Project Hail Mary Creators Answer the 50 Most Searched Questions | WIRED

[00:00] - I'm Phil Lord. - And I'm Andy Weir. the most searched questions about ""Project Hail Mary." [energetic music]

[00:13] May the fourth, 2021? - Wow. [Phil laughing] who could answer this one. - I'll just take a nap.

[00:27] - Hmm. - Oh, its, uh, I'm pretty sure. - Yes. - Kilgore Trout.

[00:40] - How about this guy right here? - This poor lady is getting. - Assaulted. - They knew the job was dangerous.

[00:53] - At Shepperton Studios, mostly. - Exactly, because it's a long drive, guys. locations around. - Also, "Alien"

[01:06] - And we were, like, right next door - Yes. - We were? I feel like that was a lost opportunity.

[01:18] sequence. - Added some period drama - And there were a lot of... - Safe. - Oh, there's actually two answers to this question.

[01:31] - The general answer is, I can't talk. It's a good thing your whole job and then he teaches seventh grade in the movie, I believe.

[01:48] - I think it's seventh or eighth. the answer to this question. - Yeah. - Do we know?

[02:02] - In the movie, it's sixth, I think. [Andy laughing] - He was a molecular biologist

[02:15] - There you go. - Oh. Now, not the movie. - It's the astrophage.

[02:29] breeding exponentially that it's actually absorbing - People ask this question? I believe it, because you watch the trailer

[02:45] - I think people think it's really happening, - Oh, what does astrophage look like? - You did a lot of takes where you were making that.

[03:00] - Like a little black dot that you can't see inside of, It's, like, completely opaque until you kill it. there was a day on set where you had to pretend

[03:17] and we could see it on the monitor. We pulled the IR filter out of the camera. all over a bunch

[03:32] - This was in space. is not when he's looking at it in the lab. and he's surrounded by astrophage.

[03:46] And then when he shot the scene with a bunch of IR lights It was all practical? - Yeah, well, over the lens. - There was an aquarium

[04:00] in front of the lens where someone was dripping water. - Touching things that you couldn't see, "This is so beautiful." - Everyone was teary-eyed

[04:12] pretending to touch things and everyone's like, - What's astrophage look like? - Why is the mission named "Hail Mary?"

[04:25] where you're doing a last-ditch desperate effort and hopefully someone catches it and you win the game - Again, this poor woman.

[04:39] We could throw it up. - We could throw it anywhere, [group chattering] No one's getting hurt on that one.

[04:51] - Eva Stratt. who is the most powerful person in the world. - And a triple threat, turns out.

[05:05] - It's amazing. like they wrote this into. - Yes, that's true. - I guess I'm not smart enough to ask a question like that.

[05:19] - There you go. - A conspiracy theorist have different answers. - Oh, two different - In the book, she's Dutch. - In the book, she's Dutch.

[05:32] - But in the movie and in real life, she's German. She was born in East Germany, which is crazy. Yep. - You did it!

[05:45] I don't think I could do it if I tried. - What happens to Earth if the mission fails? [group laughing]

[06:00] - The Earth will cool 10 to 15 degrees. is that it grows exponentially. propelling us into a new ice age.

[06:15] It'll be like, the food system. - Chain, thank you. - It's never happened before, but we caught it on camera.

[06:30] - [Phil] The one time. - Andy was human. and then basically everything will go extinct, including us. What's the correct way to say that?

[06:43] - [both] Zandra? - She's a bit cooler than you. - What is the estimated timeframe

[06:56] - 30 years? - Yeah. - I pre-answered two questions. [group blowing]

[07:08] What is the name of the spacecraft? I assume we're talking about. - I like to call her Mary. I assume we're talking about the Hail Mary,

[07:21] or they could be talking about the ArcLight probe. - Probably the Hail Mary. - Jeez, he's a savant. - Oh my God.

[07:36] - Is this is what it's like to hang out with David Blaine? - He makes things disappear constantly. Oh, where is the Hail Mary constructed?

[07:49] - Yeah, in the movie, we never really explained it fully, were built by different countries and it was assembled next to the ISS in low orbit.

[08:04] - You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. - Is "Project Hail Mary" a true story? [group chuckling]

[08:20] How accurate is the science in "Project Hail Mary?" - Obviously it's 100% accurate. that's where my little made up BS is,

[08:35] It was obvious. The cell membrane astrophage, yeah, can hold in neutrinos, - Duh. - We all knew this, obviously.

[08:50] and make them out of heat aside from that. - Also the Xenonite - Xenonite is just we don't understand the technology.

[09:05] out of a thing that's a gas - But all of the nitty gritty science. all that stuff like that,

[09:19] - Oh! [group laughing] - Oh my God. - Did you even read it?

[09:34] I had my mom read it to me. - Disrespect. - Ray Porter style. - Ah. - There we go.

[09:51] I am fallible. - It's true. - The answer is... - The lovely and talented. - Who is the head puppeteer

[10:04] - But wasn't always supposed to be Rocky, right? And just knew Rocky so deeply - There's no other choice.

[10:17] all along. - Yeah, six puppeteers? we call the Rocketeers. - Yes. - How did I get that wrong?

[10:31] off the table? - It's impossible. - Why did Stratt recruit Ryland? - Because of the paper he wrote initially?

[10:45] was living on the surface of the sun, oh, good throw, man. that it couldn't be a water-based life form, about a how life doesn't necessarily need water to exist,

[11:02] and that's why she recruited him. because she believed in him. - Why doesn't Grace know where he is?

[11:15] - I don't think we need another one on that, - [Phil] Yeah. - Why doesn't Grace know where he is?

[11:28] [group laughing] [group laughing]

[11:40] - Right, but he does have amnesia In the book, they added a chemical - Yeah. - The book and the movie,

[11:56] just because there's a lot of stuff that happens in the book - Yep. - I mean, in theory, - No. - It just doesn't explain it.

[12:09] - All sorts of stuff. - By that sketchy scientist. - That there was a chemical involved. - Ooh, Andy?

[12:23] - Astrophage is an alien monocellular life form that lives on the surface of stars, and infects them, and that is kind of the core problem

[12:37] - Now imagine pitching that to a movie studio. - Star eater. - How does the Hail Mary create gravity?

[12:51] - Yes, but kind of yes but no, right? when it's in thrust configuration, with enough gravity to provide you with gravity,

[13:06] it spins around to provide centripetal force. - And as Ryland said, what's the line? - They used it to churn butter in the Civil War.

[13:21] - We'll fix it in post. - Yeah. - One extra way, - What propulsion system does the ship use?

[13:35] The astrophage is the fuel. - Yep. - Oh. - It's like skipping a stone.

[13:50] - Are you trying to load the dice? Look at this cheater. - Yeah. - What was the purpose of the beetles aboard the Hail Mary?

[14:04] and give any information to help them save the world. for a really expensive licensed song opportunity.

[14:18] get Googled a lot, which is what happens It's a big question, and it's a mystery in the book On the way, at different times, each of them got sick,

[14:34] and the medical robot was not able to fix it, - So, I know the answer to this, but I'm saving it for potential sequel materials.

[14:49] - I can't believe I never asked you that. [group laughing] What star system is the Hail Mary sent to?

[15:05] - Which you can see with the naked eye, wow. - Have you ever stargazed at that bad boy?

[15:18] - How long does the journey to Tau Ceti take? Time is relative, you guys. - Yes, relative is. - If I'm measuring from Earth,

[15:31] 12 years. - 12 to 13 years, - He experienced four years because of the time dilation. - It is, yeah, 12 light years away,

[15:44] because the Hail Mary wasn't going. is there a chance it's not there now - The next day. - David Blaine

[15:59] It's like, the stars very far away that you look at they're like 100 thousand light years away Or if you're looking at stars in the Andromeda galaxy,

[16:14] and they could well be gone right now for another couple million years. We are, absolutely.

[16:30] really profound. - Maybe with a little more skepticism. Because you wrote it.

[16:43] of actor/producer Ryan Gosling. - Oh, I see. - Why does everyone love "Project Hail Mary" so much?

[16:57] - And what's worse is these by definition because we're doing this before the movie came out, like this book so much?

[17:11] Because it's awesome, jagoff, that's why. - So antagonistic. - Wow. Is "Project Hail Mary" spicy?

[17:25] that someone wrote. - Is that your question? - No, this is one of the top most searched questions. - [Chris] Right.

[17:37] - I mean, maybe they're asking about, if it's suitable for children. - Appropriate for children? - There's no curses.

[17:51] - There was a small curse in the book. - But Ryan's character never curses in the book? He curses once.

[18:04] and it is absolutely suitable - Yeah. - [Andy] There's danger.

[18:18] - It has a... - A reverent tone? I don't know. - I don't know, yeah.

[18:31] - Ready? Ah. - What species is Rocky? - Because he's from 40. [Andy blowing]

[18:43] Why can Rocky not see light? where light doesn't reach the surface, - What is unique about Rocky's biology?

[18:58] - I mean, probably referring to echolocation, that he doesn't have a face or eyes.

[19:11] It's just hard to read. - It is tough to play poker against him. He comes from, well, our designation is 40 Eridani AB,

[19:26] and Ryland there starts calling it Erid. - What is the atmosphere of composition of Erid?

[19:38] - It is 29 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth, - I knew that, I just wanted you to say it. What is the significance of Xenonite in the mission?

[19:53] - It's a nigh indestructible material, extremely strong, of mostly ammonia with big, flat panels Very strong.

[20:07] - Also, there is a plot point about... - Well, yes, there's that. Come on, come on. - Do it.

[20:22] - That was fun, at least. - Coming at you. - Through basically whale song, right?

[20:35] across vocal cords inside of his body, - All right, there's also a lot of nonverbal communication.

[20:48] - We sat down with this woman, a fellow filmmaker, about the ways that people communicate

[21:00] and so we talked a lot about that together on the set. - A tonal, they create a tonal language.

[21:12] Grace. - Very slowly. then has a computer identify them to have that be in the movie.

[21:24] - That's nice of you to say. What nickname does Rocky call Grace? - Friend Grace?

[21:37] - No. - He kind of gives him - Well, in his language, it's like, burp. I think he just calls him Grace, friend Grace,

[21:52] - That's all we got. I put under there. - Oh, really? - Well, first of all, we got them all right except for one.

[22:04] - [Speaker] You got 100. - Thank you. [energetic tones]