| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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Rocky’s ship, the Blip A is constructed of flat panels. The Hail Mary is consists of three cylinders with tanks and engine sections in the back with a crew compartment up front. The book has an image of the Hail Mary. |
The Blip A is not of flat panel construction. The Hail Mary was what appear to be solar panels near and aft end of the ship. The crew section is a long cylinder. |
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The robot arms on the Hail Mary keep Grace shaved and groomed during the trip while he is in a coma. |
Grace wakes up with long hair and a beard.
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The Hail Mary is well controlled by the ship’s computer, Grace rarely needs to take any sort of manual control. |
Grace manually flies the Hail Mary while sampling the upper atmosphere of the planet Adrian. |
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Grace meets his friend Marissa for lunch, she tells him about the sun dimming before the president announces it to the world. |
This does not happen in the film.
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Rocky has a symmetrical body. He wear clothes and a tool belt. |
He is not clothed, but does use a tool belt of sorts. Rocky does not have a symmetrical body. |
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When Grace spots Blip A, he just watches as it approaches to 217 meters away. He is excited but does not panic. |
Grace take manual control of the Hail Mary and tries to avoid Blip A as it approaches him.
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The Blip A hull robot throws a cylinder to the Hail Mary very slowly, Grace performs an EVA to retrieve it. Grace throws it back to the hull robot much faster. The cylinder is returned at a faster speed and is sent through the open hatch of the Hail Mary. |
The Blip A hull robot throws the first cylinder towards the Hail Mary at a high speed, it bounces off of the hull and is lost. A second cylinder is thrown slower which Grace is able to catch. |
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The cylinder from Blip A is hot enough to burn Grace's hand when he touches it. It contains trace amounts of ammonia gas which is annoying, but not harmful. |
Grace does not burn himself on the cylinder, but the Ammonia gas in it makes Grace gag and put it into a glovebox to protect himself from the gas.
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Grace chisels off a section of the Hail Mary hull (aluminum) and throws it to the hull robot so that the aliens will know what the hull is made of. |
This does not happen in the film. |
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Rocky is uncomfortable with anyone watching him eat, but allows Grace to watch once, for science. Rocky’s carapace opens at the bottom and waste drops out, then he turns over on his back and drops food into his body. He then goes into a food coma. Grace does eat and drink in front of Rocky, but Rocky is quiet while Grace eats as he is uncomfortable with it. |
Rocky is not uncomfortable with Grace watching him eat, but Grace is repulsed by it a bit.
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The Hail Mary is damaged while sampling the Adrian atmosphere. Grace is injured and trapped under some equipment. Rocky leaves his enclosed area to rescue Grace. Rocky’s body ignites in the oxygen rich atmosphere of the Hail Mary. Grade manages to return an unconscious Rocky to his enclosure and is injured by the ammonia gas in the process. The ship’s robot arms treat him for inhaling the ammonia gas. |
Rocky saves Grace when the Hail Mary is damaged, but is able to make it back to his enclosure by himself. |
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While high on pain killers due to his injuries, Grace puts the Adrian sample apparatus into a container that has no way to opening it without exposing it to the ship’s atmosphere. Rocky makes a device that will extract the samples safely, but only after Grace goes a period of time without pain medication. Rocky repeatedly asks Grace if he is using oxygen gas during the extraction; Grace gets mad when he is bothered by Rocky. Rocky is afraid of oxygen since he burst into flames while rescuing Grace.
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This does not happen in the film.
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The Taumoeba escape the sample containers and consume the Hail Mary’s fuel supply. Rocky and Grace mount the Beetles to the hull exterior to power the Hail Mary and return it to orbit around Adrian. |
This does not happen in the film. |
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There is much about Grace training Shapiro and Dubios for their science duties on the Hail Mary. Shapiro and Dubois are also having an affair which they discuss in front of Grace; this makes him uncomfortable. |
This is not in the film although Dubios and Shaprio are shown sitting next to each other in the lounge on the aircraft carrier. Both of their characters are more like glorified extras in the cast with very few words spoken.
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Grace is very busy developing equipment and procedures for the lab on the Hail Mary. |
This is not in the film. |
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Stratt introduces Grace to Dr. Lamai, the Thai doctor who developed the coma stations to be used to care for the astronauts during the voyage to Tau Ceti. Dr. Lamai describes the coma resistance gene that only 1 in 7000 people have which keeps them from being brain damaged during long periods in an induced coma. Stratt has Dr. Lamai draw blood from Grace to test for the gene. Grace has the coma resistance gene. |
None of this is in the film.
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Stratt consults with Grace on any and all topics related to the lab and the scientific aspects of the mission. She seeks Grace’s advice when meeting with Dr. Robert Redell about his astrophage breeding farm in the Sahara Desert and Dr. Lokken about the ship design. |
This does not happen in the film. Nothing about the astrophage breeding farm in the Sahara. |
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Dr. Lokken is disgusted that Stratt is associated with Grace due to his paper calling out scientists who think water is required for life. They do not get along at all. But Grace supports her centrifuge idea and later on calls her Astrophage shield design “genius”. She is pleased by his compliment. |
The centrifuge design is mentioned briefly. Dr. Lokken appears very briefly.
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While observing a Russian rocket launch containing the crew module, Martin Dubois says it is good that Grace is in the lounge observing the launch in place of Stratt. Dubois states that he thought Grace and Stratt were having sex. Everyone else appears to think this also. Olesya Ilyukhina says Stratt could use a roll in the hay. Grace assures everyone that he is just one of the scientists like they are. Yao tells Grace that he is the number two man in the project after Stratt. |
None of this is in the film. |
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Stratt does not socialize with anyone in the project and keeps to herself except when consulting scientist and engineers about the project. |
Stratt is shown singing in the lounge in from of the project members.
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Stratt is summoned to court for a civil case involving copyright infringement for putting nearly all of the data available on Earth on the Hail Mary computers. She hands the judge a preemptive pardon signed by the US president protecting her from any crimes she might commit. When a bailiff tries to restrain her, five US Army soldiers enter the courtroom to protect Stratt and escort her out. |
This does not happen in the film. |
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Nuclear weapons are used to blow up the Antarctic ice shelves to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to help warm up the Earth and give humanity a few more months to live. |
This does not happen in the film.
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Grace is sent to the primary crew to ask them how they want to die when they finish their suicide mission. Dubois wants painless nitrogen gas asphyxiation, Ilyukhina wants to die by a heroin overdose and Yao will shoot himself last with a pistol. |
This does not happen in the film. |
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While testing an astophage powered DC generator at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Dubois and Shapiro are issued a milligram of astrophage instead of a nanogram. When the overload condition is tested, the entire building is vaporized; everyone in the building is killed. |
The building appears to explode in a fireball. Dubois and Shapiro are killed.
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Stratt, Yao and Ilyukhina meet with Grace to convince him to volunteer for the mission. Stratt tells Grace that he has been the tertiary backup for the crew the entire time as he trained the other scientists. Yao says he will not allow Grace to be forced to join the crew. Five hours later Grace refuses to join the crew; Stratt has him detained in a jail cell. She tells him that he will be put in a coma early; the medical robot will inject a drug to cause amnesia to prevent him from sabotaging the mission. Stratt will tell Yao that Grace wanted to be drugged early as he was afraid of the launch. |
Stratt tells Grace that she needs him on the mission. Yao and Ilyukhina assure him that he will learn on the job. He gets three hours to decide. Later, he tells Stratt he will not go, she says he will; Grace tries to run away and is caught. |
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While on the return trip to Earth, Grace thinks about how hell (Grace) is coming back to Earth and he will say some very mean things to Stratt. |
This is not in the film.
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After Grace realizes that the Tauamoeba will disable Rocky’s spaceship, he goes to rescue him. After they meet up, Rocky offers to stay in his ship hoping that his people will rescue him, so Grace can return to Earth. Grace says he will bring Rocky and the Tauamoeba to Erid to save their sun, then starve to death. Rocky suggests that Grace can eat the tauamoeba as he has two million kilograms of it on his ship. |
After Grace rescues Rocky. They go to Erid. |
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Grace tours Blip A in a reverse pressure suit made for him by Rocky. |
Grace does not go aboard Blip A. The interior of Blip A is never shown.
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Grace suffers from scurvy and other aliments due to malnutrition. The high gravity on Erid also weakens his joints after several years |
This is not in the film. |
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The entire book is from Grace’s point of view. |
The film shows Stratt reviewing Grace’s video that was returned on the beetles.
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The Eridians create a biodome to house Grace while he lives on their planet. He is the only thing living in it. Grace arranges rocks into patterns that please him. Grace and Rocky meet every day to talk across the dome barrier separating them. |
The biodome Grace lives in has a house, a beach and small ocean. Rocky visits Grace while in a transparent spacesuit. |
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The Eridians created healthier food including meat cloned from Grace’s own muscles. Grace calls them meburgers. |
Nothing about Grace’s health or food.
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Rocky tells Grace that the Erid astronomers have determined that the Earth’s sun returned to full luminosity a year after the beetles return. The Hail Mary is refueled and ready to return to Earth; Rocky hopes Grace will stay on Erid. |
This is not in the film. |
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Grace teaches a science class to young Eridians. He uses a complicated organ with a keyboard to play music in their language. |
Grace speaks in English to the Eridian students.
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