Ok so let's talk about the opening scene. Because the creators are doing So Much heavy lifting to establish the foundations for the film, but they're so subtle about it that it took me several (I will not divulge how many) repeat film viewings (and score loopings) to notice and understand what they did (and I'm still not sure I've caught everything).
Starting with visuals: The very first things we see, those flashing blue and red lights, are the world (such as it is in that moment) through Ryland Grace's eyes. This establishes that this story will be told through his POV. If you have your eyes shut and there is light, it will look red through your eyelids. Those flashing blue lights were the system trying to wake him up (we all know what blue light does to a brain's ability to sleep...). We see the zipper from the inside. I believe we even see some blinking (my memory is fuzzy on this). When the image slides downscreen, this is his hibernation tray sliding out of its docking bay.
Now, music: The absolute very first notes of the entire film are the notes from the exultant part of "Believe in the Hail Mary." It's so soft, so subtle, so faint, and so brief (just one or two measures), but once you know what you are listening for, it's there, and it's unmistakeable. This quickly transitions into a soft rendition of the theme we hear later in "Grace Go Home" and "Tau Amoeba" that I have taken to calling "the gloria motif" because it happens in the moments that you want to cry with joy because someone's been saved (first Grace when Rocky offers him fuel, then both worlds when Grace sees the Taumoeba eat the Astrophage; and indeed, both times, crying with joy and relief is exactly what Grace does). Anyway, this all absolutely wrecks me, because starting the whole entire score of the film in these very first moments with these two motifs tells us that, despite all the shit we will see poor Grace go through, ultimately, victory and salvation (and love) are waiting for him on the other side. It's a promise, from the very beginning.
Evocation of (re)birth: Coming out of the coma, they show him gagging, wet, unable to talk, swaddled in that pink thin translucent membrane that seems reminiscent of an amniotic sac. The amnesia, the lack of motor control. This is all played for comedy, but there are lots of different ways they could have portrayed him waking up. These were choices. And once the establishing bits of music above are done, the score shifts over to something that to me sounds very gentle, suggestive of baby/nursery music. But ALSO - it's the Believe again - the full chord progression this time, just so gentle and soft, but the whole thing played once through, fully developed and there. It's all waiting for him, right from the beginning. He is welcomed (back) into life by this, for this.
I'm sure there's more that I haven't found yet, but these observations were clawing at the inside of my skull and I had to let them out.
