✨️court jester✨️

victor / kos | they / them | NOT spoiler-free

[bethanydelleman]

One of the things that they didn't get into in the movie Project Hail Mary but was so emotionally poignant for me in the book is that it really was a last and only hope, and they partially destroyed Earth just to send the spaceship off.

The breeding of the astrophage to make fuel for the spaceship took so much energy that Eva Stratt paved over half of the Sahara desert, causing the weather to change in Africa and Europe. She blew up Antarctica to speed up global warming so they wouldn't die of cold before the probes could return. Stratt is playing supervillain with the Earth in the hopes that at least half of humanity would survive. After sending the three astronauts to certain death, her job is to keep humanity together for long enough to save the sun.

I think it adds a lot to her decision to send Grace away. Yes, it was cruel, but she knows what is coming for her and perhaps many of the people on the Hail Mary project. She is going to hold Earth and humanity together for decades, as people blame her for destruction and as nations in all likelihood go to war over scarce resources. Then, even if they succeed, she will probably be vilified or even executed for what she did.

Stratt is standing in the wreckage of Earth, knowing she'll live and die in infamy. She sent Grace off knowing that if he succeeded, he'd be remembered forever as a hero. She tore the Earth apart so he could save it.

Edit to add a quote:

"I'm curious," I* say to Stratt. "Once we launch Hail Mary. What will you do then?"

"Me?" she said. "Doesn't matter. Once the Hail Mary launches, my authority ends. I'll probably be put on trial by a bunch of pissed-off governments for abuse of power. Might spend the rest of my life in jail."...

"Are you at all concerned about that?"

She shrugged, "We all have to make sacrifices. If I have to be the world's whipping boy to secure our salvation, then that's my sacrifice to make."

"You have a strange logic to you," I said.

"Not really. When the alternative is death to your entire species, things are very easy. No moral dilemmas, no weighing what's best for whom. Just a single-minded focus on getting this project working."

*the novel is First Person POV of Ryland Grace

(and yes she says she won't be in charge anymore after the launch but I feel like they'll leave her in charge because no one else wants to so she'll actually be done after saving the sun. The movie supports this. And the fact that Earth saves the sun in the novel tells me our girl held everything together because I don't feel like anyone else could)

[scarlct-vvitch]

i love project hail mary (and andy weir in general) so goddamn much because the overwhelming message, the one that you hear over and over again, is that it is always possible for things to get better. there is always a solution to be found. there is always someone who will help you. there are always friends, always answers, always a reason to keep going even when it seems so hopeless and terrible and lonely. and every time you hear that message you're like yeah. i know. sometimes i forget and things seem really dark. but you gotta keep going.

also there is a rock alien who's really good at science and i want him to be my friend so bad.

[soultea]

Okay but Mark Watney who survives for a year and a half on Mars completely alone and gets to come home because the entire world chose to put everything aside to save him watching the Hail Mary video logs when they come back to Earth and watching the world do nothing?

Mark Watney watching Ryland Grace have to grapple with the fact that he will die and there is no amount of quick thinking or human help that can save him?

Mark Watney finding out Grace didn't volunteer to go to space and was instead sent as a sacrifice so the rest of them could live and getting fucking pissed on his behalf?

Mark Watney who knows what it is to starve on a foreign planet doing the math about Grace's remaining food supply when he decides to go back to save Rocky?

Mark Watney who realistically knows that there is nothing that can be done but who keeps watching the information come out about a middle school teacher who was probably going to die alone in space and not being able to stop thinking about it?

Mark Watney who had to be asked to stop proposing rescue missions because even if they could get funded, there was very little hope that Grace would still be alive even if they got to him?

Mark Watney with survivors guilt for a mission that he wasn't even on?

Mark Watney asking why me but not him?

I know they're not in the same universe and I know the timelines don't line up but just go with me here.

[jelicatessen]

PHM means so much to me as a scientist because for once, a movie celebrates the wonder of science and human capability, of morality without throwing anyone (not even Stratt!!!) under the bus, it celebrates our ability to collaborate and come together when we need to, it celebrates teachers and scientists as people we can aspire to be like, it celebrates the love of learning and curiosity, and in a time where anti-intellectualism is so rampant, it's everything the world needs to remember that being smart and being passionate and being brave is what the world needs to grow

[likelightinglass]

its on Erid, long after Grace and Rocky figure out how to hug and snuggle. Eridians dont really do full hugs like humans because then you can hear everyone's internal organs that close so its a little weird, maybe tapping/hand holding is the usual affection. Everyone assumes the constant cuddling is purely for Grace's human needs benefit, and while Grace obviously does love and need the touch, Rocky being driven to space madness and having every form of ptsd means he is equal if not more in need of constant full body hugs because he likes feeling how alive Grace is.

So random Eridian scientists are talking to Grace and are like, absolutely no disrespect intended, but very interesting Rocky overcame the cultural weirdness and sensory disgust of "hugs" and does them despite no benefit to himself because he cares for your needs! Its sweet!

Grace: actually Rocky freaks out if he cant press himself against my lungs and heart through the thinnest xenonite possible until he can hear every muscle cell in my body moving at least once a day.

Scientist: ok cool so hes kind of a total pervert then okay

[phmthoughts]

Wait. Hold on. Wait. You mean to tell me that Rocky brought his special clothing for celebration when he moved in with Grace, just in case? Pardon me while I go sob in a corner. The quantity of hope still packed into that little carapace, after everything that happened to him (or, perhaps, the quantity of hope that blossomed anew when Grace arrived...).

(Edit: Oh no, it gets worse. Does that mean the whole Eridian crew packed their party clothes, in the hope of having a successful mission and thus cause for celebration? And only Rocky ever got to wear them? And why does Grace have a party hat on the Hail Mary? Did the human crew pack party things with the same hope in mind?)

[witherwrite]

thinking about the grace and rocky reunion scene, and how i saw some people (me included tbh) intially were a little sad because we didn't get "grace, question? you are here, question?" but after my rewatches......i think we did. I think we got it word for word, actually.

grace doesn't have his laptops on him, so we as the audience don't get to understand what rocky says just yet, but at this point, grace does.

and what does he respond to rocky's longer vocalization?

i'm here, buddy.

[star-h0pper]

it's really really funny to me that eva stratt's list of crimes canonically includes piracy. do movie only fans know they tried to take her to court for pirating everything ever published and she ron swanson'd her way out of it. i need you all to know this.

[carlyraejepsans]

she sent him to die among the stars. she made sure the ship's system knew exactly how he liked his coffee.

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

was anybody going to tell me that grace's quilt is covered in good luck symbols from around the world as a way to show that the entire world was wishing him luck on the mission

[f-a-b-l-e]

Do you ever think about how canonically there was a camera rolling in the cockpit during the entire Taumoeba Fishing scene, and the footage might've made it onto the Beatles. The people on Earth might've seen it, seen how close it was. "The sky is just slightly on fire." The alarms starting to blare. Rocky screaming in horror as Grace almost dies retrieving the collector. The moment the fuel starts migrating. Grace losing consciousness. Rocky risking everything just to save him. I am going to SCREAM can you imagine watching that and it being real???? Watching with baited breath, knowing it was all okay in the end but not knowing yet how scary it was for them, how dangerous, how it even happened. How much it hurt. I'm gonna be sick.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

and the thing about both Project Hail Mary and The Martian is that both stories are grabbing you by the shoulders, looking you in the eyes, and from behind the fourth wall Andy Weir is smiling at you saying "you are never as alone, or as far gone, as you think you are"

[copper-leaf]

Highlights from the Project Hail Mary director's commentary:

*SPOILERS!!!*

Grace waking up from the coma was the first shot they filmed for the movie! They wanted Ryan to feel eased into the character, and what better way to do that than have him play a character who can't remember who he is?

The little "GOOD LUCK!" note in sharpie that's written on Grace's sleeping bag was canonically written by the other astronauts on the I.S.S. before the Hail Mary crew got put into the ship. In real life, Phil and Chris wrote one word each. They said it was like "a blessing on the movie."

Ryan's most nerve-wracking day on set was when he had to shoot with the classroom full of children. Most of the kids were made up of the children of the film's crew members.

The scene where Grace looks through Yao and Ilukhina's photos is footage of him looking at and reacting to actual pictures of the actors with their loved ones.

When Grace calls Stratt to tell her that he and Carl figured out how to breed astrophage, Ryan is genuinely calling Sandra on her day off set, and her audio is her genuine reaction to the unexpected line: "Carl and I made a baby!"

"We like showcasing Ryland Grace's social anxiety while having a lot of people staring at him. LOL!"

Their intention for the space funeral scene was to have Grace convey that he was trying to ease his own sadness by making the dead people with him feel better about being dead :(

The markings on Rocky's body convey his mission patch, his rank in the crew, his wedding band, and his family crest.

Grace and Stratt's conversation on the boat is Grace asking her if they're allowed to be close friends, and the response from Stratt is no, they can't. This gets driven home in the karaoke scene. She understands the value of connection, a part of her wants it, but "Her love for people has to be suspended for her to do her job."

Rocky has different forward-facing faces for different thought processes! They named his "satellite dish" face, his "scrunched up thinking face", and his "monobrow face".

Direct quote: "I love how on the spectrum Rocky is." ROCKY AUTISTIC CODED CONFIRMED!

After Rocky recovers from his injuries: "As Rocky returns to the movie, the lights turn on. The warmth returns. It's like the day breaking."

Confirmed that when Grace and Rocky reunite, Rocky says to Grace, "You came back for me, question?"

They throw this out there for two seconds and do NOT expand on it, but according to Andy Weir, Stratt is imprisoned for life but somehow ESCAPES???

The Eridians built Grace an artificial tree in his enclosure because Rocky knew he liked trees

There's so much more they shared about film processes and the people who were behind making certain effects possible. I highly recommend checking out the commentary if you're able!

[scarlct-vvitch]

grace, who has been alone for five minutes: oh my god. an alien! im not alone anymore! i hope he wants to be friends :)

rocky, coming up on 50 years of solitude, imprinting on grace in ways baby ducklings can only dream of: if you leave me to sleep where i can't watch your heart beat i am blowing up this tunnel with us both in it

[thatdoesntcomewithsass]

Why are we hiding this in the tags

[whiteflwrs]

can’t and won’t stop thinking about eva stratt and ryland grace as two sides of the same sacrificial coin: one who offered herself to the cause as the world’s scapegoat and celebrated by no one, and one who is made the lamb without his consent yet celebrated as the savior he never agreed to be.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

and it’s exactly in said coin’s nature — two sides always meant to be tied to another, and never meant to face each other again.

[whiteflwrs]

can’t and won’t stop thinking about eva stratt and ryland grace as two sides of the same sacrificial coin: one who offered herself to the cause as the world’s scapegoat and celebrated by no one, and one who is made the lamb without his consent yet celebrated as the savior he never agreed to be.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

and it’s exactly in said coin’s nature — two sides always meant to be tied to another, and never meant to face each other again.

[supernaturalist1234]

I don’t tend to ship strattland romantically but also I wholeheartedly believe that if she didn’t send him to space she’d marry him so he can’t testify against her