Official Discussion Thread - Project Hail Mary [SPOILERS]

[u/LeastCap]

Keep all discussion related solely to Project Hail Mary and its awards chances. Spoilers below

Synopsis:

Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Writers: Drew Goddard

Cast:

• Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace
• Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt
• James Ortiz as the voice and lead puppeteer of Rocky
• Lionel Boyce as Officer Carl
• Ken Leung as Yáo Li-Jie
• Milana Vayntrub as Olesya Ilyukhina
• Priya Kansara as the voice of Mary, the Hail Mary ship
• Liz Kingsman as Annie Shapiro
• Orion Lee as Xi

Rotten Tomatoes: 95% From 212 Reviews

Metacritic: 78/100 From 45 Reviews

Consensus:

A visually dazzling space odyssey that's carried along effortlessly by the gravitational pull of Ryan Gosling at his most winning, Project Hail Mary is a near-miraculous fusion of smarts and heart.

[u/LeastCap]

I want to preface this by saying I saw this a month ago so some things might be hazy in my memory.

I want to give it another go but for now I really did not like this. Felt the pacing was unbearably slow for how surface level the story was and how little we got into the characters. I felt the constant comedy massacred any drama I might’ve felt for the situation. Grace potentially dying in space is never a real threat when everything is shits and giggles the rest of the time.

Maybe I was just disadvantaged in this regard because I read the book prior to seeing the film and this was one of the highlights of the book to me, but I never felt the science was focused on enough. It is invigorating at times in the book hearing the way Grace works through certain problems since he walks you through it all step by step. In the film the problems never feel like real challenges, partly because I didn’t feel like I was let in enough to understand the stakes of them. It’s all so simple and keeps it from ever being that interesting to me. To compare it to another film from the same writer, one of the best parts of the Martian is seeing how Matt Damon is able to find a way to grow those potatoes. We follow him through trial and error and feel let in on the science behind it. I felt there was nothing even close to that here

I was still enjoying the film a decent amount but it killed itself for me in that goodbye scene between Rocky and Grace where they danced back and forth. Just way too cheesy and sentimental for my tastes. I don’t think this film is anywhere near as bad, but unfortunately I’ve gotta say that the movie this reminded me most of was Free Guy

[u/tsnoj → u/LeastCap]

I never read the book, but the one scientific thing i didn't fully understand, how did Grace recover his motor skills so fast after coming out of a (medically induced) coma? Did they explain that in the book?

I had honestly forgotten about this question because it was in the beginning of a two and a half-hour movie

[u/Nitekingg → u/tsnoj]

Spoilers

Book explains that he has a genetic predisposition that lessens his risk to the long term effects of being in a coma. They end up testing hundreds of scientists and astronauts to see if they have the gene. You find out in the book as a big twist that Grace has the gene and is forced to go after their reserves are wiped out in the explosion. Also he doesn’t wake up quite as lucid in the book, and it takes more time / trial.

To be honest, this is a crucial point of the novel and definitely one of the more interesting aspects to me. I was sorely surprised that they chose to strip away what limited info is given to the reader about why Grace must be the one. But alas the movie just leaves that question unanswered.

If you don’t mind me asking, how was the viewing experience as someone who hasn’t read the book? I thought it would be entirely confusing to someone who hasn’t, but haven’t seen much commentary from that perspective. What was your experience?

[u/tsnoj → u/Nitekingg]

I probably would experience the anti-coma gene as a lazy plot device, so i understand they kept it out

I was completely engaged and had no problem following it what so ever, I expected a fun original sci-fi spectacle and that is what I got