To Tau and Back

I haven’t really figured out if I prefer reading a book before seeing a movie (or television show) based on that book, or if I think going to the movie first works better for me. Considering how many movies I review on this site on a regular basis, it should be pretty clear that I consider myself a movie guy first and foremost. They’re my preferred form of entertainment, quick blips of story that I can pop on, watch for a couple of hours, and then move on to the next thing. They suit the way my brain works, and I like being able to get in, get out, and get a complete package.

With that said, there are plenty of times where I have found that the book a movie or show is based on is generally different enough (if not also better than the adaptation) that going back to the source proves interesting. In college I read both Fight Club and American Psycho just to see how different they were. Those were two movies that were considered unadaptable, and considering the changes the films had to make from the books, I could see why. I liked the books, but I appreciated the films so much more for how they were able to distill the stories down into functional, digestible, filmic entertainment. I tend to remember that when there’s some new adaptation coming out for a story that sounds interesting. If I’d read the books first, would I have liked Fight Club or American Psycho as movies as much? That’s hard to say.

In the case of Project Hail Mary I actually am glad that I watched the movie before reading the book. It’s not that I think the book is substantially better, or even substantially different. Written by Drew Goddard and directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the film version of Project Hail Mary is a surprisingly solid, faithful adaptation of the book, taking all the passages and events that fans of the novel would want to see on the big screen. It does a fantastic job of streamlining the story and making it digestible for audiences. What the book has, though, is the science, all the bits that most people watching on the big screen likely wouldn’t have cared about. For science geeks, and even for people that like to see a little more of the how along when the when in a story, the Project Hail Mary novel gives you everything you could want. The two versions are, really, perfect companions for each other.

Functionally the book and the movie follow the same plotline. What I could just say, “go read my movie review to see the story,” let’s do a fresh, slightly different recap here. Ryland Grace is a former scientist, current science teacher, who was basically shunned by the scientific community for theorizing that water, one of the key building blocks of life on Earth, is not a necessary substance for all life everywhere. No one else believed him, but he stuck to his guns and published a paper about that basically got him kicked out of all the cool science parties. So he went to be a teacher and ignored all those jerks.

However, when it’s discovered that there’s an alien infestation that is slowly eating on the Sun, darkening it and threatening all life on Earth, Ryland finds himself back in the scientific circles. The head of the project investigating these alien particles, Eva Stratt, comes to Ryland for his expertise on what these strange new aliens could be. And once he’s in he starts making all kinds of discoveries. Soon a plan is put together to send astronauts off to the one star system in the whole Milky Way, Tau Ceti, and Ryland becomes a scientific advisor for that team. And, eventually, somehow ends up on that mission, finding himself the sole survivor of the flight out to Tau Ceti (as the hibernation process killed the other two crew members), and now he has to find a way to save Earth all by himself. Thankfully he’ll get some help from another alien, who he eventually names Rocky, as they’re also at Tau Ceti for the same reason.

The benefit a book has over a movie is that it’s far easier for a book to get you into the mind of a character. In a movie a character has to tell you what they’re thinking, or they have to have voice over, and it can feel very awkward. Too much exposition can ruin the flow of a film, so movies have to be sparing with how the characters exposit. But a book can delve deeper, letting us observe from within a character’s head to see all that they see, understanding them at a level a movie can’t ever really touch.

Project Hail Mary is told from a first person perspective. The whole of the novel comes from Ryland, his thoughts and writings, as he takes us from the point at which he wakes up on the ship, the Hail Mary, not know who he is or how he got there, through the period where he slowly gets his memories back, all alongside his discoveries at Tau Ceti and his growing friendship with the only other being in the whole star system, Rocky. It gives us a different perspective on him as a character, and that suits the novel really well.

I wouldn’t call it better or different. The movie basically cheats, if I’m being honest, by casting one of the best actors of our modern era, Ryan Gosling, as Ryland Grace. There aren’t that many actors that could play Ryland and make him as interesting and compassionate in movie form as he is on the written page, but Gosling manages. That’s why the movie can be as good as the book (in different ways), simply because we get a lot from Gosling that works to get us into his character. The book accomplishes the same thing without the benefit of a fantastic actor doing all the heavy lifting.

Of course, as with the movie, the book really comes alive once Rocky enters the picture. We go from primarily getting Ryland’s thoughts to having real character interactions and dialogues. It makes the book feel more full, and in the process it helps to shake that feeling of loneliness that had been building in the book up to that point. That’s something the book is really able to build up (and I think the movie lacks to a certain extent): Ryland’s loneliness, being the only person alive on this ship light years from home, feels palpable. We bond with Ryland because he’s going through something real, and we feel it. Thus, when Rocky shows up, it becomes a relief not just for Ryland but for us as well. We’re there with Ryland, in his head, and we appreciate the opening of the story once Rocky is introduced.

And the two of them do science. This was what I was most wanting from the novel, and I’m glad it’s here. I previously read The Martian (a book I actually did read before the movie adaptation, although I also think both are excellent), and what I liked best about the novel was that when the character decided that he had to “science the shit out of Mars”, he actually backed that up with real science. That novel is well researched and very well plotted, and Project Hail Mary benefits from the same strong plotting and attention to detail. This is a novel that gets you into the science that Ryland and Rocky get up to, throwing you in as they science the shit out of saving their worlds, but it makes it digestible as well. I’m not a scientist by trade, but the book was able to guide me through their thoughts and how things worked to the point that I could follow along. And I could appreciate how much work was being put in. It was everything I wanted.

Naturally there are moments that play differently, small scenes that are changed between book and movie, but on the whole I think that fans of one are going to appreciate the other. My wife loved the movie so much that she got the book (and read it before I got to it), saying it was top tier. Like me she felt that both were equally good, for different reasons, and she really couldn’t say that one somehow edged out the other (although Ryan Gosling is a compelling argument all on his own). The book is simply that good.

If you like reading and you have the time to spend with a really good sci-fi tale of two people saving their home worlds, then the novel form of Project Hail Mary is a solid read. It’s really great, well paced, well plotted, and just detailed enough to make you feel smart, all while providing an awesome buddy adventure. I liked the movie and felt it was a good, shorter form of the novel, but I am glad I went back and read the book after. The two compliment each other really well, and any fan should eventually read the book and see the film. Do it in whatever order works for you; just kick back and enjoy the ride.