057: the hero's journey, the odyssey, + project hail mary | why love makes us brave

This week, we're crying over two very different 2026 films (or maybe they're the same?): Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling and based on Andy Weir's bestselling novel.

Arns first takes us through The Odyssey, exploring why this 3,000 year-old epic is so much more than monsters, Greek gods, war, and adventure. Beneath Odysseus' epic heroism is a deeply human story about shame, control, and coming to terms with who you truly are versus who the world admires you to be. As it turns out, the hardest part of being a hero isn't facing danger—it's learning to forgive yourself.

Nins then gives a full recap of Project Hail Mary (spoiler alert to! the! max!!). The story follows Ryland Grace, a scientist-turned-teacher-turned-astronaut who's reluctantly been sent on a mission to save Earth. Grappling with what it means to be a hero, he ultimately risks everything for someone he loves, teaching us that maybe there is no "bravery gene"; maybe we just need someone to be brave for.

A cozy, comedic, & emotional conversation about The Odyssey, Project Hail Mary, Christopher Nolan, Ryan Gosling, Andy Weir, the hero's journey, friendship, love, courage, self-forgiveness, relinquishing control, and what it really means to be brave.

Content warning: discussion of death, grief, war, mass casualty, suicide mission, violence, and extinction.

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Chapters:

• 0:00 - Preview: the hero's journey

• 0:55 - Welcome back, crybabies!

• 4:06 - Nins' rec: The Witch In The Moon

• 6:10 - Arns' rec: The Know Newsletter

• 8:14 - Arns: Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey

• 17:49 - Why it's so hard to be the hero

• 30:21 - What made Arns cry the hardest was after the film

• 33:54 - The true hero's journey: learning to forgive yourself

• 41:22 - Nins: Project Hail Mary (love u Ryan Gosling!!)

• 44:27 - About the author, Andy Weir

• 58:34 - Grace is not a hero

• 1:08:02 - Rocky, friendship, & finding someone to be brave for

• 1:27:52 - What it really means to be a hero
  

Referenced in this episode:

• The Witch In The Moon on Spotify & YouTube

• The Know Newsletter

• The Odyssey (2026 film)

• "When I'm Home" by James Blake, Travis Scott, Ludwig Göransson on Spotify & YouTube

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

• Project Hail Mary (2026 film)

• A episode from the Overdue Podcast about Project Hail Mary

• "Author Discusses How ‘The Martian’ Went From Blog To Blockbuster" on the WPR blog

• transcript (click to reveal)

  Speaker 1: 00:00

  Maybe the reason why Odysseus's journey is so long and drawn out isn't actually because of the gods doing all these crazy things. Maybe it's because he just doesn't want to go home. Because going home would mean facing who he's become.

  Speaker: 00:14

  So then Rocky's like, how many humans on ship? There were three of us, and now it's only me. Only us. Rocky corrects him. Grace Rocky saves stars. I'm not gonna dwell on that because I will break down.

  Speaker 1: 00:29

  So you're telling me that I talked about how hard it is to be the hero, and you talked about It's actually really easy.

  Speaker: 00:39

  And that's all, folks. This is BRB Crying.

  Speaker 1: 00:55

  Hello

  Speaker 1: 00:55

  everyone, and welcome to BRB Crying. I'm Arns. And I'm Nins.

  Speaker: 01:01

  And here we are once more, adding another cry to the Chronicles. Oh. I love that. You are here witnessing your best friends tell each other and you about something that made us cry. So uh get cozy, settle in, get comfy, get ready for some raucous laughter. Because, you know, crying and laughter. That's hand in hand.

  Speaker 1: 01:28

  Hand in hand. If you're new here, welcome. If you're old here, welcome back, Crybaby. We are so happy to have you back. If you haven't already, give us a follow @b rbcrying.podcast on all socials and review us on Spotify and Apple, and we'll mail you a little sticker.

  Speaker: 01:49

  That's it. They're like, wait, you usually berate us for five minutes about the damn review. But not today. We'll be we'll be a little more chill about it. Yeah. We're so chill, I swear to God. Yeah, we're fine. Yeah. We're fine. Um, how are you?

  Speaker 1: 02:05

  I'm good. Yeah. Yes. I I am great. I I uh went to the Backstreet Boys concert last week on a fucking whim. Yeah. Amazing. Wow. Incredible 16 hours of my life. Yeah, it looked really cool. It was so fucking cool. It looked really cool. I might go back again before the end of the year.

  Speaker: 02:21

  See, I like I don't know their music that much, but I feel like it probably doesn't matter. Like I'm sure I'd have the best time.

  Speaker 1: 02:28

  Yeah, I feel like even you getting ready for it, you'd be like, okay, Y2K. I I bought butterfly clips as soon as I got home. I've been wearing them.

  Speaker: 02:36

  I want some. Yeah. I was seeing this thing the other night, TikTok, obviously, where it was like celebrating the part about like a trip or something you have planned in the future and how like the anticipation makes that thing even better. And so someone in the comments was like, you know, I really wanted to surprise my mom with a trip to Paris. And I had been planning it for months and months and months. And my thought was that I wouldn't tell her until we got to the airport. Oh. But then my dad was like, no, you should tell her because having eight months to look forward to something is like going to be just as special for her. Like she will be so thrilled. And I love that. Like, yeah.

  Speaker 1: 03:25

  It really the anticipation is such a huge part of the enjoyment. It's the climb.

  Speaker: 03:30

  Sometimes you know sometimes it's better than the thing. Exactly. Yeah. So yeah, cool. I'm great. I love that. Living my life. Live in your life. How are you? I'm feeling really good too. Okay. I really feel like the last couple of months, I was uh really just surviving, like really just overwhelmed. I felt like I could not catch my breath. But over the last, I don't know, week, I you know what it is? It's Virgo season. It's Virgo season, baby. So now I feel really centered again.

  Speaker: 04:06

  And I really have to credit my recommendation for this week as one of the main reasons that I feel so much more grounded. Okay. And I've told you about this before, but I have found this really, really incredible guided meditation. I've been playing her videos before I go to sleep. Her name is The Witch in the Moon. You can find her on Spotify. And she does like 15 to 30 minute meditations, and they all like focus on a particular theme or whatever. But I swear to God, like it has made me feel so much more peaceful. Because for those of that have been listening, you know that I've been trying to get better at meditating. That was like my New Year's resolution. It was. I'm still committed. It's what? It's almost September, still at it. But it's hard, right? Because especially if you are anxious like I am, it's really, really hard to quiet your thoughts if you're just listening to like music or like frequencies or whatever. So I really, really love every meditation. She takes you on this like beautiful visual journey. And it's gorgeous. Like the other night, I was like at a beach. One before that, I was in a forest. Like it's just so gorgeous. It feels really good. So if you listener are curious or interested in adding something to your self-care routine, highly recommend The Witch in the Moon.

  Speaker 1: 05:38

  I did cry. You sent me one. I didn't listen to the one you most recently sent me, but the Lionsgate one that you sent me. Ooh, fuck me. Right? Yeah.

  Speaker: 05:48

  It's really good. It's so good. It's so emotional. Yes. Yeah. It does feel really emotional. So that is my recommendation for today.

  Speaker 1: 05:55

  I love it. I actually I do have a recommendation. I was thinking like, what should we call this? Unsponsored content.

  Speaker: 06:01

  Unsponsored, but could be. Unsponsored, but could be content. An invitation for sponsored content. Yes, yes.

  Speaker 1: 06:06

  All of that. All those 20 words we will. Um

  Speaker 1: 06:10

  so my my little recommendation is a newsletter. So I used to subscribe to all of these news newsletters, like political newsletters and stuff. And I know you used to listen to podcasts and subscribe to these newsletters too. And then at a certain point, I realized that I was just down in the dumps. It was not doing anything other than making me anxious. And me being anxious and upset wasn't actually making the world a better place. You know what I mean? So I unsubscribed to literally all of them a couple of years ago, but there's one that I stayed subscribed to, and it's called The Know. It is this UK-based newsletter, and it's like a five-minute read. It's really quick. They do have some like a little political section, but they also have cultural stuff. They have and literally it's called an uplifting section, like really like good news around the world. And I think their tagline is something like starting your mornings feeling informed and hopeful.

  Speaker: 07:10

  And I'm like, that's that's all I want. Yeah.

  Speaker 1: 07:13

  You know? Yeah. So I will link that in the show notes, but I love I love it so and it's aesthetic. It's cute.

  Speaker: 07:22

  No, that's really important to me. Matters. It really is important to me. It is. You have to have a cute brand. Yes. Exactly.

  Speaker 1: 07:29

  And they even they do a little like editor's notes where they plug like entertainment recommendations too. So yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I love it. Highly, highly recommend. Um, we'll link them. So please, listener, if you want to feel informed and hopeful, subscribe.

  Speaker: 07:49

  To them and us. Yeah. Obviously. Okay. All right, cool. That's it. Awesome. I got. Should we go? We should go. Disclaimer, Arns and I revealed that both of ours are really long today. So you're welcome. I don't know if mine's long. I didn't know. Oh, okay. Okay. Not sorry. You're welcome.

  Speaker 1: 08:14

  One

  Speaker 1: 08:14

  of the rudest awakenings I've ever had in my entire life. High school. Specifically high school English. I thought I knew how to write a good paper. I had great grammar. You know, you throw in some big words. Easy A. And then the first time I had to write a paper in freshman year English class, I thought I did a great job. Okay. I got a C.

  Speaker 2: 08:41

  Really?

  Speaker 1: 08:42

  Did I tell you this story? I the way I balled, like my heart dropped. Really? Yeah, because I was like, wait. I, you know, makes you question everything you knew. Like, I thought I was good. You didn't tell me this. We weren't in the same school. No, not yet.

  Speaker: 08:56

  Like the one That's the one year we were two years in our entire lives that we One of two years we were not in school together. You're correct. Uh that is uh eighth grade for freshman year. Yes. And uh senior year high school, freshman year, college. Exactly. So hard years. I guess.

  Speaker 1: 09:12

  Quote This is a great segue. So the thing about high school English was it actually made me think critically for the first time in my life. I think that's why it was so hard. I had never really done that before. I didn't get there till college. Uh I see, I see.

  Speaker: 09:25

  Maybe after college.

  Speaker 1: 09:26

  Yes. Yeah. I but I do, I am grateful for those those skills because now every every week I sit here writing an essay.

  Speaker 3: 09:34

  Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

  Speaker 1: 09:36

  Now, there's a piece of literature that almost every single freshman or sophomore in high school in the US will read. It's really fuzzy in my recollection because I was 14, you know, prefrontal cortex still developing. But that's okay. Because in 2026, an up-and-coming filmmaker named Christopher Nolan, you may have heard of him, took that text and transformed it into something that the masses could not only understand but feel. I haven't heard of him. Yeah, he's he's pretty new, but um really promising. That's right, Crybabies. Today I am talking about none other than Christopher Nolan's 2026 film, The Odyssey. Ooh. Okay. Shot in 70 millimeters IMAX. You know, you have you have to add that. I'm pretty sure it's like part of the title.

  Speaker: 10:30

  Did you watch it as Christopher Nolan intended? Yes, on I fucking love the it's so much.

  Speaker 1: 10:38

  I saw when I was like a calculator.

  unknown: 10:41

  What?

  Speaker 1: 10:43

  She's referring, crybaby, she's referring to how Christopher Nolan intended it to be watched 70 millimeters IMAX, but people are watching it in like the craziest, tiniest fucking screens. Just to be assholes. Just to be fucking assholes.

  Speaker: 10:57

  Yeah. And then we complain like, how come there aren't any good movies? Because you guys are dicks about it. That's why.

  Speaker 1: 11:04

  And they're like, I don't want to do that. All right. So honestly, my sources for today, you know, you already know. My fucking heart. Let's fucking go. Let's fucking go. Okay, so before I begin, the Odyssey is a 3,000-year-old piece of literature. So if you're unfamiliar, uh, that's on you.

  Speaker: 11:25

  No, it is on me. I actually watched this too. I know. That's why I'm talking about it. Um, I didn't fucking read in freshman year of high school. Oh, you didn't? No. They would tell you, like, oh, read chapters, whatever, whatever.

  Speaker 1: 11:38

  Oh, oh, I see.

  Speaker: 11:39

  I see.

  Speaker 1: 11:39

  Yeah.

  Speaker: 11:40

  I was assigned to read it. And I would probably read like a couple pages before I was supposed to go into class having read it, fell asleep.

  Speaker 1: 11:48

  Yeah.

  Speaker: 11:48

  It was really hard. I fucking hate when they make you like go into small groups and talk about it because I always felt the pressure to like lead the conversation because no one else would volunteer. But I'd be like, dude, I don't fucking know.

  Speaker 1: 12:01

  I I didn't read it. Yeah. It was really hard to read. Yeah. Don't know why they did that to us when we were 14, but alas, Christopher Nolan. Yeah. Thank you, Chris. Thanks, Chris. So, in short, I will be spoiling the film. But okay, so how do you even begin to cover a tale as ancient and epic as the Odyssey? The answer is you don't. You stay in your fucking lane. You are a podcast where you talk about things that make you cry. So that's what we're gonna do. Okay? Okay. So I'm gonna share some plots, some scenes, but if you haven't watched this film, Cry Babies, I am begging you to watch it. Not just because of the A-list cast, but because it's an actual masterpiece. I watched it twice now, and both times I sat in the theater balling, could not move for 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, I was the only one. You watched it twice in the I watched it twice. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Because I watched it the first time and I was like, I have to talk about this. Okay, okay, okay. So the second time was an IMAX, just as Chris intended it. All right, here we go. So Christopher Nolan's 2026 film, The Odyssey, has a ridiculously star-studded cast. Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anna Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Zendea as Athena. The list goes on. I would be here for two hours if I were to read the whole cast list. Everything about it is gorgeous. The sets, the film locations, the costumes, the people, the score. Ludwig Gorenson.

  Speaker: 13:38

  What the fuck? What the floor any parent out there that says, you know, I'm gonna name my kid Ludwig, just no. Yeah. Like forevermore. He has no other life path. Nope.

  unknown: 13:50

  Nope. Nope.

  Speaker 1: 13:52

  But one of the things I love most about Christopher Nolan's adaptation is the writing. It's set in ancient Greece, but the dialogue has a modern day cadence. So it's actually easy to understand what they're saying. Like what we were saying earlier. This isn't fucking Shakespeare's iambic pentameter, where you're so focused on trying to understand what they're saying that you're not actually grasping the meaning behind it. It leaves more room for emotional impact. So Christopher Nolan's film is a masterpiece in its own right, but we gotta briefly shout out my dude Homer, the man who penned the Odyssey back in somewhere around 650, 750 BCE. Shout out Homer, the homie. Homer the homie. But we also have to acknowledge that before he even wrote it down, it existed for hundreds of years. Because in Greek oral tradition, instead of writing down these stories, these bards, which is what they called poets, would perform them. So for hundreds of years before Homer actually penned the Odyssey, the bards passed down these stories through song. And in Christopher Nolan's case, our bard is Travis Scott.

  Speaker: 15:07

  Okay, quick aside, you know must have been so fucking excited.

  Speaker 1: 15:14

  You know how I don't like knowing anything about anything before I walk in. So when I walked into this theater, I didn't even know who was in the cast. Every time I saw social, like you know, like close, close my eyes, plug my fucking ears. I didn't want to know anything. So imagine my surprise where the first person on the fucking screen is Travis Scott. And I was like, you're telling me that they chose this rapper who is basically the modern age storyteller to be the bard. I was like, this is our a fucking plus already. You know? Show me, show me no more. I already know. So as this 3,000-year-old story goes, Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, has been gone for almost 20 years. He left his home at the start of the Trojan War. And then they spent 10 years fighting on the shores of Troy, and all of it finally came to an end when Odysseus, cleverest of them all, hatched this ingenious plan to sneak all his men into Troy via the Trojan horse. Then they brought down Troy, but it's been eight years since the war ended, and Odysseus still has yet to return home. So, like in the original epic poem, we watch Odysseus's fate. He it starts out pretty harmless after the war. Odysseus is like, hey, how about instead of going this known route home, let's follow the Western Winds, see a little bit of the world, then we'll make it home. Yeah. And see the world they did. Popping around. Yeah. Odysseus and his men encounter the Cyclops, the one-eyed monster, who honestly, I don't feel like he deserved to be provoked the way they provoked him. It's not his fault. They came into his cave and ate his fucking delicious sheep cheese. You know? Okay, and then they then they gorge themselves on a meal prepared by Cersei. Yeah. The witch who turns Odysseus's men into the pigs. Yeah. The pigs that they are. What did she say when she's turning them back? She's like, go back to your disguises. And I was like, Yeah. You know, like that was that was good. And then we have the whirlpool and the monster. This is the only thing I think of substance that I remember. Okay. Because the idiom between a rock and a hard place comes from this scene. Because the rock is where the monster is dwelling. And then the hard place is the whirlpool. That's all I remember. Oh, okay.

  unknown: 17:34

  Wow.

  Speaker 1: 17:35

  She's academic. But that's just a glimpse. That's just a glimpse of what Odysseus bopping around. Yeah. You know? Yeah. What it feels like. Yes, there's adventure, there's adrenaline. Every time he narrowly escapes death. But

  Speaker 1: 17:49

  what Christopher Nolan's adaptation gets at, which I did not gather, freshman year English, is how hard it is to be the hero. The one everyone looks to to make the big decisions. The one who has to choose between a whirlpool, which would kill all of his men, and the rock where a monster dwells, which would kill only half of his men. The one whose ingenious idea it was to build the Trojan horse, which, yes, ended the war, but also killed so many people. Everyone looks at Odysseus in awe and they're amazed by his brilliance and his honor and his compassion as a leader. But they don't see the way he bears the burden of his decisions. They don't see all the thousands of soldiers who died under his watch that come and greet him at the shores of Hades, reminding him that he wasn't good enough, he wasn't fast enough, he wasn't smart enough to save them. They don't see how beneath this hero is just a human. So I want to briefly talk about the siren scene here. Surprise, I cried. So traditionally, the idea of the siren scene is these beautiful, majestic creatures, women who are tempting the men to come. And the idea is like, okay, will you give in to the temptation? Will you let yourself be lured in? But the film does this beautiful job of going so much deeper than that. Like they didn't have to do that that hard, but they did. Legend has it that no one has ever heard the siren song and lived. So knowing this, Odysseus makes his men plug their ears with wax so they can't hear and they aren't tempted. But instead of plugging his own ears, he makes his men tie him to the mast of the ship, saying, No matter how hard I beg, do not untie me. I want to be the first person who has heard the siren song and lived. So they do as he says.

  Speaker: 19:44

  Is he like a Leo? I need to know, like, Jesus Christ.

  Speaker 1: 19:50

  So Eurylochus, Odysseus' right-hand man, watches as Odysseus screams in anguish as he listens to the siren song. So quick note, this movie is not yet released, so I can't actually show you clips. It doesn't come out, I think, until no November. Okay. So I I'm gonna play you a little audio clip.

  Speaker 3: 20:17

  Okay.

  Speaker 1: 20:19

  So that was me pulling a little reel on Instagram that has that audio clip. So Eurylochus, after that whole thing, asks Odysseus, what was the siren song? And Odysseus says, All the things you want it to be, then all the things you wish you'd never wished for told you what you most want is what you most can't have. And what you most can't have is what you already had and lost. So in Christopher Nolan's adaptation, the siren song is so much more than just this don't give in to temptation because temptation's bad. It's more of a question of are you gonna spend your whole life wanting more? Or are you gonna see what you already have right in front of you? The tragedy here isn't giving into temptation itself, but being so blinded by the want that you neglect to see how wonderful your life already is. Before the war, Odysseus led such a beautiful life. He knew who he was, what he stood for, you know, Zeus's law. Treat strangers with kindness and respect, warn your prey before shooting at them. He knew who he was and he was proud. And now he's the man who tricked an entire city and watched it burn along with everyone in it. The man whose clever plans and decisions have led to so much pain and suffering and death. And that's why this siren scene is so emotional, because we realize that maybe the reason why Odysseus's journey is so long and drawn out isn't actually because of the gods doing all these crazy things. Maybe it's because he just doesn't want to go home, because going home would mean facing who he's become. So he stays away, but try as he might, he can't escape the fate that awaits his men. The prophets have foretold that Odysseus would be the only person to survive out of his crew. No matter what he decides to do, they will die. If it's not the whirlpool, it's gonna be the monster. If it's not the monster, it's gonna be something else. And he's like so in denial and he keeps trying to control their fate, but he can't. In one of the last moments with his men, Odysseus tries to warn them that they can't eat the cattle on this island because the sun god will punish them and they will all die. And so they try really hard to hold out. And then one night he kind of wakes up and he sees them in this fire pit that they've built. And he was like, Well, you th you think that I wasn't gonna know? And they were like, Well, you know, they're like making up excuses. And at one point they finally say, Eurylicus says, We decided we'd rather drown than starve. Like they made that executive decision. So they killed the cattle and they're eating it. And Odysseus obviously is upset. He's done everything he can to keep these men alive. And then the goddess Athena, played by real life goddess Zendaya, pays him another visit. So throughout Odysseus's journey, Athena has been visiting him. She's kind of like in the form of his conscience. And in this scene, she asks Odysseus, Why do you think you're above the gods? Why do you feel so responsible for other people's lives and fate? And me not being able to check because I can't watch the movie again right now. But I'm I don't even know if he really answers the question because then the wind picks up and they're able to leave. But some might say, well, being responsible for your man, like that's just what a good leader does, right? They take responsibility. But that is such a heavy ask to put on one person. And ultimately it's a burden that Odysseus puts on himself. He's like, they all think I'm superhuman, so I have to be. I need to be as great as they expect me to be, because only then will I be worthy. But as noble as it sounds, it's at the expense of his own humanity. So towards the end of Odysseus's voyage, we learn that, as the prophets foretold, they all end up dying. Everyone but Odysseus. So he washes up on Calypso's shores and unknowingly stays for seven years. She has him fucking trapped, dude. She makes him eat that lotus flower every day to help him forget everything that's happened. Makes a great, like, perfume commercial though. Charlie is yeah. Um, she doesn't think he's ready to relive the pain. She knows how much it would destroy him. And just like she expects, when she finally stops feeding him the lotus flower, he remembers it all. And it does break him. But this time, the torment is not enough to stop him from feeling that pull, that need to finally, finally go home. So he leaves. This is another scene where I cried. I feel like this is uh another like typical, like, oh man, this was fucking heavy. But Odysseus asks Calypso, Well, how do I get home? I wish I could play this scene for you, God. And she says to him, You're a man who needs to control his fate, but you cannot control this. You must give yourself to the storm, give yourself to Poseidon, and take your punishment. Give up the fight, give up control and live. It is a leap of faith you haven't made yet, Odysseus. And so we see Odysseus build this like tiny little raft and tie himself to it. It's insane. Like this is the man who prided himself on always being the cleverest, always having a plan, always being in control. But he is at his wit's end, and no amount of logic or reasoning will get him back home. So for once in his life, he surrenders. For once in his life, he humbles himself and trusts that some greater power will keep him safe. And for once in his life, he allows himself to be human. Eventually he does make it home. He disguises himself and visits his loyal servant, the shepherd, Eumaeus. Again, cried here too. I'm throughout, you know, this whole movie. This cry was a little less obvious, snuck up on me, but Eumaeus is talking to Odysseus. He's mostly blind. He doesn't even know he's speaking to Odysseus, and he's talking about how wonderful of a master Odysseus is. He's still devoted after 20 years. And Odysseus argues, but he was flawed. And Eumaeus says, but he was still worthy of serving. And on the surface, Eumaeus's blind loyalty seems honorable, right? Like that's kind of what we what we feel when we see this like, wow, like how amazing. But it weighs on Odysseus. That's just one example of how it weighs on him. Because until the very end, Odysseus is still trying in a way to prove his worth. He goes and he like slays all the suitors, Edward Cullen, you know? And he's like trying to redeem himself and be worthy of the leadership that they've bestowed on him. And it's heartbreaking because it should, it should feel like a blessing to be loved and revered in this way. But instead, it is such a burden. And it is one that makes forgiving himself that much harder. So I'm not gonna bore you with all the details about how the film ends. I say bore. Meanwhile, the first time I watched it, I was like, I my heart was thundering. I don't remember the last time a movie gave me so much anxiety. Like I had such a physiological response because I didn't, again, read The Odyssey, but I didn't remember it. So I was like, does he make it home? Does he like does he live? I didn't actually know. Yeah.

  Speaker: 28:21

  But I didn't remember. No, I didn't read it. I didn't finish reading it.

  Speaker 1: 28:28

  I think that all English classes should stop making freshmen in high school read it and instead 100% watch this movie.

  Speaker: 28:38

  Oh, I was gonna say wait till they actually have brain cells. Okay, that's like 25. That's like post-college.

  Speaker 1: 28:44

  That's even worse. You know, but I think at least the at least the movie.

  Speaker: 28:47

  At least this movie. Okay.

  unknown: 28:49

  All right.

  Speaker: 28:50

  I'm just like so dumb. Like, why is Scarlet Letter in my hand? You know, like I I don't know what this is about. Yeah, that one was that one was fucked too, huh? Yeah. They were all fucked. I remember sorry, Scarlet Letter tangent, but I remember there was like a whole chapter where like it was focused on like the priest in the town or whatever. Okay. And like my English teacher was like, so obviously, like the priest is the father of the main character's child. And I was like, yeah, like really obvious.

  Speaker 1: 29:27

  Did you remember that? No. What the hell? Damn, okay.

  Speaker: 29:33

  Obviously. It's like, yeah. You guys didn't catch that? Because it's right there. We could do it. In the chapter, I didn't want to.

  Speaker 1: 29:42

  This is it's so our education is so fucked. Okay, okay. Anyway, I'm not gonna bore you with how the how it ends, but I do want to talk about the very ending really quick, because in the last scene, Odysseus and Penelope finally sail off into the sunset just like they dreamed of doing 20 years before. It's heartwarming and hopeful. But right before the credits roll, we see that burning Trojan horse one last time. That's the last scene. And we know that that vision will forever haunt Odysseus.

  Speaker 1: 30:21

  So the part that made me cry the hardest wasn't actually during the film, but afterwards. When the credits start rolling, the song When I'm Home begins to play. The track features Ludwig Gorensen, fucking fucking genius, I swear to God, who composed the score. Travis Scott, James Blake as the vocalists, and all three of them are credited as songwriters, including Christopher Nolan himself, which I think is pretty interesting. Chris. Chris. Just going for that ego, you know. He wants that uh that Grammy. Is he a Leo too? Should I look it up? So the beginning of the song, I don't know if you remember it. It's really dark and haunting and almost dreadful. This goes on for two minutes, and this is when everyone's filing out of the theater. So no one, I don't, I don't think most people are paying attention, but again, I'm there sitting fucking crying for 10 minutes. So I'm I'm listening to the song. So yeah, it's really, it's really haunting and dreadful. And then James Blake comes in and his voice is all like warped, almost indecipherable. Like you can't really understand what he's saying. And what he's singing is when it's not going in, you reach for sharper tools. And now I can't forget the sound of the drill. And I wonder, what are we waiting for? Which I understood as, you know, in this pursuit of being more and better and finally worthy, we make these decisions and then we're tortured by the consequences. And we are never the same again. It ruins us. Then our bard, Travis Scott, comes in, classic Travis Scott fashion. He it's like overlaid on this like super synth heavy, haunting instrumental, and he says, a face, a fleet, a war. And then suddenly all the heaviness gets stripped away, and it's just James Blake's voice. So I'm gonna play the first half of the song here. I cannot recall the song at all. Okay, this is what um I think I had to pee, so I was like, all right, we're gonna leave. Most people, yeah. I mean, it was a three-hour long movie. Um, but this is I I mean, I was already crying, but I'm just gonna play it. Okay. I won't play the whole song just until after Jameis Blake's part. It's really scary at the beginning. The vibe is kind of like as a room. This is what as the credits are rolling. Yes. This is what is playing when the credits are rolling. No wonder everyone left. I'm just kidding. After the first two minutes, that haunting synth-heavy instrumental gets stripped away, and we are just left with the sounds of these ancient instruments playing this hopeful tune. And even James Blake's voice is stripped down. It's it's suddenly so clear and vulnerable, and he sings. Don't speak, hold him instead. Look up and see the man on the ledge, and he will know what it was when he's home. Don't ask what the feeling is. It's not easy. I will know what it was when I'm home. And when we peel back that first layer of the song, it's so raw underneath. It's like we're getting the briefest glimpse into the turmoil that grips Odysseus. And we're reminded that beneath all this greatness, all this strife, all this heaviness is just a human needing to be held. The

  Speaker 1: 33:54

  Odyssey is, no doubt, the most epic of epics, the true hero's journey. But it is so much more than this grand voyage. It asks these questions that most of us spend our whole lives avoiding. Like, what if you aren't the same person you were when you set out? Is it even possible to find your way back to yourself? And is finding your way back to yourself even what's important? Or is it more important to learn to forgive yourself and make peace with who you've become? Odysseus tries his best to be a good person and to lead with fairness and compassion. And we all admire him for it. He really is worthy of the love and the reverence that everyone's bestowed on him, but he's also so human. He bears the weight of the world on his shoulders, and in doing so, he leaves no room for failure, no room for grace. I'd like to think that Odysseus eventually learns to forgive himself, but I don't know that he does. Maybe he reaches some semblance of peace, but part of him will forever be tormented by all the ways he thinks he failed. And honestly, 3,000 years later, like not much has changed with us humans. We're so hard on ourselves, so unwilling to grant ourselves the grace and the forgiveness we deserve, so unwilling to see ourselves as worthy for just existing. But it's been 3,000 years. Maybe it's time we finally learn from Odysseus. Maybe it's time we finally learn to forgive ourselves in the way that he never quite could. That to me is the true hero's journey. That to me would truly be epic.

  Speaker: 35:48

  Arns, I can't even. Oh no. Really? I can't like our guides are literally fucking got you. Really? Like I can't. Should we just should we just jump into it even? I would love to explain like what you just did and like what I did. Like it's stupid. Let's just jump in. Stupid. Let's jump in. I mean, I I do have a little bit of a different take on what you shared, but I think everything you said about what it means to be a hero and what it means to be like a public figure and to feel that weight on you. I that's not really kind of, but not like the main crux of my story. But it's true. Like I was thinking, like, okay, he must have like a Leo son, but like a Virgo rising.

  unknown: 36:41

  You know?

  Speaker: 36:42

  Like, yeah. But I can't say that when I watched it, I got that deep about it. I think I was so like taken aback by the cinematics of it all and all the beautiful people in it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But there's a reason that this has stood the test of time because we all strive to be Odysseus. We all want that claim and prestige and that honor, but heavy is the crown, you know? Yeah. I could cry.

  Speaker 1: 37:20

  I could cry.

  Speaker: 37:22

  Yeah. I I did. I mean, I do feel I do remember feeling heaviness in me when I made that connection. Oh, he was purposely not trying to get home because he doesn't want to face the shame of what he's done and what that's made him. Yep, exactly. You know, though, I think about Penelope and Telemachus. Telemachus. And I feel like like when you love someone, you don't love the glitz and glam of that person. Like she's not in love with his honor. No. She's not in love with the fact that, you know, he's the ruler of Ithaca. Of Ithaca. His son is not searching for him because he wants a heroic figure for that. He just wants his dad back. Yeah. And I think that those are the things that maybe are what keep you grounded, right? Mm-hmm.

  Speaker 1: 38:21

  You know the scene where he's sitting there, he comes, he finally comes back to Ithaca and he's talking to Penelope through the screen. That also fucked me up. I mean, I could talk about this movie for a long time. Um, but that part fucked me up because again, it was kind of like with Eumaeus, he was like, We were the people of the sea, like that shame of like admitting who he was, and like and this is the part where I realize that I think that she knows who he is at that point, right? Because she's she says something along the lines of like it wasn't just you. Like he's like, Oh, but one man's decision. And she's like, But it wasn't just you. Like, and and Athena keeps going back to that theme too, throughout, which is like all these other people also have a say in their own lives. They are also humans. Like, you do not have to be responsible for all these people. I know you take it upon yourself, but like they're people too. They can make their own decisions too. And like, yeah.

  Speaker: 39:14

  Can you read to me the quote that Calypso says to him right before he goes home? Yeah.

  Speaker 1: 39:21

  To me, I was like, oh, this is like some fucking manifestation shit. Like, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about. Yeah. It was so off. It was like so plain as day to me. Like that idea of like just really letting yourself you're a man who needs to control his fate, but you cannot control this. You must give yourself to the storm, give yourself to Poseidon and take your punishment. Give up the fight, give up control and live. It is a leap of faith you haven't yet made, Odysseus.

  Speaker: 39:50

  I know we're talking about like the hero's journey and like what it means to actually be a hero, but I feel like uh switching gears a little bit. I feel like that is one of the things that I personally am really trying to that I'm really trying to work on is this need for control. And I think that's so tied to like like when you feel that you must act as the hero. Exactly. It's completely there's such a there is such a stubbornness to like, no, like I need to control every part of my life because I have something to uphold. But like learning how to let go, yeah, release. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Like I feel like that's something I really need to hear.

  Speaker 1: 40:36

  Oh, yeah. A hundred percent. The siren scene, the raft scene. Like you could literally Google it and like the raft scene. That's literally what it's called. Because it's and I think it's because so many of us resonate with it, right? Like, yeah. The Odyssey, I did not think it would be like my 2026 film of the year, but don't be so definitive yet. Okay, all right.

  Speaker: 41:02

  Don't be so definitive. Right. Okay. Because today I will also be talking about a 2026 film. Okay. We're gonna get into it.

  Speaker 1: 41:18

  All right, now go ahead and repeat my story back to me.

  unknown: 41:21

  God.

  Speaker: 41:22

  So for those of you crybabies who only know me through this podcast, all one million of you and counting, you may be surprised to know that I am actually a woman in STEM. Did you know that? She is. Got my degree in civil engineering. She's an engineer. No, she's not. She never got her license. But I still claim STEM, okay? Yes. So make sense that your girl has the occasional appetite for a little sci-fi.

  Speaker 1: 41:57

  Okay. Oh, okay.

  Speaker: 41:59

  Okay. Listen, I am by no means an expert in the sciences. In fact, I feel like I have only gotten dumber as I've gotten older. Releasing, you know, letting go. That's not dumber. That's actually so wise of you. I know. Yeah.

  Speaker 1: 42:19

  She never misses.

  Speaker: 42:22

  But if there's one thing I know with absolute certainty, it's that at the heart of any story, sci-fi or not, there is a universal truth about our human experience. So today I am going to cover a story about a man on a mission in space to save the world. And that mission is called Project Hail Mary. Do you know anything about this? No, I haven't watched it yet.

  Speaker 1: 42:51

  Okay. But I remember after you read it and you were like, oh my God, this is gonna mess me up. And to this day, it continues to mess.

  Speaker: 43:02

  Okay. Sorry, okay. So Project Hail Mary is a 2021 science fiction novel written by Andy Weir. And earlier this year in 2026, it was adapted into a movie directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and starring the one and only cutie patootie, Ryan Gosling. I f I fucking love Ryan Gosling. I have to say, I fucking love Ryan Gosling. Okay. Yeah. Just like a very super stable presence in my life. Yeah. You know? Constant. Constant. Also, I'm not joking. Him in this movie, this specifically in this movie, the hottest he has ever been. Wow. The hottest he has ever been. Like fine wine. Fucking fine wine. Okay. He wears like glasses. He wears a lot of sweaters. I love a glasses though. Oh my fucking God, he's so hot in this. Movie. Okay. But anyway, for my story today, I will be touching on both the book as well as the movie, which is streaming. So we will get to see scenes as well. Okay. Sources for today, aside from the book and the movie, is an episode from the Overdue podcast focusing specifically on the novel. And then an article on Andy Weir uploaded on WPR.org.

  Speaker: 44:28

  Okay. Quickie context about the author, Andy Weir. Gemini, born in 1972 in Livermore, California. Whoa. Bay Area Adjacent. Just like how I'm a STEM adjacent. He's like Bay Area Adjacent. I would say Livermore is We give Livermore a pass today. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Also, also, really cool anecdote. Andy Weir worked as a software engineer for like 25 years before uh making it really big as a sci-fi author. He worked at the same company as my mom. Really? For like a little bit. Yeah. Okay. Like, but I think really friends. No. I think he like worked from home most of the time. But like I'll still claim him. Claim him. You know? Like, we only have like two degrees of separation. No. That's Uncle. You know? Tito. Mm-hmm. Okay. So prior to Project Hell Mary, which was published again in 2021, his most notable work was The Martian, which he started as a free blog. He just like loved writing, uploaded it to his little blog. And people were like, uh, I will literally pay you to upload this on Kindle so I can read it on my device. That's some AO3 like fan fiction to publishing house pipeline shit. Straight up. He uploads it to Kindle for 99 cents. Uh-huh. And then two years later, it's an Oscar-nominated film starring Matt Damon. Matt. So his writing style does incorporate a lot of science theory. But it's mixed in with so much humor. And it's presented in a way that is so easily accessible by larger audiences. Like it's it's dumbed down, essentially. Yeah. Great. There's still a lot of things that f go way over my head. Yeah. But I just keep going. Yeah. I'm just like, okay. Anyway, whatever. And a lot of his stories involve somewhat ordinary, but like secretly genius people like us. Yeah. Basically problem-solving their way out of some space catastrophe. Okay. Okay. And Project Hail Mary is no different. But also completely different. Because I did watch The Martian, but it in no way completely viscerated me and my emotions the way Project Hail Mary did. Okay. But big fat spoiler warning, listeners and arns, because I am serious. I'm seriously going to spoil the entire story. That's fine. Beginning, middle, and end. It's my fault. Okay. I I should have gone to it first.

  Speaker 1: 47:15

  I should have known. I should have known you were going to cover it, you know?

  Speaker: 47:18

  The only thing I won't be spoiling is an explanation of all of the science because, babe. The one thing you don't need to spoil. Sure is shit lost on me. Okay. All right, crybabies. We're ready for lift off. The story opens up with a man, Ryan Gosling, waking up from a coma. His name is Ryland Grace. That's very close to Ryan Gosling, sorry. Yeah. Okay. There was also a point in your story where you said, like, all he needs is some grace. And I was like, Christ, I can't believe this. Okay. His hair is long and scraggly, like down to his shoulders. An overhead robot voice is checking his vitals. It's like a robot hand, checking his memory. He is completely disoriented and has no clue where he is or how he got there. He stumbles around the room and sees two other beds. But when he gets closer and lifts the covers, he realizes that the two people on those beds are both dead. He steps out of this room and into this tight hallway. And when he looks out the window, he realizes, holy fucking shit, I am in a spaceship floating through space. And with the rest of my crewmates dead, I am completely alone. Grace has retrograde amnesia, meaning that he doesn't remember anything at all when he wakes up. He doesn't even know his own name. Like the robot is like, what is your name? And like won't give him any other information until he can recall what his name is. But slowly, over time, he starts recalling more and more memories of the past. So this is kind of the storytelling technique of the book and the movie. We see him in the present on the spaceship, but through flashbacks, more and more information about who he is and how he got there is revealed to Grace himself and the viewer/slash reader. So after a bit more panicking and exploring the ship and asking all of these questions, Grace realizes three things. One, he is a genius. Like he all of a sudden remembers the names of all of this high-tech, complicated equipment on the spaceship and how to operate them. He can also do a lot of scientific and physics-based problem solving in his head. Can't relate. But she's she's in STEM though. She's still in STEM, but she needs her TI-83 calculator. Okay. Two, unfortunately, because he's super smart, he realizes that based on where he is in space, he is 12 light years away from Earth and does not have enough fuel to go home. And three, this is a one-way mission headed for a solar system called Tao Seti aboard a ship he realizes is named the Hail Mary. And then we are hit with our first flashback. We find out that Grace is a middle school science teacher. Okay. Despite having a doctorate in molecular biology, Grace is kind of a disgraced scientist because he publishes a paper that wasn't well received. And the shame from that forced him to be like, okay, fuck it. I'll just teach kids then. I'll just be like the cool science teacher. The kids in his class are asking him about this new scientific discovery called the Petrova line. So Mr. Dr. Grace explains that the Petrova line is this new stream of infrared light connecting the sun to Venus. Like basically, this light appeared out of nowhere. And they're like, what the fuck is this? So NASA sent a probe to check out what this mysterious light is. And the findings are catastrophic. The light is comprised of tiny little organisms called astrophage. And they are traveling from Venus to the sun to consume the sun's energy at an alarming rate. They are eating the sun. Okay. And they are going back to Venus to breed and then repeating the cycle. Ah, okay. This like astrophage, as they do more research, it also has the ability to store huge amounts of energy. It's basically this like miracle organic living fuel that is killing our sun.

  Speaker 1: 52:22

  Okay.

  Speaker: 52:22

  And because of this, scientists project that within 30 years, the sun's temperature will decrease by over 15 degrees, creating devastating consequences for our planet. Within five to 10 years, the Earth will have universal crop failure, resulting in the starvation of over 25% of the human population. Then the next 10 to 20 years, the oceans will freeze over, creating a new ice age. And by year 30, we can pretty much expect near total human extinction. It's fucking bad. On his way home after class, Dr. Grace is intercepted by this very stern, direct, and like ruthless woman named Dr. Eva Strat. She is the lead director of the global task force assembled to save humanity from this crisis. She's like straight up boss. Okay. From this first interaction, you see that she is fucking boss bitch energy. No nonsense. I have one mission and one goal. And anything that does not align with that goal is not worth a second of my time. Very like, I think she's from Germany. She has like a very like literally, she's from Germany. Like she says that she's from Germany. She's very brusque, like very just straight up, very direct, and sees the world in like black and white. It either works in favor of her mission or it doesn't. And she does not care about anything that doesn't. She basically tells Grace, based on your theories of molecular biology, like the ones that were like completely laughed at, you are now being recruited to study and research more about whatever the fuck this astrophage is. So after some antics, Grace is then brought into this lab, which we soon find out is one of hundreds all over the world, and joins the world's best and brightest scientists, engineers, and astronauts to learn about astrophage and figure out a way to solve this crisis. Grace has a breakthrough when he becomes the first scientist who figures out how to breed it. Something about CO2. It's okay. Don't worry. Don't worry. He breeds it. He had three cells, now he has four cells. But it is notable enough that Dr. Strat calls for Grace. So now we will watch our first scene. And in this scene, Dr. Strat officially inducts Grace into this top secret research group on board a naval vessel in the middle of the ocean that is tasked with what we now know as Project Hail Mary. So we're gonna watch a scene, and this is at the 24-minute mark. Oh god, it's so good.

  Speaker 1: 55:28

  Do I do you recommend I read the book first? Not necessarily. Okay. Because I just want to mob. Yeah.

  Speaker: 55:34

  You don't need to. The book has like so many more like little intricacies about the little details and like more like about like logistics of the planning. Yeah. Okay. I don't need that. Okay. So in this scene that I just shared with Arnes, Grace enters basically this meeting with like 50 of the world's brightest minds on this naval vessel. And Grace is explaining how he was able to breed astrophage. And I should add that Grace's character is super like, I'm just a quirky normal guy. Like he's so funny, like naturally funny and awkward. But it adds a good comic relief in the midst of all of the science-y info overload and the crisis at hand. But anyway, during this meeting, someone asks, okay, so now that we know how to breed astrophage, how long will it take to breed two million kilograms of it? That's four million pounds, by the way. I'm American, I don't know what that means. Um Grace is like, why the fuck do we need two million kilograms of astrophage? And then Dr. Stratt reveals the premise of Project Hail Mary. They uncover that the Earth star, as well as all of the surrounding stars in our galaxies, have been infected with this astrophage parasite. Hundreds of stars are dying. Hundreds except for one, a star called Tau Ceti, 11.9 light years away from Earth. How come the star isn't infected? We don't know. This task force has come up with a plan to build an interstellar spaceship that can travel at the speed of light fueled by astrophage to enter Tau ceti solar system and discover why and how the star was immune to infection. Because time is of the essence, humanity can only risk breeding enough astrophage fuel for a one-way ticket to Tau Ceti, meaning that the astronauts chosen for this mission will need to send their findings back on a satellite probe instead of returning to Earth themselves. It is, in short, a suicide mission. Dr. Strat says after this revelation, there are infinite possibilities for this to go wrong. It almost certainly won't work. That's what you Americans would call a long shot. To which Grace says, Hail Mary, I get it. Strat continues, the alternative is to do nothing and to starve and to kill each other and to watch everything on this planet go extinct, including us. So I'm gonna fast forward a bit. I'm not even a quarter of the way through. My whole paper is like nine plus pages. Got it. So but essentially,

  Speaker: 58:34

  we see more flashbacks of the task force planning for the launch of the Hail Mary ship. Grace is there every step of the way as the biologist, but he is not an astronaut. So he is not part of the crew assigned for this journey, which is a huge relief to him because he really struggles to grasp how someone could volunteer for something like this. It's like he cannot even fathom. He's like, what the fuck? People would actually sign up for this. Like, I don't get that. But then we cut back to Grace on the spaceship. And the reality of his eminent death now weighs on him. He still doesn't understand how he ended up on the ship, because again, not an astronaut. But well, fuck, he's here. So he might as well try to be useful. Also, just a quick explanation. The reason he was in a coma in the beginning is because the journey to Tao Seti takes straight up 11 Earth years. So they were all like, well, to help avoid mental collapse and be more efficient with the food and water, we're gonna put the astronauts into a purposeful coma during that time until they arrive to Tao Seti. Super risky, and a small malfunction in the automated life support system is what causes the other two crew members to die. Okay, so a few earthly days after Grace wakes up in the spaceship, the ship alerts him that he has now entered Taosetti's solar system. So Grace is like, all right, let's go see what the fuck is up. But as he's cruising along, you know, drop top cruising the streets, all of a sudden, he is alerted that another blip is detected nearby. This is this is fucking terrifying because holy shit, there is another spaceship floating around him. And not only is it floating around him, but it is straight up following Grace's shit. He's like, what the fuck? Like there's a fucking alien chasing me in this solar system. So after a bit of cat and mouse, Grace sees that this alien spaceship has ejected this mysterious black cylindrical bottle and sends it Grace's way. It's a message. There is a lot of there's such great problem solving here. Once Grace receives this message, he's like, what material is this? Because again, this is like an alien life force. So they weirdly don't speak English. So a lot of back and forth between the two as they like clumsily put these messages together and then try to interpret what they're saying. But they find a way to speak through the universal language of science. Like they create like diagrams of like little molecules that you like find like they show like where they are, where what planets they're from. Yes. A language we are fluent in. Yeah. I would be the main translator. Yes. Sign me up. No, don't sign me up. I'm not trying to do that. So we find out that this alien is from the planet Arid, from the Eridani star system. And it too has come to Tao City to figure out how to save their own star from dying. So now I'm going to show this next scene, which is when after many sent messages across their spaceships, Grace and this alien decide to meet. And this is at the 54-minute mark, and we're going to watch about an eight-minute clip. Okay. Before I press play, I'll just explain what you're seeing. So in this scene, we see that this alien has very cleverly created a tunnel of sorts connecting their two spaceships. So Grace is cautiously making his way down this tunnel, decked out in full astronaut gear, because he has no fucking clue what type of atmosphere is in this tunnel. And in the middle is a see-through partition. Grace is on one side and the alien is on the other. So we will watch this. I know that was long, but it was so worth it because in this scene where Grace and this alien meet for the first time, after some fear-filled beats of Grace standing on one side of the partition, like, oh, where is this thing? All of a sudden, an alien comes onto the screen. And I'm gonna read directly from the book to describe what it or he, as Grace assumes, looks like. Quote: He's a spider. A big-assed spider. Personally, I prefer crab. I feel like that's cuter. Because this alien also has like this very rock-like exterior, just like a crab. So naturally, Grace names him Rocky. Rocky is smaller than a human. He's about the size of a Labrador. He has five legs radiating out from essential carapace-looking thing. The carapace, which is roughly a pentagon, is 18 inches across and half as thick. I don't see eyes or a face anywhere. The two then engage in this charades of sorts, since they definitely can't understand each other through spoken language. Because Rocky has these claw-like pincers, which resemble hands somewhat, he's able to gesture to another message or gift he leaves on Grace's side of the tunnel. It's a replica of O2, and Grace pieces together that Rocky is telling him, hey, you can take your helmet off because the tunnel that I made for you has oxygen in it for you to breathe. At first, Grace is like, fuck no, bro. Like, no way I'm going to take this helmet off. If I take it off, I will instantly die. If I'm wrong, I'm really wrong. If I'm wrong, I am fucking wrong. Yeah. Okay. So Grace is like, okay, well, uh, I need to go tend back to my ship. Um, this was cool, but I will see you later. So he walks back towards his own ship, but as he turns around to look at Rocky, he sees Rocky looking a little disappointed. And knowing this is definitely the dumbest thing he could do, Grace takes a deep breath as well as a huge leap of faith, and bravely and stupidly takes off his helmet. And sure enough, he breathes in fresh oxygen. Confused, scared, and now single handedly responsible for saving humanity, Grace is floating around an endless abyss in complete isolation. In his hopeless desperation, Grace blindly trusts the only other living thing within his vicinity, no matter how risky or dangerous it may be. And when he takes off this helmet and breathes in this oxygen, he sees that Rocky, this weird crab-looking thing, this foreign, scary alien, is actually good, peaceful, safe. And now with Rocky here, Grace is no longer alone. The next part of the story is honestly just the fucking best because Grace and Rocky basically form an alliance. They're like, okay, we're here for the same reason. Let's fight crime together, you know? And it's so much fun watching the two of them learn how to understand one another. Rocky can't see. He doesn't have a face or eyes. So he processes information through echolocation, through sound. So he does communicate through sound, but instead of words, Rocky communicates almost through musical notes or chords. So Grace just develops this, just this quickie little like computer programming, just a little code, you know, to basically read the chords that Rocky is emitting and then translates them into words that Grace can read. Well, obviously. It's very easy. Oh, yeah. There's an app for everything. You know what I mean? So I'm gonna play this just because it's fun. It's just it's just so good. It's like so funny. But during the sequence, we see Rocky and Grace communicating through this musical chords to text situation. And you also see scenes of Grace vlogging. This is so that Grace can send these vlog videos and whatever information he eventually finds back to Earth on those probes. Great comedy though. So I'm just I'm just gonna fucking play it because it's so fucking funny. Okay, and this is at the hour and six minute mark. So in

  Speaker: 01:08:02

  this sequence, it starts off really funny because this is where Grace shares what he's learning about Rocky. Rocky is some sort of mechanic, this ingenious builder using a metal form of xenon. But then Grace and Rocky start talking about Astrophage. Rocky sees the test tube of Astrophage in Grace's hand and says, Astrophage on me star. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. And Grace is like, yeah, mine too. Rocky happy, not alone. This is Rocky talking, but then Grace can read the text on his computer screen. Why are you alone? Grace says. I'm sorry. How did they die? Rocky not know. Only Rocky not die. Rocky could not fix. So then Rocky's like, what about you? How many humans on ship? There were three of us, and now it's only me. Only us. Rocky corrects him. Grace Rocky saves stars. I'm not gonna dwell on that because I will break down. Yeah. Which is perfect because the movie then cuts to this fucking hilarious sequence where Rocky basically makes himself his own version of like a hamster ball filled with his own atmosphere so that he can move onto Grace's ship to work together on solving this crisis. And Rocky is almost like an overexcited dog, like charging into the ship, like wreaking havoc over all his shit. And everything that he sees, because like obviously this is like to him also alien stuff, right? So he's like, amaze, amaze, amaze. Like that's his way of exclaiming like excitement. And you'll see that all throughout the story. Like he's always amazed. But this dynamic soon turns into almost like an annoyed roommate phase where Grace is like so over Rocky shit, like driving him crazy. Yeah. I'm gonna play just a little bit. I almost thought about like not showing you this, but it's just so funny that I just I'm just gonna indulge you a little bit. This is at the one hour and 17 minute mark. So good, so good. Okay, so Grace is like venting on his vlog. Like, he tells me what to do, he tells me why to do it, he tells me how to do it, tells me when to do it. And then when I do it, he's like, what are you doing? Like, you know, just so clearly like getting fed up. And I'm showing this not just because it's funny, but because it really does showcase that Grace and Rocky are really starting to know and understand each other. And when that happens, you naturally start to care about one another, too. So back to the crisis at hand, Grace and Rocky are floating around the Tau Seti solar system, and they come up with a plan. We are gonna orbit the planet where Astrophage breeds, collect a sample, and figure out why it's not eating Tao Seti. Very cool sequence, visually just stunning, okay? But I'm gonna get right to it. They discover that on this planet in the Tau Seti solar system, astrophage tries to breed, but it fails to do so because there is a natural microbial astrophage predator in this solar system, keeping the population in balance. Basically, something is eating the astrophage. So they're like, holy shit, all we need to do is bring this microbial predator back home, and then we can save our own planets. So as they prep for this mission to collect the predator microbe, Rocky is super hyped up. He's like, oh my god, yes, like we're gonna go home. Like this is gonna be fucking great. Like, you know, just amaze, amaze, amaze. But Grace has something to confess. So we're gonna watch this scene at the one hour and 38-minute mark. Buckle up. So in the scene, Grace confesses to Rocky that this is a one-way ticket for me, pal. And Rocky's like, wait, what what do you mean? And Grace explains that he doesn't have enough fuel to get home. They didn't have enough time. So once we're done with this mission, and I send my probes back to Earth, I'm gonna die. No, no, no. Listen, Grace says to him, I got to meet you. I got to do all this amazing stuff. I've made peace with it. I know I'm not going home. I know why, and it's okay, Rocky. No, no. And Grace, with his voice cracking, is like, we've got stars to save, okay? Grace? Yeah? You are need word. What word? Risk self to save others. And Grace finds that word for him. Brave. As Grace walks away, Rocky asks, How much astrophage do you need? Two million kilograms? Rocky says, I can give. I go home six years slower. That's too much, Grace says. Rocky says, Rocky watched Crew die. Rocky could not fix. Grace say he will die. Rocky can fix. Grace go home. Overcome, Grace breaks down in tears and says, Okay. The entire time Grace is in space, you see him still struggling to recall what happened back on Earth. He does not remember why or how he was chosen for this mission. He can't make sense of it. Because in all of the flashbacks, he's like, I genuinely don't understand how someone could be so brave as to risk their life for this mission. But when he wakes up on this very ship, he kind of just accepts it. Like, hmm, I I don't I don't know what happened, but maybe I had a change of heart and I am a hero after all. But with this hope that Rocky offers him, Grace, who spends so much of this story trying to convince himself that he was brave enough to die, feels safe enough to finally admit he really just wants to live. So Grace and Rocky set out for their mission to collect the predator, and shit hits the fan. After a lot of close calls, they're able to collect the predator sample, but the atmosphere on this planet is so hot that the spaceship gets majorly damaged. It starts leaking fuel and breaking down, and Grace and Rocky are both severely injured. There's some very poignant scenes where you see the lengths at which they'll go for each other. Rocky leaves his Rocky ball, risking his own life to get an unconscious Grace on a safer part of the ship. And once Grace wakes up, he keeps vigil over Rocky as Rocky recuperates from his own injuries. But this high-risk mission ends up having very high rewards because from the sample they collected, Grace is able to learn about the microbial predator that he names Tao Meeba and discovers how to breed certain strains of it that can survive in both Earth's atmosphere and Rocky's planet Arid's atmosphere. They have found a way to destroy the astrophage. They fucking did it. Yeah. But that's too easy. Mm-hmm. What's the catch? There's a catch. There's a fucking catch. Let's just end it here. Let's just send it here. The end. We'll see you next week. Okay. So then there's this really, there's this really fucked up flashback. The last flashback that we see, where we and Grace find out the real reason he ended up on this ship. One of the leading astronauts dies in an explosion on Earth just days before the launch when they accidentally mismeasure the amount of astrophage back at the research center. Scrambling to find a solution, Dr. Strat basically tells Grace that he is the next one in line because he is the closest to the project. And at first, Grace is like, absolutely fucking not. I've told you from the beginning, I'm not fucking going upside up for this. I'm not an astronaut. Yeah. Like I've never done any space training at all. And she's like, I'm not asking you. I'm fucking telling you you're going on this mission. And in the movie, Dr. Strat is a little bit kinder. She actually has some really great scenes where you see a little bit of her humanity. But when I was like looking at all the texts that I highlighted in the book, she's fucking ruthless. Yeah. Because Grace is like, but what about my kid? You know, like his students or whatever. And she's like, oh, shut the fuck up about not wanting to leave your students behind. You're a coward. You ran away from a promising scientific career because you were afraid of criticism. You don't have a partner because you were afraid to get your heart broken. You avoid risk like the plague. But I don't care. You're going on that ship because you are the best chance humanity has. And he's still fighting it. He's like, no, I'm not fucking going. Yeah. And she basically snaps her fingers, and two other staffers come in and inject him so that he loses consciousness and he does not wake up until 11 years later on the spaceship. There's got to be some sort of ethical dilemma there. Oh. 1,000%.

  Speaker 1: 01:19:05

  Okay.

  Speaker: 01:19:06

  In the book, Grace, like back on Earth, he's having like a conversation with her, and he's like, So what are you going to do like once the spaceship launches? Like now what? Because then you're just going to have to wait. Yeah, just sit around. And she's like, Oh, I'll probably like be in prison. Like, I'll probably be on trial for like overusing my power and whatever. But I don't care because like I'll take the fall because otherwise the world will end. Yeah. So that's like that is her. All right. You know? Okay. We get it. So woman in STEM. But still, yeah. That's how we are. That's you know so brave. Um, so Grace finally remembers this last flashback and it's fucked. Because he spent so much of the story trying to see himself as the kind of person who would willingly sacrifice everything to save humanity. But when he remembers that at this pinnacle moment, he did not have the bravery within him. He did not volunteer for the Hail Mary mission. It reveals something very uncomfortable. He wasn't the hero he wanted to believe he was. Okay, we're we're getting to the end, I promise. Back on the ship, now that Grace and Rocky are recovered from their injuries and they have their own strains of Talmoeba ready to bring back to their own respective homes, it's time for them to part ways. Rocky gives Grace the fuel he needs to get back to Earth, and they have this emotional goodbye. I'm not gonna show it. It's it's exactly what you think it would be. Yeah. Cry porn. Okay. But after a few earth days of Grace journeying home, his ship alerts him that one of his fuel tanks is now empty. And he's like, what the fuck? There's no way. So turns out, because it's too easy, the strain of tao meeba that they bred found a way to evolve to slip through the containers they were holding it in. It was in that xenonite that Rocky uses, and that's where they were keeping the tao meeba. The tao meba was like, I'm gonna outsmart you and I'm gonna slip through the xenonite. So now they are ravishing through the astrophage fuel on the ship. Grace, thankfully, is able to contain it and save his remaining fuel, enough for him to still make it back to Earth. But knowing that Rocky's entire ship is made of xenonite, he's like, oh fuck. Rocky's gonna run out of fuel and be completely stranded. He will not be able to get home, and that means his entire planet will die. So Grace now has this impossible choice. Do I use the last of my fuel to go home and save my own life, save humanity, and become a living legend? Or do I give up my dream of ever seeing Earth again and save my friend? What do you think he chooses? That is right. Grace makes the decision to save Rocky. He sends probes back to Earth with all of the Talmeba samples and his research data he collected on the mission. So this is like a physical thing he's sending back to Earth? It's like a satellite that carries all of this stuff. Okay, okay. And it still takes like four years to even down to Earth. I was like, should I ask how long it'll take, or is that too long? It's a long time. But like he finds a way to still save Earth. And then he turns his ship around to rescue Rocky. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And for the first time in maybe his whole life, Grace chooses to make the brave choice. No one forces him to do it. He willingly gives up his chance to return to Earth because he can't abandon his friend. And this limiting belief that he has, that I was forced to become a hero, then becomes I choose to become one. Earlier in the movie, during one of the flashbacks, Grace has a conversation with Commander Yao, the lead astronaut chosen for this mission. This is one of the two that died in the coma. Grace tells him, Commander Yao, I really appreciate what you all are doing. Yao says, I mean, you would do the same. And Grace is like, honestly, I would choose not to go at all. I don't have the bravery gene that you all have. And Yao says, Trust me, it's not a gene. You just need to find someone to be brave for. And now Grace fully understands what that means because he found Rocky. So Grace comes to the rescue, the two reunite, and just like they have many times over already, they save each other. I am gonna cut to the last chapter of this book, which is actually a flash forward. Grace is now roughly 71 Earth years old, and he now lives on Arid, Rocky's planet.

  Speaker 3: 01:24:36

  Oh, that's what I was hoping for. Oh my god.

  Speaker: 01:24:39

  Yes. Yes. After they found each other again, they only had enough fuel to get back to Erid. And because Grace helped save their entire planet, the Eridians go above and beyond to make life comfortable for Grace. They set up a biodome for him to live in with oxygen, with light, with water. They engineer food that he can eat. And Grace fully adapts to life on Rocky's planet. On this particular morning, Grace is rushing to get somewhere, but he has a quick check-in with Rocky along the way. He and Rocky stay friends all this time. You can't travel multiple galaxies, save two solar systems, and not come out of it as family. But Rocky has super urgent news to share with Grace. I'm gonna fucking read this to you. I know I get that I've been here for an hour and a half. I don't care. I don't give a fuck. Okay. So what's up, Grace says. He wiggles and jiggles. I've almost never seen him this excited. I just heard from the astronomy hive. They have news. I hold my breath. Soul? Is it about soul? That's Earth Sun. Yes, he squeals. Your star has returned to full luminance. I gasp. Are you sure? Like a hundred percent certainty? Yes. The data was analyzed by a thrum of astronomers. It checks out. I can't move. I can barely breathe. I start to tremble. It's over. We won. Simple as that. Soul, Earth Sun, has returned to its pre-astrophage brightness. There's only one possible way that happens. Astrophage is gone. Or at least reduced in population so much that it doesn't matter. We won. We did it. Rocky cocks his carapace. Hey, your face is leaking. I haven't seen that in a long ass time. Remind me, does that mean you're happy or sad? Because it can mean either one, right? I'm happy, of course. I sob. Yeah, I thought so. Just checking. And then they're like, okay, well I have to get going, blah blah blah. And then on their way out, Grace says, Rocky, that news about soul, it it it it makes my whole life have meaning, you know? But I still can't I can't I start sobbing again. Yeah, I know. That's why I wanted to be the one to tell you. I check my watch. Yes, the Eridians made me a wristwatch. They make anything I ask for. I try not to abuse it. I have to go. I'm late. But Rocky, I know, he says, tilting his carapace in what I've come to realize is a smile. I know. We'll talk more about it later. And then the story finally comes to an end as Grace makes his way into a classroom full of Eridian children, ready for class to start, now that their teacher has arrived. It's too much.

  Speaker: 01:27:52

  This whole movie, Grace grapples with a question: what does it mean to be a hero? This is stupid. This is so stupid. A hero means saving the world. A hero means not being afraid of death. But through this friendship, Grace learns that being a hero actually means just being brave for someone you love. At the end of the story, Grace finds out that holy shit, it actually worked. I saved Earth. Humanity survives. But he couldn't care less about the pomp and circumstance of being crowned a savior. He doesn't need parades or statues or the adoration of the world to feel like it mattered. What makes it worth it is having someone there to celebrate it with, who understands the magnitude of what he just accomplished, and to feel his joy and relief with him. No words needed. Are you kidding me? Don't speak. Hold him instead. So crazy. Project Hail Mary shows us that that's the whole point. That is why we risk our lives over and over again, all over the world and all over the galaxy, because we must do everything within our power to preserve our love, our community, and our connection with one another. But we don't necessarily need to save the earth and sun from extinction to be a hero, nor do we need to win the Trojan War. We are all heroes as long as we love someone and act accordingly. And every time we remember this truth, may we never lose our wonder in it and shout out to the universe in gratitude. Amaze, amaze, amaze.

  Speaker 1: 01:29:58

  I can't wait to watch this movie. Oh my god, it's so good. I cannot wait. But I want to thank you because I'm thinking about the lyrics of When I'm Home. It makes me see it differently too, the way it ends. Because I was so, you know, my heart was hung up on. I actually wrote this and I deleted it from my story, but like they don't need to come home. Get like have this pomp and circumstance. They don't need the praise. What they need is to be held and understood. And, you know, that verse ends with, you know, when I'm home. Like that's the name of the song. And that's, I feel like full circle with your story, right? Like that's that's why you do it. That's who you're doing it for.

  Speaker: 01:30:40

  Yeah. What do you want me to say? I don't know. What do you want me to say? I don't know. There's nothing to say.

  Speaker 1: 01:30:46

  So you're telling me that I talked about how hard it is to be the hero, and you talked about it's actually really easy.

  Speaker: 01:30:56

  And that's all, folks. We cannot make this shit up. This is stupid.

  Speaker 1: 01:31:04

  I'm so happy that it ended that way. I know I don't like to know anything about a story before I go in. I don't usually like spoilers, but this is when I'm like happy to know.

  Speaker: 01:31:15

  Yeah.

  Speaker 1: 01:31:15

  Because then I can watch it like without like feel the dread. Yes, exactly. Yeah, you can just soak it all in. Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah. What a beautiful story. Thank you for covering that. I should have known you were gonna cover it. You told me a long time ago you were gonna cover it.

  Speaker: 01:31:30

  And I was like waiting because I I wanted to cover it as soon as I read the book. Yeah, yes. But then I was like, uh, maybe I shouldn't because I know people will want to watch the movie. That's exactly what you said. And I want to give people enough time if they really, really want to see it before I spoil every single thing in the story. No, I love that. So it's just so good. I can't wait for you to see it. I'm really excited. We can debrief after because there are some things I didn't part two. Yeah, I didn't mention, but yeah.

  unknown: 01:32:00

  Yeah.

  Speaker: 01:32:00

  Let me tell you, there's a lot on the Odyssey I didn't often talk about. You said Tom Holland's name once, I think. So I said I didn't say his name twice, though.

  Speaker 1: 01:32:12

  Oh wow.

  Speaker: 01:32:14

  There's a hero. That's it.

  Speaker 1: 01:32:19

  That's all we need to say. Highly recommend. Highly recommend. I wish I could say more, but that was just ridiculous.

  Speaker: 01:32:29

  It is stupid. You see why I had that stupid smirk the entire time.

  Speaker 1: 01:32:35

  I'm like, I'm like crying, and you're like, okay. This is dumb. Like, what the fuck am I supposed to do?

  Speaker: 01:32:43

  Project Hail Mary, everyone. The Odyssey. Project Odyssey.

  Speaker 1: 01:32:48

  Project Odyssey.

  Speaker: 01:32:50

  Project Hail Odysseus. Yeah. Yep. All right. Okay. You know what? We're done here. Yeah. Hope you enjoyed our hero's journey today. Yes. And we wish you well as you continue on in your own journeys. Yes. Yes. We will see you later. We will. But make sure you write those reviews and rate us first. Get those stickers. Mm-hmm. And then we'll come back and we'll do it all over again. But until then, BRB crying.

Until next time…brb crying :’)