“And we loved it, we were all having a great time, but then he saw my sister and I, and he just got this - this look in his eyes, and then-”

She hesitated, worrying the coarse material between her fingers. “Things got pretty bad after that,” she muttered. “I know it’s silly, but I try to keep - her - comfortable. We don’t know if she can still hear us, or see us, or if she’s even still in here, but I like to think she is. I talk to her when I can, I leave music on when I’m out of the house. I tried to convince my parents to bring her with us when we went to Disneyland, but they didn’t - didn’t really take that well.”

I am working on de-marveling these guys so they exist in their own universe now. Thats why the designs look a little funny. There is a certain change I made to the lore present here- Izzy is a trans guy. I’m particularly fond of this choice as it gives Gray more reason to view Izzy as his “second chance to save Holly”— and makes it all the worse when the two are ripped apart.

Stratt: "hmm what do you think dr grace?"

Grace: wow what a crazy plan that would take an absurd amount of power to accomplish and have far-reaching impacts "yeah it's feasible, i'd go with it"

Stratt: "alright, you heard him, do it"

geocacheing

chain emails forwarded to you by an aunt you don’t talk to

writing on the walls of public bathrooms

complex system of Minecraft servers with interactive puzzles

hundreds of voice mails each sent to 100 subscribed members of the fandom each, who then have to piece everything together online

choose your own adventure but better

random people get released on stage during a stage play and can affect the plot however they choose

story is embedded in book of word find puzzles

people dressed as wizards kidnap you and you have to be the protagonist

news site that publishes weird stories and there are always weird comments in the comment sections

a group of people creates a story and memorizes it, and then they each have to teach the story to two other people, who must continue passing it on

links to questionable Wikipedia article edits

Instagram account whose photos start getting weirder and weirder until the person who runs the account disappears and the followers have to solve the mystery

recorded on random vhs tapes all over the globe

a podcast that is downloaded to 10,000 MP3 players that self-destruct if they are with the same person more than two weeks, forcing everyone to keep passing them on to new people

a composition book that is transported around the globe via hot air balloon

books left on McDonalds’ floors that say DO NOT READ

a gigantic park full of sidewalks with a story written on the sidewalk that can be read as you walk, and that has different endings depending on where you go

microchips placed inside feral cats

several hundred seemingly identical uploads of the devil went down to Georgia on YouTube, which each have different mistakes in the lyrics, and which can be pieced together to create a story

like jehovah’s witnesses but they walk around asking people if they want to hear a chapter of what is actually a very extended musical with dance numbers. yes, they will do this on your porch, and no, there is no way to get the chapters in order

book where you cut out a chapter every time you read it and write your own

vlog that gets increasingly more concerning

game where the only action is to pick up and read book and also to make coffee and pet your cat

movie put on dvds and scattered around random antique shops

found footage horror film that is just footage that you found

recipes passed down from generation to generation

an ever-expanding franchise that switches to a different type of media every time it creates a sequel. the first installment is a book, the second is a video game, the third is a Netflix series, the fourth is a broadway musical, the fifth is a podcast, the sixth is an alternative rock album, and the seventh is available only through oral tradition

story that is explained to the small children of the people who want to read it, and the children must in turn explain it to them. people without children can borrow someone else’s child.

My "wing vibe" is defined in two categories, not pictured in the line chart:

Category 1, Clear Wings (25 instances): two separate wing shapes coming out from each shoulder OR multiple wings surrounding Kal

OR

Category 2, Unclear Wings (3 instances): Fluffy/feathery in texture with a vaguely winglike shape, or cape-shaped, but wrapping around people like wings, such as:

78.5% of all Absolute Superman Wing Instances (WIs) in both categories are definitely Kal's influence; i.e. Sol is either dead, powered down, or we're in Kal's head.

If Sol's silence in Issue #10 means he is not fully present (Kal asked him to shut up around this time; he does not speak at all in this issue and Kal's emotions are so high they seem to have "overridden" Sol's influence over the cape) the percentage of WIs rise to 89.3%.

100% of Category 1 (Clear Wings) instances are Kal's, if we consider Sol as "overridden" when Kal tells him to shut up. If we believe Sol had any influence over his shape in Issue #10, 10.7% of WIs are Sol's.

Verdict: Kal-El likes looking like a little dragon bird thingy.

Alternative hypothesis: As the story goes on, the team was just like "yo Kal having wings looks sick as fuck" and that happened to coincide with Sol's death

When asked to pick one, My Adventures with Superman said "yes."

been nerding out about the project hail mary score real hard, so here are some notes on the various motifs the appear throughout the score! this is just based on my own observations from listening to the score on repeat for the last two weeks, noticing patterns, then going back to the film to see the exact moments they correspond to. this score is so so gorgeous but also so so SMART, the more i listen to it, the more i hear.

(note: this post contains SO MANY SPOILERS)

main theme (connection)

there are two motifs that appear most often/prominently throughout the film, but I think of this one as the main theme. while it's not the first music we hear in the movie, it's added on to the beginning of the first track on the score album, almost like an intro to set the tone, and it's prominent in the last song we hear as well, bookending the score.

it shows up over and over again in the score, usually at moments of connection, collaboration, and trust. it's often heard as choral vocals, in the rhythm written above (often repeated a second time with the last note up a fifth) but there are many many variations on it as well.

its big debut is when grace takes off his helmet in the tunnel, trusting rocky and allowing connection between them (Connection)

however a variation of it appears earlier, when grace first puts the hail mary into centrifuge mode (Centrifuge). the melody starts with this sequence of notes, and a variation of it can also be heard as a small ornamentation right as he pulls down the lever. the score here is dreamy and optimistic—a celebration of humanity's innovation and success in coming together to design the hail mary.

after rocky tells grace he will give him enough astrophage to go home (Grace Go Home)

when grace is observing the taumoeba under the microscope and realizing that he and rocky succeeded (Tau Amoeba)

in Amaze Amaze Amaze, the upbeat song which plays as grace shows rocky the breeder tanks and as they celebrate their success, then again during the final scene of grace and rocky on erid. not only is the main form of the theme present as vocals (in Fist My Bump) and strings (in Life on Erid), but the repeated syncopated melody that forms the backbone of the song is actually a variation using the same pitch sequence

astrophage theme

this is the second of the two most prominent motifs. it's often repeated a second time down a half step (which puts the second instance in a minor key). another common variation is for the final note to go up instead of down (up to a G and then resolve to an A). like the main theme, it is very often choral vocals, but it appears in many variations.

(as a side note, one thing i love about the choral vocals in this score—in addition to the celestial/holy sound and the organic/human aspect—is that while they're wordless, there's a bit of vowel distinction and consonant articulation. not enough to be recognizable as words, but enough that your brain interprets it as language and strains to understand it, recreating rocky and grace's experience in a way)

anyway. i call this one the astrophage theme, but it's broader than that. it underscores moments of profound emotion. both have a celestial, almost holy/spiritual sound, but where the main theme is hopeful, the astrophage theme is haunting, present for moments of wonder, uncertainty, grief, awe. it's the feeling of looking up at the stars and feeling very, very small.

the very first time it's heard is (briefly, but very clearly) at the moment grace realizes he has bred astrophage (Box in a Box)

it's there as a small ornamentation in Secret Clearance on the score album, though interestingly I don't hear that part in that scene in the movie

during the burial scene, beginning right when grace nearly breaks down giving their eulogies, and then building as he sends their bodies off (You Were Loved)

when grace and rocky talk about their crewmates dying (Learning to Communicate). leads into "grace rocky save stars", followed by the dies irae theme (more on that below)

during grace and stratt's conversation on deck, right when he asks if she believes in god (God Willing)

during grace's moment in the petrova line!!!! here it's slow and grandiose, with a huge swelling orchestral sound (A Moment)

in the background as rocky and grace realize that astrophage has a natural predator on adrian (Life Is Reason)

after grace sets up the taumoeba breeder tanks and there's nothing left to do but wait for rocky to wake up (Tau Amoeba)

as rocky and grace say goodbye (Goodbye My Friend)

the moment grace makes his choice to save rocky instead of returning to earth (Xenonite Contamination)

ascending 6ths

ascending 6th intervals, often repeating in a descending sequence. i can't even catalogue everywhere this motif is used because it's so omnipresent in the score. it's often played on cristal baschet, which gives the score that unearthly, shimmery vibrato. but it shows up in some other really cool variations as well!

dies irae

ok this one is really, really cool. this is a variation on the dies irae, a theme from a 13th-century gregorian chant about the judgment day that was used in funeral masses, which in the last century or so has been widely quoted in music from symphonies to film scores. here's a video from a composer talking about how the dies irae theme has become synonymous with death and apocalypse in popular consciousness, and project hail mary's more hopeful-sounding variation on it.

within the score, the dies irae still represents high-stakes moments and moments of existential fear—where failure would mean death for the characters and their entire species and planets. but it's transposed from the original into a major key (i think from dorian to lydian? don't quote me tho), and at times the second part of the phrase is changed to move upward instead of downward, giving it a swelling, hopeful feeling.

it's first heard when grace looks at astrophage under the microscope for the first time, in the lab on earth. (interestingly, this doesn't appear at this point on the score album, and i think it might actually be Life Is Reason, which comes way later?? the music at the moment he puts the petri dish under the scope is the exact same as when he's putting the petri dish with the sample from tau ceti's petrova line under the scope!)

it appears again when stratt and co are explaining the hail mary mission to grace—and it comes in specifically when they say they need grace to breed the astrophage, aka the moment that the stakes become personal for him (Secret Clearance)

as noted above, it comes in after rocky and grace talk about losing their crews and rocky's determined "grace rocky save stars". the score has been more curious and upbeat in the few minutes prior as they begin to communicate; now the dies irae theme interweaves with that optimism as they are reminded of the stakes (Learning to Communicate)

it's heard as grace and rocky study their petrova line sample and they begin to prepare to collect samples from adrian's atmosphere (Life Is Reason). this is where you can really hear the more hopeful upward-climbing variation, particularly as grace looks at the sample under the microscope and the music builds towards rocky's realization of the significance of life on adrian.

and of course it's a huge part of the masterful building of tension as they're retrieving the samples from adrian's atmosphere (Time Go Fishing)

what i didn't realize until i was halfway through writing this post, though, is that the main theme is ALSO a variation on this one! the four notes of the main theme are the first four notes of the dies irae. there are some moments, like the choral vocals when grace is first looking closely at rocky (Connection), where i truly wasn't sure whether which motif to put it under. so not only does the score inject a more hopeful sound into the dies irae, it also remakes it entirely, into something nearly unrecognizable—transforming death and fear into connection and trust.

curiosity theme

this one shows up for moments of curiosity and investigation!

it first appears in the score in Water Based. i can't actually find this one in the film, so if anyone knows where it is, let me know! but my best guess is that this was planned as the score for when grace is first in the lab studying astrophage, but it was replaced with a version of Life Is Reason. it's very wet-sounding, which is fun. the lower staff pitches are approximated with percussion, sort of like a proto-version of the motif that then develops further.

it shows up as grace is deciphering the contents of rocky's canister (The Message)

and when grace starts building his translator and they start to be able to talk (Learning to Communicate)

the synocpated motif in the lower staff is heard as grace demonstrates the astrophage's power for the astronauts

and when rocky wakes up while grace is sleeping, it's what plays as the lights come on and rocky comes into frame in his ball (Wake Up Buddy)

the four note sequence from the top staff is heard when rocky and grace are in the tunnel, after their mirrored motions, when they come closer and look at each other through the xenonite (Connection)

and! the same sequence appears diegetically in the same scene—rocky vocalizes it as he taps on the xenonite!

box in a box (aka doin' science together)

this one just makes me laugh a lot. this motif appears in Box in a Box, when grace and carl are putting a sealed box (containing the three astrophage) inside the sealed lab. and a variation of it appears later in Rocky Moves In.... aka a sealed container (rocky's ball) inside a bigger sealed container (the hail mary)

they're also both moments of working together, where grace is letting someone else in to his work!

hail mary theme

this motif scores the first moments of the film and the climax. it has a few similar variations, so i just picked one to transcribe, but they all use the same main pitches, just rearranged a bit and with different grace notes. i'm not sure of the exact instrument it's usually played on, but whatever it is has a very bright, resonant tone. i think of this one as the theme for life triumphing over the odds.

it's the first music we hear in the film, as grace is waking up on the hail mary (Ryland Grace Cognition Assessment)

we hear a similar version of it after yao tells grace "you just have to find someone to be brave for"

it's heard as rocky is waking up after saving grace. the score swells into the last few notes just as grace hugs rocky's ball (Wake Up Buddy)

after grace goes back for rocky, the score shifts from a darker sound to this motif right as rocky appears in the tunnel, and that same triumphant swell happens right as they touch hands through the xenonite (Believe in the Hail Mary). the same song continues through the shots of the probes reaching earth and stratt watching grace's video

whew!