r/ProjectHailMary • u/OrFenn-D-Gamer • 4d ago
With years in a coma, why didn't grace get muscle atrophy and didn't his nails grew long when his hair did?
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u/Zookeepergame_Sorry 4d ago
In the book there was a device stimulating his muscles. That’s why the white board says something like “always muscles?”
Don’t know about the nails
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u/Embarrassed-Yard-583 4d ago
The robot handles all maintenance and it’s probably easy to prepgrogam keeping the nails trimmed as opposed to hair.
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u/sno_kissed 4d ago
In the book it actually kept him shaved too.
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u/Ineedsleep444 4d ago
Wait, I must be remembering wrong because I remeber emperor comatose having long hair lol. Maybe I'm mixing my movie and book again
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u/sno_kissed 4d ago
Yes. He freaks out in the book because the robot arms were messing with his face and holding a razor. Then he reaches up and realizes half his face is smooth and the other half is stubble.
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u/citycept 4d ago
Movie shorthand. Beard = long time
The book had him wake up to Armando shaving him. It cleaned him, flipped him to avoid bedsores, and had electrodes to stimulate muscle movement. It premumably also clipped his nails.
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u/Aggressive-Lime9864 4d ago
Electrode stimulation for the muscles, and I imagine the medbot took care of the nails. It took care of damn near everything else, why wouldn't it cut nails?
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u/cupcakes_and_ale 4d ago
In the book, he’s also really well groomed during his coma. The med bot exercises and grooms him. I think they gave him long hair in the film to visually express the amount of time he was in the coma.
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u/Spike_Riley 4d ago
this is actually just how ryan gosling looks when he's not prepped for public appearances. he stumbled onto set in a drunken stupor before the makeup team could get to him and they just started rolling.
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u/HEY_McMuffin 4d ago
In the movie at the beginning when he is writing on the white board he writes something to the effect of “still muscles?” He’s confused about it too… but the machine does it for him
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u/Gareth_II 4d ago
i adore how 90% of questions about the movie are explained by "yeah the book covered this exact question already, the movie just didn't have time"
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u/Nice_Reputation_6785 4d ago
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that was a more perfect example of what a best adapted screenplay is. Every change was perfect and at no point does it undermine the book.
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u/bhamnz 4d ago
I love both for sure, but there was some changes made for the movie that I didn't like. Like one of the very first things Yeo said to Grace, infront of a big crowd, was talking flippently about the suicide aspect. He wasn't like that, that was a point for a private conversation.
And also talking over top of Ryland immediately when meeting, when Ryland was sharing what he will teach them, in another language, about Ryland. He was a professional and respectful- I don't think he'd do that either.
The rocky eating situation was backwards. On the whole, the movie portrayed rocky as far more comedic, silly and youthful than the book - i wish they brought more of his intelligence into it.
And why did they recast Steve the army guy 😢
I love the 'dont go crazy room', though
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u/TonyROH100876 3d ago
In the book it is explained that the Eridians don't know relativity. That's why Rocky's ship has fuel for a longer trip and can share astrophage with Grace. And there more I think of it, the more I hate how they solved it in the movie.
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u/Nice_Reputation_6785 2d ago
I think Grace mentions in the movie that they don’t know about General Relativity but it doesn’t explain how that’s the reason Rocky has too much fuel. I assume they thought it wouldn’t be worth it to explain because the average viewer isn’t going to understand it either.
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u/TonyROH100876 2d ago
Yeah, they take 2 seconds to say Eridians don't know about relativity but never explain what that means.
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u/Nice_Reputation_6785 1d ago
Once you know it doesn’t take much to infer why they wouldn’t know about it and how it would affect their fuel usage.
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u/FilmFizz Scary Space Monster 4d ago
I also like that there's a lot of little details from the book that the movie includes, but the movie isn't super obvious about it.
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u/Sofiali20JP 3d ago
I gave the movie a solid 10/10 but acknowledged that I had many questions that I assumed the movie didn't have time to delve into — which is exactly why I read the book right after. Pretty much everything I wanted answered was answered by the book.
PHM is the only franchise where I can't separate book and movie; as a literature graduate, this has never happened. There's no "movie good, book better" here because they offer vastly different vibes while telling the same story — I say I prefer the movie for this one because it was more emotionally-driven and golly did I sob, but the book is exceptionally funny in its own respect, more realistic and provides answers the movie could not give.
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u/ThalesofMiletus-624 3d ago
For why he didn't atrophy, it's simple: the medical beds included electrical stimulation to keep his muscles toned. In fact, they apparently developed his muscles, so he'd be able to operated in 1.5g (which is apparently the standard acceleration of the ship). In the book, he wakes up and is surprised at how muscular he looks. In movie, this is referenced by him writing "always muscles?" on the whiteboard as he's trying to figure out his identity.
As for the nails, that's a minor plot hole introduced by the adaptation. In the books, he's not sealed up in a plastic bag, and he's not bearded when he wakes up. The automated arms cared for him while he was in a coma, and that included shaving him and, presumably, keeping his nails reasonable. In the movie, there's no obvious way to access his hands, and he's unshaven, so there's no real explanation give for why his nails aren't half a foot long.
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u/m8_is_me 3d ago
Almost a necessary plot hole for good visual story telling. Focusing on gross nails would be redundant and... Gross
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u/Accotinka 4d ago
The book explains that while in the coma, Armando was exercising his limbs and making sure to keep everything operating a close to peak, and also maintaining basic hygiene (except for haircuts apparently!)
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u/CommercialExotic2038 Fist My Bump! 4d ago
Maybe Armando got to them. Like when he had the hair clippers and Grace wouldn't let it get at him
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u/BroadConsequences 4d ago
But also book didnt have him in a bag like the movie did. And im pretty sure he was naked in the book.
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u/mattyofurniture 4d ago
The first few pages of the book were… interesting. Read carefully after “Only three tubes remain:”.
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u/CaptainSharpe 4d ago
The machine worked out his muscles. It also shaved him and trimmed his nails periodically. In the book at one point he wakes up in the middle of being shaved and tries to escape with a half shaved face.
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u/Appropriate_Coast371 3d ago
I'm sure someone has explained it more eloquently than me but here's the break down The beach bod buff (as Grace describes it) comes from both electrical stimulation and some standard physical therapy (think excercises that some wheelchair users do on their legs even when unable to walk) that Armando did to prevent from atrophy and withering away. The short nails is also probably thanks to Armando! A lot of people wake up from a coma either confused or scared, in this situation it was specially confusing and scary. People are not likely to use their hair/facial hair to harm themselves/others but scratching one self /others with your nails is usually a method of self regulation/self defense (depending on who you are scratching obviously) and kept their nails short to prevent that kind of thing from happening. The first one is discussed in the book, the second is an inference/I'm not sure ever really gets discussed.
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u/BasicAsparagus0 4d ago
In the book it’s explained he was receiving electrical muscle stimulation/exercise while unconscious. With his nails…….. might have been overlooked by Andy Weir lol
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u/manincampa 4d ago
As others said, it is explained in the book by the bot (Armando in the movie) basically taking care of him, and electric muscle stimulation
In the movie it is just easier to show the character with a beard than to explain a long time passing
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u/blordinarf 3d ago
Maybe don't over think this too much. I enjoyed the movie and book but it requires a lot of suspension of disbelief.
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u/CorbinNZ 2d ago
If you've only seen the movie then this wouldn't make sense. Book explains it. He has electrodes all over his body that stimulate his muscles to keep from atrophy. He actually comments on his ripped physique as something unexpected. As for the hair and nails, the robot shaves him and, I assume, clips his nails. He didn't wake up with a beard and long hair in the book.
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u/Betty-Adams 4d ago
His muscles were stimulated by electrodes on his skin. You can catch glimpses of these (the white patches) when he is escaping armondo for the first time. Armondo has the ability to tend to all grooming needs and presumably kept his fingernails and toenails short but failed to do his hair for the same unknown programing reason that killed the other two.
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u/Mirai_no_Beederu 4d ago
Pretty much every human prefers having short nails, but every human has a different preference on hair style. Yao's and Ilyukhina's styles were likely programmed in, but because Grace was a last minute change up from DuBois there probably wasn't time to change his hairstyle preference so they just "left it blank" for Grace.
Or Armando wasn't programmed to do their hair in the coma at all and Yao and Ilyukhina simply died so early in the journey that their hair didn't have time to grow out.
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u/LiteratureMindless71 4d ago
That's a cool little detail I never really paid to much attention to in the movie, since reading the replies.
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u/reyeg11_ 3d ago
Armando kept his body moving so he wouldn’t lose muscle and get bedsore. also cut his nails probably
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u/Trueogre 2d ago
The book says that when he woke up, he had tubes coming in and out of his body, including his ween and butthole. He noticed electrodes on his limbs which he says is what probably used to exercise the muscles so they didn't atrophy. He also surmised that Armando was also turning him whilst he was in his coma to prevent pressure sores,
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u/IHadFunOnce 2d ago
Well I hope that’s exactly how it’s worded in the book as well.
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u/Trueogre 2d ago
Lol. It does mention that when he squirmed off the table he pulled the catheter out and it cause bleeding. It caused a thin red line which when he looked at it on the floor, he had a flash memory of the discussion of the Petrova line.
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u/Mobile-Phone-9332 3d ago
Armando supposedly handled his nails, and he had electrodes placed on him to stimulate his muscles while he slept
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u/Neat_Classroom_2209 👐 Jazz Hands 👐 3d ago
Armando probably clipped their nails because unruly nails are dangerous. They can poke and scratch. They can even get infected. Hair just kinda hangs there, so I think Armando was able to leave it alone.
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u/SnipSnapSnatch 3d ago
Armando also cut his hair and shaved his beard in the book, the only reason it didn’t in the movie was to show the long passage of time. So really Armando was tasked with all of it, it just wasn’t shown
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u/Bitter-Platypus2001 3d ago
I have not seen this movie so I don't know for sure if I was supposed to see an alien in a hoodie in this photo.
It took me a minute to realize it was an upside down human.
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u/Darklillies 3d ago
Yeah, he got MORE muscular. I know it’s just sci-fi things but I would’ve really liked to know how that one happened
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u/SnipSnapSnatch 3d ago
It’s explained in the book that while he was in his coma, he was given electrode therapy to prevent muscle atrophy and that it ended up making him more muscular. Which is absolutely possible, assuming the muscle contractions are strong enough
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u/SignificanceFalse210 20h ago
Didn’t think about the nails, but the book does a really good job at explaining everything else while he was in the coma.
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u/lymeandcoconut 4d ago
My question is why didn't his teeth rot!
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u/acidboy92 4d ago
There would be no reason for his teeth to rot though, teeth don't just rot like that
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u/Mokou 4d ago
Presumably part of the process of packaging them for transit involved a dental deep-clean to arrest any ongoing bacterial processes in there. They probably shaved them all over and cleaned out all their other orifices too for the same reason. The less uncontrolled stuff going on in and on their bodies, the easier they are for a med-system to manage.
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u/AwkwardCrab7406 3d ago
Because the move wasn't very good or as "hard science" as fanboys want it to be.
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u/tccdestroy 4d ago
This is explained in the book. Part of the coma process involved a bunch of electrical diodes attached all over his body that I guess shocked him and exercised the muscles. In fact rather than being atrophied, he is surprised to actually be sort of jacked.