Project Hail Mary: How Rocky Eats, According To The Original Book

Mild spoilers for "Project Hail Mary" to follow.

Following an extensive marking push over the last month, "Project Hail Mary" is now officially in theaters and has earned the united praise of critics and general audiences alike. From its jaw-dropping IMAX visuals to a tie-in LEGO set featuring its own Ryan Gosling minifigure, the film has the sci-fi community abuzz with excitement. Even /Film's Ethan Anderton dubbed it one of the best sci-fi movies ever in his review.

Still, while "Project Hail Mary" is a joyous romp through space, it also creates a lot of questions, especially for those who haven't read its source material. One particularly odd moment midway through the film has Rocky (James Ortiz) criticizing Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) for his odd human eating habits — right before the lovable but punky Eridian disturbingly stuffs his own orifice with food. The scene is fleeting, but author Andy Weir's original book offers plenty of additional insight on the matter.

Indeed, Weir's novel gives us several key details about how the mineral-based Eridians eat. First off, like the aliens' bodies, their food comes with a rocky outer layer. Once removed, said layer exposes the inner meat, which is what they actually consume.

When it comes to meal time, Eridians shred their protein-based meat down in their hands before a hole in their lower thorax opens up to release their previous feast (i.e. they expel their feces). And if that sounds weird enough, it only gets stranger from there.

After clearing out their fecal leftovers, the Eridians flip onto their back and "open wide" for their meal. (Yes, they use the same hole as before.) This removes an outer layer of rocky skin and reveals a fleshy inner compartment. I'll let Andy Weir's original novel take it from here:

[Rocky] reaches over with a few of his hands and grabs some choice morsels of food. He brings them to his opening and drops them in. He repeats this process, slowly and methodically, until all the food is in his ... mouth? Stomach?

We get some clarification on Eridian biology at this point, too:

There is no chewing. There are no teeth. As far as I can tell, there are no moving parts inside.

After the meal, the fleshy opening in Rocky's stomach area slowly closes, followed by the rock exterior. Rocky then collapses, basically immobile, and prepares to sleep (with Grace keeping watch). The whole process is described as being disgusting and confusing from the perspective of a human like Grace. And while the film version of "Project Hail Mary" plays up Rocky's counter-disgust at the way that humans consume their own food, it truncates his species' eating process, depriving audiences of this spectacle.

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, along with writer Drew Goddard, make a distinct change to the Rocky eating sequence in their "Project Hail Mary" film adaptation. It doesn't go into as much detail, but Rocky also talks about his own eating process as being a beautiful thing. In the original book, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Eridians are clearly embarrassed by the general act of eating and find it a personal and private process.

In fact, Rocky initially tries to eat in seclusion before Grace tracks him down and insists on watching in the novel. This comes with many objections from the Eridian, who refers to his own process as "private," "biological," and "gross." At one point, Grace even asks about Rocky's food, and the alien simply replies, "Social discomfort [...] No talk."

So much for Rocky seeing Eridian eating as a beautiful act of nature. At least this moment is good for a laugh in the movie version.

"Project Hail Mary" is now playing in theaters.