Professional Lurker™️

The voice of the Hail Mary was recorded live on set with Ryan so they could react to each other in real time!!

Ryan was so nervous and intimidated by the kids in Grace's class (who were played by children of the cast and crew 🥹)

The dots of astrophage Grace shows his class??? That was done by filming burning steeling wool, inverting it, then PUTTING IT IN BLACK AND WHITE

Ryan didn't know what was going to be in Yáo and Ilyukhina's bags, and they were real photos of the actors. He was told to "remember who these people are" and a lot of the emotions we see from him in that scene were real 🥹

The walk outside the classroom was one of the first scene Sandra and Ryan shot together. Sandra whispered "You wanna race to the bike?" And they DID and they KEPT THE SHOT which is why they're doing that hysterical little speedwalk I- ajdgsjshsj

They purposely emphasized reflections to reflect the themes of the movie. They loved glass, they loved light, they loved reflections.

They called the hardware store "off brand homedepot" LMAO

When talking about the shopping trip they said they wanted to show that "Playfulness and creativity are intertwined" 🥹

Grace's goggles that he uses to find the astrophage in the box in a box are literally made from an iPhone duct taped into makeshift goggles. And the infrared footage of him finding the four dots was actually shot ON an iphone!!!

There's a bright orange sticker that reads "CIVILIAN" on the back of Grace's flight helmet and the directors don't know if thats something they actually do but they found it hilarious

When Grace is shoved in front of the room full of world leaders to explain the astrophage, they said, "One of the many times we demonstate Ryland Grace's social anxiety by having people stare at him" ajdgsjdgsjjs

There was a team called "The Poetry Unit" who's job was just getting beautiful shots. And goddamn did they do a beautiful job. Also I've been talking nonstop about the inherent poetry of space travel since Artemis II launched and this just solidified it for me.

Talking about Daniel Pemberton's masterful soundtrack, they said, "He would not be alone in the soundtrack. In fact, two different planets would be rooting him on." 😭

THAT SCENE ON THE BEACH IN THE DONT GO CRAZY ROOM WHERE SOMEONE IS WALKING TOWARDS HIM??? THATS HIS FUTURE SELF ON ERID. (They also said "we dont know how they let us keep this in the movie" which is very funny but im very glad its there)

The scene where he catches the canister took ELEVEN takes for him to actually successfully catch it and everyone on set cheered

They call song that plays (or maybe they're were referring to the scene? A little unclear) when Rocky's ship starts spinning "The Gravity Tango" because "as Rocky spins his ship, its an invitation to dance."

They had 3 ramen ship models on set and every single one broke at some point 😆

Some of Ryan's reactions to Rocky copying his dances are his live reactions of being "absolutely delighted" by the puppet team

Rocky is 200 years old!!

The "Close Encounters" joke was pitched by STEPHEN SPIELBERG HIMSELF

Rocky's carved patch has the petrova line, as well as the base line six number for 23, the number of crew on his ship

The overlapping blue circles on Rocky's arm is his wedding band!!

When Rocky puts his forearms together, he's displaying his family crest!

Rocky has a lot of nonverbal communication cues, and one of them is that every time he says "Question" to form a question, he stomps twice!

They had a deaf consultant for Rocky's nonverbal communications!

Quote from one of the directors: "Its a movie about looking, witnessing one another."

In the scene where Rocky is bossing Grace around telling him how to build his enclosure and Armando and Mary get involved, one of the directors says, "Mary, Rocky, Armando- he's [Grace] creating his space family!"

When Stratt sings "Remember everything will be alright" it is confirmed she is singing it directly to Grace. They talk alot about how much she cares and loves but cannot care and cannot love, and how much she believes in him. How much she sees in him. I just. Man. Wow. They also say that this scene is a bit of an exchange. Grace is daring her, "Come, be human with us." And Stratt is accepting that dare, as much as she can.

I have seen this film three times (counting today) and until the directors' commentary pointed it out, I didn't notice the little HEEL CLICK Grace does when he comes in from collecting the astrophage coming from and going to Adrian AHHHH

"I love how on the spectrum Rocky is" CANON AUTISTIC ROCKY also the director who said this is a parent of a child on the spectrum which makes this all the more authentic and heartwarming 🥹

A lot of the scene where its revealed to Grace that he is the back up is improvised by everyone at the table

After Rocky saves Grace. The little model of himself that Rocky made that he holds up. The little item he holds up beside it? Thats a model of the device that opens the orb that caught the Taumeoba. Its Rocky telling Grace to finish the job. I'm in tears.

"As Rocky wakes up, the lights turn on, the movie warms up. Its like day breaking." 😭😭😭

They built the flexible panel on Rocky's ball MAINLY so Grace could give him the Earth ball akdhjshd

THE RAINBOW WHEN GRACE IS GETTING SEDATED IS REAL IT HAPPENED WHEN THEY WERE FILMING THAT SCENE IT APPEARED IN THE SKY JUST WHEN THEY WERE FILMING AND THEY HURRIED TO CATCH IT IT WAS JUST TOO PERFECT

"Even though he's going away from his home, Earth, he's going towards his real home, which is Rocky." HIS REAL HOME IS ROCKY Y'ALL MY HEART

When Grace and Rocky reunite on Rocky's hull, the translation of what Rocky chirps at him through the transparent xenonite is "You came back for me, question?" 😭😭😭

The tattoo Stratt has at the end means Life In Prison Without Parole

The beach in the Earth Dome on Erid is so rocky because the Eridians got the scale of sand wrong 😭 They're TRYING OKAY

About all the imperfections of Grace's habitat: "Really, all that matters is that he's with his best friend." 🥹🥹🥹

The song choice for the end credits, the "Hallelujah", is because Grace has ascended 😭😭😭😭

"The fun thing for us for that end sequence was his costume -- what he would have left over from the ship. I don't really think you see it in the film but the trousers that he's wearing, they're cut from one of the flight suits. And we've done a belt buckle that's made of xenonite that Rocky would've made for him. And all of the sewing on it is a little bit - it's nowhere near as good as Jenny would normally do, so we had to purposely ask Jenny to do bad sewing at the top of his trousers, so it'd look like he would've done it.

And then our brilliant breakdown department, run by Tim Shanahan, they break everything down to look like it's 10, 20 years old. So his cardigan and the t-shirt's all faded. And even on the laces -- the laces in his chuck taylors -- because your laces always break after a certain period of time, so we found stuff that was on the ship, like elastics and stuff. There's a nice big close-up actually in the film, so you can see that they're not normal laces, they're like stuff that he would've got from the ship that he's made as make-shift laces."

Any whatever you do, do NOT think about the little Eridian schoolkids who go there on class trips and play in the water in their special exo-suits and listen to lessons that Grace pre recorded while he was still alive and become inspired to be biologists and astronauts and teachers themselves.

And when Rocky finally follows him into the great unknown, he won't have to feel afraid because he knows that Grace is waiting for him. Because Grace has always been the one thing standing between Rocky and being alone and he isn't going to let a little thing like death change that.

AND

the slightly childlike "what's that?" tone when grace calls it fishing

AND

full on excited screaming when grace shows him what fishing is. "OOOHHHHH OHHHH!!!"

in the span of literally six seconds is what makes him the character of all time. he is a middle aged nerd mechanic pairbonded with a middle aged nerd scientist and they are scream besties and clock bros together

he takes a picture of yao and ilyukhina’s name patches that he’s pulled from their flight suits. another picture of the empty control room. two more pictures of the view from outside the airlock — the vastness of space and the twinkle of stars.

when rocky shows up, he’s found a much more interesting subject to photograph. he’s got some pictures of the alien tinkering with something, giving him a thumbs “up” (“no, that’s down”) or jazz hands. rocky can see him holding something up, can hear the click of the shutter and the whir of the internal components that spit out the photo, but grace has to explain the entire concept to him.

“we take photos to remember things,” he says.

“human brain weird,” rocky replies. “can remember some things, but not all. eridian remember all.”

grace’s collection grows. pictures of rocky in his enclosure, goggles and gloves drawn on the clear xenonite. rocky sleeping and grace in the corner, holding up a peace sign. rocky moving across the tunnel in the lab so quickly he’s just a brown blur.

he’s still got some film by the time they make it to erid. he documents the progression of his ecosphere on the alien planet, from tiny bubble to full on habitat. he’s got a picture of him and rocky, standing proudly in his new and improved life support suit. rocky and adrian, standing by the water. his first class of students, standing behind him in their celebration clothing for the first eridian-human graduation ceremony.

rocky will occasionally sneak away his favorite photos to transcribe them onto small stone slabs that line the walls of his home with adrian. in each of the pictures, there are noticeable changes to grace — more grooves in his face, a dip to his posture.

when grace’s eyes can no longer see light, rocky gifts him with one of these slabs. it’s a picture of grace flanked by rocky and adrian. in front of them is a smaller eridian, half the size of its parents, its carapace made up of marbled grey and brown stone. grace is laughing, watching as the young eridian tries to find its footing in the life support suit.

grace traces the grooves of the stone with his fingers.

“it’s us,” he says. “it’s a picture of us.”

“it is memory,” rocky replies. “for grace.”

someone once said that Irina might told young Ilya those words before and I could not help but make this little scene

The quote from 1x06 «The Cottage»

it is beautiful rolling hills just stuffed to the GILLS with hobbits

including BABY HOBBITS

HOBBITS BUT SOMEHOW IMPOSSIBLY EVEN SMALLER

and yeah the adults might be fairly wary, but we see in the first movie that the kids come running immediately to see gandalf in hopes of seeing something magic

and now??? here is LARGE PERSON??? who can play swords and toSS THEM REAL HIGH UP IN THE AIR AND CATCH THEM???

the idea of a hobbit mama scolding her faunts not to get too rough with "nice mr. boromir" as this man is exactly where he wants to be being dogpiled by giggly bb hobbits who absolutely "defeated" him in "combat"

warrior hands that have seen so much violence SO gently holding a TEENY TINY baby hobbit he was handed to let a papa hobbit track down his wayward toddler

(boromir fighting back tears because THEY COME THIS SMALL??? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???? THE BABY FITS IN ONE OF HIS HANDS???) (baby yawns and snuggles their lil cheek against his thumb and this man is nearly brought to his knees)

Official Manager Of Lifting Big Things

boromir accidentally joining a hobbit stitch and bitch club because someone's gammer asked him to carry her yarn for her to the meeting and he didn't know how to leave after he was greeted and handed food and tea

the club is actually fun, and the hobbit grannies respond to his tales of politics and battle with the same sympathetic clucking that they do to rivals stealing recipes, including his hand being patted sympathetically

(five of them are holding up boromir's shield and can't see past it) (they will charge headfirst into a tree) (they will learn nothing from this experience)

boromir having to learn how to do the cat owner shuffle because there are always faunts underfoot (usually trying to catch a lift on his feet because he can step SO high :D)

@little---furnace

oh my god cultural misunderstanding of

in gondor: constantly at war, awareness of supply use, the polite thing to do is to ask for more if you want it but to always have finished what's on your plate when you're done.

in the shire: with hobbit appetites, a fully empty plate means a guest needs more. no one wastes a bunch (leavings will be fed to the pigs), but good manners to show you've had enough involves leaving just a bit to show you were well-satisfied and completely full. an empty plate means you need more to fill up the corners.

so boromir is trying to be done, but the hobbits just keep putting more on his plate, and it turns into a feedback loop of politeness that ends with boromir eating more than he ever has and still being stuck at this tea party two hours past when he first tried to leave.