Eye movement detected.
What is 2 plus 2?
Incorrect.
Cognition assessment.
What is 2 plus 2?
Incorrect.
You have been in a medically induced coma.
You may experience memory loss,
difficulty speaking.
Body movement detected.
For your own safety, please return to the medical platform.
Please remember, muscle function has not yet been restored.
No.
People!
Hello!
Oh.
Where am I?
Why is there an atomic resolution scanning electron microscope?
Why do I know that?
Am I smart?
Hello?
Please record video diary. No.
in charge?
The captain.
Captain Yao Li-Jie. Deceased.
Yeah. Where are the living people?
Dr. Ryland Grace.
End of manifest.
I can't be the only person here, right?
Pilot detected.
No, no, no, not the pilot.
Uh, call, uh, Houston.
Unknown command.
Operation go home in effect.
Invalid operation.
That's the sun!
There it is.
So, what are we like Neptune-ish?
Let's crank up the radio and call Earth.
Current transmission time to Earth
is 11 years, 10 months, 14 days and 6 hours.
No. Nope. You're wrong.
I need a map.
Oh.
That's really far.
That's not our sun.
Where is the fuel?
Wait.
We are just minutes away from the flyby through the Petrova line near Venus.
So, what can you tell us about the ArcLight probe?
What do we expect to find?
The image we see will be coming from the onboard microscope.
Oh! Oh my God!
Sorry, I have to go now.
Oh my God!
Sound waves are physical
and at different frequencies
they make different patterns.
Patterns.
They make different patterns.
Olivia, can you help me out?
Try going.
There we go.
Whoa!
Yeah?
Are they really eating the sun?
The space dots?
That is a great question, uh, Rekha.
I'd be curious what your parents think about that?
I'm not sure it should come from me.
Hey, who wants to play a game of...
The beanbag is lava!
Lava! Lava! Lava!
What is the speed of light, Olivia?
Uh... It's melting your hands, Olivia!
186,000 miles per second!
Oh! Give her a round of applause.
That is awesome!
What is the Petrova line?
Ha ha ha! Pass!
You can't pass.
Lava! Lava! Lava!
Two years ago,
a radio telescope enthusiast named Irina Petrova,
she noticed that there was a streak of infrared light
from the sun to Venus.
And that is now known as the Petrova line.
That's it.
That's the dots?
They think so.
What dots?
These dots.
They sent a probe up to the Petrova line,
and this is what they found.
Are they eating the sun?
They seem to be dimming the sun
a tiny, teeny, weeny little bit.
So no big whoop.
It's a small whoop.
It's a small to medium whoop.
Over the next 30 years, the Earth could
cool maybe 10 to
15 degrees.
So it is a big whoop.
I heard that all the crops will die,
die, the economy will free fall,
and half the Earth will die of starvation.
We're all gonna die.
Yeah, it's true.
You're forgetting something.
Guys, guys, that's if that were to happen, right?
They're gonna figure this out.
Right now, the best minds in the entire world
are on it.
Well, I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head and it didn't hurt.
Good morning, Dr. Grace.
I'm up.
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
Cause there's something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short of dying.
Half as lonesome as it sounds.
On the sleeping city side walls Sunday morning coming down
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Not good at jokes.
Not good at jokes, who?
Dr. Grace.
Maybe. Eva Stratt, I'm with the Petrova task force. I need your help.
Me. Did you write this?
Oh. I'm interested in this section here, page 31.
The Goldilocks Zone is for idiots, why everyone is wrong about life.
That was a long time ago.
Did you stand by what you wrote?
I was fired for standing by what I wrote.
You were fired for calling the leading scholar in your field a
a staggering waste of carbon at the UNESCO conference in Denmark?
You-- You heard about that, huh?
Look, I don't know what this is, but, uh, I think, uh
I'm not su-- That's lava.
It's not. Okay.
No one in your field wants anything to do with you
because you refuse to back down from a very unpopular view,
and I can give you a chance to prove them all wrong.
Uh, that's uh-- Kevin, no running.
I'm not.
Joke's on them because I don't even care, so...
I think you do care.
You're just running away because you're scared.
No, I'm not.
Do you still believe water is unnecessary for life to evolve?
Look, there is nothing magical about hydrogen and oxygen.
Water is required for life on Earth, sure,
but a completely different planet might have completely different conditions.
I don't know why that makes me such a nut.
I need you to come with us.
Sorry, I didn't catch your name Carl.
Carl, hi.
Dr. Grace,
Petrova line samples splashed down last night.
I want you to tell me what they are, how they work.
I am a teacher at Grover Cleveland Middle.
You have a doctorate in molecular biology.
And I ride a bike to work,
and it's not for exercise,
so I'm sure there are thousands of other people...
It survives on the surface of the sun.
Does that sound like a water-based life form to you?
The sun's really dying, isn't it?
Yeah.
Is all of this necessary?
Yes.
Please analyze the Petrova sample.
Just one thing.
The entire room is filled with argon.
Just try not to rip your suit.
Am I expendable?
Is that what you want me?
That's not the only reason.
It's almost like you don't care if I die.
Hold on. You have to talk about it?
Consensus here is that it would be preferable if you did not die.
Thanks guys.
Oh.
to Earth.
Are they alive?
They're moving.
So they're alive.
Yes, they're moving, but that could be for many reasons.
What are they made of?
It's going to take a long time. It took like 200 years to figure out how bacteria work.
Please do it faster.
I'm just going through the whole light spectrum here.
Wow!
You're not going to believe this.
Nothing happened.
I can't see into these
Amazing.
microwaves, gamma rays, visible light. Nothing!
I've been dying to do this all day.
It's a cell.
It's a cell... Wake up! It's a cell!
It's a tiny alien cell.
You guys!
Applause.
Guys! This is first contact! It's life! Outside of the...
Uh-oh.
Oh, it died.
What?
This is great news.
Now we can find out what they're made of.
You guys fired up?
Yes!
Right?
Carbon.
Oxygen.
Hydrogen.
Oh.
It's made.
It's made...
of water.
Alright.
Sorry if I overreacted in there. Just, uh, realizing I was wrong about the only original idea I ever had.
Yeah, what else did you learn?
They give off infrared light when they move. Like so much, I don't know how they store
store all that energy. But their wavelength is exactly the Petrova frequency.
Their light is how they move.
Yeah, they consume the sun's energy and then they expel it for propulsion. They toot to scoot, basically.
Why did it go to Venus?
I don't know.
Okay, we'll tell you. What?
I have 347 other biologists in 21 countries mobilizing as we speak, so thank you for your help.
I'm glad you didn't die.
Let's pack this up!
That's it?!
That's it, Carl?
Talk to her.
You're taking all this stuff?
At the school you said there were thousands of people more qualified than you, so...
I was being modest.
I don't need modest. I need people who think they're right when everyone else thinks they're wrong.
I need people who piss other people off.
That's me!
Do you want to be on our project?
If you... If you think I can help, then... Just answer the question.
I want to help the world.
I left you three dots.
Just three, huh?
Plus the one you killed.
I would take the three.
Yes? I'll take the dots.
Get to work, Dr. Grace.
The world is counting on you.
Hey, Carl?
This is Carl.
Imagine... for a second that you're an interstellar microorganism.
I'm not doing that.
Why would you leave the Sun and go to Venus?
Why not stop at Mercury, it's closer?
Maybe fresh air?
Venus's atmosphere is mostly CO2.
Maybe that's fresh air to them.
You don't know what doing a little space dust like?
Hey Carl,
do we have an expense account?
We don't.
But, I do.
Thank you.
Do you have a coupon?
We don't need a coupon. We're the government.
Which government?
All of them.
So this box is Venus?
The box is Venus.
It's set to emit the same infrared light frequency as Venus's CO2 atmosphere.
So if the dots move when you turn the lights on,
that means they're looking for CO2.
Thus proving the Carl hypothesis.
Sick.
All right, you ready?
Uh-oh.
Why are you saying, uh-oh?
The astrophage moved off the slide.
Huh?
We lost them.
What do you mean we lost them? Go get them.
If I open the door and the light, they're gonna escape
and then we'll lose them forever. At least now they're in the box.
So then just turn the lights off.
They'll still be light. It's got to be total darkness.
Okay, so just put this box in another box.
Go ahead and close it over.
I can hear you.
Entering phase two.
I'm in.
Please report over.
There's one.
There's two!
Come on, get the third one.
Got sample three. The three musketeers - the three stooges.
What?
Are you sitting down?
No, I'm standing up.
I'm standing like a grown man.
'Cause there's a fourth.
What?
We're fathers, Carl.
Now I'm sitting down.
Stop.
Carl and I made a baby.
What?
We figured out how astrophage breeds.
Don't move.
What's up?
Carl. Strat said she was sending jets. I thought you meant like a PJ.
I thought you did.
I know.
Take this.
It's been a long time since I've taken a pill from a stranger without knowing what it was.
Dr. Grace, how was your flight?
Where are we?
The ocean.
The astrophage reproduction, can you do it at scale?
Oh, in theory.
You just get a bunch of elbow shaped pipe, put sunlight in one end.
Excuse me for a second.
Write it down.
And IR line CO2 in the other.
Repeat. Anything else you need for this?
Just some water.
he gave me a pill and it's still in my throat.
Two venti coffees?
Thank you so much.
Water for him.
Or coffee.
I need both.
Or not.
Okay, so this is kind of a tough room. So don't take it personally. I don't
I don't need anything fancy.
As long as there's a bed and a shower, I'm good.
I can't.
You're doing great.
Everyone, this is Dr. Rylan Grace from the United States.
Please go here.
Thank you.
And he figured out how to breed astrophage.
How did you do it?
How long does the process take?
Was it reproduced by mitosis or meiosis?
What is the incubation period?
Carl and I made a mini venus out of a plywood box.
And as soon as the samples recognized the spectral signature of CO2,
they were...
Like whoomp, there it is.
Okay, Whoomp, there it is.
you can sit down.
You can sit down in this chair.
While your experiment was crude and clumsy,
our scientists have replicated his results.
Sorry, how did you see, how did you?
We estimate an eight-day doubling time
under optimal conditions.
Dr. Grace is right.
Oh. It is the CO2.
That's why they're going to Venus.
you say it for everyone?
That's why they're going to Venus.
So that's why they're going to Venus,
Venus, is what Dr. Grace wants to say?
They're going to breathe.
Whoomp, there it is.
I really like him.
How long to make two million kilograms?
Two million?
Two million is... Why on Earth
would you need that much astrophage?
Nobody told him?
He has no clearance.
Stand up, Dr. Grace.
Clearance?
Stand up.
I hereby grant you top secret clearance
to all information pertaining to Project Hail Mary.
What's Project Hail Mary?
All right.
The sun is not the only star dying.
There is a clear pattern of infection.
Every star was infected by its neighbor except one.
Tau Ceti, that's right, 11.9 light years away.
It is uninfected despite being well
within the cluster of infected stars.
Why?
Why? Tell him.
We don't know.
Which is why we decided to build a ship
ship to go there and find out.
It's 11.9 light years away.
You can't just build an interstellar ship.
Oh, yeah, we can.
The ship is not really the problem.
The energy required to power the ship is the problem.
It was the problem.
Weep, weep.
The astrophage is the fuel.
Provided we can make enough of it.
And for that, we need you, my friend.
Me?
Ooh. Those little guys store a lot of energy.
One mistake in that much astrophage could vaporize
California.
That's true, which is why you now live on a boat
boat in the middle of the ocean in Gainesville.
I live on the boat?
You do.
So you wanna build a near light speed spaceship,
have it travel further than any human-made object
has ever traveled, and visit a star just to
see what's up? Yeah.
And then what?
There won't be enough fuel for a round trip,
so they send their findings back to Earth on probes.
And the astronauts
die in space?
Yes.
Space.
Any other plans you thought of?
Anything else? Anything else you're kicking around?
There are infinite possibilities.
For this to go wrong, it almost certainly won't work.
It's what you Americans would call a long shot.
Hail Mary.
I get it.
The alternative is to just do nothing.
And to starve and to kill each other
and watch everything on this planet go extinct,
including us.
So...
That's a long time to be in space.
We'll be in comas for most of it.
But is that even safe?
Nothing about this is safe.
We only need three.
A pilot, an engineer, and a scientist.
Commander Yao.
I must have known you, but I just don't remember.
You make a funny face in literally every picture.
You must have been very smart and strong and brave.
First, I owe you three bags of vodka.
You seem to have had a lot of friends.
This picture of you,
what looks like sneaking into the Kremlin,
is
legendary.
I wish you were still here.
I wish I wasn't alone.
I wish I was doing a better job.
I just, uh...
You were both very loved.
You deserve much more than this.
I'll do my best to make sure that you don't...
You know, that you didn't...
I'll do my best.
Approaching Tau Ceti orbit. Prepare for engine cutoff.
Fourteen. Thirteen. Twelve. Eleven.
Pilot detected.
I'm not a pilot!
What happens at zero? I mean, what?
You are now orbiting Tau Ceti. Ah!
What the fudging fudger!
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Petrovascope operational. Petrovascope operational.
It's Tau Ceti.
You have a Petrova line, but you're not dimming.
Why?
What is that?
Blip-A detected.
What's a Blip-A?
Blip-A detected.
No, no, no, no, no.
Let's go, let's go, Mary.
Mary. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Pilot detected!
Please engage restraint.
Pilot detected!
Getting out of here.
Engage spin drive.
Incorrect.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Welcome to the Hail Mary.
Is it this thing?
Erratic maneuver detected.
Yuck.
Oh, no.
Blip-A detected.
What does it want?
What?
Blip-B detected.
What's up with this thing?
Current distance from Hail Mary is 800 meters.
It's sending me something.
It could be a message.
Oh, no.
It could be a bomb.
Is it a bomb?
Shields up!
There are no shields on board the Hail Mary.
Why not?
30 meters.
20 meters.
Ten.
Well, I guess there's egg on both our faces, huh Mary?
What's that?
Why is it moving so much slower than the last one?
They think I'm dumb.
If we were going to catch it, what would we do?
Would you like to go on a spacewalk, Dr. Grace?
To begin your spacewalk, put on your ??? suit and proceed to the airlock.
Yes!
No.
It's just crazy.
Oh, God.
Righty, tighty, lefty-loosey.
Xenon's a gas.
I think this thing's broken.
We need equipment to analyze the astrophage at Tau Ceti.
Right,
Most of this equipment won't work in zero gravity.
And we have a team to develop and build zero gravity versions of this equipment.
We would need years for that, and we have months.
What's the alternative?
We make gravity.
Centrifuge?
Centrifuge.
They use them to make butter during the Civil War, actually.
It's a fun fact.
Lab operational.
Still Xenon.
Up is down, left is right, Xenon's a solid.
aliens are real,
I'm wrong about everything and everything's wrong.
Lefty, tighty, righty-loosey.
I mean... Oh no!
Foreign presence detected.
You're a long way from home.
I'm a long way from home, too.
Blip-D detected.
Is that me?
I don't understand.
You want me to go back in my ship?
But I just got here. Okay.
Okay, I'll talk to you later. Bye.
What are they doing, Mary?
It is not advised.
Thank you, Mary.
What?
Oh my. This is new.
Anybody home?
I like what you've done with the gravity.
I made you a ship. It's ramen.
I only made one.
I'm not sure how many of you there are.
Hi. No, no, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
You scared me when you went...
Oh
Can't seem to see your face... Mysterious! Faces are overrated.
Oh
You like tapping, huh?
You're pointing! You're not tapping. Sorry.
I don't have one of these. I love it!
Thank you.
put this on my head?
Take off my head?
Take my helmet off?
No,
That's a big ask. Oh.
This is taking a turn. Thank you for the... What I hope is not handcuffs.
I'm sorry about the whole helmet thing.
Unfortunately, I need oxygen to breathe, so...
Two rings of eight.
O2,
you little rascal.
This is oxygen.
I still don't think I can do it, though. Sorry.
It's just, uh... If I'm wrong, I'm really wrong.
It's the Petrova line.
We're here for the same reason.
You have a Petrova line problem, too.
You need to solve it.
I need to solve it.
That's why you made me this.
I'm going to take that as a yes.
If we're going to save our planets, we have to learn how to communicate.
You know, they say math is the universal language.
I thought maybe we could learn how to communicate. Wait, find out if that's true.
You see the numbers?
Oh, you want this?
Whoa!
Christmas Eve, that is...
It's really hot in there.
Is that ammonia?
Anyway, that's... Look, see the numbers?
they're on the other side.
Do it again.
If you do it again, don't let it snap back.
don't do it.
Hold it like that,
and you look.
Wow.
How about something else?
Look at this.
Clock.
We both have time, right?
These are the hands,
and these are the numbers.
One, two, three.
They point to the numbers. And if you'll notice, there's numbers there and there's also numbers here.
Okay.
It is dark.
I got an idea. Wait. Don't... Yeah. Don't go anywhere. Stay. Oh, yeah. Um... I'm Grace.
I'm gonna call you Rocky. You know, because you look like a giant rock. Oh. I'm fine.
Echolocation. Right? You need surfaces to see. Try this.
You see the numbers?
What is that? Is that good? Jazz hands means good.
do this. Your version of this is our thumbs up. No, that's thumbs down. We do the thumbs up.
It's close enough.
You want me to wait? I wait? Yeah. No.
I'm really, uh, really excited to be working with you on this.
Fired up. I'm sorry I'm talking so much. It's just that I haven't been around anyone in a long time.
What have we got here?
It's a clock. I showed you a clock
You're showing me a clock. We're, uh, clock bros.
Right. Um, I gotta be honest. I'm not sure I'm getting all of
Check this
I thought I might record you. Oh, no, no. Nope, that's okay. It's just a microphone.
microphone. Looks like they say, uh, let's start with one.
What? Wait, wait, wait, sorry.
Okay, one, and
What? Okay.
So, uh, I met an alien,
and we're learning to communicate.
Let's do names.
Okay, let's start with you.
Rocky.
You done?
My name, can't wait to hear this, is Grace.
What's your word for my name? Go ahead.
You know, enough to order at restaurants, we have about 250 words.
My atmosphere would kill him and his meat,
but I like to keep a wall up in my relationships anyways.
He's a mechanic, I think. He uses a metal form of xenon.
He can make anything. Look at this. I'm calling it Xenonite.
And if I can't understand what he's saying, which is most of the
time, he puts on a little puppet show for me and my tiny brain,
and you know what? I don't mind it.
He's kind of growing on me. At least he's not growing in me,
you know, which was a concern for a little while.
His sun is dying, too, so maybe we can help each other.
Recognize this?
We call it astrophage. It means star eater.
Astrophage on me, star, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, yeah.
Same.
Why are you alone?
23.
Wow.
What happened to them?
I'm sorry.
How did they die?
There were three of us and two died on the way here.
I wish I knew why.
That was only me.
Correction.
Deal.
Called a "fist bump," by the way.
Fist my bump?
No, it's fist bump.
It's not the same.
Exactly. The astrophage has to reach Tau Ceti, otherwise we wouldn't see the Petrova line.
Ho ho ho.
Do we really need this whole model?
Right.
Oh boy.
You know, I used to have one of these in my classroom and it was a lot simpler to set up.
One sec. What? What?
That is a great question.
You know what? Try this.
Why is a schoolteacher in space? Question.
No.
Can't unhear it, really.
Let's try this.
No. No need to even continue. Good. Nope.
I mean...
Meryl Streep?
Why is a school teacher in space?
She can do anything.
Why is a schoolteacher in space?
That's not bad.
I like.
All right. And in answer to your question, I have no idea what I'm doing in space.
I don't remember.
Is okay. Grace find out when Grace go home.
I'm gonna go to sleep.
No understand. Word.
Sleep.
Just go like this.
Died? Died?
No, not died.
Just lay here for 29,000 seconds and then we
wake up.
Oh, understand.
We call this sleep. Okay, here we go.
Sleep.
Good night, sir.
I watch Grace sleep.
No, that's fine. That's a little weird.
I'll be good. Good night.
night. Not safe. Eridians must watch sleep.
That's really interesting.
That sounds like something, uh, you know, unpack that tomorrow.
Rocky watch crew many days.
Crew not wake up.
That's where you're gonna be?
No, it's usually closer.
On your chest.
I wonder if it would work from a little farther back.
But Grace won't feel comfortable and safe.
Well, I, look, I'm seeing so many sides of you lately
and it's great.
Right now I'm seeing the underside of you.
I'm a side sleeper anyway.
Good night.
So we watch each other sleep.
Eridians don't sleep like a human does.
They seem legitimately paralyzed.
If danger comes, you can't wake up.
It's a survival norm.
Someone has to keep you safe.
My team, I want you to meet Dr. Ryland Grace.
He is currently the world's leading authority
in astrophage biology.
Dr. Grace, these are the three astronauts
astronauts going on the mission and their backups for redundancy.
Yao,
Ilyukhina, and Dubois,
our pilot, engineer, and science officer.
It's an honor.
I'm excited to share what I've learned about astrophage
and spin drives.
We have 1,009 of these
little engines that could on the Hail Mary.
And, uh...
Once the mission is complete, we have the option to end our lives on our terms.
The alternative is slow, miserable death by starvation.
I want to do lethal injection with a little bit of heroin.
I will have what she's having.
Following on from Dr. Grace's discovery, we've built an IR emitter
set to the wavelength of CO2, which attracts the astrophage to this revolver face.
The drive then rotates outwards.
We increase the IR, the astrophage get excited, thrust the ship forward, and so on.
This is less than a gram of astrophage, and we only need a fraction of this for this demonstration. Take a look.
To do what?
To melt a metric ton of metal.
Powerful stuff.
Commander Yao, I really appreciate what you all are doing.
You would do the same.
I would choose just not to go at all.
I don't have the bravery gene that you all have. Trust me.
It's not a gene. You just need to find someone to be brave for.
Movement detected.
Hi, Grace.
You're in a ball.
So Rocky no die in Grace atmosphere. I come up.
Oh, you're coming up.
Foreign entity detected.
Grace and Rocky, big science. How to kill astrophage together.
I keep going this way?
This room boring. Rocky,
science. Save Earth, save Erid. Good plan.
What's this down here? Question
Amaze, amaze, amaze.
Rocky, what is your human technology?
Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty.
Why room so messy?
Well, I wasn't expecting company, was I?
This room for garbage?
Oh,
Dirty. Dirty. Dirty.
This is the lab. This is where the science happens.
What's this? What's this?
Oh, that's an evaporator.
What's this?
That is the disco ball.
That makes me happy.
Rocky will build work from here.
We'll need much room for Rocky and much less space for Grace.
What is happening here?
We go Petrova line. We collect astrophage. We study it.
We go home. We collect.
And you say we.
I'd be great!
Whoa!
Apology, apology, apology.
Rocky, stay.
Rocky, new to ball.
Rocky, my hand is up.
We can't just show up in a space ball unannounced and move into someone else's spaceship,
right? There has to be boundaries.
Boundaries.
We have one mission.
Mission.
But we're two distinct individuals.
Individuals.
Both working on our distinct individual parts of that mission.
Mission.
Separately.
Okay. Where my bedroom?
Bedrooms?
what?
So I have a new roommate now.
Be careful back there, okay?
The chore wheel is pretty lopsided.
Where on Earth does that go?
Not on Earth. More high.
It goes this way?
All the way out to here?
Yes. Out pointy. What?
You're telling me what to do. He tells me why to do it. He tells me how to do it.
He tells me when to do it.
And then when I do it, he's like, what are you doing?
I'm just saying you're going to get out of the ball to get into a much bigger ball?
Why?
You don't even use a bed.
You know you have the, like, Hellraiser thing that you sleep on.
What do you need a bed for?
Don't talk to Armando. Yes.
Can I help you?
You're doing this.
It's a lot of this.
And then he's like, no understand, no understand.
And then it's like, I need a word.
You know what the word is? Bossy.
I'm like one of the villains in the Superman movie. I'm just, like, trapped in hell.
Get me out of here!
His eating habits are...
exotic.
Grapes look disgust when eat.
How do you look when you eat?
You look beautiful.
Show me.
Oh, my God.
He has incredible hearing.
He can see through walls.
Personal space is at a premium.
Who is Grace talking to? Question.
There's no way you can hear me right now.
Can hear. Who are you talking to?
You can hear this.
Yes, Grace say you can hear this.
Yes. Oh, my God. Look at this. Look how far away he is.
That is where he is.
Hello, Grace.
He's right here.
here. Hello, Grace friend. Okay.
Did Grace find sampler instruction?
Yes, I found the sampler.
Yes, I found the sampler instruction.
He's really smart about some things.
Oh, my God. He's got a gun.
Oh, this?
No, no, no.
This to screen in front.
And now this to that over here.
Now Rocky can hear screen.
Please don't point it at me.
Oh, point over here.
Yes. Okay. Now over there.
You can point it at me again.
But his species doesn't know about things like relativity and radiation.
And the rest of the crew?
In mid of ship there.
And here?
And where did you keep the astrophage?
Fuel tank's next to Rocky Workshop, it's there.
I think the radiation is what made your crew sick, Rock.
The astrophage probably just protected you from it.
This isn't something that you could have fixed.
But I guess together we're, you know, pretty smart.
Since we're only going to be able to intersect with the Petrova line for a few seconds,
we're not going to have enough time to get a good sample.
Too fast. Do puppet show. Too fast.
I don't want to do the puppet show.
No, do puppet show.
This is us. We're, you know, flying along.
The problem is, because the solar system is constantly moving,
the patrol line's going to constantly be moving, right?
Am I still doing it? You still want it?
Yes, yes. Show time.
So we're not going to have time to get the sample.
No, no, no. Use planet gravity to move with line.
You mean sort of like rest in its orbit?
Yes.
I didn't think of that.
I did.
We figured out a plan.
We're going to orbit the planet where astrophage breeds,
collect a sample, and figure out why it's not eating Tau Ceti.
Who is Grace talking to?
I'm not talking to anyone.
I need a break.
Break from what?
Oh my God, forget it. This isn't going to work.
150 million kilometers away,
racing along at 162 kilometers per second.
We should arrive at Tau Ceti E
Arrival at Tau Ceti E in 11 days, 3 hours, and 14 minutes.
Thank you, Mary.
You're welcome, Dr. Grace.
Thank you, Mary.
You're welcome, Rocky.
Welcome to Earth.
You're in the mental health Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Careful, Rocky. Look out below.
The beach is always changing.
You could go to the same spot every day.
You're always looking at a different beach.
Trees.
And you climb, and you climb to the top, and you
so excited about us both getting to go home.
There's no harm in pretending for a little while.
Touch the wave, Touching the wave.
Wiping out.
Hanging ten.
Oh.
Big happen, baby.
In three, Apollo trains him.
And in seven, he trains Apollo's kid.
Yeah, yeah.
Clutch, clutch, clutch, clutch.
Clutch, clutch, clutch.
I say either, you say... No.
I say neither, you say... Neither. No.
I like Earth.
I miss the fog.
What about you, Rock?
What do you miss most about home?
My mate.
Wait, what?
You got a mate?
Yes.
I mean, not that you... I mean, I'm sure...
What's their name?
Name is...
It's beautiful.
Grace have mate? Question.
No.
I mean, I did.
But she thought I had my head in the clouds, and I didn't really want to live in the real world.
She was right.
Anyway, now she's with Mark.
Rocky hate Mark.
But enough about me. You have a mate.
How long you been together?
186.3 years.
Like the honeymoon phase.
No, I understand.
That's a joke, right? That's a long time. You've been together a long time.
It's not enough.
Everywhere.
Permission to come aboard, Captain?
You're already aboard.
Did you get your free hat?
Yeah, I kind of bought them. Oh.
You don't sing, huh?
Yeah, I do. I actually sing in an Eastern German youth choir.
You're very mysterious.
No, I'm not.
I always wanted to be
mysterious.
Talk too much. It's my problem.
Like right now.
I didn't mean to bother you.
You don't bother me.
It is such a weird party.
Is it?
Yeah, I was singing.
Everyone's so happy.
People are
hooking up, and they all know they're going to die.
Camaraderie helps them doing their job, you know?
Not so much me.
Must be hard having to ask everybody to,
you know...
Actually it isn't.
Yeah.
So, what do you think?
You think you're going to pull it off?
What, the whole thing?
Yeah.
God willing.
Believe in God?
beats the alternative.
Yeah.
Just stop your crying, it's a sign of the times.
Welcome to the final show. I hope you're wearing your best clothes.
You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky.
You look pretty good down here, but you ain't really good.
We've never learned, we've been here before.
Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets, the bullets?
Just stop your crying, it's a sign of the times.
We gotta get away from here.
Just stop your crying, it'll be alright. They told me that the end is near.
We gotta get away from here.
Just stop your crying, have the time of your life.
Breaking through the atmosphere, and it all looks good from here.
Remember everything will be alright.
We can meet again somewhere, somewhere far away from here.
And that is enough.
Wish you could see this, Rock.
Rocky can see.
Boring.
This is not boring.
Name of planet
Tau Ceti E
is same name as star,
plus E.
Boring.
I guess it could be a little more
evocative.
Astrophage sampler in position.
Question?
Yep.
Trays are live, looking both ways.
It is time-go.
It's time-go.
What is Grace doing?
I'm having a moment.
You know, back on Earth, if you discover something, you get to name it.
You were technically the first one here, so... Yes,
the name is Medium Rough Texture Circle Planet.
Okay.
Well, if Medium Rough Texture Circle Planet was taken, we'll just have a backup.
Maybe go with something personal.
Personal.
your mate's name again?
Name is.
Okay, it's okay. I remember.
Need human word for Rocky mate.
Adrian.
It's beautiful.
It's the same amount, both coming and going.
But if Astrophage is going to Adrian to breed, there should be more leaving.
It should be double.
It doesn't make sense.
It's either not reproducing or it's not leaving the planet for some reason.
Oh, my God.
What? What Grace see?
What Grace see? Question
Life.
This is not just astrophage.
It's bacteria.
It's protozoa.
It's like cells on Erid.
And Earth.
What does this mean? Question.
Well, if there's a whole active biosphere
in the Petrova line,
it stands to reason there's a whole active biosphere
on Adrian, which means...
there's life on Adrian.
Oh, Grace! Grace!
Yeah?
Life! Life is reason!
Yeah. No, no, no.
No, no understand.
Use your words.
Life is reason for what?
Life is the reason for what?
Life is reason! Life is reason!
Life is reason what?
Life on Adrian is reason astrophage in balance.
Life on Adrian makes astrophage die.
Like a predator.
Yes.
That would keep the population stable.
Grace, if we bring predator home, our stars not die.
Life is reason star not die.
Why didn't you just say that?
If, there is some kind of microbial predator on Adrian.
It'll be in the clouds where astrophage breathes. Check.
Oh! The problem is this ship wasn't built
to go into the atmosphere.
If we get within five kilometers,
we'll be ripped into a million pieces
and then we'll burn up.
Game over.
Game not over.
I make chains.
I make long chain.
I put collection device on end.
Oh yeah, yeah, five kilometers of chain, sure.
Garbage!
Like this chain, look.
You can do that? Yes.
I like fishing.
What's that?
Oh! Oh! Fishing!
Can you believe it?
It can work.
Thumbs up, baby.
Hello, Earth.
Plan is like fishing.
We get very close to Adrian atmosphere
and lower collector into clouds with chain.
Then Grace go on hull to reel it in.
If ship not at precise angle and speed, we die.
Example.
We must fly backwards to keep proper velocity.
Even though Grace still have no pilot experience.
I've been practicing, haven't I?
More. No, no, no. Left.
More left.
It's perfect.
No. Wrong.
No. Wrong way.
Wrong way.
Wrong angle.
Bad, bad, bad.
Good, good, good.
Good. Bad.
Not enough.
Too much.
I'm barely pulling it.
No, it's bad.
Grace rocky hit.
All Rocky plural. All Earth die.
We die.
Rocky has built Predator Collector.
Rocky chain spooled and ready.
Grace pilot training.
Not as good.
What think, Earth?
Hello? They can't hear you, pal.
What? We're not actually talking to Earth.
Earth's too far away.
You know, we just record these messages
and we tell them what we've learned
and then when we're done,
we'll send them all back in a probe.
Why not you tell them yourself when you return home?
Question.
Yeah.
This is a one-way ticket for me, pal.
What? We had enough astrophage to get here,
but not enough to get back.
So what happens, Grace?
Question.
Oh, I've... I got enough food to last me
at least a couple years.
Maybe a couple more if I stretch it out.
So, Grace die?
Question?
Yeah, once we're done, I'm... I'm gonna die.
Why didn't you tell me?
It slipped my mind.
No,
Grace say Grace go home.
Listen, listen.
No, no.
Listen. I got to meet you.
I got to do all this amazing stuff.
I'm good.
I've made peace with it.
What mean? What mean make peace?
It means I know I'm not going home.
I know why.
And it's okay.
Thumbs up? No.
Tiny thumbs up?
No. We got stars to save, okay?
Grace?
Yeah.
You are...
need word.
What word do you need? To risk self to help another.
Uh, dumb.
Grace?
Grace? How much astrophage you need, question?
Two million kilograms.
I can give.
I go home six years slower.
That's too much.
Rocky watch crew die.
Could not fix.
Grace say Grace will die.
Rocky fix.
Grace go home.
Okay.
Uh... I thought you made peace, question?
I didn't mean any of that.
That's just something you say.
Thank you.
Get over here.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
What? What's happening?
A hug.
Oh.
It's usually not something one does by themselves. Oh.
Wait, I do the same?
Would you just get in here?
How do you know when the hug is done?
You just feel it.
Oh.
Are you feeling it now?
No.
Oh. Oh, okay, yeah.
We ran the sampler simulation again this morning.
Shapiro and Dubois nailed it again.
Okay. What about the others?
They'll be ready.
I expect so.
They have a great teacher.
Can you take a compliment, please? No.
It's an order.
Okay.
If it's an order, I'll take it.
Thank you.
Good.
What do you think?
It's pretty impressive.
Yeah.
You're... You're good.
Three days, huh?
Yeah.
So... What are you gonna do for the next 20 years?
You got a plan?
Huh.
Manual mode activated.
Pull the trigger.
That's not half bad.
It's full
Time to go fishing, question?
It's now or never.
3,000 meters.
Probe signal.
Good.
Now comes the fun part.
Grace go out on hull to retrieve collector? No fun at all.
It's a joke.
Oh, humor.
Confusing.
You've got to be kidding me.
What problem, question?
It's fine.
It's just the sky is slightly on fire.
Words of encouragement.
You can't just say words of encouragement.
Words of great encouragement.
Nope.
Feel that?
Yeah.
not worried.
Are you worried?
Yes.
Great.
Collector is close.
Move winch into position.
How long is this supposed to take?
Collector should be here soon.
Yeah, it's here.
Amaze, amaze, amaze.
Careful, collector important.
Yep.
Altitude warning.
Oh, hurry, hurry.
Hurry, hurry.
Grace, status update.
Grace.
Grace is safe.
I'm okay.
Good, good, good.
Come inside with predator collector now.
Uh.
Why not moving?
Question.
Warning,
exterior temperature elevated.
Must move now. Go,
No, Grace.
Bad idea.
Come inside.
Be there in a minute.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Grace will die.
Can repeat mission.
Can try again later.
I don't think the risk is going to be a later.
Abort, abort, abort.
Grace will die.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Grace?
I'm here.
Amaze, amaze, amaze.
Grace okay? Question.
Well, I'm not dead, so yes.
Good, good, good, good, good.
Where is that noise coming from?
noise is from all around.
It's loudest at port side of bedroom.
The gravity is tearing the ship apart.
we leave now?
Question.
Leave now.
Statement.
Hull pressure warning, warning.
Hull bending in big room below bedroom.
That's the fuel tanks.
Oh, bad, bad, bad.
It's not great.
Warning.
Okay, okay, okay.
Everyone, everyone, calm down.
Calm down!
Try to keep yourself together, Very good.
Stop engine now?
Not yet.
We need to get into orbit or we'll crash.
I have an idea.
First, no crash.
Then, not explode.
Deal?
Deal.
Hold on.
Now?
Wait.
Now?
Now!
we do it?
Why ship moving? Question There's a hole in it!
Hull breach, portside fuel compartments 11 and 12.
What happening? Question
The fuel is migrating to Adrian!
Eject bad fuel bay, question?
Yeah.
Jettison port fuel tank compartment 12. Confirm.
Jettison port fuel tank compartment 11. Confirm.
Eject other fuel bay!
One nanogram of astrophage isn't enough to blow up a building.
The photon master gave him one milligram by mistake.
That's a million times the heat energy that they're prepared for.
A measuring mistake killed my entire science team.
Doesn't matter, we have to launch.
If we miss the orbital window, it'll set us back months.
Yeah, but if no one's trained to do the mission, it won't matter.
Casualty projections go up exponentially if we delay.
We launch on schedule with a replacement science officer.
Okay, but... who? I mean that...
I'm not an astronaut.
I don't need an astronaut. I need an expert on astrophage who's mission ready.
I'm not ready. I don't have any training.
Well, pick it up.
I'm not an astronaut. I put the not in astronaut.
I've never done anything. I've never done a spacewalk. I can't even moonwalk.
I haven't done the whole pool thing.
No, no, no, this is just for the picture. For social media.
I'm not heroic in any way. I get sick on the elevator.
Perfect, there's no elevator on the ship.
I cannot do this. You're smart.
You'll figure it out.
This might be very hard for you to understand,
but some people are failures.
Some people don't rise to the challenge.
You've been present for every major scientific
or strategic meeting we've had on the mission.
You're missing out an important part of the mission,
which is the suicide part.
Grace, you'd be in very cool company.
If you don't go, you die anyway.
Yeah, but I die in 30 years with...
With the rest of us.
You have no immediate family.
You don't even have a dog.
So, just so I'm clear,
you're asking me right now to
give up my life.
I am. We all are.
Can I think about this?
You have three hours.
movement detected.
Good morning, Doctor Grace.
I'll watch you sleep, uh
But uh... you gotta wake up.
I'm not sure what to do.
I've done everything I can think of.
I made him a heat lamp.
And he left me one last message.
We have our predator.
Right now I'm calling it Taumoeba. And I'm sure that when you wake up, you'll have a lot to say...
about why that's a bad name, because it's just an amoeba from Tau Ceti
and putting tau in front of amoeba. But I would argue there's an elegance to that, a simplicity.
Let's not fight about it now. Let's just, we'll table it.
I did a test at different atmospheric variables and fun fact, every time I introduced nitrogen,
it died.
And I know you're thinking, well, that's terrible because that's a problem because we needed
to survive in the conditions of Venus. Obviously I had to figure out how to breed a new strain
of nitrogen-resistant Taumoeba and guess what I used?
The breeder tanks that we made with your Xenonite. And you know what? Now we're just
a couple of very cool dudes with their very own strain of nitrogen resistant Taumoeba.
Really all we have to do now is breed enough to survive the trip. And you got to wake up
because I don't know how to get your half of the Taumoeba to Erid. So
no pressure, but we did make a deal.
Shhh.
Grace?
Rock, could you just
I don't know.
give me a little
chance, please,
to sleep a little?
Did we find Predator?
No is yes.
Amaze, Amaze, Amaze.
Rocky, Breeder Tank design.
Good job, bro.
We can go home.
Statement.
We can go home.
Fist my bump.
No.
That's still not right.
I'll do it.
Good, good, good.
So what we do now?
Question.
We party.
Wow.
Is special clothing for celebration.
You're making me think that I have to up my game.
What is this?
you don't mind.
Rocky get one.
There you go.
It's good.
Oh, yeah.
Not much, just a little something.
Very own laptop.
My portable earth thinking machine.
With all human knowledge.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And just one more thing.
Yes?
What, what's this?
It's earth.
So you can remember me.
Rocky can't forget.
I didn't get you anything.
You gave me everything.
But if I were to give you something.
It'd be pretty cool to see your ship.
Ooh.
I love you.
I understand you think I'm the right person for this mission, but I can't do it.
Can't do it.
You'll find a solution. You are my solution.
My place is in the classroom. Stop pretending this is about your students,
it's so insulting. Grace, we will lose a quarter of the world's population in next 30 years.
And that assumes that the nations of the world work together to ration food
which they won't. So I double the estimate. And if you would truly care about...
...the children or anyone else for that matter, you'd get on that ship.
I understand the stakes. I do. But I don't have it in me.
My mind is made up. I'm sorry, but you just can't talk me into it.
I'm not trying to talk you into anything. I am trying to make you understand
what I'm about to do next. Yeah, please.
Stay calm. Come in.
What is this?
Mission plan will state that we induced your coma early to maximize your safety.
You will be remembered as a hero.
Come on. This is crazy.
I have to do it.
You're not. Come on.
What are you doing?
This may seem like me betraying you, but it's actually me believing in you.
It sure feels like you're betraying me.
Don't make this harder, please.
Come on. I'm coming.
Let's keep talking about it.
Sit down and we do it differently.
Get out of here.
Yeah, he's running.
No! No! I can't do it! Don't do it! Don't do it! Don't do it!
You know who you are.
You're going to do great.
I'm trying to think if there's anything I forgot.
Fuel tank fix, okay? Question?
Oh, yeah, yeah. They're working great.
Oh, good. Happy, happy, happy.
Well, my friend.
Yes, friend?
not sure what to say, so I'm just going to...
Grace?
No one to watch you sleep.
Yeah.
You are very brave.
I don't know about that.
You are the bravest human I have ever met.
Hey.
It's a joke.
I know.
I only meet one human, and it's you.
I get it.
It's a good joke.
Good joke.
All right.
Well... Goodbye.
No understand word.
See you later.
But I won't see you later.
I know.
How do you say goodbye back home?
We don't.
We do this.
Journey to Earth will take four years, two months, and eleven days.
Contamined, detected.
Contaminant detected.
There's a leak.
The problem is the xenonite.
The Taumoeba can get through it.
Probably because we bred it in the xenonite breeder tanks
it evolved to escape it.
I was able to stop it before it ate all the astrophage on the ship.
Rocky's ship is built of xenonite.
The Taumoeba will already be in its fuel lines.
He won't be able to find the leak because the leak is the ship itself.
He'll be without any fuel. Stranded.
His life support systems will fail.
If that doesn't kill him the radiation sickness will.
He's looking at a long, slow,
painful death.
Alone.
I can't do both.
I can go home.
Or I can save
I've sent you detailed logs of all of our findings
and enough Taumoeba for you to start
your very own Taumoeba farm.
At least I never have to hear you say,
I told you so.
Even though you were right.
I'm here, buddy.
Earth, Rocky. Rocky, Earth.
Hello, Earth. I am Rocky.
I am Rocky from Erid. I am not Rocky from movie. No, no, no, no.
I'm pretty sure they know that.
I left you detailed logs of all of our findings, and I threw in a little something else just for fun.
Hopefully it all makes sense.
And if not, you're smart.
You'll figure it out.
This is Dr. Captain Ryland Grace reporting from the Hail Mary.
As the Eridians say...
Let's begin.
Good morning, Armando.
You shouldn't have.
That's a noogie. I'm coming!
Why you always gotta be so early?
Yeah, I know, and I ignored you.
Why? I thought this was a safe neighborhood.
Okay, Armando likes the fresh air.
Can we talk about the water temperature a little bit?
It's amazing just that you've done it at all.
Very cold.
And before it was boiling.
Is there an in-between?
Please tell the bio-dome illumination team that it's perfect now.
Oh no, this is, you know I'm a sucker for the fog.
Yapa.
Can I think about it?
Good morning, class.
Okay. Everyone, take their seats.
Let's wake up.
Who can tell me the speed of light?