"Not only will you cry over a rock, you will do it TWICE!"

I just realized that the gold plates on the walls of the ship were another piece of evidence that the ship would never return to earth.

Adrian is the name of the wife in the Rocky movies.

Astrophage actually protects from space radiation poisoning (radiation comes from stars and galaxies). Rocky survives radiation poisoning because he lived next to astrophage chamber in his ship. So it is perfectly safe for  grace to float on adrian surrounded by purple astrophage

The gold plaques aboard the Hail Mary are engraved metal plates intended as a message for any alien civilization that might find the ship. Serving as humanity’s time capsule, they were designed to explain who made the ship, where it came from, and why it was sent into deep space. This reinforces the idea that this expedition is a one way trip, not intended to return back to Earth.

47:11 Meryl Streep did not get paid, she was amused by the idea and happy to be part of the project. She did a bunch of different takes for the director to chose from.

40:05 Rocky figured out that Grace needed oxygen by analyzing the air in the container that Grace sent back  he also figured out the pressure required from that and pressurized the tunnel. That's why Grace's door blew open, because the tunnel was pressurized and Grace wasn't expecting it.

For the fellow dweebs: the tunnel was pressurized to 21.2 kPa as shown on Grace's pressure gauge after the was blown back. That's the pressure required for humans to breath in a pure O2 environment.

They don't explain it in the movie, but in the book they describe the fact that only 1 in 7,000 people have the correct gene to survive the long term coma. Grace has the gene.

Thank you for not vilifying Eva Stratt. You are one of the few who didn't read her as evil - just someone with an unimaginable responsibility and every decision is another "trolley problem". I think Sandra Hüller humanized her without softening the character. She was self aware. She just had to make the hard choices.

Eridians live, on average, 690 Earth years. Rocky himself is older than the US.  Rocky has spent 46 Earth years of his lifespan isolated and alone in the Tau Ceti system after the tragic loss of his crew to radiation sickness. Because Eridians have a much longer natural lifespan, Grace notes that Rocky is essentially middle-aged—roughly equivalent to a human in his mid-to-late 30s or 40s. 6 years to an Eridian would be about 6 months to a human.

48:33 To answer your question, Rocky’s been alone for 46 years before Grace showed up.

One thing I just realized.

If Rocky hadn't given Grace enough fuel to get home - If Rocky had decided that it wasn't his problem, that he didn't need to say anything, that Grace had already accepted his own death, or even if Grace hadn't told Rocky he was stranded without enough fuel to get home?

Both of them would have died. The infection would have gotten into Rocky's fuel, and Rocky would have been the only one WITH fuel. There wouldn't be a second chance, a second metaphorical basket of eggs.

Rocky's generosity saved them both. That act of kindness seems like the obvious thing to do - They're both friends, of course you help your friends - But if circumstances had been different, if Rocky hadn't gotten that close with Grace, if more of either of their own crew had survived and propriety had gotten in the way, if anything had acted to keep all the Eridian fuel in the Eridian fuel tanks? The humans would be dead with no fuel left to begin with, the Eridians would be dead with no fuel uncontaminated, and the best they could have managed would be to split the beetles and send them both ways.

Rocky effectively saved himself by saving Grace.

Rocky made that first wall sections out of different materials. Which ever one Grace used to look through is what he made the second complete wall out of for better communication. Smart Rocky ! !

"At the end of the day, they're a scientist and an engineer" sums up the entire setup

rocky has perfect memory so when he says he can't forget, he really won't

To clarify, as Stratt pointed out he was ostracized for being an aggressive jerk about his hypothesis, not because he had it.
We can confirm that for sure, because long before the book was ever written scientists already did publish such ideas. Its highly unlikely for any life we can begin to conceive of because of some fundamental chemistry involved that I wont go in to, but its absolutely something they seriously consider. (For the record, as I dont believe its mentioned in the film, Rockies species also utilizes water.)

As an Outer Wilds fan, watching this movie was just a wonderful experience. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

I watched this on an airplane and was trying so hard not to cry because the flight attendants were starting to give out snacks

James Ortiz and his team deserve sooo much credit for their work on Rocky as a character! all of them for the Rocky puppetry and James himself as the voice of the computer translated Rocky!!!!

At the end the big reveal was that Grace learned they had saved Sol. Before that he didn’t know for sure so he couldn’t commit to going home. He really cried in the book.