By Zoe Rodriguez, 2028
The sci-fi novel Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir got a movie adaptation last month. It’s a wonderful and faithful adaptation about a science teacher (Ryland Grace) who gets recruited for a government mission to stop an alien microorganism from eating the sun, then goes on a suicide mission to space and saves Earth along with an alien named Rocky. The movie captures the funny and hopeful spirit of the book, and truly lives up to its greatness. However there are some aspects that they changed, either because of runtime or just the limitations of film vs novel. Here are some of the biggest changes I noticed as someone who adores both versions:
⚠️Spoiler warning for both the movie and the book ⚠️
1) Eva Stratt
The change that stuck out the most to me on first viewing was the changes to the character of Eva Stratt. In the book she’s almost a sociopath, cold and detached and determined to do whatever it took to complete the mission. In the movie though she’s much more sympathetic, doing karaoke, having heart-to-hearts with Grace, and even crying when she sends him on the ship. This change makes sense, since to do justice to her more ruthless side they’d need to include her more ruthless scenes (like nuking Antarctica or turning the Sahara desert into a giant power plant) which were cut from the movie. And yeah they weren’t really that important aside from showing more of her character. It’s just kind of a shame because there are so few characters like Eva Stratt in the book: women who are unapologetically cut-throat, intimidating, and powerful.
2) Taumeba fishing mission aftermath
The other biggest change for me was the climax of the film, after Grace has collected the Adrian sample and the ship falls apart, sending them hurdling through space at around six g’s of force. Now in the book when Rocky saves Grace’s life, he immediately collapses from being exposed to Grace’s atmosphere, leaving him to carry Rocky back into his part of the ship and get severe burns in the process from exposure to the ammonia. In the movie however Grace gets knocked fully unconscious from the force and Rocky is the one who drags both him and himself to safety. This swap actually changes a lot in the movie, since it takes away Grace getting absolutely blitzed on painkillers and accidentally almost killing all their fuel. However this does have the effect of making it more impactful when that does happen later on in the movie, and cuts down on the already long runtime
3) Rocky’s translator
A change I actually think was a great idea was instead of Grace learning Rocky’s language, he uses a computer translator the whole time. In the book Rocky’s dialogue is translated into English anyways, so even if it’s not “accurate” it captures the same feeling as reading the book, which is more important in an adaptation. It also gives them the opportunity to use this for emotional emphasis, like when the Hail Mary is falling apart so you just hear Rocky’s notes without translation, that’s such a simple but powerful way to highlight how chaotic and out of control everything is. Plus it makes it even more impactful in the epilogue when Grace is living on Erid and he’s fully talking to Rocky without a translator, it shows how close they’ve gotten over the years.
