Spaceman

[00:00:00] Welcome to Season 5 of The BIG Sci-Fi Podcast with Adina Bryan, Chris and Steve, the biggest

[00:00:14] Sci-Fi podcast in the galaxy.

[00:00:17] The adventure is just beginning here at The BIG Sci-Fi Podcast and we invite you to come

[00:00:21] aboard the Starship tangent.

[00:00:23] We know you'll enjoy the conversation, the laughter, the banner back and forth and

[00:00:28] most of all friends who love hanging out to talk about all things science fiction.

[00:00:32] Set your phasers to fun, here we go.

[00:00:36] And welcome to a very special edition of The BIG Sci-Fi Podcast, a special segment I should

[00:00:44] say.

[00:00:45] My name is Bryan Donahue and I am here in person in my studio with the Adina Mannyona.

[00:00:52] How you doing?

[00:00:54] Hey Bryan, I'm awesome today.

[00:00:56] It's been a great day.

[00:00:58] It has been a fantastic day and one of the reasons besides the fact that we're together,

[00:01:04] our families have been hanging out the last couple days.

[00:01:07] But we just witnessed the totality of the solar eclipse in Medina, Ohio.

[00:01:15] We'll talk about Medina in just a minute.

[00:01:17] Has a very special place in Adina's past and in her heart.

[00:01:23] But anyway so yeah you might have heard of this eclipse thing happening and it

[00:01:26] just so happens that here in northeast Ohio we were blessed to be in the path of totality.

[00:01:32] So Adina why don't you explain to people what that means and then we'll jump into some

[00:01:37] of the fun stuff.

[00:01:38] Well very, very, very simple.

[00:01:40] The moon is coming in front of the sun in a way that actually for a short period

[00:01:46] of time blocks the sun.

[00:01:50] There's partial eclipses but this was at least for where we are a total eclipse.

[00:01:59] And what people I think the one of the subtleties that people don't necessarily know is

[00:02:03] the moon isn't in a perfect circular orbit around earth.

[00:02:07] It's in a slightly elliptical orbit.

[00:02:09] So even if the moon comes in front of the sun, the totality part really it is a

[00:02:19] function of how closer far away the moon is to.

[00:02:23] If it's too far away it's really not truly a total eclipse but today's for a lot of us

[00:02:29] was spectacular.

[00:02:31] And it was a total eclipse of the heart as well.

[00:02:35] We heard that song a lot.

[00:02:36] That song was being played on a boom box at the family.

[00:02:42] We're at my I want to give a shout out to Kristi and Ryan Baker, my brother and

[00:02:47] sister-in-law.

[00:02:47] They opened their home up to us and to Adina and her family and also other

[00:02:52] members of my wife's family to come and witness that they're in great food.

[00:02:56] Just hanging out.

[00:02:57] It's a beautiful day.

[00:02:58] We were very concerned to Dina as if this trip would be worth it for you

[00:03:02] and your family because Ohio is pretty much an overcast state.

[00:03:08] We complain about it a lot.

[00:03:10] We do have beautiful summers but in the winter, fall, April, a lot of

[00:03:16] cloudy weather.

[00:03:16] So it was we have had rainy, nasty, sleety wet weather and today about I don't

[00:03:25] know what nine o'clock sometime in the late morning is when it started getting

[00:03:29] really nice but you know I knew it was going to work out when you told me that

[00:03:33] if I came to see you and that we were going to Medina, that's when I knew

[00:03:38] this was all going to work out.

[00:03:39] Right.

[00:03:40] So Medina.

[00:03:41] Medina.

[00:03:42] Medina.

[00:03:43] Oh my gosh.

[00:03:44] Medina.

[00:03:45] No, see.

[00:03:48] No.

[00:03:48] We were in town.

[00:03:49] My sister-in-law, Christie and their husband Ryan and their kids live in a town

[00:03:53] called Medina and it's about 30ish minutes south of Cleveland here.

[00:04:00] And so that's where we were headed and just think about it folks.

[00:04:04] Adena, Medina, what's the connection?

[00:04:07] Well, okay.

[00:04:09] I tell people that I'm from New York because I'm from New York because

[00:04:12] my memories of growing up are all from New York.

[00:04:15] But I happened to, I was born in Ohio.

[00:04:17] I was born in Youngstown, Ohio.

[00:04:20] And my mother who is from New York when she saw the town Medina, she pronounced

[00:04:26] it in her head like New Yorkers would.

[00:04:28] Medina.

[00:04:29] That's you know, M-E-D-I-N-A looks like Medina and it looks like that to

[00:04:33] me too.

[00:04:34] I have to remind myself constantly that that's not what it is.

[00:04:37] Phonetically it should be right?

[00:04:40] Well, again depends on where you're from.

[00:04:42] Okay.

[00:04:43] You know it depends on where you're from.

[00:04:44] And the reason my name is A-D-E-E-N-A.

[00:04:47] So A-D-I-N-A is also pronounced Adena and it's typically it's a Hebrew name.

[00:04:53] And most people who hear my name assume it's A-D-I-N-A and assume it's

[00:04:58] a Hebrew name unless they didn't, you know, unless they're not aware.

[00:05:01] But where I grew up, I grew up in a very like kind of 50% Jewish place.

[00:05:07] So most people would think that my name was Hebrew.

[00:05:11] Well, turns out my mother, when I was around the time I was born, she saw

[00:05:16] this town and she just kind of played with it.

[00:05:20] I assumed she just knew the name and did it.

[00:05:23] And she had always told me that she wanted it to be with two E's and not

[00:05:27] an I because she was worried that if she did spell my name A-D-I-N-A people

[00:05:32] in Ohio would pronounce it Adena and it's wrong.

[00:05:36] So it was like, well, let's do two E's.

[00:05:38] But I grew up thinking that she knew the Hebrew name and just spelled

[00:05:41] it differently.

[00:05:42] I recently found out no, she just kind of word played or phonetically played

[00:05:47] or sounded out whatever Medina and Medina and then just came up with a name.

[00:05:53] So apparently I am named after Medina, Ohio.

[00:05:58] So once you said that's where we were going, then I was like, this is

[00:06:01] meant to be.

[00:06:02] Right.

[00:06:03] You know, a lot of people I know made plans like six months ago to go

[00:06:07] somewhere, they bought tickets, they got Airbnb's and we did nothing.

[00:06:11] And it was only till about two weeks ago.

[00:06:13] I was starting to get, you know, FOMO over this.

[00:06:17] And I realized, wait a second, you know, Ohio, we could do a drive

[00:06:20] to Ohio.

[00:06:21] Who do I know?

[00:06:21] Wait, Brian's in Ohio.

[00:06:23] Can we come crash at Brian's place?

[00:06:25] And well, here we are.

[00:06:26] Yep.

[00:06:27] And where I am in Canton was just on the very edge.

[00:06:32] So we, there's a while some people, we just talked to our neighbor.

[00:06:35] She felt like it was very impressive, but we were actually, we saw full totality.

[00:06:41] It was absolutely amazing that animal life ceased to make noise around us.

[00:06:46] The bird stopped chirping.

[00:06:48] It was very surreal and spectacular.

[00:06:51] And we're so I'm, I wasn't going to go to Medina today until

[00:06:56] you guys said you were coming and so glad we did because it was something to behold.

[00:07:03] All the hype, all the people converging along the path of totality.

[00:07:08] I get it now.

[00:07:09] It's so cool.

[00:07:11] And the way it gets dark in those couple of minutes, like right up to it,

[00:07:14] it's a weird kind of dark.

[00:07:17] It's just that's the only way to describe it.

[00:07:19] The closest I'd come to seeing something like this was in 1994

[00:07:24] when I was in college at Maryland, there was a close to, it was a partial,

[00:07:30] but it was very close.

[00:07:31] And that's the memory I had was the weird, almost darkish thing in the middle of the day.

[00:07:37] That's the weird part for me.

[00:07:38] That is the weird part is seeing the dark in the middle of the day.

[00:07:42] And it was we were watching the NASA live feed too on television.

[00:07:46] At least some of us were popping in and out.

[00:07:48] And they were showing other people that were ahead of us, that were in totality

[00:07:53] and hold huge gobs of people cheering and getting real excited.

[00:07:57] And I'm like, God, that's OK.

[00:07:59] Wow, they're cheering. OK.

[00:08:00] And then it happened for us.

[00:08:01] And we're like, yeah.

[00:08:04] You know, it was just something to behold really interesting.

[00:08:08] And all our children were there.

[00:08:10] I mean, we'll remember this for a long, long time.

[00:08:12] And hopefully our kids will too, because it's going to be quite a long time for us.

[00:08:17] Twenty years. Twenty years.

[00:08:19] Twenty years until on the continental US.

[00:08:21] There's one again. Yeah. Wow.

[00:08:23] Yeah. OK.

[00:08:24] I heard I heard NASA say that they had feeds in many different

[00:08:29] cities around the nation that were going to be in the path of totality.

[00:08:33] And they said it was something like since the 1800s

[00:08:37] that Cleveland, Ohio, had seen a full eclipse like this.

[00:08:40] So big deal around here.

[00:08:42] We were very concerned about traffic too, not just the weather.

[00:08:47] But a lot of people were saying the traffic is going to be a nightmare,

[00:08:51] especially afterwards.

[00:08:53] So we got to we got to Medina around nine o'clock.

[00:08:57] But before we went to my in-laws house,

[00:08:59] we went to this amazing store called Sweets and Geeks.

[00:09:03] And they have all the candy and soda pop

[00:09:07] and energy drinks and weird varieties of stuff.

[00:09:11] But it's all based around the candy.

[00:09:14] Right. It's all the other stuff.

[00:09:16] They had all kinds of games and Funko Pops and cards.

[00:09:21] They had D&D stuff, Warhammer stuff, Pokemon stuff,

[00:09:25] all kinds of board games, every like all kinds of just pop culture,

[00:09:30] you know, memorabilia, although not a lot of Trek stuff.

[00:09:35] I was sad. I was very sad.

[00:09:36] Some Trek stuff.

[00:09:38] Just a couple things.

[00:09:39] I bought something.

[00:09:40] What? Yes.

[00:09:42] And I actually posted.

[00:09:44] Wait, I don't think I posted the picture of Spock, Mr. Potato Head.

[00:09:48] Mr. Spock Potato Head.

[00:09:50] What do they call that?

[00:09:51] I don't I don't know.

[00:09:52] But, you know, I feel like I've seen even though

[00:09:54] I don't necessarily buy all the stuff I've seen all this stuff.

[00:09:57] I had never seen a Mr.

[00:09:59] Potato Head Spock before.

[00:10:01] So I looked at that and I was like, OK, I had to get it.

[00:10:05] Now, the question collectors want to know,

[00:10:07] are you going to keep it in the package or are you going to get out and play with it?

[00:10:11] There's no right or wrong answer here.

[00:10:13] If I guess depends on who you are.

[00:10:14] Depends on your point of view.

[00:10:17] No, I will probably take it out and play with it.

[00:10:19] I am that person.

[00:10:20] That's what I would do too. Yeah.

[00:10:22] There was a whole Big Bang Theory episode where Sheldon, like, you know,

[00:10:26] he took it he took it out, he played with it and he broke it and he lied about it.

[00:10:30] And then Leonard Nimoy was in the episode.

[00:10:33] His voice in, you know, came to him in a dream.

[00:10:35] And it was actually, you know, Leonard Nimoy in the episode,

[00:10:38] kind of helping him right his wrongs.

[00:10:41] Right. Yeah.

[00:10:42] Fantastic television, if you ask me.

[00:10:45] So we spent time before we went to Mindless House at this amazing store.

[00:10:49] If you're ever in Medina, Ohio and you're you have any fandom of any types,

[00:10:57] check out this store, check out all the memorabilia they have,

[00:11:01] all the toys, all the games, everything and then get some candy too.

[00:11:04] It's pretty spectacular.

[00:11:05] Oh, that we did.

[00:11:06] There was another Star Trek thing we bought there, the Romulan Ale.

[00:11:09] The energy drink. Yeah.

[00:11:11] OK. Yeah. Not Romulan, not an alcoholic drink, but there was like an.

[00:11:14] Yeah, it was like a soda energy drink called Romulan Ale.

[00:11:17] I've got. I didn't buy one this time, but I've got a can.

[00:11:19] You have a can.

[00:11:20] I saved the can after I drank it because it's now displayed by my Mr.

[00:11:25] Spock Build-A-Bear that was actually my kids that I said is mine.

[00:11:30] So but I digress.

[00:11:33] So yeah, anyway, so we had a fantastic time.

[00:11:37] Hope that if you're listening to this and you got to be in the main path

[00:11:42] to this thing, send us an email, get on our Facebook page.

[00:11:46] Let us share some pictures of you and your gathering around the eclipse.

[00:11:51] And we'd love to see that.

[00:11:53] Love to comment on that.

[00:11:53] By the way, our Facebook page, we're very active on guys

[00:11:57] and our Instagram page.

[00:11:58] If you comment, especially on our Facebook page,

[00:12:01] you're probably going to hear see Adina, myself, Steve or Chris comment on that thing.

[00:12:07] So highly recommend.

[00:12:09] Yes, sometimes, sometimes we're just that nerdy.

[00:12:12] And we enjoy interacting with our listeners.

[00:12:16] And Adina, it is so much fun to have you in my home

[00:12:20] and that unfortunately, you guys have to leave very early tomorrow morning.

[00:12:27] But five hours away.

[00:12:29] Yeah, it's not too bad.

[00:12:30] Thank you for hosting us.

[00:12:31] So I mean, this has been great.

[00:12:33] Thank you so much.

[00:12:33] You guys need to come back so Greg can go through the football hall of fame

[00:12:36] here in Kent. We got to do that, too.

[00:12:38] Yep. Anyways.

[00:12:40] All right. Well, Adina, thanks.

[00:12:42] For this and to all our listeners, we now return you to our regularly scheduled podcast.

[00:12:51] Hello, amazing listeners of the Big Sci-Fi podcast.

[00:12:55] Today, we're going to be talking about the recently released movie on Netflix

[00:12:59] starring Adam Sandler called Spaceman.

[00:13:03] Brian, Chris, Steve and I, Adina are going to be doing it with a special guest.

[00:13:07] We're going to be spoiling the heck out of this movie.

[00:13:10] So if you want to go watch it first and then come back to this, you know, please do.

[00:13:14] But before I get into that, I want to give a big sci-fi shout out

[00:13:17] to our host network Trek Geeks.

[00:13:19] Check out trekgeeks.com for our podcast and so much more trek and sci-fi content.

[00:13:25] And please help us out by remembering to like, share,

[00:13:27] write a review, all those things that help us get discovered

[00:13:30] by other amazing listeners such as yourself.

[00:13:34] And if you're on Facebook, come find and join the Big Sci-Fi podcast Facebook group.

[00:13:40] Now, back to today's topic of Spaceman and to our special guest.

[00:13:44] Now, we spoke with him was about a year ago.

[00:13:47] Oh, at least yeah. Yeah. It was.

[00:13:51] Just seems like yesterday.

[00:13:53] It does seem like yesterday.

[00:13:54] Well, that's actually how we all learned about this movie

[00:13:57] because he was a science consultant for it.

[00:13:59] So please welcome back my colleague and astronaut, Rick Mastrocchio.

[00:14:04] Thanks, Rick, for joining us again. Hi, Adina.

[00:14:07] Hey, guys, Chris, Steve, Brian.

[00:14:09] Hopefully everybody's doing well. Thanks for having me.

[00:14:12] It's great to be here.

[00:14:14] We appreciate you being here too. Yeah. Yes.

[00:14:17] So when we, you know, recently, you know, this movie came out and we're like,

[00:14:20] oh, hey, we know about this movie because you told us about it.

[00:14:24] And then Steve was the first one to watch it

[00:14:27] and brought it up to the rest of us.

[00:14:28] And we're like, OK, let's do this and let's see if

[00:14:30] if Rick will come back and talk to us about it.

[00:14:33] So I think we've all seen it.

[00:14:35] And I want to say to everybody, you know, what was your expectation

[00:14:39] going into this movie?

[00:14:41] And Brian, maybe do you want to start?

[00:14:44] OK. My expectation was that if Rick had his hands in it,

[00:14:51] it was going to be the best movie ever made.

[00:14:54] No, it was fun.

[00:14:57] I have to. I do have to say in all seriousness,

[00:14:58] it was fun watching a movie having some personal

[00:15:03] you know, relation to with with Rick being a part of it in some way.

[00:15:08] And so that was kind of fun to watch a movie going, oh, hey,

[00:15:11] I know somebody that's involved in this.

[00:15:14] And but overall feeling of the movie,

[00:15:17] I really honestly went into it with

[00:15:21] totally mind open, no knowledge of the book before.

[00:15:26] Hand hadn't read it.

[00:15:28] Adam Sandler is kind of one of those comedic actors

[00:15:31] that has really come into his own.

[00:15:34] I enjoy his serious movies for the most part.

[00:15:38] I think he's got some talent that is really remarkable, actually.

[00:15:44] And I think he expressed.

[00:15:45] I think he shines in this film and that he did a phenomenal job.

[00:15:52] It had some weird stuff.

[00:15:54] I wasn't expecting the huge spider.

[00:15:58] What the hay?

[00:16:00] And I but it's at the same time, though,

[00:16:04] it was also interesting.

[00:16:07] But so overall, I'm going to say, I feel like I.

[00:16:12] I liked the film.

[00:16:14] It was it's not, you know, you don't feel all happy, go lucky at the end of it.

[00:16:19] But I did like it and I'm excited to talk more about why I liked it.

[00:16:24] So and some of the things I didn't like.

[00:16:26] And obviously, the spider is one of them.

[00:16:29] OK, Steve.

[00:16:31] Well, same thing.

[00:16:33] You know, I I remembered when it when it was

[00:16:37] listed on Netflix that Rick had spoken about it over a year ago.

[00:16:42] And I had trepidations about Adam Sandler in a dramatic role.

[00:16:46] But I figure, you know,

[00:16:48] give him a chance, give it a chance, watch the film.

[00:16:52] So I watched the film and as I was watching the film,

[00:16:55] I started to think about what this film was like.

[00:16:59] And I'm kind of stuck to the point where this was a film

[00:17:02] as if I'm our Bergman was to make a science fiction film

[00:17:05] or maybe Werner Herzog was to make a science fiction film.

[00:17:09] Because as I watched it, I became more happy

[00:17:16] and excited and it really drew me in.

[00:17:20] And I think the only thing that made me feel good

[00:17:24] was looking forward to a big jug of Nutella

[00:17:28] and an oversized spoon to eat it with.

[00:17:32] Other than that, it was really what I was hoping for.

[00:17:36] Reminds me of my home world or whatever.

[00:17:40] Yeah, awesome.

[00:17:41] So I'll go and then just to kind of round out

[00:17:44] our big sci-fi group for the moment.

[00:17:46] And then Rick, I'm definitely anxious to hear yours,

[00:17:48] your opinions and your thoughts about this.

[00:17:51] So going into this other than knowing that it existed

[00:17:55] and that you were did some work on it

[00:17:58] and that Adam Sandler was starring in, I knew nothing.

[00:18:01] And other than the vague feeling that maybe folks in the universe

[00:18:05] were not thrilled with this movie,

[00:18:07] you know, that was not getting like, oh, my God, blockbuster.

[00:18:10] You kind of reviews coming out.

[00:18:12] And I think five minutes in, I understood why this was

[00:18:16] more of an artsy film versus like a sci-fi film.

[00:18:21] And I think when you have a film titled Space Man

[00:18:25] and then you have Adam Sandler, who is while he's been doing

[00:18:29] dramatic and other things, he is more known for the comedic

[00:18:31] over the toppy kind of stuff.

[00:18:33] I can see that a lot of people might watch this

[00:18:35] and have a completely different expectation from what it was

[00:18:39] and then be disappointed because I think this kind of artsy

[00:18:43] philosophical stuff is got a much more narrow,

[00:18:47] you know, appeals to a narrow audience, not a wide audience.

[00:18:51] So that said, I think I enjoyed it, especially, you know.

[00:18:55] So, yeah, I found out while I was watching it is when or I think

[00:18:58] in the opening credit that says that based on a book, like, oh,

[00:19:01] based on a book, what's the book?

[00:19:03] So I went and I had I downloaded the book and I started reading it

[00:19:06] right after I finished the movie and I'm halfway through.

[00:19:09] And I have to say I'm enjoying the book immensely.

[00:19:12] I think the book is great.

[00:19:14] And I'm going to be recommending this to a lot of people.

[00:19:16] Now, again, not it's not again, it's not a classic sci-fi.

[00:19:20] It's a philosophical, very philosophical thing.

[00:19:24] And for people who like certain kind of science fiction,

[00:19:27] like there's, you know, Binti and then there's another book

[00:19:30] that I'm blanking on the name of.

[00:19:32] There's a certain kind of science fiction people

[00:19:34] that people will like.

[00:19:35] It's not it's again, not wide, but I think it's great.

[00:19:39] And I'm actually anxious to know that I've almost read

[00:19:41] the book to go back and rewatch the movie.

[00:19:44] Oh, really? Yes.

[00:19:45] I'm kind of that intrigued.

[00:19:47] And with that, Rick, what do you think?

[00:19:52] Well, I have all those thoughts that you guys all said.

[00:19:56] And a lot more honest with you.

[00:19:59] I mean, we have to go back four years ago.

[00:20:02] I was getting phone calls from the producer saying,

[00:20:05] hey, we would really like to talk to you about living in space

[00:20:09] and, you know, the psychological, emotional, physical challenges

[00:20:14] of a long duration mission.

[00:20:15] And they hooked me up with the writer and that we spent many,

[00:20:20] many hours talking to each other.

[00:20:23] And then I reviewed the script and then I was helping

[00:20:26] the set designers and I was helping the costume designer.

[00:20:31] And then I was helping then I visited the set

[00:20:33] and helped Adam Sandler learn how to float in space.

[00:20:36] And but yeah, all along the way, I had these different

[00:20:39] expectations like you.

[00:20:40] I said, oh, it's a book.

[00:20:42] Let me go read the book.

[00:20:42] I read the book and I said, huh?

[00:20:45] How is this going to be funny?

[00:20:47] How is Adam Sandler going to make this funny?

[00:20:50] I'm not sure how he's going to play it.

[00:20:51] So then we talked more than I read the script.

[00:20:54] And I'm saying it still doesn't seem funny.

[00:20:57] And then realized, OK, that's supposed to be funny.

[00:21:01] Like it took me a really long time to figure that out.

[00:21:04] But it's it's look, it's different, right?

[00:21:07] You know, one of the complaints I think I have

[00:21:09] and a lot of people have, oh, it's the same movie.

[00:21:12] They just change a couple of characters around.

[00:21:14] And so this is certainly different.

[00:21:16] So you can't complain about that.

[00:21:19] It's it's they tried.

[00:21:21] Johan Rink was the director.

[00:21:23] And if you ever if you ever saw his Chernobyl series on

[00:21:27] I know, I was curious about that.

[00:21:30] But no, OMG, man, that is a great series.

[00:21:33] He does it's like a four or six part episode on Chernobyl.

[00:21:38] And that he did a two, three, four, whatever years ago,

[00:21:41] five years ago, maybe now.

[00:21:43] And I tell you when I was watching that series,

[00:21:46] I felt like I was back in Russia and I spent a lot of time in Russia

[00:21:49] and the scenery and the in the steps and the people were like,

[00:21:52] oh, he captured Russia perfectly.

[00:21:55] So he was fantastic.

[00:21:56] He really was down.

[00:21:57] I want to detail so they were really very interested.

[00:22:01] The space station, you know, I'm just going to blabber for a little while.

[00:22:04] The space station scenery was fantastic.

[00:22:06] Did a great job building that space station.

[00:22:09] The special effects of Adam Sandler and a weightless environment

[00:22:13] looked really, really good.

[00:22:14] I said very few points where he moved this way when he showed that or something.

[00:22:20] But it was really great in terms of those details and things like that.

[00:22:24] Yeah, Hanus, you know, the real spider, the imaginary spider.

[00:22:30] It seemed like when I read the book and I read the script,

[00:22:33] it was more on they tried to make it unclear whether it was real or not.

[00:22:38] You know, so in the movie, they didn't I don't know, maybe they didn't address.

[00:22:42] I don't know, in my opinion, they just didn't seem to address.

[00:22:44] Are you real kind of thing?

[00:22:47] So anyways, it was it was all those things.

[00:22:49] You know, it was interesting.

[00:22:50] It was a little bit strange.

[00:22:51] It was out of sale.

[00:22:52] They did a great job as the very unhappy astronaut.

[00:22:56] And, you know, so it was all those things.

[00:23:00] So I'm glad you said some of that because as I was watching it

[00:23:03] and especially mindful that you consulted on it too, though,

[00:23:06] I was, you know, so while I work in the space industry,

[00:23:10] so I have a lot of knowledge about stuff.

[00:23:12] I haven't been there myself.

[00:23:13] So coming from that position, I was very happy with what I saw.

[00:23:18] Things met my expectation in terms of what I would expect it to be like.

[00:23:23] The interesting thing that came across in the book that I'm kind of sad

[00:23:27] that they felt lost in the movie was really appreciating and understanding

[00:23:32] that the character in the book, this was not a trained astronaut.

[00:23:37] He was a professor that happened to fit the scientific need.

[00:23:41] So then they took this person and trained him

[00:23:45] and he struggled in the training in the book.

[00:23:48] Like some of the weightless training, he was constantly getting ill

[00:23:52] and he wasn't necessarily suited for a life of solitude.

[00:23:56] So he's not necessarily someone that would have been selected

[00:23:59] as an astronaut, just kind of how we think of today, NASA selects astronauts.

[00:24:03] And I feel like that kind of got I feel like that's actually very important

[00:24:06] because it really speaks to his psychological situation,

[00:24:11] which then speaks to why this might be an imaginary spot.

[00:24:15] I don't know.

[00:24:16] But it was interesting that unfortunately,

[00:24:18] or unfortunately, as always, when books get translated to movies,

[00:24:21] some details get lost and I'm kind of sad that that one got lost

[00:24:24] because I think that would have helped a lot.

[00:24:27] It's it's easier for me to honestly

[00:24:31] imagine the spider as totally 100 percent real.

[00:24:36] I think I came by the time I got to the end of this film, OK?

[00:24:40] And this I don't know if this is a popular opinion or not.

[00:24:43] I don't really care.

[00:24:44] It's you know, but your opinion.

[00:24:46] This was even even if it wasn't like really a spider,

[00:24:50] it's how that being chose to.

[00:24:54] Reveal itself to to this character.

[00:24:57] So it's weird and I kind of loved it like I hated the spider.

[00:25:04] I would have been better with like a dolphin or, you know,

[00:25:09] or something like that.

[00:25:10] But I don't know. I just it was very interesting.

[00:25:13] It was very like a very clown.

[00:25:15] OK, I'm scared.

[00:25:15] Oh, good night.

[00:25:18] Martha, get out of town.

[00:25:21] Well, you know, the thing about the spider was and

[00:25:24] and I had just finished reading while back, I just finished reading

[00:25:29] Project Hail Mary.

[00:25:31] So spoiler, there might be some spoilers on Project Hail Mary for anyone.

[00:25:34] And just for that is that in that book.

[00:25:39] The alien he encounters is much spider like.

[00:25:43] Mm hmm.

[00:25:43] And he was not on a

[00:25:48] a solo mission.

[00:25:49] He was stuck with the situation he ended up with.

[00:25:52] I want to give away too much.

[00:25:54] OK, in this movie,

[00:25:57] he sent out a mission all by himself in extremely large spacecraft.

[00:26:04] And I kept watching going.

[00:26:08] Why didn't they have anybody else with him?

[00:26:10] Why would he send him alone in such a large mission

[00:26:14] for the fear that if something happened to him, if he was injured or ill

[00:26:18] or he went crazy,

[00:26:22] that there'd be somebody there to center him.

[00:26:26] And I I would I would have been just very happy

[00:26:30] if the spider was completely in his mind

[00:26:35] because to create, give it reality

[00:26:38] and to make it living at some point,

[00:26:41] you think he would have said the mission control.

[00:26:44] Hey, guys, yeah, there's like a giant spider on the spaceship.

[00:26:49] Any idea how it got in here?

[00:26:51] Because I don't know how it entered the spaceship, but it's here.

[00:26:55] And I'd love to send you some photos,

[00:26:58] but it seems to be all the cameras are broken.

[00:27:02] I wonder why that happened.

[00:27:04] Oh, well.

[00:27:06] But still, at least just say, hey, guys,

[00:27:08] there's a giant spider on the spaceship with me.

[00:27:11] Either I'm not going to tell you because they'll think I'm going crazy

[00:27:16] and you'll abort the mission or you will do something about it.

[00:27:20] It's just I would have been just happy.

[00:27:24] Huh? Yeah, yes.

[00:27:26] Yes, which gets you a 99.999 percent vet or cleaning with the bomb.

[00:27:32] Yes, I love it.

[00:27:33] Nothing like a commercial on your space mission

[00:27:37] to get authorization to use the cleansing agent to be safe.

[00:27:43] Well, that's the premise, right?

[00:27:45] Yeah, that was the thing.

[00:27:46] That was the other thing that I feel like didn't come through as clearly

[00:27:50] in the movie as it did in the book was that this mission was pretty much

[00:27:53] 100 percent commercially sponsored.

[00:27:55] So every product on that had a commercial thing and that's how they funded it.

[00:28:00] That's why, you know, the check wrote, you know, so there's this cloud

[00:28:04] out there that they want to go study.

[00:28:05] They sent an unmanned probe that basically failed.

[00:28:08] So like, OK, we got to get a man thing up there.

[00:28:10] And none of the other countries or major powers wanted to step up

[00:28:14] to fund it and do it or do it in a reasonable time.

[00:28:17] So the checks are like, hey, this is our time to shine.

[00:28:20] Let's let's do this.

[00:28:21] And let's we're going to send a guy.

[00:28:22] We're going to we're going to take this on.

[00:28:24] And then but then to do it, it's a fully, you know,

[00:28:27] pretty much a commercial mission.

[00:28:28] And, you know, like the telephone and the bomb over the only real things

[00:28:33] that were kind of commercial in the movie.

[00:28:35] But there was a lot more everything in the book.

[00:28:37] It was constant in the book.

[00:28:38] That's interesting. Yeah.

[00:28:40] And what's also interesting, of course,

[00:28:43] the only way to communicate with earth is on the.

[00:28:46] Was it called the check phone?

[00:28:48] I forget what they call that.

[00:28:50] The check connect.

[00:28:51] Check connect.

[00:28:51] Which is quicker than the speed of light.

[00:28:55] How kids?

[00:28:56] I'm sorry, but how kids?

[00:28:59] Because marketing says so.

[00:29:00] It's complicated.

[00:29:01] But at least in the Martin, he had to deal with the delay of waiting

[00:29:06] for a message to get to him and back.

[00:29:09] And then the other thing that was don't question it, Steve, just enjoy.

[00:29:13] I know I'm not supposed to question you.

[00:29:15] I feel like just enjoy the technology.

[00:29:17] I leave it to deal with the grass, Tyson, to have an aneurysm over things like this.

[00:29:23] But again, the other thing was is that this cloud was visible during the day

[00:29:31] in the sky on Earth.

[00:29:33] Yeah.

[00:29:34] Compared to the sun in relation to the size that we can view it,

[00:29:39] this thing would have dwarfed everything in the entire solar system.

[00:29:46] Well, to be able to be seen from the earth as large as they depicted it,

[00:29:50] which also seemed a little weird space.

[00:29:52] Consultant, what do you think about that?

[00:29:56] Well, originally, that cloud was supposed to be near Venus.

[00:30:01] I believe in the book.

[00:30:02] I did read about that.

[00:30:03] Yeah.

[00:30:04] And I read in a script that was like that originally, too.

[00:30:06] And then one day it was out there

[00:30:09] fat iron or Uranus or whatever they moved it to.

[00:30:12] Do you ever get and there's like, yeah, Venus seems like it'll be too bright.

[00:30:17] We want it to be darker where we're going.

[00:30:19] And I like, OK.

[00:30:23] Like I said, you did cash the check before they finish the film, right?

[00:30:29] Just to make sure that they didn't go back to you and say, hey,

[00:30:33] we're sorry we're out of money.

[00:30:34] You can't check the check.

[00:30:35] Yeah.

[00:30:36] Yeah. Well, I didn't get quite as much as Adam Sandler.

[00:30:40] I mean, I maybe got enough to buy a sandal and launch.

[00:30:43] Maybe I got it.

[00:30:44] OK.

[00:30:46] So how many questions did they did you guys, you know,

[00:30:50] the movie opened up with toilet problems?

[00:30:53] Guess talk a lot about toilet problems.

[00:30:56] Yeah. So that really was a little bit of a surprise.

[00:30:59] And I had to go back and think about that scene where,

[00:31:02] you know, Adam Sandler's he's on the toilet and he's like,

[00:31:06] it's like, why did you know?

[00:31:07] And the toilets make it all this noise and he calls mission control.

[00:31:11] It's mission control.

[00:31:13] I really want permission to fix the toilet.

[00:31:15] I forget exactly what he says or I need the procedures or when can I

[00:31:18] fix the toilet? And I'm thinking.

[00:31:23] Now, Edina, was that in the book?

[00:31:25] Was that scene in the book?

[00:31:27] I don't remember.

[00:31:28] There was something related to it.

[00:31:31] OK, because I was trying to think I told you guys a lot of story.

[00:31:36] Yeah.

[00:31:37] And I told him the story about when I was living on the space station

[00:31:40] and the toilet was like 90 decibels.

[00:31:43] And they would have fixed it and we're like, Houston,

[00:31:45] we need to fix the toilet.

[00:31:47] You know, we can't you know, where you were putting your plugs in.

[00:31:50] It's even in a new one when you're not on the toilet, somebody else is.

[00:31:53] It's just it's terrible.

[00:31:55] But they say, well, we're not sure it's supposed to be.

[00:31:58] Well, what they what they we don't think it's really doing that or something.

[00:32:02] It was like, well, it's not time to fix the toilet.

[00:32:04] You just fixed it a couple of months ago, so you can't fix it now.

[00:32:07] We're like, what are you talking about?

[00:32:10] And they made us like take video up the toilet.

[00:32:13] They made us do measurements that we had to like hold

[00:32:16] the microphone next to the toilet.

[00:32:18] It's like it's like my grandfather, whenever I got a car issue,

[00:32:22] put the phone up to the car and let me hear it.

[00:32:25] Yeah, they believe us.

[00:32:27] And so it took like the end of Expedition 38 had to end

[00:32:32] and we started Expedition 39 when the new crew came up

[00:32:36] and then the new flight director came on and said, fix the toilet.

[00:32:39] And we said, thank you.

[00:32:41] I also like how in the movie they chose to introduce the spider

[00:32:45] in the toilet, because I think that's one of the greatest fears

[00:32:48] any person has is finding a spider in the bathroom

[00:32:53] while you're sitting on the toilet.

[00:32:54] Blush, blush, blush. Yes, yes.

[00:32:56] Come here and get rid of this thing.

[00:32:57] I can't get off the toilet because I'm afraid it's going to bite me.

[00:33:01] Yeah, in the book, they had some other mechanical problem.

[00:33:04] It wasn't as it was definitely nowhere near as pronounced.

[00:33:07] They kept having him leading up to approaching the cloud.

[00:33:11] Kind of he was constantly in the lab, making sure that the payload,

[00:33:14] you know, whatever the scientific equipment was going to was going to work.

[00:33:19] Yeah, so no, I think that was more for the movie.

[00:33:21] And then so that might really be based on the conversations you had.

[00:33:24] But I was struggling because you've told us.

[00:33:27] I've heard your toilet story is a few times.

[00:33:31] So I was struggling through that.

[00:33:32] I was like that that I'm hoping that that's actually

[00:33:35] you know, coming out of out of brick because yeah.

[00:33:38] Oh, that's right.

[00:33:39] Or credit for that.

[00:33:40] Should have.

[00:33:42] They should allow you to fix the toilet without question, because

[00:33:45] if they say, well, just go outside and use the bush.

[00:33:49] There's no outside.

[00:33:49] There's no bush.

[00:33:52] Well, so we could have fixed it ourselves, but we didn't.

[00:33:56] Yeah, that's the thing is I mean, maybe explain for

[00:33:59] for Brian and Stephen, the listener is kind of how that dynamic works.

[00:34:02] I mean, you're there on site.

[00:34:05] Like where does a boundary between what you're authorized to do

[00:34:09] and what you really need mission control to say, oh, go do.

[00:34:12] Because I would think some mechanical problems you would just be just go do.

[00:34:16] You're there.

[00:34:17] Well, yeah, there's you know, but you're a team, right?

[00:34:20] There's in the some of the things that you don't know they know.

[00:34:24] For example, they have very limited spare parts, for example, on the toilet.

[00:34:29] And the reason why one of the reasons I believe that they didn't want us to

[00:34:32] fix it because we had just swapped out the fan pump separator maybe two months ago.

[00:34:37] And they're supposed to last like let's say six months.

[00:34:41] But this one failed after two.

[00:34:43] And they're like, well, we can't afford to swap it out because we only have

[00:34:49] replacements for every six months.

[00:34:51] And it's going, you know, they are they're down on the ground debating it

[00:34:55] and debating it and trying to figure out, OK, can we put one on a Cygnus spacecraft

[00:34:59] and send it up or another one?

[00:35:01] Or can we do this with it?

[00:35:02] So there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes going on that you don't know about.

[00:35:08] You don't know how many fan pump separators are hidden on that space.

[00:35:12] They they're like, he's correct, right?

[00:35:13] There's their hidden somewhere and they won't tell you where they are

[00:35:17] until they give you permission to.

[00:35:19] So yes, you could certainly take matters into your own hands and do that.

[00:35:23] But that's just not good teamwork.

[00:35:25] OK, I feel like when it's something, you know, really,

[00:35:28] it's a matter of your quality of life, you know, yeah.

[00:35:32] Yeah, there's a lot of examples of that we had all our food warmers were broken.

[00:35:37] And we had a way for them to send up repairs.

[00:35:39] We had like three food warmers, all of them broke.

[00:35:41] So we were eating like basically, you know, lukewarm cold food for,

[00:35:46] I don't know, three or four weeks before they got around to sending us

[00:35:49] the repair instructions and the permission to repair it.

[00:35:53] There's a lot of examples of that, I'm sure a lot of crews.

[00:35:56] But again, if the matter of the ground standard priorities

[00:35:59] and sometimes your comfort is not always the highest priority.

[00:36:04] That's interesting.

[00:36:06] You would you would think they would want you to be happy with

[00:36:12] what your body needs to let go of

[00:36:16] to to feel good while you're doing your work.

[00:36:19] I mean, I don't know. Yeah.

[00:36:21] But I think that I always had the rule that if

[00:36:23] if the crew can't go to the bathroom, everybody in mission control

[00:36:26] can't go to the bathroom.

[00:36:28] Seems reasonable. That'll get that toilet fixed.

[00:36:30] Oh, yeah.

[00:36:31] Uh huh.

[00:36:34] I think there's also the repair.

[00:36:36] That's good. I think this also speaks, though, to the astronaut selection process.

[00:36:40] And, you know, they are looking for, you know,

[00:36:43] they're looking for the right folks who can't endure those kinds of heart

[00:36:47] because those are hardships and you need the right personality ish

[00:36:50] and personality mix of people who can possibly endure those kinds of stresses

[00:36:55] like just any old person just can't can't do that.

[00:36:58] And it's a different selection process from back in like the Apollo dates,

[00:37:03] you know, right.

[00:37:05] And for long durations, it's an accumulative thing.

[00:37:08] You're away from your family. OK, it's not a big, you know, it's not great,

[00:37:12] but it's not a big deal. You're eating bad food.

[00:37:14] Oh, the toilet makes a lot of noise.

[00:37:15] I had a you can't open the window.

[00:37:17] You can't do this, just that that that and you get this cumulative effect,

[00:37:21] you know, and who knows where people will snap, right?

[00:37:25] It's what my food is called.

[00:37:27] I'm getting out of here.

[00:37:30] Yeah, you'd ever go where someone's going to snap.

[00:37:33] All right.

[00:37:33] One of the things I read about is in Japan, the astronaut selection process there,

[00:37:37] they have the candidates fold a thousand paper cranes

[00:37:42] and then they examine the paper cranes to look for imperfections

[00:37:45] and all these things. And it's about doing a repetitive task over and over

[00:37:51] and seeing how they they deal with like that repetitive stress, basically.

[00:37:55] Interesting.

[00:37:57] Big.

[00:37:58] They want to look like cranes on number 20.

[00:38:04] OK, that's not.

[00:38:06] Not good selection criteria for NASA.

[00:38:09] So when you were consulting on the film, Rick,

[00:38:12] did they discuss like what his motivation is on his day to day life?

[00:38:19] Because one person on a mission like that, the most they ever showed

[00:38:23] him really doing anything was running on the treadmill in the film.

[00:38:28] That was like the biggest thing for they kept showing him.

[00:38:30] But it never really got into his just day to day.

[00:38:34] What what was the whole point of the mission?

[00:38:36] Was it just to capture, you know,

[00:38:40] tropodust?

[00:38:42] I mean, for the rest of the whole mission,

[00:38:44] he would have had to have daily functions.

[00:38:47] And when you were on the ISS,

[00:38:50] were you assigned daily functions you did for your shift?

[00:38:54] For if that was and how long was it was an eight hour shift, a 12 hour shift?

[00:38:59] And and did you always have something to do or was there downtime

[00:39:02] that you just didn't have anything to do?

[00:39:07] Yeah, well, let's start with the movie question.

[00:39:10] I was actually there when they were filming the treadmill scene

[00:39:12] the couple days I was there, they were filming the treadmill scene

[00:39:15] and they were doing a few scenes of him floating through the through the space station.

[00:39:19] So it was cool to see the set was was really high quality.

[00:39:23] And I helped out a lot with the set, but a lot of little details.

[00:39:26] I wanted to know, hey, I said, hey, your labeling here is not correct.

[00:39:30] You know, and they said, oh, really? Oh, tell us how.

[00:39:32] And I said, well, nobody's going to know except me that your labeling is not right.

[00:39:36] Well, we want it right.

[00:39:37] OK, well, then it is I had a cool.

[00:39:40] Yeah, so they were really into the details.

[00:39:43] But yeah, like I said, I like or like Adina said,

[00:39:45] I think the book goes into a little more detail

[00:39:47] and maybe the scripted as well.

[00:39:49] You know, one of the things that I learned when I do the as I do these

[00:39:53] consultant review scripts and then I watch the TV show like a beacon.

[00:39:57] Twenty three is another show that's out now that I consulted on all the scripts.

[00:40:02] You read the scripts, but then you watch the show and you're like,

[00:40:05] wait a second, that's not the same script.

[00:40:08] So I guess the directors, the actors

[00:40:12] and editors and all gets it all kind of comes together.

[00:40:16] And the story is basically the same, but it just come together and very different.

[00:40:19] It's not like you could sit there and read the script

[00:40:21] and say exactly what they're going to say and when it's not learned that it's not like that.

[00:40:27] But yeah, supposedly he was just he didn't have a whole lot to do.

[00:40:30] I know I remember he had a lot of training and practice.

[00:40:34] And I think there was a robotic arm or some kind of device

[00:40:36] where he captured the the particles, a lot of maintenance and things.

[00:40:41] So so I think they tried to model it after the what we how we live

[00:40:46] on the International Space Station to a certain extent.

[00:40:49] And that's you know, and your question is yes, we have every second

[00:40:54] of pretty much every day told what to do.

[00:40:58] And it's I call it chasing the red line.

[00:41:00] Now there's like it is like a big calendar or of all every hour of the day.

[00:41:05] And then there's this red line that moves across.

[00:41:08] And you better have when the red line goes to the next task,

[00:41:11] you better be there ready to do the next test.

[00:41:14] And chasing constantly chasing this red line.

[00:41:17] OK, what do I do now?

[00:41:18] Oh, I got 30 minutes to eat lunch.

[00:41:20] OK, OK, what do I do now?

[00:41:22] I got to go do this and it's not as bad.

[00:41:26] It's it's bad, but it's not as bad as it sounds because you get used to it.

[00:41:30] Number one, number two, you get ahead on the schedule sometimes,

[00:41:34] like especially when we first got up there, we're way ahead of schedule.

[00:41:38] Like when you first get up there as an astronaut

[00:41:40] aboard the space station, they assume you're going to be like 40 percent

[00:41:44] capable of doing what they need you to do.

[00:41:46] So they do they take it easy on you.

[00:41:49] And I was my fourth mission.

[00:41:50] I'm like really at 40 percent.

[00:41:52] I'm not going to be a 40 percent on my fourth mission.

[00:41:54] I'm going to be at 120 percent when I get there.

[00:41:57] So a lot of times I spend just like Twill in my thumbs,

[00:41:59] saying Houston, hey, what do you got?

[00:42:01] Hey, Houston, what do you got?

[00:42:03] So but, you know, then they then they start packing in.

[00:42:06] Hey, this guy wants more.

[00:42:08] We'll give him more, more science, more.

[00:42:10] It's more this, more that.

[00:42:11] And so and there is a lot of downtime on weekends.

[00:42:14] You get half a day off on Saturday.

[00:42:16] You clean the space station on Saturday, wipe down everything,

[00:42:18] take the macaroni and cheese off the ceiling from the night before.

[00:42:23] All that stuff.

[00:42:24] And then Sunday, you get usually get the whole day off

[00:42:26] unless there's like a spacewalk that you're prepping for

[00:42:30] or visiting vehicles coming like a sickness or something like that.

[00:42:40] Attention, all Starfleet personnel.

[00:42:42] New York's only fan run Star Trek convention.

[00:42:45] Trek Long Island is back this summer.

[00:42:47] Get ready for three days of sci fi fun,

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[00:42:59] Gabrielle Ruiz from Lower Decks.

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[00:43:03] and the other star Trek fans.

[00:43:05] And so we're going to be back

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[00:43:13] Ethan Phillips from Voyager, Janet Kitter, Tara Rosling,

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[00:43:19] And many more, including celebrities who haven't been

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[00:43:59] Trek Long Island, going kindly this summer.

[00:44:04] Yeah, I did like the fact that the spacesuit that he had

[00:44:08] the Russian made step in the back spacesuit,

[00:44:11] which was an integral part of the book's project, Hail Mary.

[00:44:17] And I thought that was a great choice for that book,

[00:44:21] but also for this because it would make him easy and, you know,

[00:44:24] he didn't require any other assistance to use that particular spacesuit.

[00:44:28] Whereas the suits that you have to use when you did your EVAs,

[00:44:34] they were a lot more they required more than one person to use it.

[00:44:37] Is that correct?

[00:44:39] Yes, it would be really hard for you to dress yourself in an EMU.

[00:44:46] But people they we have done on the station.

[00:44:48] We have done two person EVAs with only two people on the station.

[00:44:53] So they kind of help each other suit each other up.

[00:44:56] And that's that probably took a lot longer than having a third person

[00:45:00] who helps get you dressed, you know.

[00:45:02] But yeah, they did a lot of work on the Russian space

[00:45:05] suit actually had me doing a lot of Russian translation.

[00:45:07] They found out I spoke Russian.

[00:45:08] They said, oh, we need you to translate this from Russian to English.

[00:45:12] And then we'll get it translated to Czechoslovakia or whatever it was.

[00:45:16] And I'm like, OK, and they're giving me acronyms.

[00:45:19] Like what's the asu? Why you that?

[00:45:20] You know, like I know that acronym, but I don't remember.

[00:45:24] And so I'm like, they were really testing my memory of my so used days in my seat.

[00:45:31] Now, they throughout the film, Adam Sandler's character

[00:45:36] was calling back to a gentleman that

[00:45:40] and I can't I can't remember the characters Peter Peter Peter,

[00:45:44] that where he was calling back and asking him questions.

[00:45:49] I mean, obviously about his wife, about, you know, whatever is

[00:45:54] is almost like he was a human relations person,

[00:45:59] you know, or they're not a therapist, but just someone in charge

[00:46:02] of making of his overall well-being.

[00:46:05] So is that a typical thing for NASA to to have the astronauts

[00:46:11] have access to someone like that as well?

[00:46:14] Or was that just part of the book?

[00:46:20] We talked to Capcom's obviously about technical things.

[00:46:24] Hey, the toilet's not working.

[00:46:26] This is not, you know, and so Peter kind of seemed to play multiple roles, right?

[00:46:29] He was like the Capcom we call it Capcom,

[00:46:32] where he was talking about, hey, time to go do this.

[00:46:35] You know, to ask to go train.

[00:46:38] But then you're right.

[00:46:39] He was kind of like, hey, you know, I'm your buddy.

[00:46:41] Tell me what's going wrong.

[00:46:42] So we talked to our flight doctors from a physical perspective.

[00:46:46] We used to do that.

[00:46:48] I don't know, once every week or two weeks or something like that.

[00:46:53] And we would have a one on one medical with our flight docs and talk to

[00:46:56] Hey, you know, I'm a little stuffy or I got I got this or, you know,

[00:47:00] he kind of complained about what any issues you might have.

[00:47:03] And then you did do we did do a tag up with a

[00:47:08] psychiatrist or psychologist I don't remember.

[00:47:11] And that was maybe less often than the flight docs.

[00:47:15] Once a month, maybe or something like that.

[00:47:18] OK, OK, interesting.

[00:47:19] You're talking to a lot of people, plus you're talking to your family a lot.

[00:47:22] You're just going home.

[00:47:23] OK, yeah.

[00:47:23] Well, not as fancy as the phone in the movie.

[00:47:26] It's basically just an IP phone on your on your laptop.

[00:47:29] You stick the headset on and you dial anywhere in the world.

[00:47:32] They can't call you, but you can call them.

[00:47:35] So it's like the perfect home.

[00:47:37] In the in the movie and then it's more in the book, too, is really

[00:47:43] they go into Jacobs, his background, you know, growing up kind of as

[00:47:49] they were coming out of being controlled by the Soviets and kind of embracing

[00:47:53] democracy and capitalism.

[00:47:55] But yeah, they they still retain some elements of state control.

[00:47:59] They're not they're not like the US.

[00:48:01] They retain some elements of state control so that Peter character,

[00:48:04] in some ways, he's a little bit of a bridge between him and, you know,

[00:48:09] so they're controlling a narrative of what they're putting out to the public.

[00:48:13] And they're controlling the narrative to the public about this

[00:48:16] spaceman and his wife and their wonderful relationship, which obviously is not

[00:48:20] so wonderful, which is, you know, I came away from before I read the book.

[00:48:25] I came away from the movie, you know, like that's what this movie is about.

[00:48:29] That's what this artsy film is about.

[00:48:30] It's set in space, but it's really about, you know, human condition

[00:48:35] related in relationshipy stuff.

[00:48:38] And that's what the movie is about, is about him of the person

[00:48:42] and how he deals with all these things.

[00:48:44] And the book, of course, goes then into more detail.

[00:48:47] But I mean, I definitely even before reading the book got that whole sense

[00:48:50] of this is, you know, this is, you know, the former Czech Republic

[00:48:56] and how they're dealing with things, which is not how we necessarily deal

[00:49:01] with things here. Not necessarily.

[00:49:04] I mean, I didn't take, you know, so like, for example, when the wife calls

[00:49:09] up and says, hey, I'm leaving you, you know,

[00:49:14] and they decided, hey, we're not sending you a message.

[00:49:17] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:49:18] And I fell out of that.

[00:49:20] So one of the things you do when you launch on a long duration mission

[00:49:23] or I guess shuttle missions is what I'm going to say,

[00:49:26] what do you want to hear from home?

[00:49:28] Do you want to hear bad news?

[00:49:31] So you can you tell your flight doc and your other doctor say, hey, look,

[00:49:35] no, I don't want to go up there for two weeks or I'm going up there

[00:49:38] for six months and I just want to concentrate on the job.

[00:49:41] I can't worry about something going down.

[00:49:43] My answer always was, hey, look, you know, if something happens,

[00:49:47] you talk to my wife and I'll let her decide whether it's something

[00:49:50] that I should be informed of or something that something else.

[00:49:54] You know, like the movie you guys you guys watch for all mankind TV show.

[00:49:58] I was just going to mention that we I've I'm I think I'm past where

[00:50:02] you are talking about.

[00:50:03] I haven't I'm not fully caught up yet, but for all mankind is amazing.

[00:50:07] I'm going to make these guys watch it eventually because we we're going to

[00:50:09] have to talk about this on the podcast.

[00:50:11] TV, my next door neighbor was just yammering about how great it is.

[00:50:15] He goes, I don't want to spoil anything, but the very first episode is remarkable

[00:50:18] and it goes from there.

[00:50:19] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:50:20] It's just by Apple TV for a month and then watch them off.

[00:50:23] But I definitely got the sense in the movie, though, that it's not

[00:50:27] just about what they tell Jacob, it's still about controlling

[00:50:31] the narrative to the public too.

[00:50:33] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:50:36] Yeah. Well, which is I like to think is a little bit different

[00:50:39] in our country at least.

[00:50:40] But I remember giving us too much credit.

[00:50:43] Yeah.

[00:50:44] The nest is very open.

[00:50:45] Nest is very open.

[00:50:47] Well, I remember reading in Scott Kelly's book about how when he was up

[00:50:51] on the ISS and one of his family members took very ill and he was

[00:50:58] very distraught in the fact that he couldn't get down back to Earth

[00:51:03] to help out and he had to deal with that from a distance.

[00:51:06] And that was very distressed for him.

[00:51:08] So when they decide not to share the information with him

[00:51:12] about his wife wanting to leave him, I thought that was so right

[00:51:17] because he's already in a mental state.

[00:51:19] He's been in space for 180 days or something like that.

[00:51:23] And now you're going to tell him, oh, by the way, your wife is leaving

[00:51:25] you and you're not even at the halfway point completion of the mission.

[00:51:30] Yeah, I can accept that.

[00:51:31] But then there was like two movies happening.

[00:51:34] You had the story of the wife and going through her pregnancy all by herself.

[00:51:38] And you had his adventure with Hanush.

[00:51:41] And it was like there was two movies happening all at the same time.

[00:51:45] And not always did they merge very well together, except at the very beginning

[00:51:50] and I guess at the very end when he they finally resolved their differences.

[00:51:55] Did you guys cry when he hugged the spider?

[00:52:00] I'm asking for I'm asking for a friend.

[00:52:02] He's hugging a spider.

[00:52:04] I mean, I like Hanush.

[00:52:06] I liked I wound up liking the character a lot, especially because I like those

[00:52:09] kinds of philosophical discussions, but it's still a spider.

[00:52:15] If it was a dolphin or something, I may have cried.

[00:52:18] Oh, OK, OK.

[00:52:19] Or a big, a beautiful Irish setter or golden retriever, you know, that could talk.

[00:52:25] I would have been very happy if, you know, I just didn't want to end up

[00:52:29] being old yellow at the very end, you know, old yellow.

[00:52:31] It's shocked, you know, when you end up.

[00:52:34] But again, the whole definitely is like the spider leaves the spaceship.

[00:52:40] How did he do that so that they could meet out in space?

[00:52:45] And then he could say, buh-bye as you're being consumed by parasites

[00:52:49] in space in a vacuum.

[00:52:51] So the reason I can believe the spider coming in and out of this

[00:52:55] space like we don't we're we're a little confused about how again,

[00:53:00] whether or not the spider is real or some manifestation of what's in his head.

[00:53:05] I don't think it matters, honestly.

[00:53:07] It's up to the individual. Ultimately, yeah. Yeah.

[00:53:10] What that is. And but for for those of us who may may want to believe

[00:53:15] that this is a real creature and this is possibly a realish

[00:53:19] manifestation of the real creature, for those of us who are also Star Trek fans,

[00:53:23] I am willing to accept there is this alien if there is this alien spider

[00:53:27] out there that seems to be very ancient and long lived

[00:53:31] and traveled through galaxies has some method of possible

[00:53:34] transportation in and out of that's why I think he's real.

[00:53:39] I think he's real because he's an alien who can do it every once.

[00:53:42] And for some reason, spider was the right choice.

[00:53:48] Of course.

[00:53:50] Well, again, in the book, here's OK, go ahead.

[00:53:54] Explain what you're in the book.

[00:53:55] I don't think that he never actually calls it a spider.

[00:53:58] He never uses that term.

[00:53:59] But when he describes that Hanush has these legs and with the pincers at the end,

[00:54:04] it's kind of it's almost like it's clearly a spider without actually saying spider.

[00:54:10] Yeah, I wonder if they had any discussion

[00:54:14] with that pinchy description of saying is it better to go spider or crab?

[00:54:19] Yeah. Yeah. What would people embrace more?

[00:54:23] So here's my question for Rick.

[00:54:25] Do you are you aware of how much the original author of the book

[00:54:30] was or was not involved in the script or in the movie?

[00:54:33] Did you encounter him?

[00:54:35] I did not encounter him, but sometimes like

[00:54:40] like Beacon 23, for example, some of the first meetings we had,

[00:54:45] I flew out to LA and that he how he.

[00:54:50] Yeah, I met you how he was in the meeting, the director,

[00:54:54] Jack Penn that was there and like art directors.

[00:54:58] And we had like a couple of days of just talking about things

[00:55:03] and you how he was there. Yeah. Wow.

[00:55:05] So that might have happened here also.

[00:55:08] But then by time I got a Colby Colby day, I think was the primary script writer.

[00:55:13] He had already had he already had like that draft versions of the script.

[00:55:18] And he had just a bunch of questions to work with me on it by that time.

[00:55:24] Interesting.

[00:55:25] I think I think it was never questioned in anything that I did.

[00:55:29] In fact, they had a little spider prop when when I went to the set,

[00:55:34] they said, oh, here's how moves, you know, it was just like a plastic or

[00:55:37] a luxury of that was in the Wikipedia instructions

[00:55:41] or the information about the film. Yeah, that they used to.

[00:55:44] I just I just think that for me, too, as I as I thought about it,

[00:55:49] I've watched it in two parts because I couldn't.

[00:55:51] I didn't have time to watch it all at once, unfortunately.

[00:55:54] But the and I don't know what the book has to say.

[00:55:57] That's why I'm interested.

[00:55:58] Maybe a Dina can counter this at all.

[00:56:00] But like a spider in one sense is

[00:56:05] a brilliant choice.

[00:56:08] For even if it's a figment of his imagination,

[00:56:11] which is a weird choice of its imagination, I would want something.

[00:56:15] Why not manifest your wife

[00:56:19] at who you're talking to?

[00:56:21] You know, but at the same sense, a spider for some people,

[00:56:26] not all people is is can be a terrifying thing.

[00:56:31] And he becomes.

[00:56:33] He because he as he learns gets through the movie,

[00:56:36] he realizes he does not want to lose his wife.

[00:56:39] He's realizing he's made some poor choices with what

[00:56:43] he has pursued or made the most important thing in his life

[00:56:46] and has left her behind.

[00:56:48] And so therefore has a fear of the consequence of that

[00:56:52] realizing going. So I wonder if that spider

[00:56:55] there's any co correlation there between this terrifying beast

[00:57:01] representing his fear of losing

[00:57:05] what he now realizes is the most important thing in his life.

[00:57:09] I don't know. I might be digging a hole.

[00:57:11] I might be running to this, but.

[00:57:15] The best thing, you know, for me about the spider is the fact that it gives me hope

[00:57:20] that a Project Hail Mary movie could exist someday.

[00:57:25] And please, please, please.

[00:57:27] Well, and this because I really, again, just from the page,

[00:57:30] I love the character, you know, in in Project Hail Mary, even though,

[00:57:35] again, I have a massive arachnophobia fear of spiders in real life

[00:57:38] and especially in my house.

[00:57:40] They could be outside, just not in my house.

[00:57:43] Rocky is so cool.

[00:57:44] I like Rocky. Yeah. He's a good guy.

[00:57:47] He was really a good guy in that book.

[00:57:49] Yeah.

[00:57:51] And it's just kind of interesting.

[00:57:52] I'm I'm wondering, you know, because Project Hail Mary,

[00:57:56] so so Space Man of Bohemia is the book that the movie Space Man was based on

[00:58:00] and it predates at least the release date of Project Hail Mary

[00:58:04] when that came out. So I'm just wondering if Andy Weir was

[00:58:07] aware of this other book that was in production for a film that had a major

[00:58:11] element of a spider when he wrote it, not that it matters, not that.

[00:58:14] And there's also Adrian Tchaikovsky.

[00:58:17] I think I'm pronouncing his last name.

[00:58:18] There's the Children of Time series.

[00:58:20] So for anyone who hasn't read that yet,

[00:58:22] the major characters or the major race is an arachnid like race.

[00:58:27] And it's very different.

[00:58:28] It's actually also a very, very, very good set of books, amazing set of books.

[00:58:32] Children of Time.

[00:58:34] Yeah.

[00:58:34] I read Bob's.

[00:58:35] Chris hasn't spoken up yet.

[00:58:37] Chris, how what are some of your overall thoughts of this film?

[00:58:42] It's it's I don't know.

[00:58:44] I have so many thoughts where I think overall I liked it.

[00:58:47] My main criticism would be that there wasn't enough.

[00:58:51] I would have actually liked.

[00:58:53] I don't know if maybe a longer run time, even though I felt like it.

[00:58:57] I don't know. I just felt like maybe I needed just more.

[00:59:00] I wanted more of a resolution.

[00:59:01] I like where it ended, but now I want a sequel in a world where there's always a sequel.

[00:59:06] I just want more.

[00:59:09] I thought it was fascinating.

[00:59:10] It was just very intriguing.

[00:59:12] I started watching it this morning and then I kept saying, you know,

[00:59:15] another five minutes, then I'll go and get ready and shower.

[00:59:17] And then I'm like, no, just give me another five minutes.

[00:59:19] Kept doing that.

[00:59:20] I then watched it at lunch and I watching it at work was weird

[00:59:23] because work is very normal.

[00:59:25] Nothing weird is going on.

[00:59:27] But then like putting in the headphones and listening to the

[00:59:32] not I don't want to say depressing music, but like the foreboding music was interesting.

[00:59:39] And the technology, like just trying to figure out when this was supposed to take place

[00:59:45] was very confusing to me in a good way in that it had like a 70s vibe

[00:59:51] with some of the tech, but the fact that they were able to communicate

[00:59:54] instantly with each other seemed I mean, I guess that's that's normal.

[01:00:00] Is that normal?

[01:00:00] Like considering how far out he was for them to be able to connect like that,

[01:00:04] the fact that she like his wife could call him on the phone on the talks a little bit about that.

[01:00:11] Yeah, no, that that's they took some liberties there.

[01:00:13] Yeah.

[01:00:15] Yeah, so just to enjoy it guys.

[01:00:17] So why are we questioning technology?

[01:00:19] It's not even like whether that's possible, but I like the choice of it's retro,

[01:00:23] but yet it's more advanced than what we have in a lot of ways.

[01:00:27] You're right, Chris, like the commit

[01:00:31] mission control looked like something from the 1970s.

[01:00:35] Yeah, the layout they were using and like Peter's headphones.

[01:00:40] I was like, oh, that's like very dated, but it wasn't doesn't seem to be in the 70s.

[01:00:46] So that was intriguing.

[01:00:48] Overall, it's one of those things where like reading their views.

[01:00:51] I like if I were to watch it without having read that people didn't like it,

[01:00:56] I could see it very much being either getting like 90 percent of rotten tomatoes.

[01:01:01] Everybody is loving it or people did not like it.

[01:01:04] I feel like this is a very much a you either love it or you'll you'll hate it kind of film.

[01:01:09] Overall, I liked it, but watch something funny afterwards.

[01:01:12] Like that's my main thing is if you're dealing with any emotional insecurity,

[01:01:17] this is not not the movie for you.

[01:01:19] The wedding singer going to the wedding singer after that.

[01:01:24] Wrapping grandma, absolutely.

[01:01:26] We need them or that.

[01:01:29] Well, just to know

[01:01:31] Adam Sandler in one of his best comedic roles ever.

[01:01:34] But I love the wedding singer.

[01:01:36] Oh, yes, that's even better.

[01:01:38] That's which one?

[01:01:39] Fifty first day. That's a sweet first day.

[01:01:42] That's a sweet movie.

[01:01:43] Yeah, I like Adam Sandler's comedy that is not

[01:01:47] what's the golf movie he was in.

[01:01:50] What's the golf one where he played where he doesn't do the dumb voice?

[01:01:54] That's what I that's the funny.

[01:01:57] He can be funny without the silly voice.

[01:01:59] So anyway, like a click, I think it was called.

[01:02:03] It was kind of a semi funny one.

[01:02:05] But yeah, the ones that are kind of middle of the road, I enjoy.

[01:02:08] Yeah, yeah.

[01:02:09] But it's nice. I mean, an actor should branch out and try drama.

[01:02:13] I mean, and some I mean, you look at someone in the nature of Robin Williams,

[01:02:17] who was a great comedic actor.

[01:02:20] But when he did a serious role, holy, shmoly, the man had chops.

[01:02:26] But then it go when you go to

[01:02:27] Juilliard to learn how to be an actor, you have those type of skills.

[01:02:31] You probably have those skills.

[01:02:33] But he like he did a role like he did a really good.

[01:02:36] It's one of those.

[01:02:37] It's almost a shame because him and Paul, Paul, Dana were fantastic.

[01:02:41] I liked I don't want to the actor that played Peter from Big Bang Theory.

[01:02:48] I thought he did a really good job.

[01:02:50] That was a second thinking why he was so familiar.

[01:02:54] Thank you. Yeah, are we sure about this?

[01:02:57] Oh, my God.

[01:02:58] 100 percent sure. Yeah.

[01:03:01] He's put on a few pounds.

[01:03:02] He's put on a few pounds in the show.

[01:03:04] But yeah, that was him.

[01:03:06] Thank you.

[01:03:07] I have never been more shocked in the whole hundred episodes almost.

[01:03:13] We've done that Chris has shocked me beyond belief.

[01:03:17] Really?

[01:03:19] I can't believe that's the same actor.

[01:03:21] He's all the cut string up in The Last Starfighter.

[01:03:23] Well, I missed it altogether.

[01:03:25] I missed that all together.

[01:03:27] This this was this was a really realization that that's the same actor.

[01:03:31] Oh, my gosh.

[01:03:33] And I love the Big Bang Theory.

[01:03:36] I completely missed that.

[01:03:38] Wow. Thank you, Chris.

[01:03:40] Thank you for that revelation.

[01:03:41] Yeah, I definitely be watching this movie now.

[01:03:45] 100 percent watching.

[01:03:46] No, no, no, no.

[01:03:48] Where it's too bad that I didn't have the best reception because I

[01:03:53] I think if you don't, if you if you hear about this and you see

[01:03:56] it has 55 percent on run tomatoes or whatever it has

[01:04:01] it's Netflix and it's Adam Sound that you're going to think it's like

[01:04:05] I can't think of the movie he did recently, the detective one.

[01:04:08] And it was supposed to be like a comedy and it wasn't very good.

[01:04:10] People might just dismiss it and be like, ah,

[01:04:13] it was had the word murder with him and Jennifer Aniston.

[01:04:15] Yeah, that movie. So it's like they were good.

[01:04:18] They were.

[01:04:19] Oh, hey, I like you were enjoyable.

[01:04:21] But I feel like if you see, I watch both of those movies.

[01:04:25] They're very funny.

[01:04:26] Yeah, I just feel like if you see Adam Sandler, it's like,

[01:04:29] oh, it's not going to be good.

[01:04:30] But people like are going to miss out on this phenomenal performance

[01:04:34] because, you know, they didn't get well received, which I feel like it's one

[01:04:38] of those films that it can go either way.

[01:04:42] But overall amazing performances.

[01:04:44] Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[01:04:44] And I think I think this is a film too that is again,

[01:04:49] I forget who said it now that maybe it was you, Chris.

[01:04:52] It's kind of might not be too many middle of the road fans of this film.

[01:04:57] There might be, but probably people are going to not like this.

[01:05:01] It moves too slow.

[01:05:02] It's too deep.

[01:05:03] It's too sad.

[01:05:05] They were expecting more of an outer space adventure, you know, type deal.

[01:05:11] But, you know, there's plenty of other movies, though, kind of speak to your

[01:05:14] point about like rotten tomatoes and stuff.

[01:05:17] There's plenty of other movies that I've watched.

[01:05:19] And you guys probably have to that got terrible reviews

[01:05:22] and you watch it and go, what in the heck?

[01:05:25] That's a decent that's that was fun.

[01:05:27] Or that was way better than I was expecting.

[01:05:30] And then some films get all the best reviews when Oscars and you go,

[01:05:35] I don't get it, you know, like, come on.

[01:05:38] What what in the world?

[01:05:39] These obviously these people are voting for themselves, you know.

[01:05:43] So type feel.

[01:05:46] So this one, I have to say, I was so pleasantly surprised by this film

[01:05:51] because I had heard that it was slow and not quite action packed.

[01:05:57] But once I got into it and I'm like, man, I wanted to know more.

[01:06:00] I wanted to know more about Hainesh.

[01:06:02] I wanted to know more about Adam Sandler's care, Hanush, his Adam Sandler's

[01:06:07] character is a Jacob.

[01:06:09] I got to say it, Jacob.

[01:06:10] Right, Jacob.

[01:06:11] And and I was intrigued.

[01:06:13] I think they did a good job of making me want to know more.

[01:06:16] And I'm with Chris at the end.

[01:06:18] I was hoping for just a little bit more.

[01:06:22] And I almost wondered, did you guys feel this way

[01:06:25] with the very last scene of the movie where he's is it the Koreans that find him?

[01:06:32] It was a Korean.

[01:06:32] Yes, and so like to where he calls and he's totally a different person now.

[01:06:38] All that weight and baggage is removed.

[01:06:41] And he has that conversation with his wife.

[01:06:46] Like I wonder if that was that in there originally?

[01:06:50] Did they ended originally with that beautiful

[01:06:53] scene of the Korean ship coming up and reaching out to him that faraway shot?

[01:06:58] And that's where they originally were going to end it.

[01:07:01] And then they decided, no, we need a little something extra.

[01:07:05] I don't know.

[01:07:05] That's that's what I'm curious about.

[01:07:07] It felt like it could have ended it just right there.

[01:07:10] It could have, but that would have been that would have frustrated me more

[01:07:14] just because it's like there's the whole buildup of he's finally

[01:07:17] realizing his mistakes and he's finally working through them and then to not

[01:07:22] like we're ready for that moment of he's going to finally tell her

[01:07:26] and then she's going to respond.

[01:07:27] And if we didn't see it, I think it'd be more frustrating.

[01:07:33] I think that the sequel to this Chris that you are hoping for

[01:07:39] would start with Isabella Rosa Leaning say now get your butt back in the spaceship

[01:07:44] because you know how much that costs the Czech government

[01:07:46] and you left it abandoned.

[01:07:48] Get over there, finish the mission or no more Nutella for you ever again.

[01:07:56] I want some.

[01:07:57] It was hard watching that.

[01:07:58] I'm like, I'm trying to stay away from that.

[01:08:00] But it's like, oh, that's so good.

[01:08:01] Even spiders like it, apparently.

[01:08:03] I hate Nutella.

[01:08:04] It's one of the grossest.

[01:08:06] I've never had Vegemite.

[01:08:07] That's horrible.

[01:08:08] Nutella is one of the grossest food things ever invented in my opinion.

[01:08:12] Oh, I love Nutella.

[01:08:13] It's it's the thing is if you look at the actually read the ingredients

[01:08:16] and like the oil, the processed oil oils and stuff in it that grosses me out.

[01:08:20] But it's delicious.

[01:08:22] With a big spoon.

[01:08:24] You need a spoon.

[01:08:25] Not so much the food, but how did how did everyone feel about the product

[01:08:29] placement? Not so much in the movie, but in the world of the movie,

[01:08:33] which I thought was really unique.

[01:08:35] You talked they talked about that too a few minutes ago

[01:08:38] and and also in the book is very deliberate because that's how the mission was funded.

[01:08:42] Yeah, right. Yeah.

[01:08:43] Makes sense. So, Rick, let me ask you if we can like

[01:08:48] give us kind of a general overview of your feelings of the film.

[01:08:52] You've told us a little bit here and there, but about how you feel about the film.

[01:08:56] What do you feel you want to share with us?

[01:08:59] Like because I really feel like this

[01:09:02] it's got a lot going for it, but it's also just such a different type of

[01:09:07] that the title is misleading tremendously.

[01:09:12] Yeah, yeah.

[01:09:13] I mean, it's a very simple title, obviously.

[01:09:15] I mean, it's again, I like the film.

[01:09:19] Here's what I like about the film.

[01:09:20] I like to film the fact that it's different.

[01:09:23] I think the they did a fantastic job on the set.

[01:09:27] They did a fantastic job.

[01:09:29] I mean, Adam Sandler, you're right.

[01:09:30] I mean, we think we all agree that his acting was was really

[01:09:33] he did a fantastic job.

[01:09:34] He really captured the

[01:09:36] you know how I think somebody in his position could feel

[01:09:40] that the story was a little bit slow.

[01:09:44] You know, we all like I mean, I don't know me and most people, a lot of us,

[01:09:47] we like action, you know, fight the aliens off, save the world,

[01:09:51] you know, type of thing that didn't happen.

[01:09:53] But it was interesting because we're all arguing was this fight a real?

[01:09:56] Was it not real? That's obviously, you know, that's what the author wants

[01:09:59] you to wonder is it real or not, or is it its mind?

[01:10:02] And you know, and then I said, well, maybe just doesn't matter.

[01:10:05] And it probably doesn't.

[01:10:07] So there's a lot of good things about it.

[01:10:08] And then there's a few things that are a little bit slower.

[01:10:10] But, you know, I'm glad I watched it.

[01:10:12] I'm glad to be a part of it, certainly a small part of it.

[01:10:15] Pretty glad that I watched it.

[01:10:17] Cool, cool.

[01:10:19] I know one of the I'm sorry.

[01:10:20] Go ahead, go ahead.

[01:10:22] Now, I was going to say one of the questions you had, Adina,

[01:10:25] which is directly to our good friend, Brian Donahue.

[01:10:28] That was exactly what I was going to say.

[01:10:30] What about the music?

[01:10:32] What did you think about the music, Brian?

[01:10:36] As a fan of kind of this atmospheric feel with a lot of pads

[01:10:44] in low end strings and slow moving progressions of chords and notes.

[01:10:50] You just I listened to a lot of that when I'm writing.

[01:10:55] I was like, man, it was effective.

[01:10:58] It gave you the sense of outer space and also what's going on in his mind.

[01:11:04] I thought it was really great.

[01:11:06] But then there were moments where we saw more orchestral pieces come in

[01:11:10] and different flowing movements, at least one time.

[01:11:16] And I can't remember exactly the scene.

[01:11:17] It was towards the end.

[01:11:20] It was absolutely beautiful.

[01:11:22] I think it was when he finally said, I'm sorry, I understand now.

[01:11:27] And I think it was before he went outside the ship to chase after the spider

[01:11:32] and beautiful.

[01:11:34] It was like they set us up for this climactic moment emotionally.

[01:11:40] And the music was really good, in my opinion.

[01:11:42] I'm going to this is a soundtrack I'm going to look up

[01:11:46] and listen to see if I still feel the way same way I do now.

[01:11:50] But there were moments where I went, man, I love this.

[01:11:53] The composer did a fantastic job

[01:11:57] because the point of music is to make you feel a certain way.

[01:12:02] And I think the music in this film really helps us feel for Adam Sant for Jacob

[01:12:08] really helps us feel everything we're supposed to feel.

[01:12:11] So but it didn't get in the way either.

[01:12:14] So that's my big thing.

[01:12:15] Don't get in the way.

[01:12:17] So the one thing that we only touched upon this evening

[01:12:20] is that the parts with the wife.

[01:12:23] And I think we kind of mentioned it as it's like a second story,

[01:12:27] the second movie.

[01:12:28] And yeah, that's I'll be honest to that.

[01:12:31] I could have completely done without, you know,

[01:12:34] seeing anything from her point of view.

[01:12:35] And I'm curious as to why they really did that. Yeah.

[01:12:39] Oh, was that not covered in the book?

[01:12:41] Well, so so remember, I'm only halfway through the book.

[01:12:45] What's interesting is where I'm at the book

[01:12:48] is not quite the end doesn't feel like the end of the movie.

[01:12:52] It feels like it's possibly close to where the end of the movie is.

[01:12:55] So given I still have half the book to go,

[01:12:58] I'm curious as to what I'm going to be reading.

[01:13:00] But now a lot of the book is him reminiscing

[01:13:03] to all the things that happened growing up and leading to where he he was

[01:13:08] where he is now.

[01:13:10] So maybe and but the the storyline with the wife

[01:13:13] is also is also completely different

[01:13:17] in her leaving and how she did it and what he knows and doesn't know

[01:13:22] completely different from the movie. Yeah. Interesting.

[01:13:25] Now. See, I liked I felt like that

[01:13:30] going back and forth in the film to the wife

[01:13:32] and from her perspective as well, not just him reminiscing

[01:13:39] was super interesting.

[01:13:41] It brought in another character who was in turmoil

[01:13:44] besides Jacob and because without without her perspective,

[01:13:51] I think we probably go well.

[01:13:54] It's much more likely we go well, she's a big jerk

[01:13:58] for doing that at that point in time.

[01:14:00] But because they showed some of her agony

[01:14:03] and despair kind of in frustration,

[01:14:06] I think it made it a little bit easier to stomach that, you know?

[01:14:10] And they kind of combated that with was it her mom that said,

[01:14:14] are you sure this is you need to do this now?

[01:14:18] Like, I don't know. That's that's why can't she be a big

[01:14:22] especially if we don't see anything from her point of view.

[01:14:25] If we see only Jacob's point of view, she can be a big jerk

[01:14:29] and why you know, OK, his wife is a jerk

[01:14:32] and just let it let that be and let him just deal with the fact

[01:14:35] that his wife is a jerk.

[01:14:37] We don't need to.

[01:14:39] We don't know anything else. Right.

[01:14:41] Well, he then he wouldn't have the I made some perhaps poor decisions.

[01:14:47] You really were wonderful.

[01:14:48] You really do what I wanted in life.

[01:14:51] I'm sorry. Go ahead, Chris. You know what I mean?

[01:14:53] I was going to say, yeah, if you didn't get her perspective,

[01:14:55] I think how new saying, hey, I'm not interested anymore.

[01:14:58] I don't want to hang out with you right now.

[01:15:01] I think that wouldn't have made sense because they're like, well, we should.

[01:15:04] We're still on his side,

[01:15:06] but we're on his side because we believe, oh, yeah, she's just being a jerk

[01:15:10] as opposed to we're on the side because we're still he's our main character.

[01:15:14] But we're like, oh, wow, he really did that stuff.

[01:15:18] So I thought it was helpful to see her perspective.

[01:15:20] I also just because I love world building,

[01:15:22] I want to see what was everyday Earth like in this alternate timeline.

[01:15:29] So that that was interesting.

[01:15:31] Well, they did they did deal a lot with and I like the fact that, you know,

[01:15:35] of course, you had all these flashbacks or thoughts, pictures and images.

[01:15:40] And they always shot it through like a fish loan fish lens.

[01:15:44] So it looked more obscure.

[01:15:46] That was his memories.

[01:15:47] And I like that because he was dealing in his dreams or whatever,

[01:15:51] his problems, his regrets, whatever.

[01:15:53] That's fine. You can do that.

[01:15:56] It just that it, as you said, it was very

[01:16:00] two films happening all at the same time.

[01:16:04] Can I ask a can I ask a question, Edina, to everybody?

[01:16:09] Because did I miss something?

[01:16:11] Was there a scene of nudity I missed or something?

[01:16:15] Why is this film rated R?

[01:16:18] Uh, is it the scene with his dad and the kid?

[01:16:22] I think because he swears a couple of times.

[01:16:25] Yes, yes, he does.

[01:16:26] That's what that's according to Google.

[01:16:28] It says like rated R because of because of language.

[01:16:32] Oh my goodness, I just don't.

[01:16:34] There I guess there's a maximum number of

[01:16:38] F bombs you can drop before it gets rated R.

[01:16:41] Because I know what you think.

[01:16:42] So I shouldn't say what you think.

[01:16:44] Two or three.

[01:16:46] You know, juice had it once seen in it where there was it

[01:16:49] and it still was rated PG, you know, 13.

[01:16:52] So yeah, it.

[01:16:55] We had a few of our own guests drop an F bomb here or there.

[01:16:58] And we haven't rated it.

[01:16:59] It happens.

[01:17:00] Quite does.

[01:17:01] It's part of conversation.

[01:17:02] I know it like network TV.

[01:17:04] You have to fight with the network and be like, hey, don't you start, Rick?

[01:17:07] Don't you start?

[01:17:10] Yeah.

[01:17:13] So funny, funny little story.

[01:17:15] Years ago when I was living in Ohio, we I was we actually filmed

[01:17:20] three short little films called Project Genesis.

[01:17:24] We're supposed to be a human hospital.

[01:17:27] We filmed it all in a veterinary hospital, though.

[01:17:31] So that was hysterical.

[01:17:32] We're talking about humans needing medical help and there's

[01:17:35] skeletons of cats and dogs on the wall behind us.

[01:17:38] You know, it's fantastic.

[01:17:40] There's this one scene, one of the characters cussed a lot

[01:17:45] and we would put a black box over her mouth and leap it out.

[01:17:49] OK, the problem is it was hard.

[01:17:51] She moved a lot.

[01:17:52] So it was hard to get that black box exactly where needed it.

[01:17:56] And sometimes it would

[01:18:00] and she wasn't even saying the F word.

[01:18:02] She was saying block or something like that.

[01:18:05] And to because I told her I said director, like,

[01:18:08] it's got to look like you're saying that we're going to bleep it out, though.

[01:18:12] And then the guy doing the editing wanted to put the black box in.

[01:18:15] But it was so hysterical because every time

[01:18:18] we couldn't get the black box where it needed to.

[01:18:20] So it looked like she was cussing and it was for a church thing, too.

[01:18:24] So it's made it even better that church people got to go.

[01:18:29] I got to I got to say, lighten up everybody.

[01:18:32] Come on, chill out.

[01:18:33] So the other Genesis, you know, you say Genesis.

[01:18:35] I think Genesis is not come on.

[01:18:39] That is forbidden.

[01:18:40] You're such a nerd.

[01:18:42] Yeah, I am.

[01:18:44] So we're going to go around the room

[01:18:45] and I want to get everyone's final recommendation on a scale of one to five.

[01:18:51] You know, what do you think about the movie?

[01:18:54] Should and should others watch the movie?

[01:18:57] And let's start.

[01:18:58] Let's start, Rick, will you go first?

[01:19:00] Thank you. Thank you.

[01:19:01] Yeah. So it's a recommendation.

[01:19:05] Five is I recommend you go strongly.

[01:19:07] Yeah, yes. OK.

[01:19:10] Yeah, I have to say I'm somewhere between three and four.

[01:19:13] I mean, four is like, hey, look,

[01:19:16] you should go see this movie because it's different

[01:19:17] instead of just watching the same old things over and over again.

[01:19:21] But, you know, it's a little bit slower

[01:19:22] and it's a little bit some got some strange points.

[01:19:25] So maybe it's between three and four, my opinion.

[01:19:29] OK, let's see. Chris.

[01:19:32] I would say probably a four for me.

[01:19:34] Definitely, I'd recommend seeing this,

[01:19:36] especially if you're listening to this podcast,

[01:19:38] means you like interesting films.

[01:19:40] Definitely do that.

[01:19:41] My two caveat are not some conditions.

[01:19:45] I would say watch this if you're going to watch this,

[01:19:48] like try watching on a weekend and watch it

[01:19:51] maybe at two o'clock, three o'clock in the afternoon.

[01:19:54] But this is not a movie you want to go to bed thinking about

[01:19:57] and just feeling down.

[01:19:59] And then, you know what?

[01:20:00] Watch a comedy.

[01:20:01] Watch something that makes you happy afterwards.

[01:20:04] But yeah, I'd say definitely, definitely see this

[01:20:06] because like Rick said, this is a very different movie.

[01:20:11] You know, you can go see the same

[01:20:13] and go see other movies that are very similar

[01:20:15] that to what you like.

[01:20:16] But this is very much an experience, something very unique,

[01:20:20] which we don't get a lot or as much anymore.

[01:20:22] OK, excellent. Steve, you want to go next?

[01:20:24] You know how they say four or five doctors recommend?

[01:20:28] I'm the other doctor.

[01:20:31] Oh, on the scale on the scale of one to five,

[01:20:35] I give this a really strong zero point five.

[01:20:39] Oh my God.

[01:20:41] This I guess Louise.

[01:20:43] This was so painful to watch when I watched the first time

[01:20:49] I kept looking over to my wife Elaine going,

[01:20:52] really? And she'd look at me going, really?

[01:20:55] OK, well, let's keep watching it because there's going

[01:20:58] to be a conclusion, this film that's going to make us go.

[01:21:00] It was worth watching.

[01:21:03] Sorry. And the funny thing was that Netflix cut it off

[01:21:08] before I could get to seeing Rick's, you know, byline in the film.

[01:21:14] So I said, OK, I'm going to watch it another time.

[01:21:18] So I started Monday morning to watch it a second time.

[01:21:22] I got about halfway through the film and I said,

[01:21:25] no more please, please no more.

[01:21:27] So I quickly went to the end of the film to watch the credits.

[01:21:31] And then I heard probably the most depressing song in my entire life.

[01:21:36] Don't go away.

[01:21:38] I'm sorry, but that's just like this really set up the film.

[01:21:43] And, you know, it's not just me.

[01:21:45] The review from the New York Times written by Alyssa Wilkinson

[01:21:50] negatively compared the film to our guile and Madame Webb, calling it

[01:21:56] an awful movie, a very bad movie and saying that her favorite part

[01:22:01] was imagining how many people were going to click on it when it pops up

[01:22:06] on their Netflix page and wondering well where to me, wondering whether the

[01:22:11] door jam they hit accidentally knocked knocked them in yesterday

[01:22:16] into some type of concussion.

[01:22:19] It's not just me.

[01:22:20] It's not just me.

[01:22:22] I review of the New York Times.

[01:22:24] Pan this film and.

[01:22:27] I'm, you know me, I always try to find the good in every movie.

[01:22:31] I don't know.

[01:22:32] I really do.

[01:22:33] Sounds like it.

[01:22:34] I'm sorry.

[01:22:35] This movie was just so depressing.

[01:22:39] And there you have it.

[01:22:40] Sorry. Can I just say I have I'm not going to read the review,

[01:22:44] but basically top critic Time Magazine.

[01:22:47] Time Magazine.

[01:22:49] Love the movie.

[01:22:50] Very promising.

[01:22:52] Premise.

[01:22:54] Really satisfying to watch the actress work because the actress is an amazing job.

[01:22:58] Cinematography was on point.

[01:23:00] So I don't know.

[01:23:00] I want to I want to strongly refute this review, even though it doesn't matter.

[01:23:05] But it's all good.

[01:23:06] Thing is, it's all just reviews.

[01:23:08] You know, people like what they like.

[01:23:09] They don't like what they don't like and you know, whatever.

[01:23:13] Well, Brian, what do you think?

[01:23:15] What's your one to five?

[01:23:17] I'm giving this film a four star because I think it is really different.

[01:23:25] I think that it is unique and may I'm hoping it develops a cult following

[01:23:34] if it doesn't, if it's really not going to be successful.

[01:23:37] I hope that it's that kind of movie that people are going to say,

[01:23:40] Hey, this is a film.

[01:23:41] Yeah, it's different.

[01:23:42] It's not you're not going to.

[01:23:45] Yeah, you know, don't watch it before you go to bed or if you're missing

[01:23:49] somebody in your life or something, you know, but it's different.

[01:23:52] I like what Rick said.

[01:23:53] It's different and it's worth watching.

[01:23:55] Yeah, that was my longest review in the history of the big.

[01:23:58] I think so. Yeah, probably.

[01:24:00] I think so.

[01:24:02] But I also understand my friend Steve too.

[01:24:05] I understand we're coming from to a degree.

[01:24:07] I also want to just clarify.

[01:24:08] I'm just totally disagree.

[01:24:09] But I understand.

[01:24:11] I disagree.

[01:24:11] But I just want to let people know I'm just doing this.

[01:24:14] Out of fun.

[01:24:15] No, so Steve, this film is your Starship Trooper and RoboCop

[01:24:21] RoboCop Brazil and so many films, Brian, that we went.

[01:24:26] And you know, we said, that's just great.

[01:24:28] You're like, I could never watch this movie again.

[01:24:31] Though I will say that Moonfall at least made me laugh.

[01:24:38] This movie didn't even do that.

[01:24:41] You didn't think this was supposed to make you laugh.

[01:24:45] I don't think Moonfall was supposed to be a comedy either,

[01:24:49] but it sure was.

[01:24:51] Well, no, it wasn't meant to be a comedy, but it's like the disaster films

[01:24:55] are always like we've got to have some laughs.

[01:24:57] But even in the penises that are comedy doesn't try to be.

[01:25:00] But they do have lines purposely to make you laugh.

[01:25:04] I want to say one more time.

[01:25:05] It was cool to watch this film because Rick was a part of it too.

[01:25:08] That's true. Yes. OK.

[01:25:11] So with that, I'm going to give give my final recommendation,

[01:25:13] which is also in the forest.

[01:25:15] I'm kind of at a forest spot.

[01:25:17] But I want to say that people who should if you're the kind of person

[01:25:21] who watching 2001 makes you utterly miserable because of the slowness,

[01:25:27] then this is probably not your film.

[01:25:29] If you love 2001 and you appreciate the artsy nature of it,

[01:25:34] then this is definitely something that you should absolutely watch

[01:25:38] and absolutely watch it if you're interested in seeing a depiction of,

[01:25:42] again, I think we heard it from Rick earlier in the episode,

[01:25:45] a fairly realistic depiction of what a modern day

[01:25:50] spaceflight experience could be like in a situation like this.

[01:25:54] It's not the ISS. That is another another thing.

[01:25:57] And so that's another good reason to watch it.

[01:25:59] However, I really advocate for reading the book.

[01:26:02] The book is far superior with a lot of detail

[01:26:05] and really gets into a lot of the philosophy and all the things behind the book.

[01:26:10] And so I think that the people who would really enjoy the book are folks

[01:26:13] who read Binti by Nettie Acourfour.

[01:26:18] And I hope I'm pronouncing her name correctly.

[01:26:21] And then there's another series called the Carls series,

[01:26:24] which is an absolutely remarkable thing and a beautifully foolish endeavor

[01:26:28] by Hank Green.

[01:26:29] If you read those and love those, this book to me has a similar

[01:26:33] feel with additional philosophy layered in,

[01:26:36] especially in all the discussions between Jacob and Hanush.

[01:26:40] And that's to me one of the the the wonderful elements of the book.

[01:26:45] So literature author here just recommending, of course, you know,

[01:26:49] like books and sometimes over movies. Absolutely shocking.

[01:26:54] I know everyone shocked. Hey. Yeah.

[01:26:56] Hey, I'll give you one reason to watch the movie, at least part of it again.

[01:27:02] You know, again, these folks wanted everything to be very accurate.

[01:27:05] And they're saying, how do you drink in space?

[01:27:08] And I said, well, we get these drink bags and we put a straw on it.

[01:27:11] And they said, where can we get those?

[01:27:14] And I said, I'll call up NASA and we'll ask them for some.

[01:27:17] And so NASA sent the Johnson Space Center sent them 10 or 20 drink bags.

[01:27:24] So those drink bags in that movie are real ISS certified drink bags.

[01:27:30] That's not exciting and reason to watch. I don't know what is.

[01:27:34] Cool. So yeah.

[01:27:36] Yeah. So there are a lot of great reasons to watch this movie.

[01:27:38] So yeah. And so, yeah.

[01:27:41] And I'm going to actually after I finish reading the book,

[01:27:43] I do seriously want to rewatch the movie and I really am going to

[01:27:46] after I finish reading the book and I want to just see it again.

[01:27:51] Thank you, Rick.

[01:27:51] Thank you so much for joining us tonight again.

[01:27:54] Thank you guys. This has been great.

[01:27:56] It has been very interesting.

[01:27:57] I'm glad we spent some time talking about current movie

[01:28:00] because we had been speaking so much about some of the older films recently.

[01:28:03] So this is great treat.

[01:28:05] And I want to also thank our listeners for listening.

[01:28:09] Now, if you've got something to say about this film or the book,

[01:28:13] the first best way to do that is to come find our Facebook group

[01:28:17] for the Big Sci-Fi Podcast.

[01:28:19] Another great way to interact with us is to drop us a note

[01:28:21] at the Big Sci-Fi Podcast at gmail.com

[01:28:25] or you can find us on Instagram.

[01:28:27] Instagram, I was going to say Instagram.

[01:28:29] Instagram or Twitter slash X.

[01:28:33] Now we're getting close to Trek Long Island 2,

[01:28:36] which takes place at the very, very, very end of May this year.

[01:28:40] If you haven't yet, go grab your tickets.

[01:28:42] We'll be there along with several other podcasts

[01:28:44] like our flagship Trek Geeks Podcast.

[01:28:48] There will be special guests like Melissa Navia.

[01:28:50] You know, she pilots the ship.

[01:28:51] Armin Schirman.

[01:28:52] So, you know, you know, watch, make sure you hold on to all your

[01:28:55] Latin and there are going to be several more amazing guests there.

[01:28:58] So treklongisland.com.

[01:29:00] Now until our paths cross again,

[01:29:03] keep spreading goodwill and kindness throughout the universe.

[01:29:06] May you live long and prosper

[01:29:07] and make sure to come back for our next space voyage on

[01:29:11] the Big Sci-Fi Podcast.

[01:29:22] .

[01:29:42] Gocobot.