‘Project Hail Mary’ Becomes Amazon’s Highest-Grossing Film Debut

So was Huller

The author pretty much had him in mind when writing it I bet.

There were moments it felt like I was back in the 80's watching a top tier Sci-Fi movie. The puppetry really sold the "Frank Oz" style of aliens that I have been missing from movies so much. Rocky felt so present and tangible.

All I could think of when Rocky spoke was Doug the dog from Up.

Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!

Absolutely did kind of feel like a live action Pixar movie.

That’s it! Saw it last night and was trying to figure what movie it felt like. You described it well.

This is best take I’ve read. It really did!!

This is what Lightyear tried to be

Fist my bump!

Rocky and his pokemon planet

It's close enough.

I’ll fist your bump

👎 Thumbs up, baby!

I haven't read the book but damn it's 2.5 hours long I can't imagine if they *hadn't* rushed some stuff. To be fair, none of the *movie* felt rushed.

This is how I felt too. I get why they edited out some of the more complex topics or interesting little conversations to focus on the big stuff which is already awesome. The good news with this film is it was all there if you knew what was happening but it was never really explained. Very show don't tell. I'm hoping with the success there might be a directors edition out there. I imagine they filmed a bunch of the scenes that contain some of the densest but most interesting tidbits one day. Things that I missed that were either hinted at in the film, condensed, or omitted (book spoilers ahead): - >! ~~Rocky being a non water based lifeform.~~ (Edit: he WAS water based but Grace thought he wasn't until he found out he also was). They MUST have filmed this as they filmed the set up (astrophage being water based and Grace being "wrong") but not the payoff (Rocky being ~~non~~ (edit: also) water based). !< - >! Eridian physiology and Eridanians alternative evolution (no daylight/radiation) and how that affected their scientific understanding and tech etc. Harder to show don't tell but it's fascinating and would be/was of great interest to the character. !< - >! the whole "why are our two species here but not others" conversation. It was a really cool, interesting, and nice moment in the book and wouldn't have taken long to do. Also probably filmed.!< - >! way too nerdy for the big screen but the matter<>photon conversion thing that makes the astrophage work was really cool. It's the thing that made AW write the book and it's really cool. !< - >! astrophage farming! They paved over 25% of the Sahara or something like that to harvest enough. Plus the whole "if we survive this, this is the most useful thing humans have ever discovered" topic. That bit of hope for the future if this problem is solved really sparks the imagination.!< - >! how big Eva's mandate was. I wish we'd seen the whole "we're nuking Antarctica to release greenhouse gases in the hope that it will buy us a few more years whilst we wait for your mission". The stakes weren't really made anywhere near as clear in the movie as they were in the book. Just a few hints about death numbers. !< - >! The whole "explaining relativity to Rocky" thing which is why he has so much spare fuel was skipped (just a throw away line that he had to explain it to him) in favor of a simpler "I'll take longer to get home" thing. The hard sci fi parts of AW's work always sparks the imagination and having a teacher explain it to Rocky would be really cool to see (and educational for audiences), plus the "that's crazy, no way is that real" reaction from Rocky would be funny. But it's too much "nerd shit" for execs/audiences which is a shame. !< - >! Xenonite was mentioned in the film but understandably they didn't go into any detail about its incredible material properties or how good Rocky is at using it. Another boon for humanity once they recover from the astrophage. !< I think including most of these would only add another few minutes to the film, would make it more educational for non science-y audiences, and would give us even more time for Rocky and Ryland to bond which is the emotional core of the film. Based on the hints that are there in the film that all these topics were considered when writing the scripts and filming I have this sneaking suspicion that such scenes were indeed filmed but ended up on the cutting room floor. Hopefully one day we get a directors edition which includes all this stuff. It would make it the best hard sci film of all time IMO. I probably missed a few scenes or moments that were hinted at but not mentioned. It's been a while since I last read the book. There are also a few scenes I'm fine with not including such as >! Grace man handling Rocky back into his cage and then mistakenly blowing out his "heatsink" !< or the >! "taking Software companies to court"!< thing. What else would you like to have seen more of?

Just seen the movie and I agree, not only did they make a movie, it's a damn good one at that from a casting, soundtrack and technical perspective, the whole movie looks so well produced, every set and prop has character and looks real. But (at least for me) they also made a beautiful movie, using practical stuff where possible and CGI to enhance on that and they simply delivered; the petrovascope scene or exploring Rocky's ship (which was a welcome addition to the book IMHO) gave me goosebumps because they had such a great combination of visuals and sound design.

👎🪨👎

Yeah there was a scene where everything went quiet for like 30 seconds and it felt like whole audience held their breaths through that part

If you’re interested, check out the audiobook. I fell in love with it after it first came out. The VA, Ray Porter, does a phenomenal job

I went to a packed imax showing on Friday and during the super quiet tense parts I was waiting for someone to be a d***. Luckily the crowd was good for me too.

I particularly noticed the absolute silence as the audience watched Grace regain consciousness and go looking for Rocky. It was a collective breath-hold waiting to see what he'd find.

My theatre had a group of obnoxious meatheads talking the whole time and phone notifications going off Glad you had a better experience lol

Mine immediately wanted the "I had potential" t-shirt.

Jared Leto is the anti-Gosling

Ryan Gosling is our modern day Tom Hanks for the Millennial generation imo.

I remember in 2015 when the guy who did the "[Ryan Gosling doesn't eat his cereal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkpCP9R1Jjc)" Vine guy died, [Ryan sat down and ate a bite of cereal](https://media.tenor.com/54EOE-XTjcsAAAAM/user.gif).

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The only thing I really noticed was missing was >!why the other two astronauts died on board!<. I know this was explained in the book but I can't remember what the explanation was lol and I don't think it was mentioned in the movie? The whole thing with the >!astronauts needing a specific gene to be good candidates for the comas/space travel!< also was not mentioned, and I think goes along with this, but I didn't think that specifically felt missing or was a huge thing to leave out. Edit: Apparently this was not really mentioned in the book and I am imaging things haha! It's been awhile!

I thought the changes they made were pretty interesting. Grace is much more skittish in the movie than he is in the book, >!which foreshadows the twist a lot better!<. They dumbed down the science, which disappointed me, but they also added scenes talking more explicitly about how Grace has failed to build any meaningful attachments to Earth. It makes the whole emotional story being told about Grace, >!who wouldn't willingly give his life for all of humanity but who does do so for Rocky!<, more of the focus.

Really? It pretty much seemed like what I imagined when reading the book. Edit: I’m not saying everything in the book was covered. But the parts that were covered were pretty much what I imagined when reading

I really enjoyed the movie but I thought it moved too fast through the stakes for Earth. It was mostly reduced to “your students are going to die as will you”. I was hoping for the Antarctica scene to show how desperate the people of Earth were getting. But I get it, it was already 15 minutes shy of a 3 hour movie.

I actually enjoyed the movie more, I had trouble visualizing everything in the book. The movie was gorgeous. (also I listened to the audiobook and I'm bad about zoning out for a bit and getting confused, especially with flashbacks)

Its a really unique movie havent seen the likes of it for a long time

It's just so much *fun*. Got dang I'm so sick of dystopia. It's nice to have Sci-Fi with science, heart, and earned emotions.

My wife who HATES watching long movies agreed to go with me last night, at the end she turns to me and says "that was really fun"

It's tremendously saccharine; I loved it, but if that adjective is an immediate turn off or negative, it won't be your cup of tea. The other commenter saying it's like a live-action Pixar movie isn't far off. There's maturity to the performances and stakes but I would say it's family-friendly sci-fi spectacle. I left the theater feeling good vibes.

I thought it was a wonderful movie and I’ll probably see it again

Big fan of the book and had big expectations. I’d say it met expectations. I don’t think it’s a history making career defining film of the decade sort of thing. I’d rate it an 8.5/10. But it’s also an instant classic. It’s an even more friendly to all ages, funny, endearing version of the Martian. It’s like if the Martian and ET movies had a baby movie made in 2025. Like, it’s gonna be tough to find people that don’t like this film, and it will 100% be rewatch able. Thst makes it a classic. Rocky is just perfectly done. 10/10 on the dynamic between the two main characters which is the heart and soul of the story. They hit a 10/10 on by far the most important aspect of the film. I could watch the two leads just hang out all day. Visuals and score are a 10/10 as well. F****** gorgeous movie and the score is great. The visuals and score work in harmony to make you really FEEL that sense of “space awe”. The juxtaposition of the realistic feeling practical effects inside his spaceship compared to some of the gorgeous “space awe” stuff we see is a 10/10 also. All these 10/10 and I’m still giving it an 8.5? Basically, I think this film was almost perfectly made to purpose. The directors had a vision and they executed on it to perfection. That said, the movie didn’t break any new ground. At its core it’s a simple story that’s been done hundreds of times. And I do feel like the run time was felt just a liiiiitle bit at times. Which is tough because I also felt the ending was just a bit too rushed. Could have had 10-15 more minutes added to the last 30 min or so of the movie. And that’s tough to say in a movie that was too long. And so, 8.5./10. Amazing movie, extremely enjoyable, no REAL complaints. But, like, I don’t feel changed as a person or feel like I just saw something I’ve never seen before or will never see again, ya know? I

Wasn't he Ken tho?

He just needs to stop making movies with 'Man' or 'Guy' in the title. 'The Grey Man', is another one.

Watching in IMAX in a packed theatre and during the silent moments of the movie and all you can hear is the projector running its film due to the audience being so captivated, it is just spine tingling stuff, if you can watch this in IMAX, do so!! Don’t even get me started on the visuals…

Damn. I hate that for you. I was shocked they included rocky in the trailers. Bad bad bad

I believe that it’ll be given an extended cut a la The Martian but who knows