Okay, slightly more serious though, the soundtrack.
Something jumped out at me tonight while I was driving home and listening to the Project Hail Mary soundtrack after rewatching the movie. And it was the song that plays while Grace is preparing Yao Li-Jie’s and Olesya Ilyukhina’s bodies for their final words and send off into space.
The song is called “You Were Loved (Burial)”
And I can’t stop thinking about it because it’s not “You were heroic” or “you were brave”. It was “you were loved.”
Grace sees bravery as something you’re born with. He says it to Yao, that he doesn’t have the ‘bravery’ gene that they have, and Yao corrects him in that moment and states it’s a matter of finding someone to be brave for.
And listen I know others have talked about how Grace learns to be brave because of Rocky. And, yes, it’s true. But I don’t think thats the complete message the were wanting us to take away from this movie.
See, the difference between “You were brave” and “You were loved” is the difference between “I” and “We”. Yao and Ilyukhina weren’t just brave. The song emphasizes that it’s not the bravery that mattered, but the fact that others loved them. We see it in their photos. Surrounded by children, loved ones, family, friends-
And then there’s Grace, in his one photo.
Standing by himself.
Alone.
But Grace loved his kids, you’d say. And yes, the children are so so important to him. But while they love him as a teacher, Mr. Grace, they don’t love him as the whole. They don’t know Ryland. They don’t know Dr. Grace. And Grace has no partner, no immediate family… he is liked. And that’s where it ends.
When he meets Rocky though? It changes. Slowly, yes, but surely. This little alien that knows him as someone clever, and smart, and clumsy, and bad at math. Grace is not just “the science human”. Grace is his friend. An equally valid form of love- platonic.
And what happens, when Grace for once gets the same love he gets? He does EVA’s on a ship experiencing active gravity, he leaps off to grab the predator collector even at the risk of dying, he nearly kills himself with chemical burns (in the book) carrying Rocky to get him back in his closure, he gives up his chance of going home, KNOWING he will die shortly after dropping off Rocky at Erid, if he even manages to find Rocky.
And we can say that it’s growth of Grace, learning to be brave and not a coward for the sake of his friend. But that’s once again focusing on the one person. The ‘I’.
You. Were. Loved.
This movie at its core is about how humanity is to love and be loved.
Grace didn’t suddenly develop a bravery gene. He was given what he so desperately needed- love. And it was only because he received it that he could make the choices he did.
He didn’t leap for the predator catcher because of bravery. He leapt because he was loved.
Rocky didn’t break through to Grace’s side because he was brave. He forced himself to go into Grace’s atmosphere because he was loved.
Grace didn’t pull the emergency air lock lever for Rocky because he was brave. He let himself be injured because he was loved.
And most importantly- Grace didn’t choose certain death to rescue Rocky because he was brave. It was not an act of bravery.
It was an act of love.
And that love could only exist because, for the first time, someone loved him.
And when he finally accepts that he will die, he becomes a hero like Yao and Ilyukhina were. All because he was loved.
