If A Science Teacher Can Save Earth Then Why Can’t We

A space movie can look expensive and still feel hollow. Project Hail Mary does the opposite: it feels human, funny, tense, and oddly comforting, even when the premise is pure nightmare fuel. We just saw it in theaters and we’re still buzzing, so we jump straight into what makes it work, from the opening mystery of an amnesiac teacher waking up light years from home to the terrifying reality that Earth’s sun is being dimmed by astrophage, a literal “star eater.”

We talk about the filmmaking choices that give the story weight: practical sets, smart lighting, and the decision to make Rocky a physical puppet operated by a full team, not a flimsy digital afterthought. That choice turns first contact into an actual relationship you can feel, and it makes the movie’s big theme land: two intelligent beings with totally different biology and tools can still build a shared language, solve problems together, and choose empathy in the vacuum of space. We also dig into the sound and harmonics angle behind Rocky’s tech and perception, and why those science ideas spark real curiosity even when the film simplifies the “hard science” from the book.

Then we get into the moral shockwave: Eva Stratt’s decision to coerce Grace onto the mission, the anger it provokes, and the small human moments the film uses to complicate her character, including the karaoke scene that critics keep pointing to. We even detour into the most unexpected breakout star, Ryan Gosling’s fox cardigan, plus a few fun production and box office notes, before closing with our Hey Honey air fryer chicken recipe.

Subscribe, share the show with a sci-fi fan, and leave a review. What did you love most: the practical effects, the Rocky friendship, or the ethical debate at the center of the mission?

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:24

You sure you're ready? Nope. You're not?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I am ready.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Well, it's good because we already started rolling.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Oh, we did?

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Critique Opolis is back. And you know what? Now that I'm thinking about this, since we just watched it, I almost think that I'm gonna let you run the order, but maybe we want to put this up front because this was just released.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

And it's gonna we're gonna the the first episode that we put out comes out tomorrow, so this might might be a nice just a you know um put this one first. Yeah, flo like have it um what do you call that? Like um it shepherds it or it flows uh it supports it, it flows right under the release of the movie. What is that term?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

I don't know, but I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

I'll try to think it shadows it for lack of a better term. Because if we release this in the order that we've been recording, it won't make so much. Yeah, it's gonna come out like it's gonna come out three the episode would come out three weeks after its release, and this was just released what, yesterday?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

No, like last weekend.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Oh, last weekend? Yeah, then we should do it tomorrow.

unknown 1:48

Okay.

Why The Movie Works So Well

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Alright. So Project Hail Mary, we saw this in the theater. So good. So like you know what's tough about doing a movie podcast is we don't tend to give negative reviews aside from like maybe the first movie we saw, but I find myself struggling to come up with different words for this was a great movie.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Yeah, mm-hmm. I understand. I hear you.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

So so much to unpack. I'm gonna try not to make this like an hour-long podcast, but I would say it was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

I said I would say I really enjoyed it. That's what I've been telling people. It was amazing, I really enjoyed it. I mean, we'll expand on it, but there were many elements that were like out of this done like amazingly.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Was that like tongue in cheek for it to call it out of this world? It was a space movie. Nope, but that was good. Okay, so Oh, I should tell people that. So this along with some of our our uh our recent reviews of shorts, the music in this movie was also was a new character, and I think that kind of goes hand in hand with the theme of being isolated. Like Snowbear was it was just one character. This, it's just two characters in the um voluminous vacuum of space. For not the whole movie, but a big chunk of it. Let's see here. I'm gonna give and we just discovered a new tool to help Louisa with her portion of notebook. But I'll give you the uh the broad strokes of this if you haven't. I don't know how anybody could have escaped this trailer, but I think I'm not sure if do they do a global release when this movie comes out, or they used to do international releases and domestic releases at different times.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

I want to say that it came out all over the world at the same time because earlier today I was looking at box office numbers. And it was just and they had different countries domestic, international.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Is this on Amazon or on uh yeah, it's on is it on Amazon because it was Amazon production.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

It was produced by Amazon Studios, but I don't know that it's on Amazon yet. It's on Netflix or anything, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:20

It wouldn't be.

Practical Effects And The Rocky Puppet

SPEAKER_00 4:21

No, I don't think so. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Project Hail Mary is cinematic Odyssey. These sources detail the production, release, and reception of 2026's Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lorde and Christopher Christopher Miller, based on Andy Weir's best-selling novel, starring Ryan Gosling, as an amnesia teacher on a desperate interstellar mission to save Earth from a sun-killing organism. Technical coverage emphasizes the filmmaker's commitment to practical effects. That was what was amazing. Um, right out of the gate, what was amazing about this movie is there wasn't a lot of green screen stuff. They used actual puppeteering technology and practical effects the way when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s and 90s, before green screen really took off, that's how movies were made. With actual effect, like I showed you scenes from The Thing with Kurt Russell. You remember uh it was kind of gross, but that guy that organism mimicked a person, but when it was found out, the person would break apart. And uh do you remember this? The scene in the uh I know I showed this to you with this guy's head like peels itself off, turns into a spider.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you did show that to me, but I blocked it out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

That was all, I know it was gross, but that was all practical effects. That was all latex and uh wood pieces.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah, I got it now. I totally remember.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

That was wood piece, like when the the stalks that became the legs popped out of the guy's head. That was all uh done behind a uh uh that it was all latex and uh paper mache stuff like that. And they don't make they haven't made movies like that in a while. And this Project Hail Mary was a lot of that from the alien named Rocky. He was not digital, he was puppeteered by a team.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

Uh the film is hailed as a masterpiece of optimistic sci-fi, blending humor and heart while achieving massive massive commercial success at the global box office. Budget was how much? Like 400 million? Is that what the look look on? I thought it was less than that, but if you look on your Mojo or something. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

On your uh Yeah, I got it, I got it.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

What is the panels that we just looked at? Yeah. Your slide deck.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, 400 million.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

Additionally, fan discussions interviews highlight Sandra Huller's performance. I want you to talk about that from whatever you saw because I I could not stand that woman. I mean, I understood her motivations, but her actions made me hate her. Noting how the adaptation humanizes her character beyond the original text, apparently. Um I should point out right now that we discovered another component to Notebook LM, which I'm I'm just loving for you, Louisa. It's called Slide Deck, where it in short creates what did I call them earlier? Um what do you call them? For like when you're building a movie, the the storyboard. Good God, I am gonna end up in a home. I know it. I can't remember shit. So it builds storyboards, in essence, but of con but concepts and the theme to break down the concepts and theme of the film, not uh a scene-by-scene portrayal, but the key components of the film gives you uh quick text bytes and graphics to represent it. So it's a really cool little learning tool. And while I'm talking, I really hope you're finding that piece of text about Sandra Huller's.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

I'm not looking for that, I'm looking for how much it costs to make this movie.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

I think it was 400, but nope, that was a a wrong uh not you have it different.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

That 400 million is a different number.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

That's break-even?

SPEAKER_00 9:02

It's a different number. It's the fastest um Brian Gosling movie to make 400 million or something like that. I can read it to you.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

Oh well, I would okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

421 million dollars is the current global box office number as the fastest Gosling film to make 4 million behind Barbie and La La Land.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

400 million.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

421.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

Keep it going. Cosmo. Let's see. So do you have?

SPEAKER_00 9:46

It's so amazing. If I didn't have work tomorrow, I'd go tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

Wait a minute, you sent oh, you sent me the quiz too. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Oh, I just I just um recently, yeah.

Plot Setup Astrophage And The Mission

SPEAKER_03 9:59

All right, so this is interesting. So the slide deck gives us a nice little breakdown of the mission parameters for the film, which is in essence the synopsis of the film. So Gosling is a high school school science teacher, and he is you but he has a PhD in is it by what what are you looking at? What's that look for? It was his degree in like um biochemical engineering or um I think it was in biochemical engineering, that sounds right. Something like that. And he wrote a paper about how life can exist without water, and it was laughed out of the room by a number of other scientists, so he he kind of he didn't lose credential, but he was embarrassed by it and he just decided to teach high school science. And this Sandra Hullers character gets a hold of his thesis and wants to ask him a question regarding how he how he conceptualized this, but it turned what what's amnesiac mean? They knocked him out for the trip. You know, they put him in stasis, they put him in um sleep. Yeah, they put him in a coma.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

That's why when he woke up he had long hair. Yeah. He was out for a couple years.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah. A couple, like 11.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Well, okay. Which okay. But okay, sorry, I would have thought it would be it would have been longer.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

But anyway, here's the It would have been, you're right.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

Sandra Huller is dealing with this. She knows that the sun is dying, and the reason for this is a single-celled energy-consuming microorganism that's breeding on Venus called astrophage. It is actively dimming the sun, threatening global extinction inside of 30 years. Now, the project Hail Mary is they send a pilot, a biologist, and like an engineer up to try to to the nearest star that this seems to be being emitted from or the source of this astrophage, to see if they can uh uh solve the problem. But there's an accident and the biologist dies. Uh Dr. Rayland Grace is put in his place against his will, which is that's the hardest part of the movie. That's the most emotionally jarring part of the movie.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Um It doesn't, and it doesn't come out till later. I think when we got out of the movie and we were driving back, we were discussing that, weren't we?

SPEAKER_03 12:58

This movie that this this I couldn't like I got so angry with this woman. I like I didn't tell you that I was in the shower last night, just like like privately raging at her. I'm like, this bitch fucking she drugged him and threw him on a sh like he'll never see home again.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

He's like, well, this is for the good of all mankind. I'm like, I don't get to decide my you're just taking you just showed up, asked me at a bottom paper, and now you're stealing my life.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Yeah, she yeah. That was it was hard to watch. Well, I'd I'll have to I have to say that that's better than you being in the shower and like passing out because that's what I thought. I was like, please just keep the water going, turn off when you're done.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

No. But I I can see how this would be this would be an outstanding SNL skit for Ryan Gosling when he's when he's brought back to be a guest. Yeah. Like part two, when he returns to Earth to exact revenge on this woman. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

I will uh we should friend him on Instagram and say, you know what, pitch that to Lauren Michaels.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah, exactly. Um Wait a minute, I didn't finish. I didn't finish. Dr.

The Coercion Twist And Moral Anger

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Rayland Grace wakes up after a coma twelve light years from Earth. His crew is dead. The way that this was just such a great choreography of everything because he knew these people and now they're dead next to him, and he has to remember who they are, and then he offers them a burial at space, which is very touching. It was.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

It was very touching.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

He must place his memory back together while executing the mission. He is not alone. An alien spacecraft is already at the target, which is Tuceti. Is Tuset Tu Seti was the star? I can't recall.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

How is it spelled, what you're reading?

SPEAKER_03 14:59

T A U C. Yeah, that's it. That's a star?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

That's what it looks like.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Okay. Alien space cr spacecraft is already there seeking the same answers. And the alien spacecraft, this what was so interesting about it's not a hostile force or anything. It's just this. How would you describe it? It almost looks like a it look almost looks like a a piece of English punctuation.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Like a the overall shape of it? Yeah, it's a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

It's like an equal sign with something in the center of it. Actually, yes, it is. Yeah, but it's constructed of this crystalline material, and the alien on board is it moves sort of like a crab, but I think this was meant Louisa to kind of underscore how smart Gosling's character was because his paper was about how you could have life without water, and Rocky's being whole existence is without is yeah, it doesn't really he's he's made of rock. He's made of rock.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yeah.

Rocky’s Biology And First Contact

SPEAKER_03 16:27

And he can't react with O2. Because that's what isn't he always in a bubble, kinda? Yeah, he creates like a crystalline shell around himself to interact with Gosling because his atmosphere and our atmosphere are toxic to one another. So they have this amazing little first contact interplay where they can't communicate digitally, so Rocky's ship throws a a vase or a uh what do you call that? A coat a codex across space that Ryan has to catch. Yeah. And he has to figure out how to open it, and the spring-loaded mechanism inside is a diorama of the solar system that they're in.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

So he knows he's dealing with intelligent life. They have to meet one another.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

That was the second vial that he threw. The first one that he threw had oxygen in it.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

It did?

SPEAKER_00 17:42

To help him breathe, I think, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Because that was remember the two No, he found that when he went over and met Rocky.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

The first thing he found was sorry, tangent. Yeah, no, he so Rocky communicates. Yeah, he had the little figurine.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

The figurine he made of him.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

As a like a little guy.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

And they showed that Rocky he makes things, he's like a mechanic, and he spins like a metallic substance.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

I can't remember what it was a particular element, but he in Rocky's world, some of the elements that we have on Earth as gases, he manipulates as it's xenon. Well, there was xenon, but there was another one.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

That's what he was made out of.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Yeah. Or that's Yeah, that's not it.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

There was a m there's a couple materials that in the movie are different. Their their form is different than exist on Earth. Yeah. And thereby they have different functions and different they they can be utilized differently. Which was an interesting I think there was a lot of science that they took huge liberties with.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Because Xenon is most of these things are transformed in states by matters of temperature. Like you need to have like a like I get I think in Rocky's universe, like his atmosphere is very hot. Remember when the the thing slid open for him to put it he was putting something in for him to look at.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

And when he opened it, the gas escaped, and he's like, holy shit, that's hot.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

So um it's gonna be so hard to discuss this movie because there's so many cool elements to it.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Well, they they utilize these figurines that Rocky builds for him to make first contact. His ship is able to construct this crystalline port for and fill it with air and pressure for Ryan to come over. And it it what's interesting is his they represent Rocky as this being that he's able to assimilate in intelligence pretty fast. Like he can figure out that this guy needs pressure to hold him together. That's why he tells him to take off his hat or take off his helmet, and he won't die. Yeah. He gives it oh that that's the other thing. He gives him those ring that ring of eight. So you can't. Oh, that's what I was talking about. Okay. He's like, that's O2. He figures right. And then they have to build a working language model that they both can utilize.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah, that was a really cool thing, too. I thought that was really cool.

Harmonics Vision And Alien Tech

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Oh and what's funny is they it this it was a three-hour long movie, but it did such a great job of of walking you through the the emotions that happen. Rocky is this interesting little he speaks like it is like a foreign language, like he leaves out prepositions, he puts words in the wrong order, but he's kind of like a over excited, uninvited guest.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

Like, in order to be able to interact with Ryan Gosling, he builds this crystalline ball for himself so he can move in Ryan's environment. And he just comes over to his spaceship and knocks on knocks on the door and says, Hey, let me in, let me see all this stuff. And just kind of bumbles around the spaceship. And they have the and his I th this is the other thing that was amazing is they utilized harmonics for you remember when they were in so there's a scene they're in Ryan's classroom, and he's teaching the kids that each frequency, when played, creates a particular shape. Like you run the frequency through a piece of fabric that has something light on it, like silicon or or sand, and you run a particular frequency through that and it creates a shape in the sand. And there it's not just harm, there's an actual don't you remember that? That was at the very beginning.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

I didn't realize that's what was happening.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

That's what they were doing. And that's how Rocky's ship operated. All those lines in there, he would touch particular lines to to execute certain functions.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Wow. No, okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

I didn't get that.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

So well what I'm pointing out is that there's all these different scientific laws that are that were just kind of thrown around throughout the story.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

And Rocky's technology is based on from what at least what they showed us utilizing vibration and harmonics and sound as a way because he couldn't see he he didn't have access to the visual spectrum that of light that we do.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah, I remember that.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

He used sound to create the shape.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

And like, you know, when they would they would give us like rocky vision. Vision.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah, yeah. But it looked like It looked like night vision.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Kind of. And it's almost like Blurry night vision. It's almost like our if your body was made up of a bazillion little particles, but as sound moves through it, it vibrates a little and it creates a shape. And that's how Rocky would see the world. Like when he was interacting with Ryan, he couldn't help, you can't help but make sound. And that sound reverberates all over the place. And that's what defines like if it was perfectly quiet and perfectly still, he would be in total darkness. Yep. But like that's why why there was a scene where R Gosling was talking, and he was talking very, very, very quietly. Quietly, yep. And right Rocky's like, I can hear everything you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Right. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

So harmonics are uh I'll see if I can find you anything that that like that is something that has been popped up in my feed over the past couple years, how you can use sound to create shapes. You can do it with with sand. And but you can also make that like particular uh sounds make perfect geometric shapes.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Wow. Okay.

Stratt’s Humanized Performance And Karaoke

SPEAKER_03 24:41

So I think they they just w like to like to throw the creators like to throw those little pieces of the physical the physical science world into the story. Just to make people curious. What else do we have in here? Not sure how to move. I'm gonna go through the rest of, oh here we go. What else like do you want to uh what else do I want to talk about? Well so they portray Ryan as the reluctant hero. And one of your slides here says why he was the best choice because Grace is not a grizzled astronaut, he's a middle school science teacher, his unique physical comedy and kind and timing kept a bleak premise relentlessly entertaining. He was an empathy anchor. Drew Goddard, the screenwriter, knew Gosling was attached before writing. There's nothing I can write that he can't play. Terror, comedy, empathy. And as the ultimate scene partner, Gosling did 45-minute takes with Puppeteers just to build genuine rapport. To aid in the connection.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

That's so cool. I'd love to see those videos.

SPEAKER_03 26:15

I'll bet you it was like I wonder if he took any of his P's and Q's from uh Jim Henson.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:23

Because Jim Henson, he lived in that pupp the in that Puppeteer studio.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

To aid in the connection, his nine and eleven-year-old daughters occasionally voice the alien into his earpiece. The future, and this was an interesting quote by Gosling, the future isn't something to fear, just to be figured out. Very true. What else do we have? So Eva Strategia, Eva Strat. She is the German scientist who is heading the whole Hail Mary project to figure out what this astrophage is doing, where it's coming from, and how to stop it from chewing up our star or our sun. And I guess in the book, she was a more she was more of a cold calculating character and very much so.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

It's yeah. It looks like she was you would have hated her more in the book for as much as you don't like her now.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

They softened her, believe it or not, in the movie.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

They did. And also, I think we're on the same slide. Yeah. Um it says that even though she coer how do you say that word? Courses? Courses?

SPEAKER_03 27:51

How do you Where is it where are you looking?

SPEAKER_00 27:56

The burden leader.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

Oh, uh killer injects profound vulnerability into the role when she coerces Grace. Coerces. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Some of these words I can't read? Yeah, because yeah, because the way that you say them ver- Okay, anyway.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

It's alright. You deal with four-year-olds all day.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

It says that when she does puts him into a coma, she looks visibly pained, and you like couldn't hand like that was really rough because she so she gives him a the timeline of the movie, it doesn't go great, it's very disjointed. It's never and that takes me. That's a hard thing for me to watch. Like I have to figure that out. And so you go correct me if I'm wrong, but you go through this whole movie, sort of, and then there are all these like flashbacks to how Ryan Gossing's character got to be on this spaceship by himself. And we learn that it initially he was given the chance by what's her character's Eva.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Um he was not so much given the chance so much well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

No, no, though that's not what I wanted to say, though. I guess you're right.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Um To be part of the scientific team.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Yeah, I guess so. He was given it was a choice. He could he could do this mission so-called if he wanted, or he didn't have to, but it wasn't really a choice. Because when he when he was offered it, he wanted to think about it, and she said you can think about it for three hours. For th for three hours, and he think wanted to take a whole day. And then the next thing you know, she's like, I didn't want to do this, but I'm doing it. I have to do this. And what did she say?

SPEAKER_03 29:45

Well no, he he just he's sitting down in front of her, he's like, I can't do this, I cannot do this.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Oh yeah, he didn't take that long to fit.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

Yeah, he's like it was like an emphatic no. Yeah. It was like, I'm going to die, but I'm going to die on my home.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah. On earth where I live.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

She's like, no. She's like, she's like, you're going I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

And she forces him into it.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

And he like just the the absolute this is why he's a great ants actor. I mean, the absolute panic. And he's not violent. He's a teacher and a scientist. Yeah. He's just kind of, I don't want to say he cowers from it, but he's like Well, he's trying to escape it.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

I mean, what would you do if you were putting that?

SPEAKER_03 30:22

I'm just like, well, personally, I'm not saying I would After I said that I was like, oh God. Well the scene made me angry. I'm like, this is being forced upon you. The idea that like just how you're going to operate in that situation when you wake up 11 years later, you have to recall everything, you have to deal with the fact that everybody you love is dead or gone, or they've I mean, this is the government. You don't know. And I know I'm extrapolating a lot into a movie, but like you don't know what the government's told people in your life. And like he didn't have a family or anything, but like if it was anybody else, what do you Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Like well, and like for me.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

And like you're so far away, you'll never get the answer. No. It's just it's to think that you would be able to operate and I mean it's a Ron Gosling moving thing. Things work out. That's not really a we're not blowing the lid off anything by saying that, but that's just another layer of why this is a Hail Mary mission. Just to think about what you're up against and the fact that you've been betrayed by someone you're working with, and your li your life has been dictated to you, and your fate has been dictated to you, and you're sent out into the abyss. But thank God he meets Rocky. But um I'm curious what that article said about d deconstructing her. Did you find that?

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Um yeah, I do have it up, but I don't um I was angry with her. Well It's a lot of words. It doesn't really um explain her I it doesn't really explain her thought her character's thought process. It it's more like um who she is in the book versus who she is in the movie. I mean she did a really great job of playing this character. She was definitely someone that you hate, and it's either you or someone else I know who's always like if you really hate someone in a movie, they did a really good job.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

Yeah, she did. It's so hard to admit, like, because I know she's not the characters. I think about that a lot, yeah. But like to to ever interview her, like I wanted to gouge your life. I hated you. Right. I uh I was beside myself with how despicable you were.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

It says that a lot of people, a lot of readers, um um say that she fell flat. Hold on, I should read this better. In the movie version, she successfully humanizes this character of Eva Stratt and says in who many readers felt was a flat utilitarian trope in the original novel. Frans fans praise Sandra Hewler's nuanced performance, noting that her portrayal adds emotional depth and vulnerability through small gestures in a specific karaoke scene that contrast with the book contrasts with the I can't speak with the book's cold, power-focused version of the character. So it sounds like in like she's like nicer in the movie.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

There's you can actually dissect out the parts where they humanize her. The the the honest to God was the uh the karaoke scene and the fact that she stumbled over her words when when he was being told he doesn't have a choice. So she's like, Don't make this harder. She's like, I'm gonna make it as hard as I want.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Yeah, this is what yeah I'm gonna make this awful for you.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

I'm gonna make you hate your life over doing this.

The Sweater Goes Viral

SPEAKER_00 34:47

I have to add that um regarding the karaoke scene, I saw an interview with her, um, or a clip of an interview with her. Yeah, and um for that specific song, she um she like found out about it one day, asked her daughter, I'll say in a minute more, about this song, and then um like went back to set the next day and like did that scene. And I was actually pretty impressed. I mean karaoke. I think it yeah. She did a really good job. Um I mean she has a really nice voice, is what I want to say. Um, but she went home when she found out that she would have to do this karaoke scene and she asked her daughter if this particular song was a cool song to sing. Because she I mean it's not her. Whose song is that? Harry Styles. Oh, of course. Um of course she knows whose it is. Well, yeah, it says it's all over everything. You don't know. I don't know. I know you I'm I'm near death. It is so old. You're not near death. You're not near death. Let's hope not. You're not a dinosaur. Anyway. Whenever it's an appropriate time, I have a moment has something to say about his sweater.

SPEAKER_03 36:03

Whose sweater? Oh, hi oh yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

Which one waiting for the other one? Are you talking about the one at the end or which one?

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Um his Ryan Gosling's character sweater. Um I kind of felt like it was throughout the movie, but I guess that's because of flashbacks. The the one with the foxes on it.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Okay. So I read this in the dailies when I was on vacation.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Are you talking about the cardigan? Yeah. The one at the he's wearing at the end.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

I guess so, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Yeah. Um, in my personal opinion, it looks really warm and cozy, but it looks really ugly. And it says, um uh. Oh, good morning. As Project Project Hail Mary continues its box office tear. The film's unlikely breakout star is a sweater. It is. Ryan Gosling wears a chunky zip-up Fox Cardigan in the movie, designed to make his reluctant astronaut look warm and deeply uncool. Costume designer Glenn Dillon found the original at a London vintage fair, and the internet has since traced it to Mary Maxim. She's a small Michigan a small Michigan yarn company whose$90 knitting kit sold out overnight. You do have to knit it yourself, and knockoffs are already flooding the internet for people with less patience. So I saw this and I cracked up and I read it to mom because my mom is a big kinn and like crochet her and makes all this stuff, and she and also because it's Michigan, and um, she was like, Louisa, she's like, these sweaters, they're not, I believe she said they're not even grandma's sweater. She's like, they're worse than grandma's sweater. She's like, they're so ugly. And at this point, all I had were the words on the page. Like, I didn't know what what we were talking about. So throughout the movie, every time that sweater came up, I was like, it it really is ugly. I'm trying to look at it in a different light, but I can't to save my life. Anyway, I just think that's a very funny.

SPEAKER_03 38:10

I'll tell you what's amazing about that is like is that it was designed and created in Michigan. It ended up in London. I know. And then it caught the attention of a costume designer in Hollywood.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

That's what's amazing to me about the internet is just the crisscrossing of interests. And then and then this woman sells out of it. Why in the hell can't Ryan Gosling do a goddamn scene with hay honey somewhere in the background that I didn't pay for?

SPEAKER_00 38:43

Maybe he could do it on SNL when he comes back from when he comes back to exact revenge on Sandra Holler. Yes. I would die.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

Oh yeah. He should he should like put her in like a bury her up to her neck and then cover and cover her in hay honey, wildflower honey, and just let the ants eat her. That's a real torture. Honest to God.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

I can only imagine.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

It's not really torture because people die from it. Anyway. She was awful. I couldn't stand her.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

But don't you love my sweater comment?

SPEAKER_03 39:15

It's that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

I mean it's not really mine, but.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

I didn't know that about that. But you know what? All of his t-shirts in that movie were pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

They were. Oh my gosh, that reminds me. I was gonna Google Ryan Gosling's t-shirts in this movie. Um because I wanted to know what did it say on the periodic elements shirt. Did you read it?

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Yeah, I did, and I can't remember because I'm old and haven't had my ginkgo today.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

Oh, you didn't have that today?

SPEAKER_03 39:44

No, didn't have it. Forgetting stuff. I love this movie. I know.

Cinematography Without Green Screen

SPEAKER_00 39:49

It's I haven't seen a movie like this in a long time.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

The fact that they use practical effects was awesome. Just I mean, just the Rocky ship throwing that codex.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 40:02

It was the movement was I I don't know why I'm zeroing in on this, but it was this 2001 space odyssey kind of there's no sound, because they're in space, and this mechanical arm is flinging it over. And it it just reminded me of 2001. I'm like, oh my god, this thing is being thrown, like literally the most arcane way to send a message, and they're doing it in outer space.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Well, in case you want to buy any of them, you can.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

I know I can. What like what's that sweater? What is it?

SPEAKER_00 40:33

It says I wear this shirt periodically.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Okay. I should have known.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Okay. Grounding the infinite, the practical space philosophy. So this is a slide that shows a sort of a a drawn rendering of what a spacewalk composition, how that was put together. So complex wire work for zero G realism, they use pulleys and and lines to hold a a person in a spacesuit to look like they were you know floating.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Oh, I saw some a tiny video of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

Tao Setti and trajectory was moving sideways out the door. Crucial interactive light from shifting hues on an actor, no green screen. Okay, so I guess the outer space they didn't use green screen to create that. They must have made it the in the same way they did Star Wars. Which is like practically with like a a background.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yeah. Well yeah, the whole yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

In camera lighting, cinematographer Craig excuse me, cinematographer Craig Fraser used practical lights and shifting hue backgrounds rather than blue screens to simulate the auroras of alien planets. So the aurora that existed around that planet where they had to collect the bacteria that ate the astrophage.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

Mm-hmm. The pink or the red?

SPEAKER_03 42:15

The pink was the astrophage.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

Oh yeah, that's right.

The Leak Problem And Teamwork Theme

SPEAKER_03 42:19

And the the green was the bacteria for lack of a better word that was eating, yeah. But what was the there was the the leak at the end, the the bacteria leaked out? Is that what it was?

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Oh yeah, actually, you know, I was gonna ask you about that.

SPEAKER_03 42:34

Um Yeah, I was gonna ask you actually exactly what was leaking out of Ryan Gosling's I think the bacteria was leaking out because they used the astrophage to power the ship. You remember how they used it to melt that block with when when it would show that panel that had all those spinning and moving pieces? Those were small those were micro um panels of the asth. Of no, of well astrophage was inside it. You remember how when they melted that block of steel, they had that that uh triangle-shaped um, it was like a triangle-shaped box with glass on the sides, and one glass panel opened, and they activated the astrophage somehow, and that's what melted. So they had those triangles, they would spin to close, they they'd close it, or they would open when it would spin open, that would direct how much astrophage ejection pushed the ship. So if they closed a bunch of them, it slowed down. If they opened a bunch of them, it would speed up. But I think what happened was the bacterium somehow ate its way out because what they stored it in, I think, was one of Rocky's Rocky made a container of whatever that if it was xenon or argon or whatever, like it was a solid form of it. Right. And the phage ate it or not the phage, but the bacterium ate its way through that.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

And what Ryan realized is Rocky's whole ship is made of that. Yeah. And then what there was a radiation leak in his ship and remember at the beginning of the I mean going out into space? Yeah, there was some kind of radiation leak and the other guy and the other his companions died.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Oh yeah, that's how they yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:43

And this would have precipit would have exacerbated that leak because it would have just eaten through different parts of his ship.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 44:53

And he would have he would have had the same fate. That's why he had to go back and say, we have to re-wrap these things. Because it's gonna eat through your ship and you're gonna have a um you're gonna you're gonna suffer the same fate as your colleagues. But I I thought that was so interesting that they had these two they represented two intelligent life forms that each one knew different things and how to manipulate technology uh technology differently.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

And I don't know that it was meaning to do this, but I think that really speaks to how communication can work between people. Everybody knows a little something about something else, and you can teach the other you can teach each other how to learn something and how to grow and how to achieve a goal together. Because they these were two they did they didn't exist on the same plant, they didn't speak the same language, and they still work together for a common goal to solve a problem. I mean, if Ron Gosling can do it with a fucking rock in outer space, why can't people down here who have different skin tones not figure their shit out?

SPEAKER_00 46:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03 46:15

And I'm I don't know if if Project Hailmare was trying to say that, but like that's what I got out of it. Like one guy with glasses and a rock figures out how to save the world, and one orange guy in Washington like doesn't know anything and he figures out how to blow the world up. Right. I mean things are just very precarious. This was a just it was just an outstanding movie. I don't know if there's I want to keep.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

Is there anything that we haven't and I was looking through to see if what else haven't we covered on it?

SPEAKER_03 46:58

Let's see if this'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:02

Which specific production choice did directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller make to ensure the Project Hail Mary sets felt as realistic and grounded as possible? A, they only used natural light from the sun for all interior shots. B, they used AI generated environments displayed on LED volumes, or C, they utilize no green screens during the entire production, or D, they film the entire movie in actual zero gravity environments.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

I think it's A and C.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

I think it's one that it's just one of them.

SPEAKER_00 47:39

Oh. Then I would one's about the sunlight thing. Yep. And the other one's about what's green no green screens. So it's no green screens.

SPEAKER_03 47:48

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

Is it?

SPEAKER_03 47:50

Yes. Directors emphasize the entire ship was built as a physical set and filmed without any green or blue screens to create the natural environment. Good job.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

Alright. Which character in the film adaptation was created specifically for the movie and does not appear in Andy Weir's original novel? Carl, which was the security guy at the base before he went uh Ryan Gosling went into space? Olycia Ilukino, who was the second in command of the ship, I think, was the lady who died.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Ava Strat or Yao Li Ji, who is the pilot?

SPEAKER_00 48:33

What's the question again, please?

SPEAKER_03 48:36

Which character in the film adaptation was created specifically for the movie and doesn't appear in Andy Weir's original novel?

SPEAKER_00 48:42

I'm guessing Carl.

SPEAKER_03 48:44

That's what I thought. And that's right. Carl is played by Lionel Boyce.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Yeah, I saw an interview with him too, a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

And added to the film to provide comic relief. Yes. And a humanizing foil for Dr. Grace's experiments.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

He said that a lot of his and Ryan's um scenes in Home Depot when they were shopping were improvised. And he said he was really happy that the slam dunk of the items they were buying into the cart made it into the movie because that was totally improvised and he just wanted that to be in there so people could see it. So it was fun.

SPEAKER_03 49:26

Was the character of Rocky physically portrayed? Excuse me, how was the character of Rocky physically portrayed on the film set to facilitate interaction with Ryan Gosling through a fully autonomous animatronic robot as A, B, through Ryan Gosling acting as a tennis ball on a stick, C through a human actor in a motion capture suit, or D through a high fidelity practical puppet controlled by five or six puppeteers?

SPEAKER_00 49:53

The last one.

SPEAKER_03 49:55

Correct. The filmmakers use a physical Rocky puppet with puppeteers dubbed Rocket Rocketeers, later digitally removed in post-production.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

Wow, that was a lot of work. For somebody, oh my gosh. They should get an award.

SPEAKER_03 50:16

In the film, what significant change was made to the interaction between Rayland Grace and Rocky before they part ways to return to their home planet? Um in the film, what significant change was made to the interaction between Raylan, Grace, and Rocky before they part ways? A, Grace teaches Rocky how to speak English using a vocal synthesizer. Um Grace visits the interior of Rocky's ship. A blip A wearing a special suit. Rocky decides to return to A return to Earth with Grace instead of going back to 40 Iridani A. 40 Iridani A is Rocky's home planet.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 51:04

I think. Um and then D, they engage in a physical final physical embrace without any barriers.

SPEAKER_00 51:14

I think it's B. Is B the one um that says he goes he puts on a special suit and he visits his Rocky spaceship? Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember what the question is, but I think that's the right answer.

SPEAKER_03 51:29

In the film, what significant change was made to the interaction with Raylan Grayson, right? Yep. Film adds a scene where Rocky builds Grace's suit to explore the Aradian ship, a moment that does not occur in the in the book.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

I really like that.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

Which song is performed by Sandra Huller's character Ava Strait during the karaoke scene that critics noticed it was a humanizing moment for the character sign of the Times. You already know that. Going past that. As of April 5th, 2026, where does Project Hail Mary stand in terms of Ryan Gosling's career at the box office milestones? It is only the third Ryan Gosling movie to surpass 400 million globally. Is the highest grossing film of his entire career? Is his first movie to ever reach number one at the domestic box office? Or it is his second highest grossing film of all time?

SPEAKER_00 52:33

I think it's the first one. A.

SPEAKER_03 52:36

Is only the third Ryan Gosling movie to surpass 400 million? Or is it or is it his first movie to ever reach number one at the domestic? I'm gonna go with A for you. I'm gonna go okay. That's right. Film joined Bob Barbie and Lala Land as the only films in Gosling's filmography to reach a specific financial benchmark.

SPEAKER_00 53:05

Which is amazing to think like some of these actors and actresses, their range is just like incredible. It blows my mind.

SPEAKER_03 53:13

Film was filmed for IMAX using which specific camera system to aspect ratio configuration for current day scenes. Standard 35 millimeter film cameras expand to 2.39 to 1 ratio, IMAX 15 to 70 millimeter film cameras for all space sequences, RE Alexa 65 cameras configured to 1.43 to 1 aspect ratio, or the GoPro Max 360 degree cameras for immersive views.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

I'm gonna go with the first answer.

SPEAKER_03 53:53

Standard?

SPEAKER_00 53:54

Yep. It was stretched or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 53:56

No. 2.39 to 1 was specifically reserved for scenes taking place in the past. The RE Alexa 65 configured for the 4.1.43 to 1 aspect ratio. Production used large sensor Alexa 65 and rotated anamorphic lenses by 90 degrees to achieve a tall 1.43 to 1 IMAX ratio.

SPEAKER_00 54:24

Wow. I wouldn't have known. But I will say on this note on this note that I've never wanted to see a feature film in IMAX before, and this movie would be so cool in IMAX.

SPEAKER_03 54:35

It's gotta be the right kind of movie. It's gotta have like sweeping views.

SPEAKER_00 54:39

I think this is that movie.

SPEAKER_03 54:41

Especially when they're collecting the uh the bacterium at the end.

SPEAKER_00 54:45

Yeah. There were just some scenes that I was just like, wow, this would be amazing.

SPEAKER_03 54:51

What is the etymological meaning of the term astrophage as it is described in the sourced source material? Heathirst, light parasite, star eater, or sun dimmer?

SPEAKER_00 55:06

Oh, those are all. Can you read them again, please?

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Heat thirst, light parasite, star eater, or sun dimmer?

SPEAKER_00 55:18

Is the light one or the star eater? I think it's the star eater.

SPEAKER_03 55:22

Correct. Derived from the ancient Greek roots astron, star, and phagian to eat, describe the organism's consumption of solar energy. According to the Space.com analysis, how does the film's depiction of scientific concept differ from the novel? A, the film's science is considered less accurate than the books in every way. B, the film drops much of the scientific babble in favor of character development and emotions. C the film introduces magic-like elements that contradict the boot the book's hard science, or D. The film adds more complex mathematical formulas to challenge the audience. What was the question, please? According to Space.com analysis, how does the film depiction of scientific concepts differ from the novel?

SPEAKER_00 56:14

I want to say it's the last word about the math.

SPEAKER_03 56:19

I hit oh no. The film drops much of the scientific babble in favor of character development and emotion. Reviewers noted that the filmmakers focused on the heart of the story, stripping away some of the books. Meticulous scientific explanations. Melania Van Trubb. She is good looking. That's the uh um the chesty um insurance. Is it insurance or progress not progressive? The cellular. The cellular uh the cell phone lady.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

That's where I recognized her from.

SPEAKER_03 57:23

That girl is a fucking fox.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

Oh, that's where they oh my gosh, that was one oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 57:30

She comes up in my Instagram feed all the time. No shame, no shame in that at all. She is a dish.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

She's from what did you say? Oh, the cellular commercial.

SPEAKER_03 57:39

Yeah, U.S. cellular.

unknown 57:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 57:41

Go for her.

SPEAKER_03 57:42

Or Priania Kensera. Praya Cancera. Which one?

SPEAKER_00 57:50

Who voices Mary?

SPEAKER_03 57:52

Hail Mary onboard computer, Mary.

SPEAKER_00 57:58

It's not Merrill Street.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

Or the other choices, the cellular. Who played the the Oh, I have no idea to that answer. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 58:13

Nope. Prianya Kinsera. That's what I didn't know. I don't know her. Alright, well. Hold on. Alright, uh, we're at we're almost at an hour here, so.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 58:27

Oh, my recipe. Uh as always brought to you by Hey Honey.biz. This is a recipe that didn't call for honey, but you can augment it with honey. So I bought, I went to Costco and I got those. You remember those bags, those six bags of chicken thighs for like 20 bucks?

SPEAKER_00 58:49

Yes, okay. That we didn't get. I get it. Yes, okay. Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 58:54

And this made just enough for me. Each one of those bags makes I can take half of it and make make this recipe.

SPEAKER_00 59:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 59:02

So I cut the chicken up, and then in a bowl I put the chicken with about half a cup of Greek yogurt. It's gonna sound crazy because you're air frying this.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

Okay.

Closing Thoughts And Recommendation

SPEAKER_03 59:15

Paprika, Italian seasoning, olive oil. I can't remember if I use garlic powder, salt, pepper. I'm sure there's one I'm leaving out because I didn't well maybe I still have do I still have this up? Let me look real quick. Hold on, ladies and gentlemen. I'll tell you in a second if I still have it, and I fucking do not. Damn it. Well, you can you can just start with those. And then if you want to give it a spicy kick, you can use not too much because it will burn, but you're doing it at low temperatures. So you can use the hot pepper honey, mix it in there if you want to give the chicken more of a bite. But you mix all this up, and then you and it'll have it'll have a garlic zing to it too, since you're using garlic powder. Dump the whole thing into the air fryer. Temperature is low, it's around 350 or 365 tops for about eight minutes. Stir it once, kind of like the salmon recipe I've given out. And the yogurt gives it this kind of it softens it. You I oh, lemon juice, that was the other thing. Squeeze half a lemon into that. That was the thing I left out. Squeeze half a lemon into the yogurt and all the other things, and you should let it sit in the fridge for about half an hour covered with plastic wrap. Then dump it into your air fryer eight, nine minutes at 350 to 365, stir at once. It sounds odd like mixing yogurt into chicken and then air frying it, but it makes it a nice little crispened creamy sauce to it. It's delicious. I haven't tried it with the hot pepper honey, but it would definitely work. So give it a whirl, just those ingredients, that's all you need. I can make the whole you can make the whole thing in about 16 minutes. It's pretty delicious. Alright, I gotta have a nap. We have we don't have another movie picked out yet, but tune in next week. Yeah, goodbye.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:20

Thank you for listening. You should all go see Project Hill Mary.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

Critique Oppolis out. Talk to you soon. Toodles