I think a lot of people don't realize how confined Grace would be during the trip to Erid. This is important to me because I want Grace to be inconvenienced. Nothing should be easy for this guy!
When the Hail Mary is in thrust configuration:
The gravity is 1.5 g, just enough to make moving around the ship a bit more tiring than usual
The ship is basically a giant tower! Grace has to climb VERY tall ladders to go up to the next room. Climbing those in 1.5 g sounds exhausting. I'm sure he'd build up some good endurance doing that, but anyone who lives in a townhome can tell you how annoying it is to walk down three flights of stairs and then realize you forgot your phone upstairs. I imagine he would probably not wander around the ship a ton when he has to climb ladders to do it.
Related to the ladders, if Grace is in the dormitory and wants to go watch TV in the Don't Go Crazy room, he has to climb up 3 rooms of long ladders to get there
The usable floor space is pretty limited! All the rooms were designed to be used in centrifugal gravity, so in all the rooms the centrifugal floor is now a very, very tall wall. What would be the shorter centrifugal wall is now a tiny floor in thrust config (I'll put pictures at the end to illustrate)
Basically zero lab access! At the very beginning of the movie you can see Grace look up the wall at the lab equipment. It is all at least 10 ft up, totally out of reach and bolted sideways to the wall. The only real things he can use in lab are the white board, some screens, and the chair 4ft off the floor (that says "Not for use in thrust configuration" lol). The lab just straight up is NOT meant to be used AT ALL in thrust config. That's the whole point of having the centrifuge!
This is purely based on the movie, the book mentions Grace being able to tidy the lab when he is flying back towards Earth. But I am enchanted by the idea that the trip to Erid is boring and inconvenient for Grace, but he still doesn't regret anything because he's getting to spend time with Rocky.
Definitely don't fault anyone for forgetting this! You only see the ladders at the beginning of the movie. I only realized when I went to get screenshots that the ladders retract in centrifuge mode! Very smart. Those would be a real trip hazard.
Ship room order: Dormitory -> Server (?) room -> Lab -> Beetle storage room -> Don't Go Crazy Room -> EVA room & airlock -> Cockpit
Dormitory thrust
Very, very tall ladder! At least the floor is padded here in case you fall off. Makes sense considering this is where you wake up from your coma and have poor coordination
Dormitory centrifuge
Long floor plan, short walls. These two screenshots are from the same angle!! Tall wall is now long floor. You can see where the ladder has retracted!
Lab thrust
Grace is in the foreground pointing WAY up at the equipment bolted to the very tall wall
Grace sitting in the one accessible lab chair that says "NOT FOR USE IN THRUST CONFIGURATION" on the side. He's sitting on what is supposed to be the backrest
Lab centrifuge
Very large floorplan! This is the main room on the ship. They probably expected the crew to spend the most time here.
DGC room thrust
Grace is still able to stand in here! There is just a ladder going up the side of the room
DGC room centrifuge
After the ladder retracts, the metal panel it was on is now the floor!
The Martian of course was part of the small but notable genre of movies 'people expend huge amounts of effort to rescue Matt Damon'. In Project Hail Mary we see a foundational entry in the inverse genre 'people expend huge amounts of effort to send Ryan Gosling away forever'. Excited to see where we send Ryan Gosling next.
I need to talk about something that the film Project Hail Mary does really well: Grace is so alone on Earth. The only people we see him having fun with are the kids who are no longer present past the first scene with them, and Carl, who once Grace becomes actively involved in the project, stops being shown. Stratt pushes him away gently, never really letting him in. He is always alone in a lab, alone at the bar.
the bar scene was insane to me in terms of framing. We see Grace, alone in the corner, looking at all the other people having fun together. He locks eyes with some of the astronauts, and all three of them look awkward. Stratt looks at him, but never moves towards him, never makes contact. He is always alone. He is lonely.
Rocky makes his world light up. He has energy, he uses his teacher voice, he bounces a ball off of the xenonite walls while chatting with Rocky. He climbs a tree, he surfs, he makes puppet shows “reluctantly”.
Rocky means that Grace is loved. Grace feels loved. People have already pointed out that Rocky and Stratt both play the Trolley Problem with Grace, Stratt choosing the rational option, and Rocky choosing the emotional one. Here’s my imput:
Grace plays the Trolley Problem with himself. On earth he hasn’t got it in him to sacrifice himself for the entire planet, he has nothing to die for, no motivation. He chooses to sacrifice the earth, even if that choice was overturned.
Grace chooses to sacrifice himself for Rocky. He pulls the lever and puts his life on the line, for the one person he knows will do the same, the person who has already done the same. Rocky is the person he will die for, because with Rocky, he actually lived.
Rocky means Grace is not alone. Rocky means Grace isn’t lonely
And also that it goes the other way. Rocky was happy on Erid, sure. He wasn’t lonely. Then he went to space, on a mission to save everyone and everything he loves, with a crew of fellow Eridians. But then everyone else died, and Rocky was alone in the vacuum of space, basically waiting to die. Knowing he would die alone. He is so desperately lonely.
Then, miraculously, Grace appears. Like a Hail Mary for Rocky. Here is a friend. They learn to understand each other, their languages and the shape of each other and how they tick, together. Someone who he can watch sleep and then wake up. Someone to protect him as Rocky sleeps. Someone to learn things from, to tease and laugh and just be with. Someone who saved him from death and isolation and replaced it with life and joy. Someone who is helping him save Erid.
Rocky could never have chose the rational option, because at this point Grace, who saved him physically and emotionally, is all he has out in space. Grace is his world. He would do anything, for Grace.
Grace means Rocky is not alone. Grace means Rocky isn’t lonely
project hail mary is great because i’m not even attracted to ryan gosling but i’m gonna sit here and watch the gray man and the fall guy so that i can read more fanfiction.
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