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Major, major, major spoilers for the book Project Hail Mary are ahead!!! Read with caution. Also, I recommend reading the novel before watching the film that will be released on the 2026 movie schedule.
After reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, all I can think about is its upcoming book-to-screen adaptation. As a fan of the film The Martian, I was already stoked for the release of Project Hail Mary; however, after reading the novel it’s based on, my excitement has risen to a level that’s deserving of jazz hands. But, now I also have lots of questions too, because I can’t even begin to imagine how this space-based tale will be fully adapted to the big screen by Ryan Gosling, who will play Ryland, and the directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
And those questions are all centered around one very important character: Rocky.
How Will The Way Rocky And Ryland Communicate Be Depicted On Screen?
OK, so this is arguably my biggest question because I don’t think it’s possible for the movie to depict how Rocky and Ryland communicate. In the book, Ryland develops a technology that helps him track and translate Rocky. However, as the story goes on, they both become fluent in each other’s languages and simply speak to each other without issue or hesitation. Basically, what we’re reading on the page is Ryland’s instant translation of what Rocky is saying, since the book is in first person.
I don’t think the movie can do that; it wouldn’t make sense, because we won’t literally be in Ryland’s mind the whole time. He’ll need to verbalize what he’s thinking for us to understand. And I don’t think they’re going to spend the movie having him verbally translate Rocky for all of us.
That leads me to two theories about how they’ll address the language barrier.
The first is that they simply close caption Rocky’s dialogue. In the audiobook, melodic sounds are used to show us the Eridians’ native language, and they could do that in the movie while captioning it for us. Meanwhile, Ryland can just understand what the alien is saying once he learns the language.
The other option I can think of is to change the story a bit and make it so the computer is always translating for Ryland. Rather than developing technology that helps translate and log Rocky’s vocabulary, he could create a program that simply hears the dialogue and immediately translates and verbalizes it for him.
I think either would work; however, admittedly, I hope they don’t change it, because Ryland learning the language so fast is such a cool demonstration of his intelligence.
What Will Rocky Look Like?
I was wowed by the visuals in Project Hail Mary and the descriptions Andy Weir gave us, specifically when it came to Rocky. Therefore, I have a very specific image of him in my head. So, that makes me wonder what he’ll look like in the movie. I assume it will go along with the thought Ryland had the first time he saw the alien fully, which was:
He’s a spider. A big-assed spider.
However, the description that follows leaves me with some other questions. In the book, we learn that Rocky has five legs and no eyes, and he wears clothes. In the words of the reluctant astronaut, Rocky looks like:
Rocky is smaller than a human. He’s about the size of a Labrador. He has five legs radiating out from a central carapace-looking thing. The carapace, which is roughly a pentagon, is 18 inches across and half as thick. I don’t see eyes or a face anywhere. Each leg has a joint in the middle – I’ll call it an elbow. Each leg (or should I say arm?) ends in a hand. So he’s got five hands. Each hand has those triangular fingers I got a good look at last time.
Basically, I picture a spider with the rock coating of The Fantastic Four’s The Thing. So, it forces big questions about how they’ll create this Eridian for the screen. My biggest question has to do with whether he’ll be practical or CGI.
At the San Diego Comic-Con panel for this film (via Deadline), we did learn that puppeteers were hired to play Rocky. So, we at least know Ryan Gosling had something to act opposite, and it wasn’t a tennis ball that would be fully CGI-ed in later. However, it’s unclear how practical and visual effects will be used in the film.
I imagine they’ll use a mix of both to pull off Rocky, and even after just seeing his arm in the trailer for Project Hail Mary, I already believe the rest of him will look remarkable and very life-like.
How Will Rocky’s Tunnels In Ryland’s Ship Look?
In the highly viewed Project Hail Mary trailer, we did get a good look at Rocky’s ship and the tunnel he builds to link the Blip-A to the Hail Mary. However, we don’t know how the alien will inhabit Ryland’s ship. In the book, when Rocky moves into the human ship, he builds his own set of tunnels so he can move and breathe his own air. He also has a little space ball that he can use to navigate the ship.
It’s hard for me to comprehend how exactly that will look on film, and it’s really hard for me to picture how they’re going to document the transformation. Rocky moves quite a way into the book, and it significantly changes the interior of Ryland’s ship.
I’m honestly overwhelmed just trying to think about what this could look like. However, I trust Lord, Miller, and their team with all my heart, so I’m confident whatever they create will be visually magnificent.
Will Rocky And Ryland’s End Stay The Same?
I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t see Project Hail Mary’s end coming at all. While I kind of assumed Ryland wouldn’t return to Earth, I certainly didn’t expect him to end up living with the Eridians. While that was a happy ending, I do think there were a few loose ends left that could easily be tied up in the film.
Before I get into that, I do want to note that I love this ending, and I get that realistically, Ryland wouldn’t have a perfect way of knowing he saved Earth. So, in that sense, it makes sense. However, I’m hoping for a bit more certainty from the film adaptation.
That makes me wonder if they’ll alter the ending so we get to see a bit more of what happened on Earth after Ryland sent back the beetle with the solution.
Since the movie can’t really be in first person, like the book is, there’s an opportunity to give us a bit more insight into what happened on Earth. Maybe we’ll flashback to see how they reacted to Ryland’s beetle? Maybe we’ll get to see how they fixed the astrophage issue? Could we see Stratt’s reaction to Ryland’s findings? It feels like there’s an opportunity here to show us more than the book could, and I’m hoping that’s exactly what they do.
Reading Project Hail Mary was such a special experience, and the story is exquisite, so I care a lot about how it’s adapted on screen. I’m also perplexed by how they’ll overcome some of the visual challenges that lie before them. However, like Ryland, I’m positive they’ll creatively solve everything in a very entertaining way, which hopefully means we’ll get one remarkable sci-fi movie.
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