speaker-0: This podcast contains graphic and explicit content, as well as all of the spoilers a movie has to offer.
speaker-1: Listener discretion is advised.
speaker-0: Hi friends, welcome back to So Here's the Problem With That, where we watch every sci-fi movie ever made and tell you what's wrong with their Psi and their Phi. My name is Emily and I'm a movie fan.
speaker-1: And my name is Doctor Neil and I have a PhD in high energy physics.
speaker-0: God damn right. And we have a very special guest with us. Special guest
speaker-1: Guest, special guest.
speaker-0: You wanna introduce yourself?
speaker-2: Doctor Hannah Ridgewell. Jesus. I like I never use my doctor, okay? I'm gonna use it. At work I'm just Hannah. To my patients, I'm just Hannah. Gonna use it.
speaker-0: I'll be honest, I forget that you're a doctor. I forget that it's like a real thing. Like I know you went to a lot of school. I forget that it's a real thing.
speaker-2: And I'm a doctor of pharmacy. Woo boo. But we're not talking about anything pharmacy related. So I'm just gonna go back to being Hannah.
speaker-0: You can be him. That's fine. Fine. But Neil is Doctor Neil forever.
speaker-1: Yeah, also fun fact, at work I work with a lot of people who also have PhDs and my boss is very traumatized from his grad school days and he's like, Yeah, we all made it out of that and you're never gonna forget it. So I'm gonna call each and every one of you Dr. So and so. And so he just like every in every meeting, every one on one, it's just Dr. Schroeder. And I'm like, that ain't me, man. But also that ain't me.
speaker-2: Yeah. Yeah, also the reason I don't go by Dr. Ridgewell is that is my father. That's not me. Yep. Yep. That sounds it's it's not accessible and I need to and I'm the accessible healthcare professional.
speaker-0: People have to be comfortable talking to you about things. That's so true.
speaker-2: So when I ask them about how much booze they're drinking, they will actually tell me. 'Cause it's important.
speaker-0: Can't tell Doctor Ridgewell, but I can tell my friend Hannah. I do not have a doctorate. So just sitting over here with my lonely undergrad and my lonely masters. We are a very educated
speaker-2: Something to be. You you went back to school as a full ass adult. That takes more th I I could never. I could never. I got mine all done w once and came out at twenty four and I could never go back. No.
speaker-1: Damn good. PhD at twenty four? That's crazy.
speaker-2: ⁓ a farm D, yeah, at twenty four. I did it in six years.
speaker-0: Six years.
speaker-2: It was an accelerated program. Does it not
speaker-1: I look I started I went to I I started undergrad effectively in two thousand eleven two thousand twelve two thousand twelve and then finished my PhD with no break in twenty twenty four. So To I guess technically it took me twelve years to go through the entire thing.
speaker-2: There's a big difference between a PhD and a Pharm D. I did not do research. Yes. Like I I went to school to learn how to be this kind of healthcare professional. So I did two years of prerequisite work, three years of in classroom pharmacy stuff, and then one year of essentially paying to be an intern. And then I did another year of what
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-2: Some would what in your world would be a postdoc and my world is a residency. So I guess I did it I but I was all but I was a licensed pharmacist during that time. So I did seven years, I guess, of school to be to do what I do.
speaker-1: I don't know how
speaker-0: Either of you keep all the facts straight in your head.
speaker-2: I don't. I look at
speaker-1: Yeah, same.
speaker-0: Superpower is just knowing the most effective ways to Google. Alright, on that note. Yes. Neil, do you want to tell the fine folks at home what movie we're discussing today?
speaker-1: Folks, we're talking about Project Hail Mary.
speaker-0: Our
speaker-1: I mean look, it's pretty popular. And book to movie adaptation, which makes it usually even more popular.
speaker-2: Yes. Which is why I am here.
speaker-0: Okay. Yes, that's right. We talked about but not many people actually ⁓ listen to the mini slow. So the mini sode is delightful. I fucking love it. But Hannah and I have recently launched a new podcast called Adaptation Addicts, where we read a book and then we watch its movie adaptation. It's very simple. Much like Neil and I
speaker-2: Which is a shame.
speaker-0: And very fun. ⁓ my God. We are number one hilarious.
speaker-2: Yes, we ⁓ my we're so funny.
speaker-0: So my husband and I, Taylor, we saw Project Tail Mary opening night. We're like, ⁓ my god, let's go see a new movie. It'd be so much fun. And we
speaker-2: We are moving. ⁓
speaker-0: I again, no children. So Taylor and I, after the movie, we're having dinner, we're talking like, ⁓ my god, that was such a fun movie. And I was like, ⁓ it's a sci-fi movie. I cannot wait to talk to Neil about this. And then he goes, Well, wasn't it a book first? Why don't you talk to Hannah? And I was like,
speaker-2: What if I talk to both of them? It was Taylor's idea? I didn't
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Pretty sure he pointed out that it was both sci-fi and a book.
speaker-1: Taylor's first smart idea.
speaker-2: No no no no no. No. His first smart idea was to marry ⁓
speaker-1: Yes. Mm-hmm.
speaker-0: Second smart idea though. This crossover episode.
speaker-2: It's to get us all to get
speaker-1: Folks, that is entirely a joke. I hope you all realize that. Taylor's a very smart man who is getting his PhD in
speaker-0: What's it? Bring with sarcasm. He's a good man who will never listen to this, so it's fine. I love him, he loves me, he will never listen to this.
speaker-1: I will slander him endlessly on this podcast.
speaker-0: I think that's fair. I think he deserves it. I do have some microbio xenobiology questions. Maybe I won't ask him. I probably will though. Anywho, Neil, can you please read the synopsis for this movie?
speaker-1: Middle school science teacher Ryland Grace ⁓ Ryan Gosling wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission to solve the riddle of the mysterious substance that is causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction. But an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
speaker-0: I'm so excited.
speaker-1: I'm I'm so fascinated about this unexpected friendship. I think it I'm pretty sure it's the alien because of the things that I've seen from the clips of the advertisements of the movie, which is kinda wild.
speaker-2: So for me, starting the book, I'm so glad I started this book before the like promos really ramped up 'cause I did not know that there was gonna be a friend. I just went in this like, ⁓ this is just gonna be a man alone in space. This is gonna be Nope. Not that kind of sci fi. I was literally stoked show when the fun shows up.
speaker-0: ⁓ one of the tags in IMDB is Buddy Comedy. So this kind of a spoiler, but kind of not. But our disclaimer does say all of the spoilers a movie has to offer. So
speaker-2: Perfect. It doesn't matter how new the movie is or how new the book is, we are spoiling.
speaker-0: We're gonna spoil it. So mm Neil, we are going to spoil some things like this is a buddy comedy and the buddy is an alien. Yeah. Look at
speaker-1: I mean I already I kinda knew that. I yeah, you know, look I kinda like I I saw a clip of an ad from the movie and there was an alien and there was a guy and people and I mean they were kinda hanging out together, not running terrified from each other. So I was kinda like, Well, they seem to get along.
speaker-0: I watch Seth Meyer's the Seth Meyer show and Brian Gosling was on there and I hadn't seen the movie because obviously it was before it came out. And they had a clip, and the clip was him and his buddy, and I was like, Is this a spoiler? It must not be if this is the clip they're showing on national television. So
speaker-2: They decided that was not a spoiler. I would have called that a spoiler.
speaker-0: Some people got super upset about the all the promo material having this buddy in it. ⁓ his name is Rocky.
speaker-2: I mean I was very Yeah, I'm glad I had already met Rocky in the book before the promos ramped up.
speaker-1: Rocky and Bullwinkle?
speaker-0: Like Rocky the Boxer. Neil, we have xenobiology questions coming your way.
speaker-1: ⁓ great. Well, I here is what I'm gonna have to say about that up front is it sounds like potentially this is non carbon based life form xenobiology stuff, which is like nobody's jam. There's like three people in the world who do any research on non carbon based life forms and they actually do most of their research on methane and nitrogen based life forms. Which I think is kinda crazy because there could be all kinds of other things, but we're kinda bound by what we know about what's around us. So I maybe they're probably really
speaker-2: Everybody knows about us.
speaker-0: Everyone knows about the shit Pewitt. Thank you very much. Anyway. Okay, movie facts. This movie, this fine film, released March 20th, 2026. Rated PG 13 for some thematic material and suggestive references. Run time of two hours, 36 minutes. Genre tags invented. It's long.
speaker-2: I d but it feels doesn't feel long.
speaker-0: It really doesn't, no. Fun fact that I was gonna tell ⁓ the fun fact section, but I'll tell you right now, the original cut was three hours and forty five minutes. You know what? I did. Yeah.
speaker-2: I would want to I want I already know I want the long cut.
speaker-0: Yep. So it's it's very fun. So genre tags, adventure, comedy, sci fi. Hannah, do you wanna read the tagline? I normally make no do you wanna read it? Yep.
speaker-2: So the tagline reads Believe in the Hail Mary.
speaker-1: Long the long haul. The long pass.
speaker-0: Which they detail in the movie. They do not detail in the book, I don't think. They never be like, hey, this is why we call it the Hail Mary. It like it's just assumed. It's just assumed They spell it out in the movie though.
speaker-2: Yeah. They never say why it's called that.
speaker-1: They never address the fact that like it's a long shot and they're just kind of I got one Yeah. I got one shot
speaker-2: Do but they don't connection. Talk about how like it is the last chance for humanity, yeah. But they don't say, ⁓ we're calling it that be we're calling it the Hail Mary, so because it's our one last chance they don't do that. Yeah. Which is fine.
speaker-0: You can't be exclusive. You figure I mean, especially Americans. I don't know if international audiences would get it without it being explained. But Americans were like, ⁓ yeah, it's a Hail Mary Pass. Got it. Yep.
speaker-1: They had they had one opportunity to seize everything they ever wanted in one moment and capture it? Or just let it slip?
speaker-0: How how long is he gonna do it, I wonder? How many words?
speaker-1: I don't know, but I think mom spaghetti is is where we're going with this, so
speaker-0: Made my day. That was my tip.
speaker-2: And I was lost the whole time.
speaker-1: ⁓ that's an ⁓ reference to the song Lose Your
speaker-2: It would be why. ⁓
speaker-0: Biggest song of that year, Hannah. There's no way you didn't hear that song. Like two thousand eight? When did Eight Mile come out?
speaker-2: Yeah, I was probably
speaker-1: Two thousand two.
speaker-2: ⁓ yeah, that's exactly why. We were twelve. No, I wasn't listening to ⁓ I was probably still listening to bad country music.
speaker-1: I forgot. I mean I'd I'd still listen to bad country music.
speaker-2: Don't don't do that. That's a terrible idea. There's way too much good music to listen to bad
speaker-0: Pure
speaker-1: Like like parked out by the lake? Do you know this song? No. Alright, well whenever you get a chance to listen to that song, it's wonderful and hysterical and you're gonna be confused the whole time.
speaker-0: Wait, Neil, did you show us this song at the sound round?
speaker-1: ⁓ no Pipes showed us this song well showed me this song and then he did this song at karaoke.
speaker-0: That's what it was. It's like this sounds familiar now that I'm thinking about it. It's it's it's pretty great. Normally, we would go into a movie's awards. As stated before, ain't no awards just yet. The too fucking soon. But there's a non zero chance this is gonna get all the awards.
speaker-1: It's very good. It's got so much buzz going already that I know about the buzz for like Oscars for this movie. It's crazy.
speaker-0: Yes, it is fucking everywhere. So that brings us to the parents guide. Yay! So parents guide. Sex and nudity. Absolutely nothing. There is not. One of the text to speech voices sounds very suggestive for two seconds, but it's played for laughs. And a very brief reference to people hooking up. That's all you get.
speaker-2: Yay. As I say, there can't be.
speaker-0: For sex and nudity. Now, gore and violence is mild. There is a blast from a huge explosion that throws people to the ground and they don't die.
speaker-1: Well, that's wrong.
speaker-0: I am aware, I thought very loudly.
speaker-2: No, every movie I watch, Neil, I I any time someone falls backwards, I was like, Nope, they're dead. This movie is no longer f the ⁓ you have ruined action movies.
speaker-1: It's it's if it picks them f vertically up off the ground. If they just fall forwards, that's probably they could survive that. But if you see them get lifted and they hit the ground, it's the upward because the the blast is spherical, right? And so like at the ground level, it's almost entirely perpendicular to the ground and like parallel to your body. So if you get picked up off the ground, that means the blast would have to be so astronomically strong that you would have been I mean virtually vaporized instantaneously.
speaker-0: Actually I think in this movie they are just knocked to the ground. They are not lifted than I recall. So there is infrequent sight of blood in the aftermath of an accident and some desiccated dead bodies are shown.
speaker-1: Mm. Just you know. Kinda sounds a little bit like ⁓ event horizon.
speaker-0: ⁓ no, it's not nearly as bad as Event Horizon.
speaker-2: No, absolutely not. No.
speaker-0: Back to violence and gork a man's arm is burned by touching an alien. You don't see the incident due to dramatically flashing light in the scene, so if you're photos sensitive, just be aware. You do hear the skin sizzling and you see the healed burn later. So there's that. Also, a man throws up several times but manages to grab an orange cone to throw up into. Profanity None. Here's my favorite note. that I have ever read on the Parents Guide. Surprisingly mild. No curse words. Only one use each of piss and two uses of ⁓ my God.
speaker-1: Sorry, what does one use each of piss mean?
speaker-0: I think he was gonna have two words and he f accidentally deleted one. I assume this is a he that's very sexist of me, but that's what I assume. Also, Ryland gets very close to saying the F word once.
speaker-1: That's ⁓
speaker-2: I would swear I'll.
speaker-0: In the book he doesn't swear. In the book he says like stuff. He swears only once and that's when he realizes he's in space.
speaker-2: Yeah. Yeah, you're right.
speaker-0: That's it. Other than that, 'cause he's ⁓ a middle school teacher, so he has taught himself not true.
speaker-2: That was in the
speaker-1: Spoilers.
speaker-0: Just read it in the synopsis!
speaker-1: I didn't. You told me he was a school you told me he was a school teacher.
speaker-0: Middle school science teacher Rylan.
speaker-1: Alright, alright, alright Guys, I got zero short term memory at the moment. Guys, I got zero short term memory at the moment.
speaker-2: Yeah. Who
speaker-0: I see what you did there. Alcohol. Drugs, isn't it great? This is honestly one of my joys in life. Alcohol, drugs, and smoking is mild. Ryland drinks vodka at the beginning of the movie. Lyrics in a song refer to being stoned. When discussing how they would like to okay. So I know, right? So here's one.
speaker-2: How specific this parent guide gets two weeks.
speaker-0: ⁓ it's got the song's been out like for two ⁓ it's got the song. It's Sunday Morning Com Coming Down by Chris Christofferson is the song, and it refers to be getting stoned. So now you know. I don't think I've ever listened to the words of that song before in my life. But also here's kind of a serious one. When discussing how they would like to die, a person says a lethal injection with heroin. Frightening and intense scenes. Moderate. More intense scenes. Only moderate?
speaker-2: This movie's in Space That's fine.
speaker-0: It's fine.
speaker-2: There's no air in space. If you go if we go see this movie together, you might have to poke me once in a while and remind me to breathe.
speaker-0: I can number one, I can do that. Number two, you read the book. You know that it's intense and doesn't it's you guys, this movie's for everybody. This movie is gonna be everyone's gonna have such a good time. I'm so excited. Don't you look so suspicious, Neil Sif. Don't you look so suspicious. It's gonna be a good time, god damn it.
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-0: So the loss of control of a spaceship causes an astronaut to be knocked unconscious. There is intense music and dramatic flashing lights. Again, there's flashing lights a lot, so if you are photosensitive, be very careful. It can be very emotional at times. Again, these are all copy pasted. Many references to suicide and self sacrifice and again desiccated bodies are shown. And that's the parents' guide. So Hannah, you feel a little more ⁓ at ease. Going into this, Neil, do you feel at all concern for seeing this film?
speaker-1: F ⁓ like I'm still concerned about the fact that someone set my expectations horribly poorly for this movie. You could be I c I mean I could be. I could be really surprised. And that would be really fun.
speaker-0: More like this for Project Hail Mary. Story checks out to an extent. The first two, totally get it. The second two, I do not understand what IMDB is trying to tell us. I'll g I'm get in there. Number one, Interstellar.
speaker-1: You gotta you gotta tell people what it is though.
speaker-0: Obviously makes sense. We covered Interstellar on episodes sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, our very first three parter, so we are not going to add this back into the list. So sorry. Quick synopsis in case you didn't listen to those episodes, pffff because you were being dumb. When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft along with a team of researchers to find a new planet for humans. Totally get how these are connected. Thanks. Number two. The Martian. Makes sense. That is the other book written by Andy Weir. It was a huge success. I get it. An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assumes him dead and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue. I think the Martian is already on our list.
speaker-2: Absolutely.
speaker-1: I assume so.
speaker-2: Preach.
speaker-0: on our ⁓ our movie list. And Hannah, I don't think it's on our list, but it can be. So here's where it starts to get wonky. And I think IMDB was just having a ⁓ an algorithm moment. Number three is Marty Supreme, Oscar nominated starring Timothy Chalamet.
speaker-1: Alright.
speaker-2: Ping pong. It is about table tennis. No, there is
speaker-1: It's a story about a young man on an adventure with a long shot at winning. How is that not the same goddamn thing?
speaker-2: Because we're talking about the future of humanity and table tennis.
speaker-1: Look, the steaks. The stakes are not as good. I'll give you that.
speaker-0: I can't argue and it makes me very upset, actually. Alright. I'm curious how you're gonna swing this one, Neil. Number four. One battle after another. Also Oscar nominated Sir Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. When their enemy resurfaces after sixteen years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own. Hey Neil. Yeah. How how's this one connected?
speaker-1: I mean look, I think it's pro I think what they're going for is probably the same thing, which is like one man faces odds that he needs the help of others to overcome in a long shot at winning. And like is it is it a stretch? Is it a stretch? Yeah, it's a stretch. I'm not gonna try and deny that. It's but it's I look, I don't think it's actually that good of a recommendation. ⁓ but I see why it's
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-1: Classic.
speaker-2: I mean why didn't it I think it would've should have suggested things like Armageddon. That would make sense. Gravity
speaker-0: Also,
speaker-1: The edge of tomorrow.
speaker-0: Forget that.
speaker-2: ⁓ Yeah.
speaker-0: So, I'm so sorry, Frying folks at home. We are not going to add Marty Supreme or in another one battle after another. Specifically because they are not sci-fi movies. And we watch every sci-fi movie ever made. True. So you guys want to hear about some of the people involved in this cool thing? I don't know where I was. Hit me with it. Ooh, all right. This film is directed by so excited to do this.
speaker-2: Let's go I know nothing about the film.
speaker-0: This film is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. They are a team. They are known for the LEGO movie, which was way better than it had any right to be. Spider-Man into the Spider-Ver, one of the most incredible pieces of artwork of of just art, Capital A art I've ever seen in my entire life. Obviously Project Hail Mary. And then finally, Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse. That's the sequel. Cannot say enough good things. It made me cry. So hard. So they are generally a team, generally a duo. They've done a handful of things here or there, but for the most part they are a team. They direct together and they write together. So I'm gonna go through some of their highlights because specifically No, I'm gonna go through some of their highlights first for directing. Where first they directed a show called Clone High. It's a high school, it's animated, it's a high school that is filled with clones of people from history. Sounds delightful. They directed Cloudy Two thousand two two thousand three.
speaker-2: that never.
speaker-1: Yeah. It's got really like really strong total drama island vibes.
speaker-0: Kinda like cartoon cartoon, very angular, kinda like Powerpuff Girls art style type thing. They directed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 2009. Again, way better than it had any right to be. They directed both There's a leak in the There's a leak in the boat. ⁓ they directed both Twenty Tw ⁓ Twenty One Jump Street and Twenty Two Jump Street. Twenty one Jump Street was in twenty twelve, twenty-two jump street was in twenty fourteen. The Lego movie, like I said, that was in twenty fourteen as well, and then Project Hail Mary. Twenty twenty six. So they haven't done a lot, but what they've done is incredible. Is like so well received. That's just directing. So writing, they wrote extreme movie starring Michael Sarah from two thousand eight. Looks super fucking weird.
speaker-2: That was a parody age. That was an age where they were spoofing off scary movie and
speaker-0: And that's what I thought it was, but I looked into it and it's actually not. It's actually d a bunch of vignettes, almost like sketch comedy, about puberty. ⁓
speaker-2: It is weird. Now Michael Sarah makes so much sense.
speaker-0: Yes, right. So I also thought that Extreme Movie was gonna be in that epic movie, scary movie thing. But it's not, unfortunately. They wrote ⁓ Cloud with a Chance of Meatballs One and Two, but they did not direct the second one. The Lego movie, like I said, they wrote Spider Man into the Spider-Irs twenty eighteen. They wrote the Lego ⁓ just kidding, they did write ⁓ Lego movie number two. I didn't even know there was a Lego movie too. Number number one, loved it. Number two, I'll catch up with that at some point, I assume. They also wrote Across the Spider-Verse and they relaunched Clone High in 2023. They did like 20 more episodes of revamped Clone High. So kind of fun. I have no idea what channel that's on. Did not look that deep. So upcoming, guess what? And this is gonna come back in our fun facts. Upcoming for directing, they are gonna do Artemis, which is the third book written by Andy Weir. The synopsis for this Jazz is a porter and part time smuggler in the lunar city of Artemis. Trying to make an a little extra money, she accepts a less than legal job but ends up involved in a much bigger crime. So we will come back to this later. The they're also directing The Last Human. It's set in the future in which robots have eliminated humans. When a twelve year old robot discovers and befriends a human girl, then sets off on a journey towards a mysterious point on a map. They don't have any release dates for either of them. You know what they do have release dates for for the most part. Their upcoming writing credits. Number one, they're writing Bob the Musical, which follows a mire mild-mannered man who suddenly hears the inner song of people's hearts after being struck in the head. I'll be honest, I'm in. You have in 2027, beyond the Spider-Verse. ⁓ my god, I'm so excited. I cannot wait. The fact that we have had to wait so long between across the Spider-Verse and
speaker-2: I love this.
speaker-0: And this one, Beyond the Spider Verse, heartbreaking. A lot of it was due to the writer's strike. That happened a couple of years ago. Right just at the wrong time, ma'am. Just at the wrong time. So that's twenty twenty seven. have you never
speaker-2: I have not seen any of the Spider Verse movies.
speaker-0: That's not sad. This is an opportunity. This is exciting. Because you get to see it for the first time. Finally, in 2026, they wrote a movie called Soulmate with a number eight in it. A man acquires an artificially intelligent android to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless love bot into a deadly soulmate. So that's coming out this year somehow.
speaker-1: So incredible. I don't think I like the combination of words harmless love bot. I don't think I like that.
speaker-0: No, it feels gross. Yep. ⁓ these folks have won Oscars. Number one, they won for Into the Spider-Verse, best animated feature. Absolutely deserved it. I don't remember what else was nominated, but it wasn't as good as this. And they were also nominated, and this is because they were producers, not because they wrote or directed, but they were nominated for Mitchell's versus the Machines, another animated classic that was way better than it had any right to be. And they were nominated in twenty twenty four for Across the Spider Verse. And they won, I had never heard of this before, I don't know how, the Annie Awards, which is excellence in animation. They won for the LEGO movie for best writing, and then they were nominated for LEGO Movie for Directing, but did not win. And then for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, they were nominated for writing and directing. So that's Lord and Miller. Yay. Cool.
speaker-1: Heck yeah.
speaker-0: ⁓ this film was written by Drew Goddard, who we discussed because he also wrote Cloverfield. So we talked about Drew Goddard pretty in depth in episode 38 and 39, so I am not gonna talk about him right now. Andy Weir is a credited writer on this film because it is based on his book. He seems like a perfectly fine guy. Y'all, this man has written three books. His very first book was The Martian. His second book was Project
speaker-2: That's not that's not true.
speaker-0: His first published novel was The Martian.
speaker-1: What did he do? What did his book research? What it what was his first book? He worked on a bunch of video games.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-2: Yes, he did. Yeah. His first book was The Th Theft of Pride. He was a he o he published it online and actually so was Project Hail Mary was initially just published on or no the I
speaker-0: The Martian. The Martian was published
speaker-2: Yeah, and then and yeah, it was free on his website, then published on Kindle, so he was like an indie Kindle author, and then he got a traditional publishing.
speaker-1: Whoa. Yep.
speaker-0: Yeah, he was a ⁓
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-1: Three of his books turned into movies?
speaker-0: Absolutely massive hits. Yeah.
speaker-2: And I've heard rumors that like there's discussion of him writing a sequel to Project Hail Mary and I don't want that. The ending is just leave it.
speaker-0: He talked about potentially doing a sequel to Artemis, his other book which was published in twenty seventeen, but the reception for that book was only so so and he was like, ⁓ I don't that's fine.
speaker-1: Kind of sounds like an Enders game situation where Orson Scott Card like wrote Enders Game and it was supposed to be like he the he originally published it in like a ⁓ sci-fi anthology where it was like a 40 page short story and then people were like yo this is so good you have to write a full book and then he wrote a full book and then people were like yo this is so good we need sequels and then he wrote a bunch of sequels sequels that I think some of are some of them are interesting and some of them are not. So I think if he decides to write a sequel, he being Andy Weir, to Project Hail Mary, I don't know, hit or miss, right? Like there's no guarantee it's gonna be good.
speaker-0: So yeah, again, Andy Weir has three published novels, which is wild. That they are all so big. And he specifically said that he wanted he did a shit ton of research for the Martian to make it as scientifically accurate as possible. I did not see a similar note for Project Hail Mary.
speaker-2: I didn't either.
speaker-1: Well but also if Project Hail Mary came later right he'd already still had yeah, he'd already done all that research for the Martians. So like it wouldn't surprise me if this is better than some others, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say that it's gonna be good.
speaker-2: Done a lot of Feels real.
speaker-0: It does feel real. He says it with such conviction. Such conviction. You can say anything with conviction. I'll probably believe you. It's true. Starring Ryan Gosling, who is known for Blue Valentine in 2010, La La Land in 2016, Drive in 2011, and The Notebook in 2004.
speaker-1: ⁓
speaker-2: ⁓ and don't forget the Hay Girl meme. God bless the Hay Girl meme.
speaker-0: How could I forget the Avery meme? That was much of my college career. Sorry. His filmography begins in 1995 with Are You Afraid of the Dark? Y'all remember that? Yeah?
speaker-2: Yes, I still I still there are still I only watched a couple episodes and they still haunt me.
speaker-0: ⁓ they fucked with my head. Neil, too spooky for you. This children's show is too spooky for
speaker-2: Mm. It was a Nickelodeon, it had should not have been there. There was a dollhouse episode that I still Mmm. Yep, yep, yep, yep.
speaker-0: He was also in an episode of Goosebumps in nineteen ninety six, episode of Flash Forward, which was I think it was like a Disney or Nickelodeon show that I remember fondly, also starring Ben Foster, who is one of my loves. In nineteen ninety nine he did one episode of Hercules of the Hercules and Zen.
speaker-2: The animated series? ⁓ that Hercules
speaker-0: The real one! He did the real one! He did one episode. ⁓ there was. But that was the Hercules animated the Disney one? Yes. Get the fuck out of here. Absolutely not. Here's Kevin Sorbo. Give me my MAGA Kevin Sorbo. Or I want none of it. I didn't know at the time. I didn't know. I loved Kevin.
speaker-2: It's also an animated series. O'Neill him and he broke my heart.
speaker-0: Art.
speaker-1: This is like Armageddon all over again.
speaker-0: The first time I found out that he was a Trumper, I'm like, you have gotta be fucking kidding me. Hercules would never. Anyway, so he did one episode of Hercules where he played a character called Xylus. I only bring this up because the very next year he starred in the show Young Hercules, which ran between nineteen ninety eight and nineteen ninety nine as Young Hercules. Now I don't I never saw the show, but I had A VHS of an animated movie starring Hercules and Xena. And th in the previews there was a trailer for young Hercules. And I was always like, that young man is so handsome. I didn't say that because I was a child. And I was like, Who's that? And that was Ryan Gosling. That's my story about young Hercules. Apparently, had no idea. He was in Remember the Titans in two thousand. Zoom memory of him being in there. Then The Notebook happened in two thousand four. Then Lars and the Real Girl happened in two thousand and seven. And now here's where shit goes wild. Blue Valentine in twenty ten. All good things in two thousand and ten as well. This is where he played Robert Durst. He's a he's a a millionaire. Killed all of his friends and family. And then Drive came out in two thousand eleven. Then Crazy Stupid Love, also two thousand eleven. Then The Ides of March, which he starred in with George Clooney, also 2011. Then Touch of Evil, I don't know what that was, but it was also 2011. That was a big fucking year. And then Gangster Squad came out in 2013. He was in The Big Short in 2015. The Nice Guys in 2016. La La Land, also 2016. Blade Rudder, 2049, 2017. First man, where he played Neil Armstrong, so that's kind of fun. That was twenty eighteen. Then
speaker-2: It was a busy year.
speaker-1: My name is
speaker-0: Yes. ⁓ is that really your namesake? And then you went into physics and science and space?
speaker-1: Yeah, except that's not hang on. You gotta Physics and Science But hang on. You gotta remember that like NASA picked the jocks to go to space. NASA was like, You gotta be a you gotta be in the military. You gotta have come up through like military flight school, you gotta have been a pilot in the Air Force for so long, and then we're gonna select the best pilots of the Air Force and we're gonna train them to fly this giant hunk of metal into space and then we're also gonna teach them how to be engineers. And they then then they then they sent these people into space. We're like, okay, the Artemis stuff that's happening right now is like the first time that we've sent a scientist to space since the last successful Apollo mission landed on the moon. They sent one they sent one scientist to the moon. It was a geologist. It's crazy. And now we're doing science in space again, guys.
speaker-2: Okay.
speaker-0: Did your parents want you to be a jock? Is that why?
speaker-1: No, they look no, they looked at me and they were like, Who does he look like? Well, he doesn't look like anybody we know, so we'll call him Neil.
speaker-0: He doesn't look like anybody we know like each other.
speaker-1: Yeah, exactly.
speaker-0: Incredible. ⁓ anywho, finishing out his filmography, Barbie came out in twenty twenty three. That was a delight. Neil and I saw Barbie together, and then I went on for the Barbenheimer.
speaker-1: I can't watch I can't watch options.
speaker-0: That's fine. I wouldn't recommend it.
speaker-1: Yeah. It's less about the intensity of the film and more about the fact that Like I work a little too closely to a lot of that stuff and also they didn't do a really good like they gloss over a lot of the damage the like nuclear program did both to the planet and to a lot of like indigenous peoples all over the western United States and the greater Pacific. And like it's
speaker-2: Decided not to talk about how they hurt indigenous people?
speaker-0: What so Ryan Gosling coming up, he has ⁓ two films. One that does not have a release date is Tough Guys, also starring Will Farrell, where two low-level criminals grow weary of being expendable pawns and decide to forge their own path, leaving behind their dangerous world to create a fresh start and make their own rules.
speaker-1: Yeah, surprise.
speaker-2: King.
speaker-0: And this one, slated tentatively for twenty twenty seven, is Star Wars Starfighter. In re in a rebuilding galaxy, a solitary pilot becomes entangled in a crucial mission as new threats emerge. Their journey may alter the future of the force itself. This also stars Amy Adams, Mia Goth, and is directed by Sean Levy.
speaker-2: I'm sorry. So Amy Adams is in a Star Wars movie? That sounds crazier than Ryan Gosling being in a Star Wars movie.
speaker-0: ⁓ okay. ⁓ so awards. He has been nominated for Oscars. Two leading actor Oscars he was nominated for. One was Half Nelson, two thousand six. ⁓ middle school teacher, I think, who befriends with a drug problem who befriends one of his students. That's
speaker-1: I have heard of this film. This is a David recommendation ⁓ that people don't talk about enough, go watch Half Nelson.
speaker-0: Okay. Well and he it was c clearly good enough he got nominated for an Oscar in fucking two thousand six. Yeah. Then La La Land, he was also nominated for leading actor, that was in two thousand sixteen. And then he was nominated for Barbie in for supporting actor in Barbie. Whatever year that was, but he was the only one.
speaker-2: In twenty three.
speaker-0: Twenty twenty three, yes.
speaker-1: Go Robbie was not nominated for best actor.
speaker-0: No. And the director, Greta Gerwig, was not nominated for director.
speaker-2: She was not. That was I have so many thoughts about I I think I'm I'm more upset about the fact that Greta Gerwig wasn't nominated. Like I also agree that Margot should have been, but the fact that Greta wasn't
speaker-0: actually more upset that the only man was the only nomination. Yep. Not that he wasn't great. Obviously he was incredible.
speaker-2: He was. He was wonderful.
speaker-1: ⁓ that makes me angry.
speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. ⁓ I have thoughts.
speaker-1: I have rage and sorrow.
speaker-0: Heard. Yep. Yep. Heard and felt. He was nominated for an Emmy ⁓ for best guest actor on SNL. I that's not exactly what it's for. It's best guest actor on a show and the show was SNL.
speaker-2: I do enjoy his when he's on SNL. But at least one time he was on they did the alien abduction ones. Is that the episode? ⁓
speaker-0: That's this episode. He has been I I just kind of breezed through a lot of 'cause he's been nominated like over two hundred times for two hundred different fucking awards. He's been nominated for BAFTA's, Critic's Choice, Golden Globes, he was nominated for Best Actor for La La Land. And then I got to the fun ones. So here's all of his nominations for the MTV movie awards. For La he was nominated for Best Kiss and Best Musical Moment. For Crazy Stupid Love, he was nominated for Best Kiss and
speaker-2: ⁓
speaker-0: ⁓ also with Emma Stone, who was with him in La La Land. For Drive, he was nominated for Best Male Performance and Best Gut Wrenching Performance. The Teen Choice Awards, he was nominated for T Blade Runner 2049 as Choice Movie Actor in a Sci-Fi movie. For Drive, he was nominated for Choice Movie Actor in a Drama. This this is the voice you have to use for this. Crazy Stupid Love, he was nominated for Choice Movie Actor in a Comedy. And Choice Movie Chemistry with Steve Correll. And Favorite Movie Lip Lock. I'm pretty sure also with Yeah, with Emma Stone. Then Choice Male Hottie. He won that one. He was nominated for the rest, but he won Choice Male Hottie. And then the Notebook. He won Choice Actor in a Drama. Choice Love Scene. Choice Movie Breakup Performance for a Male. He won that. Choice movie liplock. Movie Chemistry. Dude. Because he gets very specific. Choice movie chemistry with Rachel McAdams. And then he was nominated but did not win for Dance Scene. So that is Ryan Gosling. And I spent so much time on Ryan Gosling because he is truly the only actor for like seventy percent of this film. Yeah. 20% of this film features our next actor, Sandra Huler. She's incredible and I love her so much. She is really she's been acting forever, but she's German, so this is her first American film. She really came to prominence in twenty twenty three. She had two massive movies. Number one, Anatomy of a Fall, twenty twenty-three. She was nominated for an a an Oscar for leading actress for this film. It's a woman is suspected of murder after her husband's death. Their half blind son faces a moral dilemma as the main witness. And they're dark. Everyone lost their fucking minds. She's also known for the zone of interest, which also came out in twenty twenty three. Zone of interest. That a hand. A common Yes, a commandant of Auschwitz and his wife strive to build a dream life for their family in a house next to the camp.
speaker-1: Oof.
speaker-0: I want to see that movie so badly. It won for best sound, I believe, because so much of it is truly just in their garden, in their house, and you can just hear what's happening at the camp.
speaker-2: And I feel like And my understanding is you never see the camp. You just only hear it. Yeah.
speaker-0: So that's cool. Which is. ⁓ she's been nominated for a bunch of bunch of stuff. Also, I wanted to bring up our third main actor. Because it is his first movie role. The actor who plays Rocky, his name is James Ortiz. And the reason that it's his f is one of his first movie roles, he's only done like two, is because he's a puppeteer. He was not he's not an actor. He was not cast in this role. He was the puppeteer who was saying the lines with them, and the directors were like, I think that's as good as it gets. Let's just have him do it. And they did.
speaker-2: I love ⁓ that makes me so happy. ⁓
speaker-0: Apparently he's like a legendary puppeteer by the way. Like Yeah, so that's pretty neat. Like I said, we can't do the numbers game 'cause the numbers aren't in. So let's get into the fun facts. So Lord Miller mentioned that there was no green screen used in the movie. The entire set was shot physically. Miller had previously stated that VFX were used to depict the spaceship from the outside, while shots of gostling in space were shot against a black or varying colored backdrop.
speaker-1: ⁓ that's cool.
speaker-0: Rocky, like I said, is
speaker-2: ⁓ this makes me very practical expects. ⁓
speaker-1: Thank you.
speaker-0: Neil, what do you got?
speaker-1: I'm now very suspicious about the space scenes and whether or not we'll be able to see weird little effects of gravity in the space scenes.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-2: What do you got? ⁓ I was just gonna say I love practical effects. Like I'm really excited and I don't I didn't like the era where everything was just in post because it got really icky. I mean it meant certain shows could actually be made because it was cheap. Like the whole the the fact that once upon a time exists is because everything was on a blue screen and it was cheap to do so they could actually make that show. Was it good? No. Was it did I love it?
speaker-0: Yes. Absolutely. Zero question. Love that show. The first like two seasons specifically
speaker-2: The last season didn't mean to exist, they should have just quit, but that's
speaker-0: ⁓ but yeah, Rocky is a puppet. There's like a handful of shots where he is digitized, but ninety percent of that straight up puppet. So that's exciting. The initial test screening of the film, like I said, was three hours and forty-five minutes long, and it was cut down based on feedback.
speaker-1: Show me the full cut.
speaker-0: Lego released a model of the Hail Mary spacecraft as part of the Lego icon series. Just thought that was kinda neat. The scene where Eva Stratt Sandra Huler, as I mentioned, Saints karaoke, was not in the original script. Ryan Gosling overheard her singing between takes and asked her to perform for the movie just forty-eight hours before filming that scene. Every once in a while, Ryan Gosling's daughters, Esmeralda and Amada. ⁓ occasionally spoke for his alien co star Rocky ⁓ through his earpiece on the set. Speaking of their help, Gosling said, there are some moments in the movie where I'm laughing or I'm just so charmed by Rocky, which is like it's actually my kids talking to me and helping me out. So like some of the times where he's crying, it's 'cause his kids were saying the lines to him.
speaker-2: can't ⁓ my goodness.
speaker-0: One of the credits for the rejected Rocky voice is Ray Porter, the narrator of the English language version of Project Hail Mary audiobook, which I hear is incredible. If you get a chance to listen to it, I hear it's so good.
speaker-2: Yeah, I ⁓ one of my best friends have ⁓ has listened to it and she was like, ⁓ my gosh, you have to just because of the rocky musical voice.
speaker-0: Ryan Gosling wears glasses in the film because during wardrobe tests his daughter passed by and mentioned he looks smart with glasses. Kinda cute. Love it. This is actress Sandra Hoodler's first American film and one of very few English language films that she has done. Finally, the astronauts of the Artemis II mission watched the film in quarantine before their launch to the moon. And this film became the first ever filmed to premiere in the stratosphere. A bespoke IMAX display was sent into space that played footage. From the film. I don't know how that works, but I'm very curious.
speaker-1: So apparently one of the stunts that they did for this movie was to send an IMAX compatible L C D screen into space somehow. I d it is very much so not clear how they did this. I have only seen this reported on like somewhat dubious places. I have found no verification of it. I'm a little suspicious that this actually happened. It would realistically it would work if you had if you brought a power source up to power the T V. Like you could just play it on a DVD player and just put it on the T V. We have technology that will take stuff up there for like not a ton of money. You won't get it back, but it'll take stuff up there. But the weird thing is that like None of the none of the companies or agencies that have the technology to do this have verified that they did this for the movie.
speaker-0: I feel like that's something that they would crow about.
speaker-1: Yeah, I'm only seeing this one shot of the movie on a T V screen projected against the background of the curved curvature of the Earth. I can't find any sources for where that image came from, other than suspecting that it's Photoshop or AI.
speaker-0: That's a shame. Alright, well then it is not a fun fact, it is a fun th potential thing. So the reviews for this film are overwhelmingly positive. Ninety-six percent of Google users, you know, h the fourteen people that actually rate movies on Google, ninety-six percent of them love this movie. IMDB, this has an eight point four out of ten. Metacritic is a seventy-seven out of a hundred with a user for critics and a user score of eight point three out of ten. Rotten tomatoes. Critic score? Ninety four. Audience score? Ninety six. Letterboxed. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Letterboxed. Has 4.3 out of 5. That's like one of the highest letterbox scores I think I've ever seen. So the Rotten Tomatoes Critic Summary is a visually dazzling space odyssey that's carried along effortlessly by the gravitational pull of Ryan Gosling at his most winning. Project Hail Mary is a near-miraculous fusion of smarts and heart. And they added a new thing. I haven't seen this before. The audience summary.
speaker-2: Thank you.
speaker-0: One stellar gosling plus one arachnid-ish alien plus one Hail Mary mission equals lightning in a spaceship.
speaker-1: Don't put lightning in a spaceship. That's bad.
speaker-0: It's like a bottle. It's like a bottle. It's not a bottle. Suspicious. It's like a very special bottle. It won't explode.
speaker-1: It'll just melt the glass! What do you mean it won't explode? Don't put lightning in a spaceship.
speaker-2: I feel like you should put lightning in anything.
speaker-1: You put lightning in rocks and then you get computers.
speaker-0: Is that how that works? Mm-hmm. I feel like this is a joke that I don't understand.
speaker-1: No, the wizards they put the lightning in the rocks and then the rocks do the things for you. It's it's magic. Have you never heard this explanation of like technology and silicone wafers and shit? It's literally just rocks that people pumped electricity into. You put you pump you pump lightning into the rocks and then the rocks d do crazy shit like I d tell you your i terrible ideas are great.
speaker-0: But it also gives me movie reviews Silver Lining.
speaker-1: That's true. ⁓ yeah, we're boiling the ocean for this. ⁓
speaker-2: Not working.
speaker-0: No, anyway. So let's wrap this shit up. It's almost bedtime. Hannah, what are your expectations for this film?
speaker-2: ⁓ boy. Well I know how it ends. I know ev I I know the things. My expectations. I I probably have pretty high expectations. I mean granted I had to Google st I had to finally image search spa stuff about the spaceship to finally understand like what it's supposed to look like. So there's a lot of things I'm very excited to see visually. Yeah, at the beginning before I understood that that was important and I couldn't go back. And I I I love babe goose. So I probably I have probably have pretty high expectations. I'm I mean, I better have high expectations because if I'm gonna go to a movie theater, put on pants, and not have my bathroom two feet from my couch, it's better be good. I'm also not a Scientists like Neil's a scientist. So when they say, Yes, this is fact, I go, Sure, yep, that's fact. So ⁓ I have high expectations is the answer.
speaker-0: Neil Sif, what are your expectations for this film?
speaker-1: I am expecting a cinematic marvel. What goes into my eyeballs is probably gonna make me happy. And then as soon as it gets processed by the science part of my brain, it's gonna make me sad. Is it probably just annoyed. Not sad. I won't be sad. Like I'm I'm excited to go watch it, but I'm kinda dreading what's the science gonna turn out to be.
speaker-0: Yeah. What's the whole point of the show?
speaker-2: I know I know.
speaker-1: I know But like in most of the other films that we watch, I get to go in being like my expectations are really low for the science. And when they're really low for the science and they still trip over the bar, that's funny because it's that bad. Right when they kinda like gracefully step over the bar and then they fall flat on their face two steps later, that's also kinda funny. Like that's kind of a good time. But I'm really worried that someone was like, These people are pole vaulting and someone's gonna army crawl under the bar. I'm really worried.
speaker-0: Enough about science to assuage or or build upon your fears. I can't I'm y I've got you right down the middle. I'm excited to see this movie again. I will say it it made me feel in my heart very similar to Interstellar. In that it was it was grand it's funnier than Interstellar. Like we'll put that one out on front.
speaker-1: Yeah, Interstellar it was sad in many ways.
speaker-0: So
speaker-2: Mm-hmm.
speaker-0: The visuals, the scope, all of that felt interstellar-esque. But I could be wrong. Who's to say? We'll find out. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm I cannot wait. Hannah and or Neil, if you wanna like go on a friend date, that would be super fun.
speaker-1: Find out.
speaker-2: I was assuming we would see it together.
speaker-0: But we need to like not talk about it is the thing. We have to wait until we get back here. That's the hard part. I would recommend if you are listening to this and you have not seen it and you do wish to see it, see it on the largest available screen. I'm gonna try and get these two Yahoos to go see it in IMAX. It's breathtaking visually. That's all I have to say about that. So but you can email us if you've got sci fi movie recommendations, you can email us at here's the problem pod at gmail dot com. You can follow me on letterboxed. I am at 2D Fruity T-U-D-Y-F-R-U-D-Y. I rate and review all of our science movies and all of our adaptation addicts movies. Hannah, how about you? Where can they find adaptation addicts?
speaker-2: You can find our i our Adaptations Addicts Instagram at Adaptation Addicts Pod and our email is the same but at Gmail.
speaker-0: Excellent. Adaptation Addicts Pod where we read a book, watch its movie. Rate review, subscribe to this podcast, because you know you're gonna have more questions. You know you're gonna wanna know what Neil thinks about this science. You know
speaker-1: always making science movies and they're always doing a bad job.
speaker-0: Always.
speaker-2: ⁓ wow.
speaker-1: They're always
speaker-0: But that's not always is it, Neil? Neil, mm-hmm, is there anything that you would like to say to the fine folks at home before we head out?
speaker-1: Enjoy your science, folks.
speaker-0: Tai
speaker-2: Bye-bye.
speaker-1: Listener discretion is advised.
speaker-0: Hi friends, welcome back to So Here's the Problem With That, where we watch every sci-fi movie ever made and tell you what's wrong with their Psi and their Phi. My name is Emily and I'm a movie fan.
speaker-1: And my name is Doctor Neil and I have a PhD in high energy physics.
speaker-0: God damn right. And we have a very special guest with us. Special guest
speaker-1: Guest, special guest.
speaker-0: You wanna introduce yourself?
speaker-2: Doctor Hannah Ridgewell. Jesus. I like I never use my doctor, okay? I'm gonna use it. At work I'm just Hannah. To my patients, I'm just Hannah. Gonna use it.
speaker-0: I'll be honest, I forget that you're a doctor. I forget that it's like a real thing. Like I know you went to a lot of school. I forget that it's a real thing.
speaker-2: And I'm a doctor of pharmacy. Woo boo. But we're not talking about anything pharmacy related. So I'm just gonna go back to being Hannah.
speaker-0: You can be him. That's fine. Fine. But Neil is Doctor Neil forever.
speaker-1: Yeah, also fun fact, at work I work with a lot of people who also have PhDs and my boss is very traumatized from his grad school days and he's like, Yeah, we all made it out of that and you're never gonna forget it. So I'm gonna call each and every one of you Dr. So and so. And so he just like every in every meeting, every one on one, it's just Dr. Schroeder. And I'm like, that ain't me, man. But also that ain't me.
speaker-2: Yeah. Yeah, also the reason I don't go by Dr. Ridgewell is that is my father. That's not me. Yep. Yep. That sounds it's it's not accessible and I need to and I'm the accessible healthcare professional.
speaker-0: People have to be comfortable talking to you about things. That's so true.
speaker-2: So when I ask them about how much booze they're drinking, they will actually tell me. 'Cause it's important.
speaker-0: Can't tell Doctor Ridgewell, but I can tell my friend Hannah. I do not have a doctorate. So just sitting over here with my lonely undergrad and my lonely masters. We are a very educated
speaker-2: Something to be. You you went back to school as a full ass adult. That takes more th I I could never. I could never. I got mine all done w once and came out at twenty four and I could never go back. No.
speaker-1: Damn good. PhD at twenty four? That's crazy.
speaker-2: ⁓ a farm D, yeah, at twenty four. I did it in six years.
speaker-0: Six years.
speaker-2: It was an accelerated program. Does it not
speaker-1: I look I started I went to I I started undergrad effectively in two thousand eleven two thousand twelve two thousand twelve and then finished my PhD with no break in twenty twenty four. So To I guess technically it took me twelve years to go through the entire thing.
speaker-2: There's a big difference between a PhD and a Pharm D. I did not do research. Yes. Like I I went to school to learn how to be this kind of healthcare professional. So I did two years of prerequisite work, three years of in classroom pharmacy stuff, and then one year of essentially paying to be an intern. And then I did another year of what
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-2: Some would what in your world would be a postdoc and my world is a residency. So I guess I did it I but I was all but I was a licensed pharmacist during that time. So I did seven years, I guess, of school to be to do what I do.
speaker-1: I don't know how
speaker-0: Either of you keep all the facts straight in your head.
speaker-2: I don't. I look at
speaker-1: Yeah, same.
speaker-0: Superpower is just knowing the most effective ways to Google. Alright, on that note. Yes. Neil, do you want to tell the fine folks at home what movie we're discussing today?
speaker-1: Folks, we're talking about Project Hail Mary.
speaker-0: Our
speaker-1: I mean look, it's pretty popular. And book to movie adaptation, which makes it usually even more popular.
speaker-2: Yes. Which is why I am here.
speaker-0: Okay. Yes, that's right. We talked about but not many people actually ⁓ listen to the mini slow. So the mini sode is delightful. I fucking love it. But Hannah and I have recently launched a new podcast called Adaptation Addicts, where we read a book and then we watch its movie adaptation. It's very simple. Much like Neil and I
speaker-2: Which is a shame.
speaker-0: And very fun. ⁓ my God. We are number one hilarious.
speaker-2: Yes, we ⁓ my we're so funny.
speaker-0: So my husband and I, Taylor, we saw Project Tail Mary opening night. We're like, ⁓ my god, let's go see a new movie. It'd be so much fun. And we
speaker-2: We are moving. ⁓
speaker-0: I again, no children. So Taylor and I, after the movie, we're having dinner, we're talking like, ⁓ my god, that was such a fun movie. And I was like, ⁓ it's a sci-fi movie. I cannot wait to talk to Neil about this. And then he goes, Well, wasn't it a book first? Why don't you talk to Hannah? And I was like,
speaker-2: What if I talk to both of them? It was Taylor's idea? I didn't
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Pretty sure he pointed out that it was both sci-fi and a book.
speaker-1: Taylor's first smart idea.
speaker-2: No no no no no. No. His first smart idea was to marry ⁓
speaker-1: Yes. Mm-hmm.
speaker-0: Second smart idea though. This crossover episode.
speaker-2: It's to get us all to get
speaker-1: Folks, that is entirely a joke. I hope you all realize that. Taylor's a very smart man who is getting his PhD in
speaker-0: What's it? Bring with sarcasm. He's a good man who will never listen to this, so it's fine. I love him, he loves me, he will never listen to this.
speaker-1: I will slander him endlessly on this podcast.
speaker-0: I think that's fair. I think he deserves it. I do have some microbio xenobiology questions. Maybe I won't ask him. I probably will though. Anywho, Neil, can you please read the synopsis for this movie?
speaker-1: Middle school science teacher Ryland Grace ⁓ Ryan Gosling wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission to solve the riddle of the mysterious substance that is causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction. But an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
speaker-0: I'm so excited.
speaker-1: I'm I'm so fascinated about this unexpected friendship. I think it I'm pretty sure it's the alien because of the things that I've seen from the clips of the advertisements of the movie, which is kinda wild.
speaker-2: So for me, starting the book, I'm so glad I started this book before the like promos really ramped up 'cause I did not know that there was gonna be a friend. I just went in this like, ⁓ this is just gonna be a man alone in space. This is gonna be Nope. Not that kind of sci fi. I was literally stoked show when the fun shows up.
speaker-0: ⁓ one of the tags in IMDB is Buddy Comedy. So this kind of a spoiler, but kind of not. But our disclaimer does say all of the spoilers a movie has to offer. So
speaker-2: Perfect. It doesn't matter how new the movie is or how new the book is, we are spoiling.
speaker-0: We're gonna spoil it. So mm Neil, we are going to spoil some things like this is a buddy comedy and the buddy is an alien. Yeah. Look at
speaker-1: I mean I already I kinda knew that. I yeah, you know, look I kinda like I I saw a clip of an ad from the movie and there was an alien and there was a guy and people and I mean they were kinda hanging out together, not running terrified from each other. So I was kinda like, Well, they seem to get along.
speaker-0: I watch Seth Meyer's the Seth Meyer show and Brian Gosling was on there and I hadn't seen the movie because obviously it was before it came out. And they had a clip, and the clip was him and his buddy, and I was like, Is this a spoiler? It must not be if this is the clip they're showing on national television. So
speaker-2: They decided that was not a spoiler. I would have called that a spoiler.
speaker-0: Some people got super upset about the all the promo material having this buddy in it. ⁓ his name is Rocky.
speaker-2: I mean I was very Yeah, I'm glad I had already met Rocky in the book before the promos ramped up.
speaker-1: Rocky and Bullwinkle?
speaker-0: Like Rocky the Boxer. Neil, we have xenobiology questions coming your way.
speaker-1: ⁓ great. Well, I here is what I'm gonna have to say about that up front is it sounds like potentially this is non carbon based life form xenobiology stuff, which is like nobody's jam. There's like three people in the world who do any research on non carbon based life forms and they actually do most of their research on methane and nitrogen based life forms. Which I think is kinda crazy because there could be all kinds of other things, but we're kinda bound by what we know about what's around us. So I maybe they're probably really
speaker-2: Everybody knows about us.
speaker-0: Everyone knows about the shit Pewitt. Thank you very much. Anyway. Okay, movie facts. This movie, this fine film, released March 20th, 2026. Rated PG 13 for some thematic material and suggestive references. Run time of two hours, 36 minutes. Genre tags invented. It's long.
speaker-2: I d but it feels doesn't feel long.
speaker-0: It really doesn't, no. Fun fact that I was gonna tell ⁓ the fun fact section, but I'll tell you right now, the original cut was three hours and forty five minutes. You know what? I did. Yeah.
speaker-2: I would want to I want I already know I want the long cut.
speaker-0: Yep. So it's it's very fun. So genre tags, adventure, comedy, sci fi. Hannah, do you wanna read the tagline? I normally make no do you wanna read it? Yep.
speaker-2: So the tagline reads Believe in the Hail Mary.
speaker-1: Long the long haul. The long pass.
speaker-0: Which they detail in the movie. They do not detail in the book, I don't think. They never be like, hey, this is why we call it the Hail Mary. It like it's just assumed. It's just assumed They spell it out in the movie though.
speaker-2: Yeah. They never say why it's called that.
speaker-1: They never address the fact that like it's a long shot and they're just kind of I got one Yeah. I got one shot
speaker-2: Do but they don't connection. Talk about how like it is the last chance for humanity, yeah. But they don't say, ⁓ we're calling it that be we're calling it the Hail Mary, so because it's our one last chance they don't do that. Yeah. Which is fine.
speaker-0: You can't be exclusive. You figure I mean, especially Americans. I don't know if international audiences would get it without it being explained. But Americans were like, ⁓ yeah, it's a Hail Mary Pass. Got it. Yep.
speaker-1: They had they had one opportunity to seize everything they ever wanted in one moment and capture it? Or just let it slip?
speaker-0: How how long is he gonna do it, I wonder? How many words?
speaker-1: I don't know, but I think mom spaghetti is is where we're going with this, so
speaker-0: Made my day. That was my tip.
speaker-2: And I was lost the whole time.
speaker-1: ⁓ that's an ⁓ reference to the song Lose Your
speaker-2: It would be why. ⁓
speaker-0: Biggest song of that year, Hannah. There's no way you didn't hear that song. Like two thousand eight? When did Eight Mile come out?
speaker-2: Yeah, I was probably
speaker-1: Two thousand two.
speaker-2: ⁓ yeah, that's exactly why. We were twelve. No, I wasn't listening to ⁓ I was probably still listening to bad country music.
speaker-1: I forgot. I mean I'd I'd still listen to bad country music.
speaker-2: Don't don't do that. That's a terrible idea. There's way too much good music to listen to bad
speaker-0: Pure
speaker-1: Like like parked out by the lake? Do you know this song? No. Alright, well whenever you get a chance to listen to that song, it's wonderful and hysterical and you're gonna be confused the whole time.
speaker-0: Wait, Neil, did you show us this song at the sound round?
speaker-1: ⁓ no Pipes showed us this song well showed me this song and then he did this song at karaoke.
speaker-0: That's what it was. It's like this sounds familiar now that I'm thinking about it. It's it's it's pretty great. Normally, we would go into a movie's awards. As stated before, ain't no awards just yet. The too fucking soon. But there's a non zero chance this is gonna get all the awards.
speaker-1: It's very good. It's got so much buzz going already that I know about the buzz for like Oscars for this movie. It's crazy.
speaker-0: Yes, it is fucking everywhere. So that brings us to the parents guide. Yay! So parents guide. Sex and nudity. Absolutely nothing. There is not. One of the text to speech voices sounds very suggestive for two seconds, but it's played for laughs. And a very brief reference to people hooking up. That's all you get.
speaker-2: Yay. As I say, there can't be.
speaker-0: For sex and nudity. Now, gore and violence is mild. There is a blast from a huge explosion that throws people to the ground and they don't die.
speaker-1: Well, that's wrong.
speaker-0: I am aware, I thought very loudly.
speaker-2: No, every movie I watch, Neil, I I any time someone falls backwards, I was like, Nope, they're dead. This movie is no longer f the ⁓ you have ruined action movies.
speaker-1: It's it's if it picks them f vertically up off the ground. If they just fall forwards, that's probably they could survive that. But if you see them get lifted and they hit the ground, it's the upward because the the blast is spherical, right? And so like at the ground level, it's almost entirely perpendicular to the ground and like parallel to your body. So if you get picked up off the ground, that means the blast would have to be so astronomically strong that you would have been I mean virtually vaporized instantaneously.
speaker-0: Actually I think in this movie they are just knocked to the ground. They are not lifted than I recall. So there is infrequent sight of blood in the aftermath of an accident and some desiccated dead bodies are shown.
speaker-1: Mm. Just you know. Kinda sounds a little bit like ⁓ event horizon.
speaker-0: ⁓ no, it's not nearly as bad as Event Horizon.
speaker-2: No, absolutely not. No.
speaker-0: Back to violence and gork a man's arm is burned by touching an alien. You don't see the incident due to dramatically flashing light in the scene, so if you're photos sensitive, just be aware. You do hear the skin sizzling and you see the healed burn later. So there's that. Also, a man throws up several times but manages to grab an orange cone to throw up into. Profanity None. Here's my favorite note. that I have ever read on the Parents Guide. Surprisingly mild. No curse words. Only one use each of piss and two uses of ⁓ my God.
speaker-1: Sorry, what does one use each of piss mean?
speaker-0: I think he was gonna have two words and he f accidentally deleted one. I assume this is a he that's very sexist of me, but that's what I assume. Also, Ryland gets very close to saying the F word once.
speaker-1: That's ⁓
speaker-2: I would swear I'll.
speaker-0: In the book he doesn't swear. In the book he says like stuff. He swears only once and that's when he realizes he's in space.
speaker-2: Yeah. Yeah, you're right.
speaker-0: That's it. Other than that, 'cause he's ⁓ a middle school teacher, so he has taught himself not true.
speaker-2: That was in the
speaker-1: Spoilers.
speaker-0: Just read it in the synopsis!
speaker-1: I didn't. You told me he was a school you told me he was a school teacher.
speaker-0: Middle school science teacher Rylan.
speaker-1: Alright, alright, alright Guys, I got zero short term memory at the moment. Guys, I got zero short term memory at the moment.
speaker-2: Yeah. Who
speaker-0: I see what you did there. Alcohol. Drugs, isn't it great? This is honestly one of my joys in life. Alcohol, drugs, and smoking is mild. Ryland drinks vodka at the beginning of the movie. Lyrics in a song refer to being stoned. When discussing how they would like to okay. So I know, right? So here's one.
speaker-2: How specific this parent guide gets two weeks.
speaker-0: ⁓ it's got the song's been out like for two ⁓ it's got the song. It's Sunday Morning Com Coming Down by Chris Christofferson is the song, and it refers to be getting stoned. So now you know. I don't think I've ever listened to the words of that song before in my life. But also here's kind of a serious one. When discussing how they would like to die, a person says a lethal injection with heroin. Frightening and intense scenes. Moderate. More intense scenes. Only moderate?
speaker-2: This movie's in Space That's fine.
speaker-0: It's fine.
speaker-2: There's no air in space. If you go if we go see this movie together, you might have to poke me once in a while and remind me to breathe.
speaker-0: I can number one, I can do that. Number two, you read the book. You know that it's intense and doesn't it's you guys, this movie's for everybody. This movie is gonna be everyone's gonna have such a good time. I'm so excited. Don't you look so suspicious, Neil Sif. Don't you look so suspicious. It's gonna be a good time, god damn it.
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-0: So the loss of control of a spaceship causes an astronaut to be knocked unconscious. There is intense music and dramatic flashing lights. Again, there's flashing lights a lot, so if you are photosensitive, be very careful. It can be very emotional at times. Again, these are all copy pasted. Many references to suicide and self sacrifice and again desiccated bodies are shown. And that's the parents' guide. So Hannah, you feel a little more ⁓ at ease. Going into this, Neil, do you feel at all concern for seeing this film?
speaker-1: F ⁓ like I'm still concerned about the fact that someone set my expectations horribly poorly for this movie. You could be I c I mean I could be. I could be really surprised. And that would be really fun.
speaker-0: More like this for Project Hail Mary. Story checks out to an extent. The first two, totally get it. The second two, I do not understand what IMDB is trying to tell us. I'll g I'm get in there. Number one, Interstellar.
speaker-1: You gotta you gotta tell people what it is though.
speaker-0: Obviously makes sense. We covered Interstellar on episodes sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, our very first three parter, so we are not going to add this back into the list. So sorry. Quick synopsis in case you didn't listen to those episodes, pffff because you were being dumb. When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft along with a team of researchers to find a new planet for humans. Totally get how these are connected. Thanks. Number two. The Martian. Makes sense. That is the other book written by Andy Weir. It was a huge success. I get it. An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assumes him dead and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue. I think the Martian is already on our list.
speaker-2: Absolutely.
speaker-1: I assume so.
speaker-2: Preach.
speaker-0: on our ⁓ our movie list. And Hannah, I don't think it's on our list, but it can be. So here's where it starts to get wonky. And I think IMDB was just having a ⁓ an algorithm moment. Number three is Marty Supreme, Oscar nominated starring Timothy Chalamet.
speaker-1: Alright.
speaker-2: Ping pong. It is about table tennis. No, there is
speaker-1: It's a story about a young man on an adventure with a long shot at winning. How is that not the same goddamn thing?
speaker-2: Because we're talking about the future of humanity and table tennis.
speaker-1: Look, the steaks. The stakes are not as good. I'll give you that.
speaker-0: I can't argue and it makes me very upset, actually. Alright. I'm curious how you're gonna swing this one, Neil. Number four. One battle after another. Also Oscar nominated Sir Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. When their enemy resurfaces after sixteen years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own. Hey Neil. Yeah. How how's this one connected?
speaker-1: I mean look, I think it's pro I think what they're going for is probably the same thing, which is like one man faces odds that he needs the help of others to overcome in a long shot at winning. And like is it is it a stretch? Is it a stretch? Yeah, it's a stretch. I'm not gonna try and deny that. It's but it's I look, I don't think it's actually that good of a recommendation. ⁓ but I see why it's
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-1: Classic.
speaker-2: I mean why didn't it I think it would've should have suggested things like Armageddon. That would make sense. Gravity
speaker-0: Also,
speaker-1: The edge of tomorrow.
speaker-0: Forget that.
speaker-2: ⁓ Yeah.
speaker-0: So, I'm so sorry, Frying folks at home. We are not going to add Marty Supreme or in another one battle after another. Specifically because they are not sci-fi movies. And we watch every sci-fi movie ever made. True. So you guys want to hear about some of the people involved in this cool thing? I don't know where I was. Hit me with it. Ooh, all right. This film is directed by so excited to do this.
speaker-2: Let's go I know nothing about the film.
speaker-0: This film is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. They are a team. They are known for the LEGO movie, which was way better than it had any right to be. Spider-Man into the Spider-Ver, one of the most incredible pieces of artwork of of just art, Capital A art I've ever seen in my entire life. Obviously Project Hail Mary. And then finally, Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse. That's the sequel. Cannot say enough good things. It made me cry. So hard. So they are generally a team, generally a duo. They've done a handful of things here or there, but for the most part they are a team. They direct together and they write together. So I'm gonna go through some of their highlights because specifically No, I'm gonna go through some of their highlights first for directing. Where first they directed a show called Clone High. It's a high school, it's animated, it's a high school that is filled with clones of people from history. Sounds delightful. They directed Cloudy Two thousand two two thousand three.
speaker-2: that never.
speaker-1: Yeah. It's got really like really strong total drama island vibes.
speaker-0: Kinda like cartoon cartoon, very angular, kinda like Powerpuff Girls art style type thing. They directed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 2009. Again, way better than it had any right to be. They directed both There's a leak in the There's a leak in the boat. ⁓ they directed both Twenty Tw ⁓ Twenty One Jump Street and Twenty Two Jump Street. Twenty one Jump Street was in twenty twelve, twenty-two jump street was in twenty fourteen. The Lego movie, like I said, that was in twenty fourteen as well, and then Project Hail Mary. Twenty twenty six. So they haven't done a lot, but what they've done is incredible. Is like so well received. That's just directing. So writing, they wrote extreme movie starring Michael Sarah from two thousand eight. Looks super fucking weird.
speaker-2: That was a parody age. That was an age where they were spoofing off scary movie and
speaker-0: And that's what I thought it was, but I looked into it and it's actually not. It's actually d a bunch of vignettes, almost like sketch comedy, about puberty. ⁓
speaker-2: It is weird. Now Michael Sarah makes so much sense.
speaker-0: Yes, right. So I also thought that Extreme Movie was gonna be in that epic movie, scary movie thing. But it's not, unfortunately. They wrote ⁓ Cloud with a Chance of Meatballs One and Two, but they did not direct the second one. The Lego movie, like I said, they wrote Spider Man into the Spider-Irs twenty eighteen. They wrote the Lego ⁓ just kidding, they did write ⁓ Lego movie number two. I didn't even know there was a Lego movie too. Number number one, loved it. Number two, I'll catch up with that at some point, I assume. They also wrote Across the Spider-Verse and they relaunched Clone High in 2023. They did like 20 more episodes of revamped Clone High. So kind of fun. I have no idea what channel that's on. Did not look that deep. So upcoming, guess what? And this is gonna come back in our fun facts. Upcoming for directing, they are gonna do Artemis, which is the third book written by Andy Weir. The synopsis for this Jazz is a porter and part time smuggler in the lunar city of Artemis. Trying to make an a little extra money, she accepts a less than legal job but ends up involved in a much bigger crime. So we will come back to this later. The they're also directing The Last Human. It's set in the future in which robots have eliminated humans. When a twelve year old robot discovers and befriends a human girl, then sets off on a journey towards a mysterious point on a map. They don't have any release dates for either of them. You know what they do have release dates for for the most part. Their upcoming writing credits. Number one, they're writing Bob the Musical, which follows a mire mild-mannered man who suddenly hears the inner song of people's hearts after being struck in the head. I'll be honest, I'm in. You have in 2027, beyond the Spider-Verse. ⁓ my god, I'm so excited. I cannot wait. The fact that we have had to wait so long between across the Spider-Verse and
speaker-2: I love this.
speaker-0: And this one, Beyond the Spider Verse, heartbreaking. A lot of it was due to the writer's strike. That happened a couple of years ago. Right just at the wrong time, ma'am. Just at the wrong time. So that's twenty twenty seven. have you never
speaker-2: I have not seen any of the Spider Verse movies.
speaker-0: That's not sad. This is an opportunity. This is exciting. Because you get to see it for the first time. Finally, in 2026, they wrote a movie called Soulmate with a number eight in it. A man acquires an artificially intelligent android to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless love bot into a deadly soulmate. So that's coming out this year somehow.
speaker-1: So incredible. I don't think I like the combination of words harmless love bot. I don't think I like that.
speaker-0: No, it feels gross. Yep. ⁓ these folks have won Oscars. Number one, they won for Into the Spider-Verse, best animated feature. Absolutely deserved it. I don't remember what else was nominated, but it wasn't as good as this. And they were also nominated, and this is because they were producers, not because they wrote or directed, but they were nominated for Mitchell's versus the Machines, another animated classic that was way better than it had any right to be. And they were nominated in twenty twenty four for Across the Spider Verse. And they won, I had never heard of this before, I don't know how, the Annie Awards, which is excellence in animation. They won for the LEGO movie for best writing, and then they were nominated for LEGO Movie for Directing, but did not win. And then for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, they were nominated for writing and directing. So that's Lord and Miller. Yay. Cool.
speaker-1: Heck yeah.
speaker-0: ⁓ this film was written by Drew Goddard, who we discussed because he also wrote Cloverfield. So we talked about Drew Goddard pretty in depth in episode 38 and 39, so I am not gonna talk about him right now. Andy Weir is a credited writer on this film because it is based on his book. He seems like a perfectly fine guy. Y'all, this man has written three books. His very first book was The Martian. His second book was Project
speaker-2: That's not that's not true.
speaker-0: His first published novel was The Martian.
speaker-1: What did he do? What did his book research? What it what was his first book? He worked on a bunch of video games.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-2: Yes, he did. Yeah. His first book was The Th Theft of Pride. He was a he o he published it online and actually so was Project Hail Mary was initially just published on or no the I
speaker-0: The Martian. The Martian was published
speaker-2: Yeah, and then and yeah, it was free on his website, then published on Kindle, so he was like an indie Kindle author, and then he got a traditional publishing.
speaker-1: Whoa. Yep.
speaker-0: Yeah, he was a ⁓
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-1: Three of his books turned into movies?
speaker-0: Absolutely massive hits. Yeah.
speaker-2: And I've heard rumors that like there's discussion of him writing a sequel to Project Hail Mary and I don't want that. The ending is just leave it.
speaker-0: He talked about potentially doing a sequel to Artemis, his other book which was published in twenty seventeen, but the reception for that book was only so so and he was like, ⁓ I don't that's fine.
speaker-1: Kind of sounds like an Enders game situation where Orson Scott Card like wrote Enders Game and it was supposed to be like he the he originally published it in like a ⁓ sci-fi anthology where it was like a 40 page short story and then people were like yo this is so good you have to write a full book and then he wrote a full book and then people were like yo this is so good we need sequels and then he wrote a bunch of sequels sequels that I think some of are some of them are interesting and some of them are not. So I think if he decides to write a sequel, he being Andy Weir, to Project Hail Mary, I don't know, hit or miss, right? Like there's no guarantee it's gonna be good.
speaker-0: So yeah, again, Andy Weir has three published novels, which is wild. That they are all so big. And he specifically said that he wanted he did a shit ton of research for the Martian to make it as scientifically accurate as possible. I did not see a similar note for Project Hail Mary.
speaker-2: I didn't either.
speaker-1: Well but also if Project Hail Mary came later right he'd already still had yeah, he'd already done all that research for the Martians. So like it wouldn't surprise me if this is better than some others, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say that it's gonna be good.
speaker-2: Done a lot of Feels real.
speaker-0: It does feel real. He says it with such conviction. Such conviction. You can say anything with conviction. I'll probably believe you. It's true. Starring Ryan Gosling, who is known for Blue Valentine in 2010, La La Land in 2016, Drive in 2011, and The Notebook in 2004.
speaker-1: ⁓
speaker-2: ⁓ and don't forget the Hay Girl meme. God bless the Hay Girl meme.
speaker-0: How could I forget the Avery meme? That was much of my college career. Sorry. His filmography begins in 1995 with Are You Afraid of the Dark? Y'all remember that? Yeah?
speaker-2: Yes, I still I still there are still I only watched a couple episodes and they still haunt me.
speaker-0: ⁓ they fucked with my head. Neil, too spooky for you. This children's show is too spooky for
speaker-2: Mm. It was a Nickelodeon, it had should not have been there. There was a dollhouse episode that I still Mmm. Yep, yep, yep, yep.
speaker-0: He was also in an episode of Goosebumps in nineteen ninety six, episode of Flash Forward, which was I think it was like a Disney or Nickelodeon show that I remember fondly, also starring Ben Foster, who is one of my loves. In nineteen ninety nine he did one episode of Hercules of the Hercules and Zen.
speaker-2: The animated series? ⁓ that Hercules
speaker-0: The real one! He did the real one! He did one episode. ⁓ there was. But that was the Hercules animated the Disney one? Yes. Get the fuck out of here. Absolutely not. Here's Kevin Sorbo. Give me my MAGA Kevin Sorbo. Or I want none of it. I didn't know at the time. I didn't know. I loved Kevin.
speaker-2: It's also an animated series. O'Neill him and he broke my heart.
speaker-0: Art.
speaker-1: This is like Armageddon all over again.
speaker-0: The first time I found out that he was a Trumper, I'm like, you have gotta be fucking kidding me. Hercules would never. Anyway, so he did one episode of Hercules where he played a character called Xylus. I only bring this up because the very next year he starred in the show Young Hercules, which ran between nineteen ninety eight and nineteen ninety nine as Young Hercules. Now I don't I never saw the show, but I had A VHS of an animated movie starring Hercules and Xena. And th in the previews there was a trailer for young Hercules. And I was always like, that young man is so handsome. I didn't say that because I was a child. And I was like, Who's that? And that was Ryan Gosling. That's my story about young Hercules. Apparently, had no idea. He was in Remember the Titans in two thousand. Zoom memory of him being in there. Then The Notebook happened in two thousand four. Then Lars and the Real Girl happened in two thousand and seven. And now here's where shit goes wild. Blue Valentine in twenty ten. All good things in two thousand and ten as well. This is where he played Robert Durst. He's a he's a a millionaire. Killed all of his friends and family. And then Drive came out in two thousand eleven. Then Crazy Stupid Love, also two thousand eleven. Then The Ides of March, which he starred in with George Clooney, also 2011. Then Touch of Evil, I don't know what that was, but it was also 2011. That was a big fucking year. And then Gangster Squad came out in 2013. He was in The Big Short in 2015. The Nice Guys in 2016. La La Land, also 2016. Blade Rudder, 2049, 2017. First man, where he played Neil Armstrong, so that's kind of fun. That was twenty eighteen. Then
speaker-2: It was a busy year.
speaker-1: My name is
speaker-0: Yes. ⁓ is that really your namesake? And then you went into physics and science and space?
speaker-1: Yeah, except that's not hang on. You gotta Physics and Science But hang on. You gotta remember that like NASA picked the jocks to go to space. NASA was like, You gotta be a you gotta be in the military. You gotta have come up through like military flight school, you gotta have been a pilot in the Air Force for so long, and then we're gonna select the best pilots of the Air Force and we're gonna train them to fly this giant hunk of metal into space and then we're also gonna teach them how to be engineers. And they then then they then they sent these people into space. We're like, okay, the Artemis stuff that's happening right now is like the first time that we've sent a scientist to space since the last successful Apollo mission landed on the moon. They sent one they sent one scientist to the moon. It was a geologist. It's crazy. And now we're doing science in space again, guys.
speaker-2: Okay.
speaker-0: Did your parents want you to be a jock? Is that why?
speaker-1: No, they look no, they looked at me and they were like, Who does he look like? Well, he doesn't look like anybody we know, so we'll call him Neil.
speaker-0: He doesn't look like anybody we know like each other.
speaker-1: Yeah, exactly.
speaker-0: Incredible. ⁓ anywho, finishing out his filmography, Barbie came out in twenty twenty three. That was a delight. Neil and I saw Barbie together, and then I went on for the Barbenheimer.
speaker-1: I can't watch I can't watch options.
speaker-0: That's fine. I wouldn't recommend it.
speaker-1: Yeah. It's less about the intensity of the film and more about the fact that Like I work a little too closely to a lot of that stuff and also they didn't do a really good like they gloss over a lot of the damage the like nuclear program did both to the planet and to a lot of like indigenous peoples all over the western United States and the greater Pacific. And like it's
speaker-2: Decided not to talk about how they hurt indigenous people?
speaker-0: What so Ryan Gosling coming up, he has ⁓ two films. One that does not have a release date is Tough Guys, also starring Will Farrell, where two low-level criminals grow weary of being expendable pawns and decide to forge their own path, leaving behind their dangerous world to create a fresh start and make their own rules.
speaker-1: Yeah, surprise.
speaker-2: King.
speaker-0: And this one, slated tentatively for twenty twenty seven, is Star Wars Starfighter. In re in a rebuilding galaxy, a solitary pilot becomes entangled in a crucial mission as new threats emerge. Their journey may alter the future of the force itself. This also stars Amy Adams, Mia Goth, and is directed by Sean Levy.
speaker-2: I'm sorry. So Amy Adams is in a Star Wars movie? That sounds crazier than Ryan Gosling being in a Star Wars movie.
speaker-0: ⁓ okay. ⁓ so awards. He has been nominated for Oscars. Two leading actor Oscars he was nominated for. One was Half Nelson, two thousand six. ⁓ middle school teacher, I think, who befriends with a drug problem who befriends one of his students. That's
speaker-1: I have heard of this film. This is a David recommendation ⁓ that people don't talk about enough, go watch Half Nelson.
speaker-0: Okay. Well and he it was c clearly good enough he got nominated for an Oscar in fucking two thousand six. Yeah. Then La La Land, he was also nominated for leading actor, that was in two thousand sixteen. And then he was nominated for Barbie in for supporting actor in Barbie. Whatever year that was, but he was the only one.
speaker-2: In twenty three.
speaker-0: Twenty twenty three, yes.
speaker-1: Go Robbie was not nominated for best actor.
speaker-0: No. And the director, Greta Gerwig, was not nominated for director.
speaker-2: She was not. That was I have so many thoughts about I I think I'm I'm more upset about the fact that Greta Gerwig wasn't nominated. Like I also agree that Margot should have been, but the fact that Greta wasn't
speaker-0: actually more upset that the only man was the only nomination. Yep. Not that he wasn't great. Obviously he was incredible.
speaker-2: He was. He was wonderful.
speaker-1: ⁓ that makes me angry.
speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. ⁓ I have thoughts.
speaker-1: I have rage and sorrow.
speaker-0: Heard. Yep. Yep. Heard and felt. He was nominated for an Emmy ⁓ for best guest actor on SNL. I that's not exactly what it's for. It's best guest actor on a show and the show was SNL.
speaker-2: I do enjoy his when he's on SNL. But at least one time he was on they did the alien abduction ones. Is that the episode? ⁓
speaker-0: That's this episode. He has been I I just kind of breezed through a lot of 'cause he's been nominated like over two hundred times for two hundred different fucking awards. He's been nominated for BAFTA's, Critic's Choice, Golden Globes, he was nominated for Best Actor for La La Land. And then I got to the fun ones. So here's all of his nominations for the MTV movie awards. For La he was nominated for Best Kiss and Best Musical Moment. For Crazy Stupid Love, he was nominated for Best Kiss and
speaker-2: ⁓
speaker-0: ⁓ also with Emma Stone, who was with him in La La Land. For Drive, he was nominated for Best Male Performance and Best Gut Wrenching Performance. The Teen Choice Awards, he was nominated for T Blade Runner 2049 as Choice Movie Actor in a Sci-Fi movie. For Drive, he was nominated for Choice Movie Actor in a Drama. This this is the voice you have to use for this. Crazy Stupid Love, he was nominated for Choice Movie Actor in a Comedy. And Choice Movie Chemistry with Steve Correll. And Favorite Movie Lip Lock. I'm pretty sure also with Yeah, with Emma Stone. Then Choice Male Hottie. He won that one. He was nominated for the rest, but he won Choice Male Hottie. And then the Notebook. He won Choice Actor in a Drama. Choice Love Scene. Choice Movie Breakup Performance for a Male. He won that. Choice movie liplock. Movie Chemistry. Dude. Because he gets very specific. Choice movie chemistry with Rachel McAdams. And then he was nominated but did not win for Dance Scene. So that is Ryan Gosling. And I spent so much time on Ryan Gosling because he is truly the only actor for like seventy percent of this film. Yeah. 20% of this film features our next actor, Sandra Huler. She's incredible and I love her so much. She is really she's been acting forever, but she's German, so this is her first American film. She really came to prominence in twenty twenty three. She had two massive movies. Number one, Anatomy of a Fall, twenty twenty-three. She was nominated for an a an Oscar for leading actress for this film. It's a woman is suspected of murder after her husband's death. Their half blind son faces a moral dilemma as the main witness. And they're dark. Everyone lost their fucking minds. She's also known for the zone of interest, which also came out in twenty twenty three. Zone of interest. That a hand. A common Yes, a commandant of Auschwitz and his wife strive to build a dream life for their family in a house next to the camp.
speaker-1: Oof.
speaker-0: I want to see that movie so badly. It won for best sound, I believe, because so much of it is truly just in their garden, in their house, and you can just hear what's happening at the camp.
speaker-2: And I feel like And my understanding is you never see the camp. You just only hear it. Yeah.
speaker-0: So that's cool. Which is. ⁓ she's been nominated for a bunch of bunch of stuff. Also, I wanted to bring up our third main actor. Because it is his first movie role. The actor who plays Rocky, his name is James Ortiz. And the reason that it's his f is one of his first movie roles, he's only done like two, is because he's a puppeteer. He was not he's not an actor. He was not cast in this role. He was the puppeteer who was saying the lines with them, and the directors were like, I think that's as good as it gets. Let's just have him do it. And they did.
speaker-2: I love ⁓ that makes me so happy. ⁓
speaker-0: Apparently he's like a legendary puppeteer by the way. Like Yeah, so that's pretty neat. Like I said, we can't do the numbers game 'cause the numbers aren't in. So let's get into the fun facts. So Lord Miller mentioned that there was no green screen used in the movie. The entire set was shot physically. Miller had previously stated that VFX were used to depict the spaceship from the outside, while shots of gostling in space were shot against a black or varying colored backdrop.
speaker-1: ⁓ that's cool.
speaker-0: Rocky, like I said, is
speaker-2: ⁓ this makes me very practical expects. ⁓
speaker-1: Thank you.
speaker-0: Neil, what do you got?
speaker-1: I'm now very suspicious about the space scenes and whether or not we'll be able to see weird little effects of gravity in the space scenes.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-2: What do you got? ⁓ I was just gonna say I love practical effects. Like I'm really excited and I don't I didn't like the era where everything was just in post because it got really icky. I mean it meant certain shows could actually be made because it was cheap. Like the whole the the fact that once upon a time exists is because everything was on a blue screen and it was cheap to do so they could actually make that show. Was it good? No. Was it did I love it?
speaker-0: Yes. Absolutely. Zero question. Love that show. The first like two seasons specifically
speaker-2: The last season didn't mean to exist, they should have just quit, but that's
speaker-0: ⁓ but yeah, Rocky is a puppet. There's like a handful of shots where he is digitized, but ninety percent of that straight up puppet. So that's exciting. The initial test screening of the film, like I said, was three hours and forty-five minutes long, and it was cut down based on feedback.
speaker-1: Show me the full cut.
speaker-0: Lego released a model of the Hail Mary spacecraft as part of the Lego icon series. Just thought that was kinda neat. The scene where Eva Stratt Sandra Huler, as I mentioned, Saints karaoke, was not in the original script. Ryan Gosling overheard her singing between takes and asked her to perform for the movie just forty-eight hours before filming that scene. Every once in a while, Ryan Gosling's daughters, Esmeralda and Amada. ⁓ occasionally spoke for his alien co star Rocky ⁓ through his earpiece on the set. Speaking of their help, Gosling said, there are some moments in the movie where I'm laughing or I'm just so charmed by Rocky, which is like it's actually my kids talking to me and helping me out. So like some of the times where he's crying, it's 'cause his kids were saying the lines to him.
speaker-2: can't ⁓ my goodness.
speaker-0: One of the credits for the rejected Rocky voice is Ray Porter, the narrator of the English language version of Project Hail Mary audiobook, which I hear is incredible. If you get a chance to listen to it, I hear it's so good.
speaker-2: Yeah, I ⁓ one of my best friends have ⁓ has listened to it and she was like, ⁓ my gosh, you have to just because of the rocky musical voice.
speaker-0: Ryan Gosling wears glasses in the film because during wardrobe tests his daughter passed by and mentioned he looks smart with glasses. Kinda cute. Love it. This is actress Sandra Hoodler's first American film and one of very few English language films that she has done. Finally, the astronauts of the Artemis II mission watched the film in quarantine before their launch to the moon. And this film became the first ever filmed to premiere in the stratosphere. A bespoke IMAX display was sent into space that played footage. From the film. I don't know how that works, but I'm very curious.
speaker-1: So apparently one of the stunts that they did for this movie was to send an IMAX compatible L C D screen into space somehow. I d it is very much so not clear how they did this. I have only seen this reported on like somewhat dubious places. I have found no verification of it. I'm a little suspicious that this actually happened. It would realistically it would work if you had if you brought a power source up to power the T V. Like you could just play it on a DVD player and just put it on the T V. We have technology that will take stuff up there for like not a ton of money. You won't get it back, but it'll take stuff up there. But the weird thing is that like None of the none of the companies or agencies that have the technology to do this have verified that they did this for the movie.
speaker-0: I feel like that's something that they would crow about.
speaker-1: Yeah, I'm only seeing this one shot of the movie on a T V screen projected against the background of the curved curvature of the Earth. I can't find any sources for where that image came from, other than suspecting that it's Photoshop or AI.
speaker-0: That's a shame. Alright, well then it is not a fun fact, it is a fun th potential thing. So the reviews for this film are overwhelmingly positive. Ninety-six percent of Google users, you know, h the fourteen people that actually rate movies on Google, ninety-six percent of them love this movie. IMDB, this has an eight point four out of ten. Metacritic is a seventy-seven out of a hundred with a user for critics and a user score of eight point three out of ten. Rotten tomatoes. Critic score? Ninety four. Audience score? Ninety six. Letterboxed. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Letterboxed. Has 4.3 out of 5. That's like one of the highest letterbox scores I think I've ever seen. So the Rotten Tomatoes Critic Summary is a visually dazzling space odyssey that's carried along effortlessly by the gravitational pull of Ryan Gosling at his most winning. Project Hail Mary is a near-miraculous fusion of smarts and heart. And they added a new thing. I haven't seen this before. The audience summary.
speaker-2: Thank you.
speaker-0: One stellar gosling plus one arachnid-ish alien plus one Hail Mary mission equals lightning in a spaceship.
speaker-1: Don't put lightning in a spaceship. That's bad.
speaker-0: It's like a bottle. It's like a bottle. It's not a bottle. Suspicious. It's like a very special bottle. It won't explode.
speaker-1: It'll just melt the glass! What do you mean it won't explode? Don't put lightning in a spaceship.
speaker-2: I feel like you should put lightning in anything.
speaker-1: You put lightning in rocks and then you get computers.
speaker-0: Is that how that works? Mm-hmm. I feel like this is a joke that I don't understand.
speaker-1: No, the wizards they put the lightning in the rocks and then the rocks do the things for you. It's it's magic. Have you never heard this explanation of like technology and silicone wafers and shit? It's literally just rocks that people pumped electricity into. You put you pump you pump lightning into the rocks and then the rocks d do crazy shit like I d tell you your i terrible ideas are great.
speaker-0: But it also gives me movie reviews Silver Lining.
speaker-1: That's true. ⁓ yeah, we're boiling the ocean for this. ⁓
speaker-2: Not working.
speaker-0: No, anyway. So let's wrap this shit up. It's almost bedtime. Hannah, what are your expectations for this film?
speaker-2: ⁓ boy. Well I know how it ends. I know ev I I know the things. My expectations. I I probably have pretty high expectations. I mean granted I had to Google st I had to finally image search spa stuff about the spaceship to finally understand like what it's supposed to look like. So there's a lot of things I'm very excited to see visually. Yeah, at the beginning before I understood that that was important and I couldn't go back. And I I I love babe goose. So I probably I have probably have pretty high expectations. I'm I mean, I better have high expectations because if I'm gonna go to a movie theater, put on pants, and not have my bathroom two feet from my couch, it's better be good. I'm also not a Scientists like Neil's a scientist. So when they say, Yes, this is fact, I go, Sure, yep, that's fact. So ⁓ I have high expectations is the answer.
speaker-0: Neil Sif, what are your expectations for this film?
speaker-1: I am expecting a cinematic marvel. What goes into my eyeballs is probably gonna make me happy. And then as soon as it gets processed by the science part of my brain, it's gonna make me sad. Is it probably just annoyed. Not sad. I won't be sad. Like I'm I'm excited to go watch it, but I'm kinda dreading what's the science gonna turn out to be.
speaker-0: Yeah. What's the whole point of the show?
speaker-2: I know I know.
speaker-1: I know But like in most of the other films that we watch, I get to go in being like my expectations are really low for the science. And when they're really low for the science and they still trip over the bar, that's funny because it's that bad. Right when they kinda like gracefully step over the bar and then they fall flat on their face two steps later, that's also kinda funny. Like that's kind of a good time. But I'm really worried that someone was like, These people are pole vaulting and someone's gonna army crawl under the bar. I'm really worried.
speaker-0: Enough about science to assuage or or build upon your fears. I can't I'm y I've got you right down the middle. I'm excited to see this movie again. I will say it it made me feel in my heart very similar to Interstellar. In that it was it was grand it's funnier than Interstellar. Like we'll put that one out on front.
speaker-1: Yeah, Interstellar it was sad in many ways.
speaker-0: So
speaker-2: Mm-hmm.
speaker-0: The visuals, the scope, all of that felt interstellar-esque. But I could be wrong. Who's to say? We'll find out. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm I cannot wait. Hannah and or Neil, if you wanna like go on a friend date, that would be super fun.
speaker-1: Find out.
speaker-2: I was assuming we would see it together.
speaker-0: But we need to like not talk about it is the thing. We have to wait until we get back here. That's the hard part. I would recommend if you are listening to this and you have not seen it and you do wish to see it, see it on the largest available screen. I'm gonna try and get these two Yahoos to go see it in IMAX. It's breathtaking visually. That's all I have to say about that. So but you can email us if you've got sci fi movie recommendations, you can email us at here's the problem pod at gmail dot com. You can follow me on letterboxed. I am at 2D Fruity T-U-D-Y-F-R-U-D-Y. I rate and review all of our science movies and all of our adaptation addicts movies. Hannah, how about you? Where can they find adaptation addicts?
speaker-2: You can find our i our Adaptations Addicts Instagram at Adaptation Addicts Pod and our email is the same but at Gmail.
speaker-0: Excellent. Adaptation Addicts Pod where we read a book, watch its movie. Rate review, subscribe to this podcast, because you know you're gonna have more questions. You know you're gonna wanna know what Neil thinks about this science. You know
speaker-1: always making science movies and they're always doing a bad job.
speaker-0: Always.
speaker-2: ⁓ wow.
speaker-1: They're always
speaker-0: But that's not always is it, Neil? Neil, mm-hmm, is there anything that you would like to say to the fine folks at home before we head out?
speaker-1: Enjoy your science, folks.
speaker-0: Tai
speaker-2: Bye-bye.
