stanji

...well, i found it funny

Isolation In Project Hail Mary - Score Analysis

I've been getting into the aspects of storytelling I discovered within  the OST for Project Hail Mary by Daniel Pemberton. I wanted to share some of my discoveries with all of you! I was really hoping someone with a lot more musical knowledge than myself would break this down in a video essay but it hasn’t happened yet. So here we go! We’ll start with a theme I decided to call “Isolation” that comes up at several points of the score. I attached a sample of it as an audio file which you can listen to so you can recognize it in the score later. I've also included timestamps before many of the tracks (which I then link to the Youtube upload of that track) so you can follow along if you want to.

--------------------------

The theme of Isolation is one of the first musical themes we hear in the movie (but not the first! More on that in a future post)

:015 - Last Man on Ship

This is the track where we first hear the theme. The audience finds out Grace is alone. We don’t know why yet or how, but we can see he himself also has no idea and the music enhances the feeling of loneliness and bewilderment.

1:45 - Invalid Operation

This one’s a sucker punch. During a high-rhythm musical montage Grace problem-solves his situation - first discovering he is not in his own solar system, then realizing how far he is, and finally realizing that it would take him over a century to return to Earth. Which is of course, to say….he cannot return before he dies. Now he truly knows he is alone on this ship and out of reach of humanity. This second hit of the musical theme brings us back to the idea of being alone while hitting us with this even deeper isolation. Just devastating.

0:32 - Top Secret Clearance

This is a interesting one and I could be wrong:  but this theme at the start  kind of sounds similar to the Isolation theme. The note intervals are just SLIGHTLY different than before and down an octave, but it feels too close to me to be a coincidence. Would love to hear from more musical folks on this tho! If I’m right, it’s interesting that this plays during this scene in the story because this is where Grace is learning about Project Hail Mary for the first time. We hear the theme play specifically at the part where Stratt talks about building a ship to send to Tau Ceti, over 11 light years away. Grace pushes back on the feasibility of this and they discuss his findings on astrophage and how he can now help fuel the ship. Interesting that Grace, who ends up alone in space to solve the problem is here, talking about himself and his role. Just neat! 

0:55 - Here the theme definitely kicks in, you can hear the strings take up the theme, under the choral voices.  In the movie, it’s the mic drop after Ryland realizes the mission’s name - Hail Mary - and its implications.

0:41 - You Were Loved

Another subtle one, but at the beginning of this track Grace is burying his deceased shipmates, as he struggles  with both the weight of their immense sacrifice and his own feelings of overwhelming loneliness. We hear another theme predominantly throughout, but right at the time mark I’ve indicated you hear a soft, rhythmic version of the isolation theme. On top of the obvious story beat here of Grace being alone, we also hear him speak of Yao and Ilyukhina’s family, friends, and previous lives. In contrast, Grace hasn’t shown any evidence of a life back on earth -further isolating him from humanity and driving home the musical theme even more.

Barrier Language - throughout

This one is so interesting! I actually didn’t catch it til I started working on this writeup. Here the theme appears  right when Grace leans in to the Xenonite barrier, looks through, and see’s Rocky’s hand for the first time, knocking. There is first contact and a connection here - but Grace is inside his EVA suit and they are further separated by the barrier. On top of this, the very first message Rocky sends is to tell Grace to go get back in his ship! Poor Grace - he finally found a friend and he immediately has to leave. The visuals here are so beautiful and heartbreaking - Grace moving through the darkness, alone and isolated, entering his ship and shutting the hatch again - peeking through a tiny porthole window, eager to connect again. 

3:14 - Learning to Communicate

We hear the isolation theme when Rocky tells Grace that his shipmates died, leaving him alone. And of course, Grace also tells his own story of isolation. The theme ends on a moment of tension by the end of the track as Grace and Rocky realize they no longer have to do this alone - before breaking beautifully into a separate theme (which I will definitely be getting into in another post!)

1:55 - Finding Rocky Voice

We hit this theme as Grace leave Rocky to sleep (or tries, to lol) We just heard Grace avoid answering the “you’re going home!” implication Rocky made then he starts to leave and this theme starts breaking in all over the place while the audience absorbs Grace’s dilemma but also begins to learn about Rocky’s trauma around sleep. Just when Rocky reveals the sad story about watching his crew sleep - and them never waking up - the theme breaks in with a new sweetness and sadness.

God Willing - throughout

The theme breaks in as Grace asks Stratt if it’s hard to ask people to die for the project. The theme here again is a base under another theme of Sacrifice.  Grace is surrounded by people giving their all for the mission, several even willing to die, the ultimate sacrifice - as they all sing and socialize he sits alone, longing for connection but also seemingly terrified of it, keeping up a wall, keeping his distance by sitting alone, by not participating.His isolation is contrasted in the music with the Sacrifice theme beautifully.

Three Days - the whole dang thing

A short track during the moment in the story when the astrophage explosion kills the mission crew scientists. This one could mean a lot of different things - it’s the moment Grace’s fate is sealed. He’s going to end up alone in space. The idea of isolation can also be linked to death (we are a social species) in this moment - Earth fate is now in the balance in a new way. Would love to hear some thoughts on this from anyone out there, too!

Rocky Sacrifice - at the beginning

The theme opens the moment Grace begins reaching for the final switch and passes out. Alone, he can do nothing. He is isolated even with his friend there, because he is pinned by the chair - and Rocky is behind xenonite and cannot reach him. The “whiff of death” is here too as Rocky breaks through the barrier and enters Grace’s atmosphere, severely harming himself. We then transition into the sacrifice theme….a post for another time! 

Gravitational Aftermath

This actually doesn’t play during this track, but just before it in the movie. Grace has three hours to decide whether to join the mission. His internal isolation is strong here. He’s not like the brave heroes he is surrounded by. He is alone inside and he will soon be alone in space too. The sequence with Stratt’s ultimatum transitions into Gravitational Aftermath - which is when Grace sees the sacrifice Rocky made to save him. He is now alone again, unsure if his friend will wake.

0:20 - Goodbye My Friend

Grace now knows the whole truth about the mission - that he was a coward, that he was betrayed and forced into his isolation. His internal isolation is also intense - he alone among the crew had to be forced to go - he stands apart from the true heroes. He is returning  to a planet he saved…with the knowledge that he didn’t want to.

Grace and Rocky are also now saying their final goodbye. Due to the interstellar distances and Grace’s lifespan, they cannot meet again. Grace is ultimately also isolated from his friend in a deeper way. Rocky didn’t have to be forced to save his people. Grace’s awkwardness during this moment is so palpable and you can hear the music speaking his inner turmoil. “No one to watch you sleep” Rocky comments, adding to the feelings of isolation.

------

This is the same theme the video essay calls the "Oh Shucks" theme and I actually prefer her take on it in the video!

But I had fun writing this and feel there were some good points here too, so if you're geeking out about the music as much as i am, have a read!

@forestglade YOU'RE A GENIUS YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT

Another totally uncomplicated success with no miscommunications whatsoever!