Okay I don't know if this has been said before and I also don't usually make my own posts on this blog but this has been spinning in my mind rotisserie chicken style and I can not stop thinking about it.
I can't stop thinking about the onslaught of emotions Rocky must have felt the moment Grace's earth thinking machine was able to say his 1 right back in his own language.
Here we have this little alien who comes from a highly social species. Who left his mate behind on Erid. Who watched all 22 of his crew members die without explanation and without him being able to fix. Who was all alone. In space. For decades. And after all that loneliness, all that isolation, losing hope at saving his sun and his planet with no one to comfort him--who comes along but Dr. Ryland Grace. And Rocky must have been so excited to not be alone anymore. But not only is he no longer alone, but this strange alien from earth can record his voice in his language and play it back to him. He's been isolated for, what, 46 years? I can't imagine the longing he must have had to just hear someone's voice. And while this may be his own voice played back to him, it is a reminder that not only will he be able to communicate and connect to someone else, but he gets a piece of home, a piece of his own language to cling to and to keep him going.
It's also a stark indication that he can talk. He can talk! To someone else. And they'll understand!
That small, brief moment in the movie where Rocky hears his own voice and he freezes a little, the weight of understanding at what this means finally hits him, is such a small part of the movie but it hits me so hard.
(sorry for gif quality lol i've never made one before)
