However, the movie manages to improve upon that other thread, and it manages to do so with just one extra added scene. What is it? Let’s unpack.
Spoilers for Project Hail Mary follow.
How Project Hail Mary Improves Upon the Flashback Thread
image courtesy of amazon mgm studios
In the book, Dr. Grace’s dynamic with Eva Stratt is the only thing that occasionally rings a bit false. In both versions she does find him in his school, she does send him on a bunch of jets out onto an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean, and she does force him to go into space, but she’s a little colder about it, as is Dr. Grace’s reaction. The main issue is that even towards the end, after Dr. Grace as gotten to know Rocky and experience this amazing adventure after getting past his fear, he still harbors resentment against Stratt. He even tells himself when he gets back to Earth courtesy of Rocky’s spare Astrophage he’s going to give her a piece of his mind.
In the movie, Ryan Gosling’s Dr. Grace certainly doesn’t want to go to space, but we don’t get the sense that he harbors ill will towards Sandra Hüller’s Stratt. In fact, during a report he’s preparing to send back to Earth, he says she was right to do what she did.
This is a welcome change, because his constant resentment in the book made Dr. Grace seem a little bit childish. We understand why he’s upset in both versions, but the movie version seems to recognize that had she not incapacitated him and sent him up to space, he would have missed out on the most important period of his life. So too is the character of Stratt changed. In the book she’s far from a monster, she has to make decisions that could save or doom the Earth, after all. But the movie version is a bit warmer.
And with that we get to the scene that is the most poignant of the film, even factoring in the Grace-Rocky scenes. This journey into space is, as Dr. Grace describes, “a one-way ticket.” The three astronauts being sent up will be sacrificing their lives for humanity. So, naturally, with them all gathered on the aircraft carrier, they want to have a party the night before launch.
At first, this is not a party Stratt participates in. She’s up on the deck of the carrier, looking at the ocean and feeling the wind on her face. Dr. Grace is similarly emotionally absent from the festivities and goes up to join her. They have a conversation about whether it was hard for her to ask these people to sacrifice their lives, and she says no. The book version is much the same way, because she knows sacrificing three lives is better than sending the planet into an ice age. However, much to Dr. Grace’s surprise, Stratt then comes down to the little karaoke party, pics up the mic, and emotionally sings Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times.”
The lyrics of the song serve as a way for both the audience and Stratt’s cohorts to recognize that, yes, this is incredibly hard for her. Necessary, but hard. “Welcome to the final show,” “you look pretty good down here,” “They told me that the end is near. We gotta get away from here,” all of these words perfectly shine a light on who Stratt is as a person. She selected the song, after all (in fact, Hüller herself selected the song). In this one and a half minute or so scene, we get a massive amount of added character depth, and it works wonderfully. It’s working wonderfully for people on X and Reddit, too.
After its fantastic opening at the box office this past weekend, it’s pretty clear Project Hail Mary is a hit, even with its high price tag. It’s an original film (based on a book, yes, but not part of a pre-existing franchise), and these days those feel exceedingly rare when it comes to studio genre films. It’s a feel-good adventure that clicks along at a perfect pace, so much so that its two-and-a-half-hour runtime feels about 30 minutes less. Drew Goddard’s script mostly sticks to the text, and does so well, but as this scene shows his changes to the source material are worthy ones.
What did you think of Project Hail Mary? Did the karaoke scene tug at your heartstrings? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
