Whale Obsessed

We like to party.

We like, we like to party.

science teacher besties!!

In the book, they drag him to a cushy prison cell and he still has a few days to process everything. It's one thing to think about the possibility of being shipped off on a suicide mission, but being told "these are your circumstances, wether you like it or not" is a whole different beast. He has time, however little, to grieve for the life on earth he's about to lose and the students who will miss him and the heartbreak of being berayed by your friends/coworkers of 4 years. Yeah, he tells Stratt he'll sabotage the mission, but they both know he doesn't mean it. He's angry, scared, sad, the whole range of emotions, but in the back of his mind he has enough time to acknowlege, rationally, that this is the only choice.

In the movie, he doesn't get that. His last moments are adrenaline and visceral terror and being tackled to the ground. It's all emotion running high and he has zero time to switch from the possibility of going on the mission to the reality of being launched into space millions and millions of miles away on a one way trip.

And then, you know, there's recency bias. The lasting echoes of his memory of earth will all be shrouded in anxiety and terror. Imagine years without soft grass and the scent of soil and every time you try and recall the sensation of petrichor and soft dirt or a picnic in the summer you have to stave off a panic attack. A lot of people have latched onto the last human touch he's had being rough and disorienting.