Saw Project Hail Mary yesterday shortly after finishing the book and I Took Notes so here are my thoughts in approximately chronological order, both on the film itself and comparing as an adaptation
Literal first note is "that's good sound design"
They condense the first 3 chapters or so into the opening 5 minutes of the movie which is honestly a smart pacing move. A lot of the changes made from book to movie are clever adaptations from medium to medium, and I appreciate the dedication to the spirit of the work, not just the letter
"bugger"? From RYLAND???? This man doesn't swear!!!!! I know for Americans that doesn't register as a swear but I live in the UK so my beloved and I looked at each other with overdramatic pearl-clutching gestures while trying not to laugh
Stratt has to be convinced to leave Grace three Astrophage in the book, and he comes back to her after returning to his classroom and having to face the kids who ARE the future he would be fighting for. In the film, he's much quicker on that change, but what kind of got me was that when he runs after her to protest being cut out, Stratt smirks very briefly before turning around with a straight face and reveals that she already set aside three to leave with him. I understand this shift, it shows her as fond of Grace but also recognises her as manipulative and meticulous in her planning.
Carl is the real G, but also if I was the retail worker I'd probably think these guys were a little nuts. I'd mainly just be glad they were buying like. Craft supplies and not shit you can make a bomb with
The screenplay does a FANTASTIC job of adapting the cleverness and humour of the book into a film, not only in the dialogue but in the small actions and the blocking. Makes sense they got the same screenwriter as The Martian, and I think this is an even better adaptation. He also did the original 2015-18 Daredevil which explains the absolutely killer tension
Big ups to Ryan Gosling for fully committing to the Clumsy Science Dork bit, the earnest and genuine nature of Grace is so critical to what lets him be lovable and funny and REAL
It makes sense to abbreviate a lot of the basic logistics from the book; there are similar changes made to the ones from the Martian and I do understand it, but I would have liked to see just a little more of the scientific specifics, I find those fun. Also I liked Dmitri, I missed his excited Russian desire to explode things
They let Grace cry! He cries SO MUCH and it's never played for laughs it is SO REAL, I just really love that it isn't taken away just because Male Protagonist Adventure Epic and that's so important to me
Calling the ship Mary is fun! He never names the ship in the book!
The xenonite 3D printer mechanics were such a clever execution of the tunnel mechanism, I love that and the texturisation is so INTERESTING and makes it feel so much more alien without being ridiculous greebling
Rocky has Daredevil vision send tweet
He sets up the centrifuge spin and the next flashback opens with the same spin??? Genius
The soundtrack is SOOOOO well done, genuinely beautiful
ROOMMATES SEQUENCE!!!! FANTASTIC!!! Appreciated the little nod to it being a change from the book with the "wasn't expecting company" line, it's incredibly funny and a good call. Gotta wonder if the surfer bit was a Ken nod, or if it was serendipitous, but it was great regardless. The complete inversion of Rocky's cultural thing about food from taboo to "eridians eat beautiful!" did throw me a little, but it was worth it for Grace's distressed/disgusted face over his noodles lmfao
"Rocky hate Mark." Listen I'm very much on the aroace Ryland Grace train, but the immediate ride or die solidarity of "fuck your ex's new man" is SO good. Real bestie energy
Love that Stratt isn't overdubbed with some recording studio singer, she's a good singer and it still feels like karaoke! The connection feels important but not forced, and it isn't actually romantic, it's two people who are weirdly cut off from everyone else and thrown together.
This movie actually does a lot to humanise Stratt, especially considering she's MUCH more cutthroat in the book (like The Martian, they cut some of the bleaker stuff for time and impact) and while that can work in a novel it doesn't come across as well on screen without feeling antagonistic. It was a fine line to walk and I think they pulled it off
"Grace go home." got me ngl. Rocky is SO decisive there, he won't let anything persuade him otherwise including Grace. (And then Grace does, it's just that the definition of home changes 🥹)
Also the fact that we see Rocky "cry" when he learns Grace can't go home? The leaking green liquid around his joints? GODS that hits so hard
Grace in the Petrova line is a truly beautiful shot and I approve its inclusion for that reason alone but there was a part of me going "HIS ENTIRE EVA SUIT IS GONNA BE CONTAMINATED WHAT ARE YOU DOING SHOULDN'T HE BE GETTING EVISCERATED AND/OR BURNED BY THE IR LIGHT/ASTROPHAGE RIGHT NOW"
Ortiz had better get a fucking Oscar nomination for the voice acting here AND they better get an effects nomination for the puppeteering. Rocky being physical AND having a voice actor (a clever way of incorporating the translation aspect) was spectacular, and the way they were careful to have Rocky's actual musical speech come in first and THEN the translation comes in. It's really accurate to how simultaneous translation works and reminds us subtly that this IS a translation, even over comms!!!!
Speaking of sound design: The Adrian incident? Grace passes out, we hear ONLY Rocky sounds and no translation software because the character who would need it is unconscious, and then they leave atmosphere all sound cuts and it's just spinning with Grace smashed against the screen and Rocky desperately trying to break through the xenonite in COMPLETE SILENCE? That's one of THE best uses of silence I've seen in a movie, ever. Istg no one in the theatre BREATHED until the sound came back, and it's like a full 10 seconds!! That's a LONG TIME in a movie!
The entire Adrian crisis was SO well done, I've read the book I knew how it would end and I was still stressed as hell
They keep the truncated linguistic patterning the two develop over the course of the book, which is so good and also those kinds of truncated sentences are exactly what my autistic ass sounds like when brain too tired to make the words go (autistic engineer rock eridian and his autistic aroace human buddy)
Small detail but really good representations of microscopic life! Looked right out of Journey to the Microcosmos
Having Rocky out for so long (it's only two days in the book, he's awake and brainstorming for the entire nitrogen resistance breeding plan) both really sells the commitment and the intensity of the reunion, and means we don't get the initial taumoeba escape, meaning that they're instead able to get the full weight of that discovery and skip all of Grace having to deal with a ship full of poop and rotten Astrophage corpses but does deprive us of some cool science. However, for a film it is definitely the better pacing decision
Okay so Grace doesn't get to go into Rocky's ship in the book, and I adored this scene. You don't need an intercom when you can play strings and have the chords reverberate through the entire thing! The entire string part of the ship is a harp, the musical hallway is a timpani or a hand pan, the way Rocky speaks is a little hand-pipe or panflute sound that harmonises with the ship itself, it's a beautiful beautiful scene. Visual and auditory perfection
The fact there were so many shots of the ships spinning in sync and then as the tunnel separates they finally start spinning out of sync, the dance is truly over 😭😭😭
The takedown scene is somehow both more and less brutal than the book. It's physically more brutal because he actually manages to run, but they cut some of Stratt's more painful lines ("I kind of like you, even if I don't respect you very much", which I maintain is her lying to herself as much as him, still hurts SO bad)
Because they didn't include the initial Taumoeba escape the panic when he realises the xenonite issue is SO much worse. Ow. We don't get the really sad bit with Grace checking on where Rocky's ship is every day, but we do still get him finding Rocky on the scope and it's beautiful
The name of the beetle probes is a blink-and-you-miss-it moment on the slideshow when they first get to the carrier, but even if you missed that, the fact there are four of them and they're named for the Beatles is still funny
The whole return. Fuck. "I'm here!" "You're here!" MATCHED SET DO NOT SEPARATE!!!!!
PB containers for the Taumoeba. Lmao
I know why they didn't include the Taumoeba shakes and the meburger, but it's still hilarious to me. Watney: "I am out of ketchup this is the worst thing that has happened yet" / Grace: "clone borger time :D"
Eridian colours!! So many eridian kiddo colours!!! And shapes and sizes!!!! I love that there's so much variety it makes me so happy
Not the sum total of my thoughts but all the ones I could get down rn
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