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Project Hail Mary | Ryan Gosling (March 20, 2026)

bdub76 said:
This is one bit I really missed:

The missed the part near the end of the book, where we learn that because he moved away from Earth at such a rapid rate that more time has taken place on earth than for himself. It was basically a practical way to time travel into the future. It was a cool concept that was left out with why him returning wouldn't practically work at the end.
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Yea. I feel like it was sort of said in the movie, but not in a really explicit way so that maybe people who aren't as familiar with the science behind speed of light and travel or of it from science fiction stories may not have been aware what exactly was going on.

For Grace travelling closer to the speed of light (for most of the trip) means he gets to Tau Ceti from Earth having 'aged' around 4+ years, but like 12+ years passes on Earth. I don't think the coma would slow cellular aging and was more for controlling necessary food/water/oxygen.

He then spends a few months/year at Tau Ceti solving the stuff with Rocky and then sends the probes to Earth while going to Rocky's world in 40-Eridani. Which is a little bit closer to Tau Ceti than the Earth. So give him around 4 years. At one point he actually theorizes his actual age and the difference between how time has progressed on Earth.

I'll put this in spoiler because it's not something stated in the movie, but in the book and now with a sequel possibility....

The ending picks up after a number of years and he believes the gap is about 18 years. That he's 53 in cellular age, but it's actually been 71 years since he was born.

In the book he finds out while on Rocky's world that Sol has returned to normal illumination. This book says based on the time it took the probes to get to Earth, they implemented a solution within about a year. Then it took time for that light to makes it way to Rocky's planet at which point.

He's also walking with a cane, partly age, but also because Rocky's world has a higher gravity than Earth. The last scene is the same as the book with him teaching students.

So it seems like they are certainly leaving some open-ended stuff for a possible sequel. Also Rocky and Grace right before the end talk about wondering about the other stars and more life nearby.
 
Starkers said:
Someone posted that yesterday?
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Because it's so cool.

Oh, BTW: MASSIVE SPOILER IN VIDEO. BAD BAD BAD. MASSIVE SPOILER IN VIDEO. BAD BAD BAD. MASSIVE SPOILER IN VIDEO. BAD BAD BAD.

Something brought up in the interview that I kind of took for granted: Does the movie justify why

Grace is not only SENT on the Hail Mary he is kidnapped. He is the ONLY scientist who can go with any reasonable expectation of success.

The book not only justifies it because you've seen Grace science-ing the poop out of things for many chapters and it also cements his background before astrophage and his familiarity with the whole project. Also that he is in fact, by the time of the launch, a trained astronaut.

I think the movie dumbs Grace down a bit to where even the audience might be asking "Why a schoolteacher in space?"
 
Candleicious Ghost said:
Aaaaww shit
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Not to worry, it was me, and we can always use more awesome things! :D Good enough to post twice, I say!


Tallguy said:
I think the movie dumbs Grace down a bit to where even the audience might be asking "Why a schoolteacher in space?"
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It's actually pretty well established in the movie. It's quite obvious that Grace underestimates himself and his usefulness to the program. He doesn't see himself as an astronaut. But the minute the other astronaut that planned to go on the mission (the only one that had as much knowledge of the astrophage, perished in that explosion, he literally becomes the mission's only hope since since they don't have enough time to train anyone new. Since he's the one that discovered the astrophage and their properties, he's the only reasonable option to go with such a tight time span. The reason he's so reluctant is that he feels they're making the wrong choice with him being a schoolteacher and all. It's just the way the cards landed though, but I guess the irony is that in studying the astrophage, he should know how high the stakes are and why they need him so much. Essentially, he's a schoolteacher come scientific researcher/scientific advisor that becomes the only choice by proximity to the project.
 
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It's kind of like Walter White / Heisenberg - a brilliant chemist who could have had an amazing life but due to personal shortcomings stayed way under his potential.

Grace simply lacked self confidence. he has proven to be an exceptional scientist and made huge contributions to the project.
 
FPAlpha said:
It's kind of like Walter White / Heisenberg - a brilliant chemist who could have had an amazing life but due to personal shortcomings stayed way under his potential.

Grace simply lacked self confidence. he has proven to be an exceptional scientist and made huge contributions to the project.
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His work was looked at as too fringe and he was basically laughed away from his work by his peers. He didn't start to believe himself again until he was given the opportunity to actually test his hypothesis.
 
FPAlpha said:
Grace simply lacked self confidence. he has proven to be an exceptional scientist and made huge contributions to the project.
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Yeah, that too. And the risk caused somewhat of a paradox in him, in that by knowing the inherent risk, he still didn't think he was suitable for such a high-risk mission and didn't want to be seen as a point of failure if it didn't work out. But if he hadn't done it, he wouldn't have encountered Rocky, so all's well :)

The irony is that if he had failed, nobody would live long enough to know and be angry with him for his failure.
 
I haven't read the book so

Does Grace ever return to Earth in the book or is it kept an open end like the movie?
 
FPAlpha said:
I haven't read the book so

Does Grace ever return to Earth in the book or is it kept an open end like the movie?
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It's open ended like the movie. In fact I think it may be less obvious in the book that the plan is for him still to go home, but it has been a few years since I read it so I may be misremembering.
 
Starkers said:
It's open ended like the movie. In fact I think it may be less obvious in the book that the plan is for him still to go home, but it has been a few years since I read it so I may be misremembering.
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My memory might be failing, too, but when I watched the film, I felt like it ended short because I felt like it was more obvious that he decided to travel back to Earth. However, I was surprised when I looked up the book on Wikipedia (since my copy is in another state), I was surprised to see that Grace was only thinking about it there, too.
 
He's thinking about it. And he knows that it's soon or never. But he also knows that he's not going yet. He seems to be making a decision by not making a decision.
 
My favorite sf movies right now would be, in no particular order:

Forbidden Planet,
Project Hail Mary,
Ex Machina,
The Terminator; and
Planet of the Apes (1968)
 
FPAlpha said:
I haven't read the book so

Does Grace ever return to Earth in the book or is it kept an open end like the movie?
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He does not. The book ends with him finding out that Sol has returned to 'normal' light levels so he succeeded in his mission. He thinks he's around 53 years old and it's been 71 years since he was born (due to his time moving more slowly than Earth as he traveled closer to the speed of light)

Rocky tells him he could use his ship for a return to Earth... but Grace doesn't really jump at the idea. He actually seemed like the idea of possibly visiting other stars and looking for alternate types of life intrigued him. Then the book ends with him as a teacher and having Rocky's people as students.

I think one thing to wonder about Earth... Earth is MESSED UP. Regardless of fixing the sun or not. The movie doesn't go into it as heavily, but they artificially speed-up Greenhouse effects to try to counter the dimming sum. They deliberately set off nukes to melt the ice caps, etc... Earth isn't just going to 'snap back to normal' just because the sun is fixed.

So that's possibly something that could be visited in a sequel or something set in the same universe if it doesn't continue Grace's story
 
FreezeC77 said:
He does not. The book ends with him finding out that Sol has returned to 'normal' light levels so he succeeded in his mission. He thinks he's around 53 years old and it's been 71 years since he was born (due to his time moving more slowly than Earth as he traveled closer to the speed of light)

Rocky tells him he could use his ship for a return to Earth... but Grace doesn't really jump at the idea. He actually seemed like the idea of possibly visiting other stars and looking for alternate types of life intrigued him. Then the book ends with him as a teacher and having Rocky's people as students.

I think one thing to wonder about Earth... Earth is MESSED UP. Regardless of fixing the sun or not. The movie doesn't go into it as heavily, but they artificially speed-up Greenhouse effects to try to counter the dimming sum. They deliberately set off nukes to melt the ice caps, etc... Earth isn't just going to 'snap back to normal' just because the sun is fixed.

So that's possibly something that could be visited in a sequel or something set in the same universe if it doesn't continue Grace's story
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Yeah, i read about those parts in the book and at the same time it made a sort of desparate sense. I loved that all the governments in the world gave her basically unchecked power to do anything to avoid extinction and she used it.

I do believe Earth has a remarkable ability to right itself, it's us humans that throw wrenches into the process though. Don't know if it would make a good movie and/or novel though to explore how they would do it but then again Weir has proven he can make dry science interesting and funny, so who knows.
 
Starkers said:
It's open ended like the movie. In fact I think it may be less obvious in the book that the plan is for him still to go home, but it has been a few years since I read it so I may be misremembering.
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It happens pretty much as it happens in the book, though the scene itself is longer in the book than it is in the movie. But the idea is that Grace spends time on Erid until Rocky tells him his engineers have made it possible for him to return home. It's merely suggested, but I believe Grace decides to keep staying on Erid rather than go back home as he now considers Erid his home.
 
FPAlpha said:
Yeah, i read about those parts in the book and at the same time it made a sort of desparate sense. I loved that all the governments in the world gave her basically unchecked power to do anything to avoid extinction and she used it.

I do believe Earth has a remarkable ability to right itself, it's us humans that throw wrenches into the process though. Don't know if it would make a good movie and/or novel though to explore how they would do it but then again Weir has proven he can make dry science interesting and funny, so who knows.
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I always tell people when discussing global warming (climate change was invented as a political term so people didn't fear buying gasoline so I don't like it) that global warming is not about saving the planet--it is about preserving our quality of life. The Earth won't give a f*** when we're gone.
 
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