Speaker 1: When the sun begins to dim, It's up to three
unlikely heroes to save Earth from disaster. However, two of
them die on the journey, leaving the fate of the
world to one man. Or so it would seem. It's
Project Hail Mary. I'm Ronald Young Junior, and I'm leaving
the theater.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: This is Ronald, and I'm leaving the theater after seeing
Project Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary written by Drew Goddard,
directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, starring Ryan Gosling,
Sandra Huller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Lung, Milana Van Trumb, James Ortiz,
and Priya Cansara, and as usual, for complete listing of
the cast and crew, check out the link in our
show notes. I am not here alone. I am here
with Daryl see Murphy.
Speaker 2: Darryl C.
Speaker 3: Murphy, Murphy making himself laugh. This is the joy that
leaving the theater brings you. Every week. We have not
had a guest in a while, so it is good
to have seen a movie not by myself now, Project
hill Mary. It is based on the book Project Till Mary,
written by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian, which
was a critical Darling a few years ago, starring Matt Damon,
about a man who has to survive on.
Speaker 2: Mars in order to get back to Earth.
Speaker 3: This is about a man who wakes up with amnesia
in space, not knowing what exactly he is in space for,
and has to piece it together.
Speaker 2: A mission to save the planet.
Speaker 3: I actually realized that I might be giving more context
because I read the book than what you actually saw.
Speaker 1: In the movie.
Speaker 2: So let's just let's start right there. Daryl C. Murphy,
what did you think of Project Hill? Mary?
Speaker 4: I think it's a fun movie. It's a fun watch.
A little long. The end could have been better. It
it it ran too long, it got corny. But there
was you know, two bros in space. You know, I
thought I thought it was a fun watch. I wish
it was a little shorter, and it did make me.
I was suspicious when I saw that it was an
Amazon production. I was immediately suspicious and I put my
thinking hat on and I was like, what is this
movie trying to tell us? I didn't read the book,
So I do you want me to get into that
or wait, no, you can get into it.
Speaker 3: Sounds it sounds like you liked it, which was the
main thing I wanted to get. We could get into
the amazon of it all. In one second, I will
say I liked the movie. I don't think it was
a great adaptation. I think that they left a lot
of context out of this movie. I thought the stakes
were too low. As a matter of fact, in the
third act of the movie, the stakes are sat down
at a desk and explained to another person. They're mentioned
earlier in the movie, but there's no indication of how
serious this is or what is to happen to all
of these people. There's not enough talking about that and
what it means. And by the time the main character
is forced to make a decision towards the end of
the film, I don't think there was enough character development
about him that is told in the flashbacks that justified
the decision that he makes in the movie. That being said,
I've read the books, so for me, I knew why
he did everything that he did. However, I had to
rip the context of the books out of my mind
in order to truly enjoy the movie. And when I
ripped that context out, then I start to have problems
with the movie in that sense. Now, all of that
being said, I will let you dive into the abbas
it all.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So the Amazon of it all, right, where I take
issue is with this obsession with space. We know that
these you know, Jeff Bezos has Blue Origin, Elon Musk
has SpaceX, Richard Branson has whatever, Virgin spaceships, whatever he got.
Speaker 5: You know, there's a lot going on with space.
Speaker 4: Aerospace is a very key part of the empire, right,
It is key to the war machine. As anybody who's
been paying attention to the news probably can understand. Why
is it we have to go into outer space to
another galaxy to save the planet when you could stay
on the planet and save the planet, like let's talk
about climate change, let's talk about bombing people and use
senseless wars capitalism. So so immediately like my mind when
I see Amazon, you know, I go into all right,
what is this movie about to tell me? And it's
just it's propaganda that says the problems on Earth are.
Speaker 5: Somewhere out there. It's not here.
Speaker 4: It's not from people like I don't know, you know,
Jeff Bezos, you know, like billionaires who are just like
and now you know, you know, no if that is
like it's not like it's not from these people who
are like just extracting from the Earth, extracting from people
just ruining everything. Yo, you want to save the planet,
get rid of capitalism, you want to save the planet,
get rid of all these like weapons and nuclear bombs
and all this shit. You're telling me that it's a
there's a virus eating the sun?
Speaker 2: What is that?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 5: I know you got to use imagination.
Speaker 4: But again when it comes from Amazon, I immediate went
went there. I was like, all right, this is some
spaceboy propaganda that keeps that, like once people's imagination to
be on what's out there and not what's right here,
to see that the very person bringing you this movie
is part of the problem.
Speaker 5: And you know, and.
Speaker 4: Even in this fantastical movie of this guy who goes
to another galaxy, right, like I mean, like some very
unrealistic things happened in this movie, they still could not
bring themselves to keep the brother alive, which I I
just that just stuck out to me too.
Speaker 5: I was like, you still using these.
Speaker 4: These old tropes in movies, uh, And like, but in
a movie that is just so completely unreal, why couldn't you,
you know, could we have avoided that I don't know.
Speaker 5: I just I just think that.
Speaker 4: This is one of those movies where like, if you're
somebody like me who like thinks about all these things
all the time, just know that you'll have to set
that part of yourself aside to just enjoy it as
a fun little movie, because like the writing.
Speaker 5: Is fun and you know, the story is cute.
Speaker 4: It's like it's it's you know, yell, little et and eh,
you know what I'm saying, Like, it's a cool it's
a cool movie up until like the last maybe half hour. Yeah,
that's howf away it gets a little lie. I don't
know what's going on here. They could have cut this off.
What focused group said this was okay, Sorry I just ranted,
but basically it is propaganda.
Speaker 5: But if you could set that aside, it is a
fun movie. Just coming back to.
Speaker 3: That, Okay, So I let me just tell you. I'm
gonna tell you what's in the book. Astrophage is in
the book, Virus eating the sun is in the book,
them having to go to tal SETI that's all in
the book. Now, let me tell you what I think
is important to note. I think that the story can
be written and obviously be adapted and be propaganda in
a very particular way. Where I think the propagand and
that actually comes in is not necessarily in the main storytelling.
Speaker 2: But in the low stakes.
Speaker 3: Basically, we're not gonna talk about the fact that people
are gonna die starvation all of that, which is horrible,
a horrible way to die, which they don't really go into.
Speaker 5: People are dying from that right now.
Speaker 4: That was the thing, right, Like twenty two hundred and
fifty million people are gonna die in thirty years. Yo,
millions of people are dying right now because of stupid wars,
like and you know, we all know who's at the
center that us the United States, right, Like so this
so like what is this? What it does is like
it creates this world where like those problems don't exist, right,
Like it wants us to like imagine, to come out
of this world and go into this realm and into
this mindset. So we could watch this movie as if
like none of this stuff is happening around us. I
mean not to exaggerate, but at the time, at the
point in time in which we watched this movie, we
we are like very much tiptone around World War three,
and like it just maybe it's the timing of it all.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just could not shake that, like why do we
have to have these movies? But now I know it's
a book. I know all of that. I guess it's
the timing that is like rubbing me wrong about this.
Speaker 5: It's just like.
Speaker 4: Why do we need a movie that has us looking
in out of space? Like why do we have to
keep going and out of space?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: Because to me, it's just like it's a Blue Origin
commercial because it's a way for like it's primes everybody's
mind for you know, Jeff Bezos to be like, this
is why we got to go out there, because like
you never know, it might be an alien, it might
be a Rocky out there something like that, like planting
these ideas in your imagination so that you can use
that imagination for someone else's agenda, you know what I'm saying,
or or be open to.
Speaker 5: Someone else's agenda.
Speaker 4: Is now, like we could tell kids, yeah, they we
want to go on a rocket ship so we can
see Rocky, Like this is the type of crap that
you can tell people when this rocket ship when this
is so unnecessary right now, like anyway, you know, I could.
Speaker 2: I agree with everything you're saying, but we got to
refuse the movies.
Speaker 4: The movie was it was it's a jump.
Speaker 6: We got Daryl, we got Darryl on a day he
is on one. I agree with everything you said, let
me say this, let me say this. I was gonna
get into it.
Speaker 3: I was like, I think the one thing the movie
until your point is that it is very much they
make it. They take from the book and they extract
it and say, we're gonna get the two guys who
made the Lego movie to make this a fun and
silly movie about space, friendship and the beauty of space.
There's a lot of wonder in this film in a
way that kind of is reminiscent of Interstellar, where I'm
looking at it, these beautiful shots of big, grandiose shots
of space, of Lynz Flair, all of these things that
are kind of meant to kind of lull you into
this sense of, oh man, what a beautiful movie with
a pretty movie, and then it ends up being about
friendship in a very specific way, a man and his dog.
Speaker 2: In a lot of.
Speaker 3: Ways when it gets to the end, it does feel corny. Specifically,
all of that being said, I think that Ryan Gosling
did a very good job in this film. He acted
a lot of it by himself, and I think for
him to have to go from silly to very serious
at times and very emotional.
Speaker 2: Was was very good. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's essentially yes, he had a Yes, it's his castaway,
I think, so that being I mean so, I mean
other than that, other than the blue origin of it all,
the Amazon of it all, I think at its heart
it's a fine movie. But as someone who read the book,
I think there's a lot of context that they left
out that I think have probably been helpful and maybe
made it an even better movie. But you're right, when
Amazon's doing it, of course they're just gonna be like, hey,
we're gonna talk to you all about space.
Speaker 2: What's good?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you know, And again I think i'm.
Speaker 2: Your rants are on the record, so you're good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like I think I'm thinking about this stuff because like, yeah,
it's the timing of it all and everything, and I
think it just speaks to like, this is where we
are right now in movies and in media, you know.
Speaker 5: What I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So like, even as I would say, yes, this is
a good movie, to watch you know, definitely, Like if
it comes on streaming, Amazon Prime or.
Speaker 2: Whatever, that's exactly where it will be.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, Like, sure, kick it, watch it,
enjoy it. Just know it's gonna get corny in the
last half hour. But like, but also understand that this
movie reflects where we are in media and where we
seem to be headed. Where these movies they're gonna have
big names in them, they're gonna be they're gonna be
a good quality, but they do serve a purpose. They
are a brick on somebody's wall. So you know, just
keep that in mind when you're watching this, you know
what I'm saying. But yeah, I think Ryan Goslin did great.
I think I was happy to see Lino boys in it.
Speaker 2: I was. I loved him. He did great.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was happy to see him in it.
Speaker 4: I was happy to see I don't want disrespect he
But Sandra Holer, no, the at and T Lady, Oh.
Speaker 2: You're talking about Marina. Why Marina Marina.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like it's nice to see like those faces kind
of pop up and you're just like, oh, okay, bet.
Speaker 2: That's what's up.
Speaker 5: But definitely, I was definitely, definitely happy to see Lino Boys.
Speaker 3: I was happy to see Linel Boys. I was happy
to see Ken Ken Leung from industry. Very good to
see him. And I think what you're saying is important
in terms of UH, in terms of in terms of
what we can expect to see in what movies are doing,
in terms of creating culture. This is certainly pushing us
in a direction, and I think the awareness of that
going into it might make you watch the movie a
little bit differently and say, Okay, let's just go ahead
watch it. A best friend to the show frequent guest
or formerly frequent quest guess Nicole Hill hates space, hates
anything to do with space. It's very much And there's
a poem everybody should look up by Gil Scott heron
Whitey on the Moon, which will tell you why, especially
for black folks and space, why it's very unusual for
us to look up in the stars and wonder in
a way, even though afrofuturism tells us that we are
going to be in the future, which I really appreciate,
and I really appreciate seeing black folks among the stars
and all that. That's cool, But I think it's important
to look at a movie like this, and really consider
everything that you're saying and why a movie like this
comes out at a time like this. Even if we
had not attacked Iran right now, we'd still be wondering
what is this movie trying to tell us about space
at this moment? But it only feels more ill timed
when we are primed for World War three. All of
that being said here at leaving the theater, we rate
movies out of five stars.
Speaker 5: And wait, can I say one more thing to your point?
Speaker 3: Because you can, but you have to do it quickly
a futurism, yes, and you got to do it in
less than a minute.
Speaker 4: What's interesting, too, is I alluded to this earlier of
everybody who was supposed to go to space who did
not get to go.
Speaker 2: When you put it that way, you see what I'm.
Speaker 5: Saying, who is he replacing? You're right, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: All the people of color and women were zeroed out.
Speaker 5: No one of the one woman made it.
Speaker 2: No, she didn't know.
Speaker 5: They both died like the that's my point.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, like they were supposed to die though, but
like they got to space.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, They got to space.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but they died in their comas.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, fair they Okay, that one is fair, But
somebody didn't even make it on the ship.
Speaker 5: They got rid of them early.
Speaker 3: And they didn't even give the context as to why
why they died.
Speaker 2: The book does the movie doesn't really do a good job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that being said, out of five stars, what do
you give this movie?
Speaker 2: Three out of.
Speaker 4: Five comes to mind? Three point five? Excuse me, three
point five out of five comes to mind.
Speaker 3: Okay, I give it a four mostly because I think
it was good, and I'm actually grading up because I
think I would normally give it a three point five
if I had not read the book. I think what
I think that because I read the book, I wanted
to grade it down. But I'm assuming that if I
had not read the book, I would have walked out
of this saying that's a four star movie. So I'm
gonna give it four stars.
Speaker 2: I mean four stars is fair.
Speaker 5: Two four stars is fair.
Speaker 3: I think three to five is I think three five
is also fair. You didn't read the book, so that
makes me But I also know that the grading down
that you're giving has more to do with the message.
Speaker 2: Am I right? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, these days, you have to pay attention
to what a movie is for and what it's trying
to tell you.
Speaker 5: Like, it's just where we.
Speaker 4: Are right now, and we cannot afford to just sit
down and be like, Okay, it's just a movie, because
it's not just a movie. It's not just a movie.
It's never just a thing. It's something more to it,
especially when it comes to media. So yeah, part of
it is what the movie is trying to tell us,
but also how it's put together.
Speaker 5: There's art, there's creativity to it.
Speaker 4: There's still big moves, there's still moments that pull out
your heart strings and all this stuff. So like I'm
respecting that as well, but overall, yeah, I'm like, what
direction is this is this movie trying to take us?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not mad at it. That's something I
do on this show all the time.
Speaker 3: Even I talk a lot more about like casting decisions
and what that says for the story. But this is
a wider lesson with which the few movies and I'm
not mad at it, So I appreciate it. And with that,
Leaving the theater is a production of Oh It's Big
Ron Studios. I mixed this episode and if you like
this type of cutting edge dialogue about the movies, know
that it takes a lot of work to get this done.
I'm seeing a movie tonight, I'm seeing two movies tomorrow.
I'm seeing Hoppers and Protector. I'm seeing another movie on Friday, Normal,
and I'm seeing a day's worth of movie on Saturday,
which I will not be recording for that's just for
my enjoyment. That's four days of movies. Four of those
movies I will be recording and making episodes of leaving
the theater for you. Not to mention, we just did
the show Live Show a Heartbreaker. There's a lot of
effort that went into that. A lot more effort going
into it now wait for it, still in production, still
working on that. All of these are projects that are
I'm passionate about. I put a lot of effort into
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help us out. Show art from Heather Wilder, theme music
by the mysterious Breakbaster Cylinder. For more information about Project Hill,
Mary or Darryl C. Murphy, check out our show notes.
You can follow me on Instagram, Blue Sky, TikTok, Threads,
or Letterbox at Owitz Bigron. That's at O H I
T S b I g R O N. You can
find out more about this show and other O's Big
Ron Studio shows by following us on Instagram at Ois
Big Ron Studios. Leaving the theater will be back soon.
Thanks for listening and thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: How about you're gonna end with something I open your
third eyes.
Speaker 2: I'm Ronald Young Junior and
Speaker 4: I'm extracting from the Earth, extracting from people just ruining everything,