site with regularity

I can’t stop refreshing this thread looking for reactions.

It makes me genuinely happy to see so many others enjoying it. I thought it was incredible as a book reader.

Listened to the audiobook a few years back and saw it this past Saturday... I really enjoyed it but didn't remember a lot of the scientific specifics from the book.. didnt really matter though..

The missus didnt read/listen to the book but loved the movie.. I think more so than I did..

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saw an interview with Gosling. He said Weir sent him the manuscript before PHM was published. He optioned it immediately.

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Yeah John Campea who is pretty plugged into this type of thing said he thinks gosling might be a member of some writers guild that gave him access? Something along those lines

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The missus didnt read/listen to the book but loved the movie.. I think more so than I did..

Just my opinion but this is how I prefer to go into these things.

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I was thinking this too. I feel reading the book first takes away from the movie more than the reverse. There is so much more in most books that is left out of the movie versions that reading them after seeing the movie is still enjoyable - for example I remember staying up all night reading Silence of the Lambs despite seeing the movie a week before. In general, movies simplify things from the books they are based on, and as much as I loved PHM the book, knowing all the story beats ahead of time definitely took away from the moviegoing experience (though I still liked it). Would've loved to see it fresh.

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’m still debating myself about the ending. It was a bit much especially the stuff back on Rocky’s planet. I don’t need all my endings to turn out overly happy like they seem to do nowadays. To me E.T. nailed it in that regard.

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It is more fleshed out in the book but the central theme isn't anything like the Martian. Grace is a lonely guy without any real connections or purpose other than his students. He finds real friendship in the back drop of saving humanity and that is the focus of the story. They also mention the glut of information the Eridians had and that opened the door for him to still have the purpose he had on Earth. They set it up as him becoming brave only for you to find out he was forced to go. He became brave when truly had a friend to fight for. Him giving up everything he has known for his friend and in the end still having students is the happy ending Grace deserved.

I hate to be that guy, but the movie left so much stuff out from the book. The crew I went with all read it first and said the same thing. It should've maybe been two movies.

Some examples:
- solar farm and the guy they got out of jail to build it
- Shortened the astrophage initial laboratory research way too much
- Didn't mention the gene needed to go into medically induced coma
- Nuking the polar ice caps
- Barely touched the no gravity issues with the scientific instruments
- Didn't touch on time dilation and the aging impact (like Interstellar)
- Grace saving Rocky. All they did was show him put a heat lamp on his hamster ball.
- Rocky telling Grace Earth's sun has healed

A lot of that could've been touched in short order. I get the movie was long, but if they didn't want to do 2 movies, maybe add 20-25 minutes to cover these things a bit.

And worst of all to me, it made Grace seem like a doofus who got lucky in space to figure all this stuff out. In the book he was brilliant and used science and scientific method to figure out almost of the problems. I loved the heavy science in the book and I get they can't relay all of that in movie form, but they just cut it all out.

It was a fun movie experience and visually stunning, but I sort of wish I hadn't read the book first. I would've liked it a lot more.

ETA:

And really didn't like the ending on Eridian. Wasn't his body aging quickly from the gravity there and he was feeling/looking older in the book? And it was a lot more clear in the book he wasn't coming back to Earth. And the Eridian students were really silly, they didn't need to jump around like human kids.

I will say I liked the addition in the movie of seeing Earth receive his transmission. But the director lady was older.

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I hate to be that guy, but the movie left so much stuff out from the book. The crew I went with all read it first and said the same thing. It should've maybe been two movies.

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To each his own, but I could not disagree more. The last thing this thing needed was to be a bloated two-part money squeezer. I love the fact that it was a long but tight single movie. The book still exists for those who want the deeper commentary. This movie was exactly what it needed to be. It completely honored the source material while trimming all it could for non-book readers just wanting a fun watch. It's dang near perfect as it stands.