Project Hail Mary was a best-selling book by Andy Weir before it became a blockbuster movie. And Weir, who’s no stranger to seeing his work adapted (see 2015’s The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon), knew that some changes would be made in the transition from page to screen. But there was one tweak in particular made by scripter Drew Goddard and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller that Weir thought actually improved on his own story.
Speaking to Polygon, Weir explained it has to do with why Ryan Gosling’s character, Ryland Grace, ends up on the Hail Mary in the first place. In the book, it’s because Ryland has a rare gene that enables him to be “resistant to long-term comas.” In other words, he’s an ideal candidate for an extended space voyage. He becomes the guy when the other scientists who fit the bill are killed in an accident while preparing for the launch.
The movie, however, does away with the rare gene subplot. Instead, it’s Ryland’s specific knowledge and brainpower (and the fact that he’s, you know, the last one alive after the accident kills the scientists he was training, with no time to replace them) that lands him the gig. It also helps that he’s a solitary guy without any family that he’d want to return to Earth for.
“Between Drew and the directors, they came up with a way to have Ryland be on the ship without having that coma gene, which is why he ended up being the last-minute replacement,” Weir told Polygon.
“Drew found a way to have that all happen, to have the [same] immediacy without having to resort to this little made-up side science that I had to come up with for the book. It always felt a little contrived to me in the book, and I’m glad that they found a way to do it without that in the movie.”
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