Project Hail Mary–The Movie

I LOVED IT!

End of review.

The movie was pretty close to the book, which was a good thing, since it was one of my favorite books of the last decade. I thought that Ryan Gosling was excellent as Ryland Grace, and Sandra Hüller is exactly how I pictured Stratt in the book. I was excited to see Lionel Boyce from The Bear as Carl. He is such a minor character in the book, but he stood out, and Boyce was perfect. 

But honestly, the real star of the movie is Rocky. Hats off to James Ortiz for his job as the Eridian astronaut, who just wants to save his planet, and get back home to his mate. I read somewhere that Ortiz was the motion-capture actor, but he and Gosling formed a good relationship, and eventually it was decided that Ortiz would be perfect as the voice as well. I love the nod to the audiobook when they used Ray Porter for one of the voices (and Meryl Streep). 

There were only a few changes that really stood out to me, and some of them were just minor things. Here are a few spoilers, so if you have not seen it, quit reading and go see it!

This was not really mentioned in the movie, but the drug that Stratt gives Grace also causes the temporary amnesia because Grace threatens to sabotage the mission. I think the movie works a little better because Grace’s threats seemed messed up, and would have been odd for a movie audience. 

The ending of the book is Ryland living in his biodome on Eridia for the past 16 years. The Eridian scientists have figured out how to make a synthetic meat for him, which he calls ME-burgers. They basically had to use his protein structure, and he jokes that he is eating himself. Again, funny for the book, but movie audiences might think it is weird. 

Rocky also tells Ryland that the mission was successful, since they have now noticed the Sun’s brightness has stopped dimming, so the humans succeeded in recreating the taumoeba. Rocky then says that the Eridian scientists finished the new spaceship, if Ryland is ready to go home. Ryland thinks about it, then says to Rocky that they could go search other systems for life (I think with the idea of helping those planets that have stars affected by astrophage). Honestly, the book leaves open the possibility of further adventures for Rocky & Ryland.