Adventures In Rocky’s Space

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I had such fun with my recent compare/contrast writeup of the movie and book versions of The Martian that I thought I’d do another: Project Hail Mary, by the same author, although different filmmakers. 

Be advised, there are some spoilers ahead.  But for the most part, as with The Martian, the journey is the fun part, not necessarily the destination.  Nevertheless, I’ll try not to spoil too much.

I saw the movie first and loved it so much that I immediately went and bought the book and plowed right through it.  Both are wonderful.  As one might expect, the movie differs from the book somewhat, but since print and film are different mediums, it makes sense that they’d take different approaches to the same story.

Both the book and the film start in medias res, with our intrepid spaceman Dr. Ryland Grace waking from a coma very confused.  He doesn’t know where he is, and he doesn’t remember who he is.  In the book, there’s quite a lot of math and such to figure out that he’s in space.  In the movie, he simply looks out a window.

The movie quickly takes us back in time (and back to Earth) to the discovery that something is essentially eating the sun.  The sun’s output is already dimming, and it’s only a matter of time before everything freezes over and all life on the planet becomes extinct.  Scientists discover that it’s an amoeba-like life-form, which starts at the sun, consumes a bunch of energy, and then migrates through space to Venus.  They don’t know why.  Scientists call this life-form astrophage, which is essentially Latin for “star eater.”

The movie jumps back and forth between Grace in the present on the spaceship, realizing that he’s in the Tau Ceti solar system, and back to Earth, where we slowly learn how this came about.  It was not clear to me during my first viewing of the movie that Grace was remembering these events at the same time they are being shown to the viewer.  I had to read the book to figure that out.  But on a second viewing of the movie, when I paid attention to details I’d missed the first time, there are plenty of clues that these are memories being recovered, not just narrative to get the viewer up to speed.

Essentially, we find out that Earth’s sun is not the only star infected with astrophage.  Many stars are afflicted and dimming, with a notable exception being Tau Ceti.  It is infected but is not dimming.  Grace is sent to find out why.  And it turns out, he’s not the only one who was sent.  Another world has sent a ship as well, and for the same reason.  Grace discovers this when the other space ship pulls up alongside him and mirrors his movements.

Grace meets the alien pilot of the other ship and names him Rocky.  Rocky is essentially a space spider made of stone.  I’m oversimplifying but that’s a rough description.  I expected to find Rocky repulsive, given that I think spiders are horrifying, but in fact, he’s quite charming.  And the interactions between Rocky and Grace are touching and funny and quite interesting, as they each tackle parts of the astrophage problem.

As Grace’s memory continues to come back to him in pieces, we find out that he did not in fact volunteer for the space mission, which was always going to be a one-way trip. He refused and was essentially shanghaied onto the ship.  The movie does make this explicit but the book is even more harsh, making a very strong point about what might be called reasonable cowardice.  Who wants to go on a one-way trip, to die alone in space?  I mean, yes, you might also save the Earth, but still, it’s a lot to ask of any normal person.

This of course makes it all the more rewarding when Grace, put in a position where he isn’t given a choice, rises to the occasion and does everything he can to solve the problem for Earth.  And for Rocky’s planet at the same time.  Later on, when Grace discovers he can make it home after all (with the gift of enough fuel from Rocky), he has to make a choice when he realizes that Rocky has been stranded by a malfunctioning ship.  Grace sends his own probes back to Earth with the solution to the astrophage problem, and goes to rescue Rocky, knowing that he won’t be able to return home and he won’t be able to survive on Rocky’s planet. 

As Rocky says, “It’s easy to be brave when you have someone to be brave for.”  Loner Grace finally has a friend to be brave for.  The movie does have a happy ending, which I won’t spoil for you.

I highly recommend both the book and the movie.  But…read the book first.