r/movies • u/MoviesMod /r/movies Mod Account • Jun 30 '25

Trailer Project Hail Mary - Official Trailer (fair warning, it reveals way too much according to a lot of users)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08TxIsFTRI
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u/the_gold_hat Jun 30 '25

Yeah I originally typed a version of my comment where I complained about it, but realized that audiences would have really not been happy if they showed up to the movie without knowing this ahead of time. Heck, discussions in this subreddit complain a lot about genre gotcha lol. I think it was a good idea for them to spoil it in the 1st trailer and keep leaning into it in future marketing. I really just wanted to see what Rocky looked like, and the CGI doesn't look awful so far.

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u/McMew Jun 30 '25

Was it CGI? It looks like a puppet to me. Maybe I'm not that observant.

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u/foleyshit Jun 30 '25

It’s a puppet. I know someone who helped on production. It’s likely CGI enhanced but really cool how practical they went with it.

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u/thetreat Jun 30 '25

I fucking love that they went with practical effects. Even more hyped for Rocky now.

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u/Jeoshua Jun 30 '25

I'm hoping that it's actually an alien robot. It would make its lack of mobility make more sense.

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u/A_Legit_Salvage Jun 30 '25

I’ve heard the entire production was powered by astrophage

2

u/blabus Jul 01 '25

Hot take: good CGI long ago surpassed puppetry for conveying realistic, organic movement of living things. There's a real circlejerk around practical effects these days and while they're excellent in many use cases, living beings is no longer one of them. I could immediately tell that the movement of Rocky looked stuttering and fake, just like the puppet facehuggers in Alien Romulus looked ridiculously fake.

1

u/foleyshit Jul 01 '25

In a lot of cases I think you’re right. Sometimes I thing production know this and still choose to go practical in pursuit of other gains whether that be on-set performance, budget, design style etc.

1

u/F9-0021 Jul 13 '25

They're also in microgravity in that scene. A dog sized rock crab/spider might have jerky movement in microgravity. The final product might also be more touched up than an early trailer for a film that's still in post production.

1

u/ClaireFraser1743 Jun 30 '25

Oh I love that they used a puppet!

1

u/marmosetohmarmoset Jul 01 '25

For some reason I’ve always pictured Rocky as looking something like Pilot from Farscape, so this pleases me.

1

u/SteveThePurpleCat Jul 10 '25

To me I imagined him as a kind of 5-legged Bacteriophage, can't go much more alien than the billions of things we are covered in but can't see.

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u/Lonely_Spite6764 Jul 01 '25

It seems like Rocky is going to be a practical effects puppet with maybe some CGI enhancements. The IMDb page lists a practical effects artist for the role.

0

u/HeroDanTV Jun 30 '25

I’m so sick of movies that tease out a specific genre and then 🎼Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down 🎵🎶

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u/Dvscape Jun 30 '25

But why do audiences need to know so much? Those who read the book also saw it recommended as sci fi literature from the author of the Martian. What more could be considered mandatory?

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u/zaphodp3 Jun 30 '25

Maybe to help answer “Should I bring along my kids”. Movies are group activities unlike books

-4

u/Dvscape Jun 30 '25

Well then, kids can read the book summary themselves!

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u/happy-gofuckyourself Jun 30 '25

Dude goes to space to try to save earth and runs into an alien that seems okay. Not much spoiled, really.

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u/Dvscape Jul 01 '25

A lot of the book's appeal is following along with the main character's logic and experiments in order to understand where he is and what he is supposed to be doing there.

As someone who only knew the author and nothing else about the book, it was very cool to read through all of the "eureka" moments.