When designing space ships in movies, it’s forgivable when artists opt to make something that looks cool instead of something perfectly realistic. After all, it’s not like anyone is going to try and bring the designs into functional reality; their principal purpose is to make audiences ooh and ahh. Because Project Hail Mary qualifies as “hard sci-fi,” however, the expectations are naturally a little bit different – and in reflection of that, I love all of the thought that went into the design of the Blip A, the alien behemoth piloted by Rocky.
The Blip A doesn’t have an interesting name (Eridians don’t name their ships, and it simply popped up with that label on the Hail Mary’s radar), but it does have a fascinating look, and it’s the result of a lot of in-depth conversations. When CinemaBlend sat down with directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller during the Project Hail Mary press day, the filmmakers discussed the amount of thought that went into adapting the ship from author Andy Weir’s book and having its verisimilitude match everything else in the blockbuster. Miller singled out one of their collaborators specifically, saying,
Charlie Wood, our amazing production designer who was very, very thoughtful and an amazing person, had lots of discussions with scientists and Andy [Weir] about, like, ‘What's the communication technique?’ And there's reasons for all of the things that were in there. Like the little wires that they had for making plucking like guitar strings to communicate from the front of the back of the ship. And there's like carvings on the walls that represent things. There's so much culture and history there that people will hopefully dig into it and there's a reason for everything there.
I absolutely love this explanation of the long strings on the Blip A. Because Eridians don’t have eyes and speak through musical notes, their communication is naturally going to be different than what humans have, and it makes all the sense in the world that their devices for communication would be akin to instruments.
Article continues belowNot only is the interior of the Blip A super cool, what’s particularly special about the presentation of the ship in the film is that it’s not really rooted in material from the book: the sequence where Ryan Gosling’s Ryland Grace goes into Rocky’s vessel wearing a xenonite suit doesn’t happen in the novel, meaning that movie audiences are gifted with a special peek inside that readers of the book never got.
Based on Chris Miller’s comments, it sounds like the scene with Grace and Rocky aboard the Blip A is going to be one that audiences should pause and investigate when the film eventually arrives on home video. I’ll definitely want to check out those carvings and work to interpret their meaning… though I would also love it if digital and physical media releases have a commentary track that lets the directors point out at some specific details that viewers might otherwise miss.
For now, audiences are encouraged to simply go and see Project Hail Mary in theaters as many times as possible, as it’s most certainly a blockbuster intended to be seen on the biggest screen imaginable. The film dominated at the box office last weekend, setting a record for new releases in 2016, and it’s expected to do the same in the days ahead.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
