In the latest movie releases recently, one has definitely come out blaring; Project Hail Mary based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, Project Hail Mary’s plot both in the movie and the book consists of an middle school science teacher, turned astronaut Ryland Grace (portrayed by Ryan Gosling in the film), waking up with amnesia aboard a spaceship called the Hail Mary light-years away from Earth head to Tau Ceti. Slowly, he regains his memory and figures the nature of the mission: find out how to save the sun from a sun-eating organism. Using his scientific knowledge and some creative problem solving, Grace has to come up with a way to save humanity from extinction alone as his crewmates have died, however, an unexpected ally and friend comes to aid.
However, due to the time constraints film adaptations of a book often come out with either some changes or drastic alterations that fans of the book often consider the film to have completely eviscerated the novel. So how does the film version hold up to the book version?
Warning: Huge spoilers ahead for the film and book
One stark difference between the novel and the movie is how in depth the science is between the two. In the book, Grace is very specific in what he is doing in every experiment he does alongside other details. While the movie does involve science it is much less prevalent like in the book, so much so that some people watching the movie who were scientists or lab technicians had an outcry when it showed Grace using an unbalanced centrifuge. One scientific scene that was cut out in the movie was Grace figuring out that the star he was seeing wasn’t the sun but Tau Ceti. While the science wasn’t as in depth as the book, the film still contains some hard science elements over such as when Grace is first called to experiment on the Astrophage which is the organism responsible for causing the sun and neighboring stars to dim , involves a lot of scientific tests to tell what the Astrophage is. In addition to figuring out how Astrophage it is able to move through space, live on the surface of stars, and reproduce among other things like how the Astrophage is used as fuel for the Hail Mary and how the engines work using Astrophage.
In general some major details were left out of the film which some people felt at least needed to be added. One such detail includes Grace’s unique genetic markers that allow him to survive the medically induced coma, he and the other two crew members were put in to survive the journey from Earth to Tau Ceti. In the movie, this is never touched upon and is instead just hinting that Grace survived by pure luck and chance. Grace’s amnesia is also changed as in the film it is portrayed as being a side effect of the coma while in the book, Grace’s amnesia is a result of being injected with a drug to make him forget he was onboard the Hail Mary as although the ship has enough fuel to go to Tau Ceti, it does not have enough fuel or food to return to Earth, thus making it a one-way trip which the crew accepted from the start except for Grace, hence why he was drugged.
Additionally, the characterization of the characters are slightly tweaked in the film compared to the novel. In the book, Grace is portrayed as more cowardly and reluctant than in the film which still depicts this although it is streamlined in order to make the movie Grace appear more confident than he is. Additionally, Rocky in the book has a bit of sass and a bossy nature to him which is less absent in the film, favoring giving Rocky a more amicable personality. However, one of the biggest changes to a character is Eva Stratt (played by Sandra Huller in the movie). In the book, Stratt is seen as cold, pragmatic, and utilitarian in her methods to figure what is causing the sun to dim and how to ensure humanity’s survival. One of her most extreme methods involved nuking Antarctica to release greenhouse gases in order to slow the global cooling caused by the dimming sun. In the movie, Stratt while remaining the cold, pragmatist she is, is made a bit more human as she is given a major scene where she sings “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles during karaoke, in addition to cutting out the nuking of Antarctica. However, both versions of Stratt are responsible for forcing Grace onto the Hail Mary by drugging him with a powerful amnesiac.
There are also some scene changes present in the film compared to the book. One of these scene changes include the aftermath of the excessive centrifugal force caused by the Hail Mary’s astrophage fuel leaking. In the movie and the book, once Grace passes out due to the spinning of the ship, it is Rocky who breaks out of his enclosure and stops the excessive spinning, however, this is where the scene’s diverge as in the film, Grace remains unconscious, with Rocky dragging his body to medical bay and eventually trudges back to his area off camera. While in the book, once the Hail Mary stops spinning, Grace wakes up and notices Rocky dying as he is now exposed to Grace’s atmosphere which is incompatible with Rocky. Grace instead, drags Rocky to his living space, burning his hand because Rocky’s body is pretty hot. Afterwards, Grace has to force an entryway into Rocky’s habitat which causes Grace to be hit with a wall of extreme heat and a nasty waft of ammonia. Although, Rocky is back in his area, Grace suffers 3rd degree burns on his left arm and then makes his way to the ship’s medical bay.
However, despite the changes made to the movie or cuts made so that the film fits into a reasonable time, although the directors have revealed that the original cut of Project Hail Mary was around four hours long which could possibly contained some scenes that were mentioned previously that occurred in the book but not in the movie. Overall, Project Hail Mary is loyal to its source material and does it a service in bringing Ryland Grace and Rocky to those who haven’t read the book. With the film’s success already causing it to have an extended run on IMAX, fans are eagerly waiting for the announcement of an extended cut in order to get their Astrophage fix.
