thinking about how grace was probably project hail mary's backup stratt before he was the backup backup science astronaut
because stratt says she has no reason to keep around a junior high science teacher when she says he's her backup science team, which is true, but also, if she really needed a third backup science astronaut imo she should've & would've trained one?? it can't have been that hard even if their third choice was vastly underqualified in comparison?? grace literally spent years teaching junior high after his phd & spent half the project doing physics which isn't his specialisation either?? and like, grace was stratt's #2. de facto number 2 on such a big project. he was there for everything, which means if stratt had an actual separate #2 he would've known?? if she needed an actual #2 she would've had one??
so yeah anyway i will die on the hill that grace was, primarily, the backup stratt because stratt definitely had a plan for what if she, rather than the astronauts died? she would need someone to take over, someone who knows enough about the project & who cares to save the world (unlike a lot of the other scientists, who were dragged in unwillingly, or that guy who was there to get out of prison, grace volunteered for his kids. not for himself, but for his /kids/) & someone who's involved AND well-liked by everyone (he's the astronauts' favourite, is on decent terms with the science staff)
so yeah i think it was just unfortunate that it ended up not being stratt but the science astronauts who needed a replacement, and being the backup stratt grace was ALSO able to serve the double function as a backup anything, which is how he ended up as a emergency astronaut
Here's the thing - love this idea but if we're going to entertain it, let's look at the source material a little more.
So in the book, Stratt doesn't have the gene that would allow her to be put into a comatose state for years which is required to get to their destination. This isn't brought up in the movie but essentially it serves to eliminate 2 small plot holes.
1: If Stratt is in charge of Project Hail Mary on Earth and thinks it's worth dying for, why is she not going to space? Simple, the astronauts need to survive being in prolonged comatose and she is genetically unlikely to survive that. She's the first person to get tested for this gene, ahead of all astronaut applications, then she has everyone involved in PHM get tested for it too.
2: Why is Grace the best candidate to go to space ahead of all these other people? Testing the PHM team is how they discover (this shouldn't be shocking to hear) Grace has this rare gene that would allow him a better chance to survive the trip to Tau Ceti.
Maybe Grace was always Stratt's backup, just not in the way you think. What if she had the gene and he didn't?
There would need to be a person in charge of PHM on Earth for the return capsules. She knew the geopolitical hellscape ahead of them and that she'd likely be vilified for everything it took to get the Hail Mary to launch ASAP. What if she was trying to leave a successor who might be better at handling it than her? Someone more likeable who could communicate the importance of the scientific mission. Someone who had shown they can conceptualize how life could survive without water that would be useful when basic resources were threatened. Someone who cared about the kids that would have to grow up in that world. She would go to space a hero, he would stay on Earth in her place.
