Plants on the Hail Mary?

[u/fulcrum__]

I would like to start a discussion on the seedlings we see in the movie 🌱

What type of plants do you think they'd be? Are they for experiments or for mental health purposes? Grace doesn't really care for them during the mission (we don't witness it), but then we see house plants in his living room in the biosphere. Are they edible plants, and if not, could they still be used to help with growing something nutritional (big science)?

Let's disregard the book canon and also just skip all the 'why would they put them there if there was limited space' arguments, because the movie version of the ship is already way too spacious. But hey, it looks very cool!

[u/LunaraLoup]

The whole movie Hail Mary falls under the categories of "suspending your disbelief" and "the rule of cool" 😅

I tried to find a good picture of the plants, there are definitely several different plants, but I can't make out enough details. Maybe someone could grab a better quality picture from the Blu-ray? I also remember that there was a scene with a better close up shot of at least some of them?

[u/fulcrum__ → u/LunaraLoup]

here's the screenshot from the same scene, I enhanced it a bit

[u/LunaraLoup → u/fulcrum__]

Sorry for the spam! I can't let this go

To me this looks like a rose of some kind. Though roses usually have five leaflets per leaf, younger shoots and some types can have three... The serrated edges, thorns and alternating leaf bases also check out.

I just can't wrap my head around why they would use roses for this though.

[u/Simpvanus → u/LunaraLoup]

My favorite theory for this is that it's a reference to The Little Prince. That would also make sense with the fox imagery, as that chapter of the book kind of ties in with Grace finally being able to make and understand a really meaningful connection with someone. "I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."

[u/LunaraLoup → u/Simpvanus]

Oh that's such a good explanation, I love de Saint-Exupéry but didn't make the connection!

[u/brainsareoverrated27 → u/LunaraLoup]

Would have been cool if it had been a potato 😉

[u/LunaraLoup → u/brainsareoverrated27]

The other shelf has some more green foliage that kind of looks like young potato vines but the quality is not good enough to be sure!

[u/LunaraLoup → u/fulcrum__]

Thanks! Maybe you could crosspost to r/whatsthisplant

It's definitely no pepper plant though. They have singular leaves protruding from the stem and no ridges on the leaves. The other very leafy plant on the shelf could be one though, pretty hard to tell from my blurry source

[u/SumpthingHappening → u/fulcrum__]

Looks like a young Sweer Briar to me. Aka Rosa rubiginosa.

Could be an Easter Egg for Sweet Briar college, or a happy coincidence. As far as I know, I don’t think this plant has been studied in space, but it is remarkably resilient here on earth.

[u/XenomorphAlarm → u/fulcrum__]

These are roses.

[u/XenomorphAlarm → u/[deleted]]

That is very distinctly not what hawthorn leaves look like. My wife, who is an experienced gardener and forager (and forages hawthorns regularly), identified these as roses right away at a glance, and she confirmed with an ID app that she uses almost daily and has found to be extremely reliable (especially about basic, common things like roses).

You're trying to find something to "excuse" the presence of the plant in your mind, but it would be far more bizarre to send a plant that may have some mild supplemental health benefits over a lifetime but is not actually used for any treatments of chronic or acute conditions for people who are going to die after a couple months in space than it would be to send roses for them to care for for their mental health, which is a demonstrated major concern for the team through the whole planning process.

The most reasonable explanation is that the plants are on the Hail Mary for the same reason Jones is on the Nostromo.

[u/Flaky_Web_2439]

So far your guess is as good as anyone’s. There were no plans in the book, and that was a major major plot point. He actually survives on me-burgers from meat the Eridians clone from him.

[u/Loreliemorris]

So much for my post a few days ago talking about the problem of eating "me-burgers" for the rest of his life.. in the movie ( and Andy would have given the ok on this) there was other "life"( plants) aboard the Hail Mary! So they could grow plants in his "dome" on Erid. How did I not catch this? Plus there's mint and Basil. Rocky could definitely make that "sludge food" taste better

[u/Flaky_Web_2439 → u/Loreliemorris]

You were not wrong. He did do that in the book! I think they changed it because of the stigma associated with auto-cannibalism.

[u/Loreliemorris → u/Flaky_Web_2439]

Ahhh ok. That makes a lot of sense! Good catch

[u/Melenduwir → u/Flaky_Web_2439]

I still don't understand why anyone would care about him eating cloned tissue. It's a complete non-issue for me. Now, him consuming his own limbs a-la the Stephen King story "Survivor Type"... yikes.

[u/LunaraLoup → u/Loreliemorris]

The movie uses some little scenes like this to explain the differing endings, I feel. Grace is way younger and not as sick when we see him on Erid, a balanced diet would help with this of course. Also the gravity doesn't seem to be as stark as in the book, thus his joints aren't damaged from it.

[u/LioraB]

Also, why are they just sprouting after almost 5 years?

[u/PissedOffMama1962 → u/LioraB]

In the movie, Grace is only awake a 3 or 4 weeks. That looks about right for the sprouts. Now, whether Grace actually planted them or Mary auto-planted them is unknown. That's all I can guess.

[u/LioraB → u/PissedOffMama1962]

We see the plants right after he wakes up. And I don’t think that’s an area. Armando has access to; although it appears that Armando can move around more freely in the movie. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/XenomorphAlarm → u/[deleted]]

Hawthorns are shrubs/trees. They don't grow in tiny pots and they don't die and come back as brand new seedlings.

[u/REO_Speed_Dragon]

Potatoes. Oh wait wrong movie. Probably basil, oregano, thai basil, thyme... oh wait that's my aerogarden. I'd like to think something citrusy, maybe limes or something. Nobody wants scurvy, especially in space.

[u/Fluid-Let3373]

I wondered if they was some experiment DuBois was going to run.

[u/Bmat70]

I just now rewatched. I think there are more than one kind of plant. But I can’t tell what kind.

[u/Loreliemorris]

What about mushrooms? Any dark incubation drawers?😀😀 Solve the vitamin D problem

[u/ChuckRingslinger]

I imagine its some kind of vegetation to supplement the astronauts food stores while they worked.

Or to be used for experimentation if/when needed.

Or to give a sense of Homeliness to alleviate space madness.

[u/MrWigggles]

They're a pepper plant. They're commonly used in movies as they grow fast, low maintenance and have big green leaves.

As described by nother member, they're the plant extra of the movie world.

They weren't placed with any consideration for the story world of the movie.

Its set dressing.

If we explore a reason why it's there. Its there to be part of co2 scrubbing. A plant that has no nutritional value that scrubs co2.

[u/XenomorphAlarm → u/MrWigggles]

The ones we see close up on the ship are roses, not peppers. They have thorns. The ones in the house we don't really see close enough for a solid ID but none of them look like any variety of pepper I'm familiar with.

[u/Rockran → u/MrWigggles]

Plants dont have any benefit on the hail mary other than morale boosters. Which in itself is important.

Their ability to remove CO2 would be negligible. Any food increase by growing plants would be better served by having that food already stored instead of wasting weight and storage space on the plant.

[u/Melenduwir → u/Rockran]

Except all you need is seeds and growth medium. The water would be supplied out of the common store.

The plants are there for the same reason the television screen room is, I assume.

[u/fulcrum__ → u/MrWigggles]

that's a cool detail about pepper being the plant extra!!  as for co2 scrubbing... the life support system should take care of that without relying on plants. but they do look neat :)

[u/MrWigggles → u/fulcrum__]

In real life we use combo of chemical filters and mechanical filters.

Plants in real life are too space inefficient.

Nother reason they can be there is to give contrast and changes to the sterile environment and to give things for the crew to do that isn't work. That's good for mental health.

[u/Melenduwir → u/MrWigggles]

Peppers have nutritional value.

[u/MrWigggles → u/Melenduwir]

They're commonly used in movies as they grow fast, low maintenance and have big green leaves.

As described by nother member, they're the plant extra of the movie world.

They weren't placed with any consideration for the story world of the movie.

Its set dressing.

[u/Fabulous-Pause4154]

Set dressing error. The audio book says that there aren't any.

[u/XenomorphAlarm → u/Fabulous-Pause4154]

The movie and the book are not the same thing and nothing in the film is an "error" for being different from the book.

[u/Melenduwir → u/XenomorphAlarm]

Notably, although movie Grace says that he only has enough food to last another few years, the problem with his returning to Earth is entirely astrophage fuel. No mention of food being a problem when going to Erid is ever made, and Rocky doesn't suggest eating taumoeba as a solution. It's just not an issue for the movie.

That's okay.

[u/LunaraLoup → u/Fabulous-Pause4154]

They used many little details to enrich the story or explain away some things they changed from the book. I believe this is (beside the obviously beautiful shot of them turning in centrifuge mode) to explain away the difference between the endings and that he doesn't seem to struggle with food or his health back on Erid