Project Hail Mary Book Vs Movie

In this episode we’re diving into a full Project Hail Mary book vs movie comparison to answer the big question:

Is the Project Hail Mary movie actually better than the book?

Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary novel became a huge hit thanks to its mix of science, humour, and emotional storytelling, following Ryland Grace as he tries to save Earth from extinction. But how does the Project Hail Mary film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling compare?

We break down the key differences between the Project Hail Mary book and movie, including what the film changes, what it simplifies, and whether losing some of the heavy science actually makes the story better.

If you’re into book vs movie comparisons, sci-fi adaptations, Andy Weir books, or the Project Hail Mary film, this episode breaks down everything that works — and what doesn’t — in both versions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Hello and welcome to Is the Book Better with me, Jake Martini. Today we're taking on Project Hail Mary. Ryan Gosling goes up against Andy Weir's book. Who wins? I decide. I don't know who gave me all this power, it with me. If you haven't already, like and subscribe, please. That would be fantastic. Tell your family, tell your friends, tell you whoever. Tell your enemies. If you don't like this, tell the people you don't like. Maybe they might like it. I don't know. Whatever kind of spreads this around a bit. Before we even start, because I keep getting told off there are spoilers throughout this whole podcast. I can't compare and contrast a book to a film without saying what happens in it. Well, I probably could, but it'd be so vague how I'd be talking, be like, oh, that bit where that happens was good. But I can't say what the bit I'm talking about. So there are spoilers throughout this. I'm going to talk about absolutely everything that happens in this film. So just heads up. If you want to go see it all first, go do it. Go see Project Hail Mary. Go read Project Hail Mary and then come back and have a listen, see what I think about it. Alright. For those who have come back, thanks for coming back. You know the rules. You know I'm going to spoil anything that is in the title of this podcast. And for those who are new, like I said, there are spoilers. I'm going to be comparing them. This is one man's opinion. And it sometimes it's the right one. You know, what I've had 12 episodes so far. I think one of them was correct. So there's loads more episodes if you are new here. I've I read the book Um A Court of Thorns and Roses and reviewed that over 10 episodes as well. So you can go back. That's all on Spotify. I'm trying to make a nice catalogue for you all to enjoy. So without further ado, let's get into it. Is it? Is the film that's come out, is the Ryan Gosling film that's come out better than the book? That's a bold one because Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary was huge. People love this book. It's clever, maybe sometimes too clever. It's funny, it's packed with science, as we know, and it's got an emotional core that you just don't expect from sci-fi. Well, at least I didn't. Maybe more heavy sci-fi readers know other books this is like. But for me, I was shocked when this book hit me the way it did. But fun fact, this is the book that also started this podcast. Because three years ago, when I was reading Project Hail Mary, I was like, when is this gonna be a film? I love this. When is this gonna be a film? And obviously I knew the Martian had come out, so I was like, it's gonna be a film, but when? And so when I saw that Ryan Gossing was attached to I was losing it, because I thought, yeah, who else? I was genuinely worried that they were gonna shove Ryan Reynolds up in space and have him do his whole Deadpool bit to this, but thank God they didn't. And I had my concerns. I did. I was like, Ryan Gossing's gonna nail, um, nail the lead character, but it's the alien. And I know it sounds crazy, like as if aliens have never appeared in sci-fi before, but I just I don't know, it felt more intimate. It felt more like it was gonna, there was it wasn't gonna be like camera trickery and you know, it could maybe be off screen making voices. It had to be in around Ryan Gosling. How are they gonna do it? And I know you a lot of people will be like, well, this has happened before. Dinosaurs have been on screen with people, why can't aliens? And I know, but this is just the way my mind works, all right? But anyway, before I go completely off tangent, let's get into it. What's good about the book? It's the science. Because I know it's also a criticism of the book, and it's also my criticism too. I'm split on it because the science of this book makes it a hard sell. It is heavy in areas, but you need to kind of get into that and be swept up in it to fall in love with this book. Because Andy Weir does a very good job at making you think you're smarter than you are. The way he explains things without being too heavy with it, it's heavy, but it could have been a lot worse. He could have gone really into it all. But he does it to the point where you're kind of like, oh, yeah, that's that that's astrophage. It's eating the sun. You get swept up in it as if you are all so smart. And I know I'm not a science guy. I didn't like science at school. It sounds really bad, but I just thought, well, if people have already worked this out, why am I doing it? You know? I I you know, I like maths and things like that, but science, it just wasn't, it wasn't my bag. I knew I wasn't going to be a scientist, so I I I dropped all that by year nine. I was doing single science, which is so remedial. It's crazy. My final assessment was if the hole at the bottom of a cup gets bigger, does the speed in which the oil runs through it get quicker? I'll leave you all some time to think what the consensus was there. You got it? The answer is yes, it does. It does get quicker because obviously the hole's bigger. Anyway, that there's a little rundown of GCSE single science. So as Andy Weir throws complex physics, biology, and problem solving at you, he he does make you feel like you can understand it. And you you're not just watching Ryan Gossing behind, you're not just reading this guy, uh, you're not just reading Grace surviving. You're kind of figuring it out alongside him. You do feel like he does. He does make you think that you're guiding Grace on. You're like you're helping him along. Because you're obviously stop. And what's key to making you think that you could probably you could maybe do this and might be able to solve this is that you're inside Grace's head the whole time. You're in with his confusion, his panic, his little wins, his humour. And because he comes across as a kind of normal guy, you're like, that could be me. That could be me. And the humour is what's important because if we didn't have the like the levity of his humour, this could be just a very sad, sad dystopian book. And I'm glad it didn't take that route. You don't see too much of what's happening on Earth while they're taking the 20-year trip. Because they could have done that, it could have just been a back-to-back. But because he can't communicate with Earth, they just leave that behind. I think that's a good move. And then just to double down, because like I said, I'm not a sci-fi guy, but so when they bumped into the alien, when Grace bumped into the alien, I'm kind of like, I was a bit excited, like, oh shit, yeah, of course we're in space. Aliens, great. But then I was a bit like, oh, is it just which way is this gonna go, really? But because they did it so well, and the two of them had empathy, they they were communicating with each other, and it wasn't just like a, oh, luckily on my deck, there's a um intergalactive flagellating translator, so I can understand any other no, it wasn't any of that bullshit. It they worked at it. They worked to Grace work to work out what each of his sounds meant, what each of them did, and we got the, you know, we got to hear what Rocky was saying. And I thought, that's that's brilliant. That's absolutely brilliant. What a way of doing it. It wasn't so at first it was like he was picking up a few of his words, like putting it into the computer, but then by the end of it, they're having full-blown conversations, you know, in a kind of like broken alien English, which was pretty cool. So a key part of this is Grace and how it is believable that he would create such a relationship with an alien. Because I'm not gonna lie, I I probably wouldn't. I don't have the smarts to do it, and I probably just would have shit myself, if I'm honest. And I'm already up in space, I know I'm already suspended in fear, so I don't know what. I think that would have just been the end of me. I think I would have just um crumpled, turned to dust at that point. So when it gets to the end, and of course we know on this podcast it's all spoilers, which I do need to start putting right at the beginning. Um when it comes down to the choice, it doesn't even feel like a choice. In my mind it was still a choice. I was like, I could I could go back and see my kids and everything like that. But in his mind it's not a choice. You you you could you live with that? Could you live going back down to Earth knowing you'd killed an entire well killed an alien and thus is his entire race? Could you live with that? I don't think so. So on the flip side of that, the obvious downside of the book is the science. Like I said, it makes it a very hard sell. And while while I do like it, there are but parts where I'm like, okay, let's let's just get on. Can you just solve it, please? And it can slow things down, and like I said, it's it's gonna put a lot of people off. But that's a trade-off. They they don't they don't want to hold your hand completely, but they don't want it to seem like, oh, we just went up into space and he went, oh, look, beep, boop, beep, I've solved it. There we go. It's gotta, you have to be with him for the struggle of their trial and error. You have to see how science really works. Trial and error is a key part of science. They just try do a little thing, well, that did that, it so it doesn't mean that, that did that, it doesn't mean that, that didn't mean that. And you're kind of hoping that he does prove his point that life doesn't need water to survive. And annoyingly, he um he is wrong about that. But still, he still soldiers on, but I do think the science part of it will annoy a lot of people. So, what is good about the film compared to the book? It's kind of linked to the science, it trims the fat. We still get all of that knowledge and the breakthroughs, but without as many baby steps. But it doesn't feel rushed, it feels like they work it out at the pace they work it out. It doesn't. I don't even think adding another half an hour on of him like tinkering around with stuff would have would have helped. They they got it done. Like if someone, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like he had the same level of knowledge as Grace in the book when he's in the film, and he makes the breakthroughs, breakthroughs at seemingly the same time in the book compared to the film. In the film compared to the book, sorry. It just feels like it's happening correctly. It doesn't feel rushed. Like I said, it doesn't feel like he just goes, Oh, I just happened to be doing that, and then this happened. No. You know, the accidents still happen, but the accidents happen in the book where um the I think when they have four of the astrophage um at the start, three of them, sorry, and then one of them disappears because it's chased the lights and they have to make the room read it. That happens in the book as well. But it allowed it allowed it to you know speed up the process the way they did it, you know. So it's trimming the fat, but it's also doing it without cutting it out completely because they could have done it in a way where you're like, how do they even get there? How do they work that out? But and once again, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like it it came across as pretty organic how they worked it all out, and a lot of that, as we say, comes down to Ryan Gosling. Um see, I don't I can't tell whether I am a Ryan Gosling fan or not. But then when I start to go through films that I like that he's in, there's a lot of them. What he's giving me in this is more nice guys than maybe notebook. So I do I do prefer that. I'm not I'm not I'm not one of those guys like, oh notebook, oh, oh god, oh Rom Cobb, oh no. No, I love the notebook, I think it's great. But we needed nice guys, Ryan Gosling here, and that's what we got. He delivered. Once again, I've said this before in another podcast. If you haven't seen the nice guys, go watch it, it's fantastic. I think now that's that's a lesser statement. I think most people have seen nice guys now. Uh, but a few years ago, because it no one really saw it when it came out, no one really cared, and it became a bit of a cult classic, but now I think the internet's had it and people are loving it, which is great? He he plays it well with Rocky. I'd like to see another actor manage to do that, you know. I think I'm trying to think who else would have because they want star power with this book, of course. Obviously, with the Martian, they had Matt Damon. So they they attack they do attach a big star, but who who in the big stars would would have pulled off this silliness with a r rocky uh alien? Who would have done it? Ryan Reynolds would have been too much, 100% too much. I'm so happy he's not in this. Who else? Jake Gyllenhaal? Could he have done it? Skarsgard's not big enough. Any of them really. I'm just trying to think of like who who I can see in space pulling this off. And I can't I can't see many people. Ryan Gossing just gets it right. He gets it right. I mean, he's far too good looking to be a physics professor, but here we are. Because he gets he get he does the full range of emotions. That's that's what I like about his character. He it's he's not just up in space and he's come to terms with it. We see all of it. We see the fact that he didn't want to go. We see him have a complete meltdown when he gets there. You know, obviously he's he's got a beard at first, we see we see all of that. Um, and we see him just drinking himself into oblivion because you would. Until he's like, right, shit, I actually need to get down to this. Let's save the world. And that weight on someone's shoulders is crazy. And to be fair to him, and I think he acknowledges it in the film and the book, he wouldn't have been able to do it without Rocky. He wasn't, he wouldn't have got there. So the fact that it all works with Rocky, the fact that his whole character works, and hey, credit here to Andy, Andy Weir, because the character in the book isn't that much different to Ryan Gossing in the film. I think they absolutely nailed it. I think Andy Weir wrote just the right amount of he's a bit weird, but he's not he's not a dick. He's not a dicky like I'm the smartest man in the room scientist. If anything, he's far too humble. He he got humbled by getting something wrong, and he got kicked out of the scientific community. So that's that hubris he faced, if that's the correct word, was good for him, and it gave him this humility to be able to first of all reject the advances to go up to space in the first place, but also work with Rocky. So this this it's a it's a buddy, it's a buddy film. And I absolutely loved it, I really did. And I I've seen the criticism that one of the main things the film is missing is that we don't get we're not in Grace's head as much as we are in the film. We're not in Grace's film in we're not in Grace's head in the film as much as we are in the book, but I think they they kind of made Grace a bit more of like a he just kind of rambles on. He he puts his foot in his mouth all the time and he kind of says his thoughts out loud without really thinking about it. So we kind of got it still. It would be weird if it was just all voice over, voice over, voiceover, but instead we got him talking to the camera and giving his thoughts that way, and we got a lot more comedy with Rocky and him having great hearing and the Rocky, the whole scene where they're picking a voice for Rocky, and it's all it's I do know. You can tell you already know what my ending is to this. It's a lovely film. And like I've said before, I'm not a big sci-fi guy. I can't remember the last space film I watched where I was like, oh yeah, that's a bit of me. But I didn't really care for gravity. And when was that? 2014? I feel like that's the last space film I watched. You know, uh stuff like that. I just don't really, I it doesn't, it doesn't really capture me because it seems like so it seems so far away, which obviously it is, but the people in it seem far away, the aliens in it seem far away. None of it seems real to me. So it all feels like a big green screen. Whereas this, the humanity of it, the fact that it's human life itself depends on this guy, gives it the human touch. I think I needed to enjoy it. And I fucking did. Absolutely loved it. So when we come when it comes down to it, I think both of them are fantastic. But for me, just like Hamlet, the film wins. Project Hail Mary, the film, I thought was fantastic. I loved it. It got a lot of laughs in the cinema, but in the moments where we needed absolute silence because something drastic had happened, there was silence. People were watching watching this film and laughing where they should be, sitting quietly where they should be, not a popcorn kernel was chomped during some of these scenes. People were in awe of what was going on. And so was I. I absolutely loved it. So if you haven't seen it, go and see it. It's going to be out for ages. And if you want to read it to get more of the science behind it, because you feel like maybe after watching the film, hang on, how'd they work that out? Go read the book. You can't go wrong with either of these unless you absolutely hate science. But then again, I thought I did, and here we are. So that is the end of Is the Book Better? Shorter episode this week, because I feel like I could release weekly and do shorter episodes. What do you reckon? How does that sound for everyone? Make it a bit more consistent. Because every two weeks, because what the silly thing I am doing is I am trying to read a book, watch the movie, and then record the episode within two weeks. Which for most of you speed readers out there seems doable. But since I have the reading age of a four-year-old at the minute, my brain's gone to mush because of all this TikTok. I'm a bit slow. So bear with me. I'm gonna I'm gonna work out a way to get ahead and get some of these, get some of these out there. So I'm doing weekly. But if you are listening so far, thank you. Like I said, leave a comment, suggest something you would like me to compare and contrast. If you care what my opinion is on it, that would be great. And that was something I would do. So let me know in the comments. And if you haven't, please give me five stars. It really helps me get onto charts and things like that, and more people will listen. I'm already telling that it's working that I'm advertising it a bit more on TikTok because the viewership I'm getting without even advertising now is getting is going up and up and up. So that's fantastic. I'm feeling good about it. I feel like I'm hitting some sort of stride with this. Um many of you know, if you've been listening to me on other podcasts, I've had some false starts in my podcast career. So this was feeling like a oh, it does anyone even care. But now I'm seeing that people are listening and listening through all the way. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling a lot better about it. So thanks again for listening, and I'll see you theoretically, if I get this together next week. Bye bye.