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Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir says his "only regret" when it comes to the Ryan Gosling-fronted movie adaptation is not managing to squeeze in one particular scene from the 2021 novel.
While appearing as a guest on science-based podcast StarTalk, Weir, who produced the flick, recalled how he and the movie's writer, Drew Goddard, "fought" to keep the moment in which the government sets off nukes in Antarctica in an effort to speed up global warming in the face of the dying Sun.
"We just didn't have time for it because the runtime was going so long," he explained, adding that he thinks Goddard did "a fantastic job" with his big screen take. "But there's a scene in the book where they set off a bunch of nuclear explosions in Antarctica to make an entire ice shelf fall into the ocean." The idea, Weir went on is "that it will melt and release all the methane, which is greenhouse gases, so that Earth will retain more of the heat that it is getting from the Sun. So, they're like, 'We need some global warming.'"
Given that Project Hail Mary comes in at a bladder-testing 156 minutes, it makes sense that there wasn't room for everything on the page to be brought to life. That said, there are moments in the film that weren't actually present in the source material; like Gosling's protagonist Ryland Grace teaching Eridian children on their home planet or glimpses of a present-day Earth in which entire oceans are frozen.
"We see the beginnings of it in the book," Weir said of the dark development. "They're starting to have problems, and a lot of their problems are caused by the amelioration techniques they're proactively doing. Things are going to get worse, but then we're gonna need that heat."
For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way.
