A reveal is not a twist

Have you seen "Project Hail Mary"? The movie adaptation of Andy Weir's bestselling hard sci-fi novel is currently the biggest movie in America. It is good . Thanks to Greig Fraser, it's the most beautiful blockbuster this side of Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" movies, which Fraser also shot. I've long held that Ryan Gosling is our best living physical comedian, and he does some of that here, especially early on. The film also has gravitas, and heart, and he handles those scenes well too. Sandra Huller is also fantastic and gets to show off her lovely singing voice with a cover of Harry Styles' "Sign of the Times."

But the breakout star of the film is Rocky.

This is where I'll give a spoiler warning, I guess, but if you need one of those for "Project Hail Mary" you might unwittingly be the subject of this blog! You should stick around! Regardless, the rest of this will talk about the whole movie. The whooooole thing.

We good? We good.

Rocky is an alien. He looks like a rock. He walks on all fours (sixes?) and doesn't handle oxygen well and he kinda talks like the dog from "Up" but in the third person. He and Ryan Gosling eventually save the universe, albeit with some sacrifices made along the way, and they become best buds. Great. That sounds sarcastic but it's not — I quite enjoyed the movie.

I was reading some stuff about the movie afterwards when I discovered that some fans were disappointed with the film's marketing showing Rocky in the trailers. This surprised me, because Rocky is in like 75% of the movie, and also, aliens existing in a universe where little amoebas or whatever are eating the sun is not exactly a stretch. It would honestly be weird if there was no other life in the universe other than humans and sun-eating amoebas. And Huller's character reacts as such when she learns that Gosling has made contact with an alien, which is to say, she does not react at all. She is simply relieved that the sun is not going to be eaten any longer.

Yet, for some reason, meeting Rocky is being treated by some PHM fans as a twist. Let me be clear: it is not a twist.0 It is a reveal. Or, to put it a snarkier way, it is something unexpected that happens.

Many things can be revealed. A character's background and motivations, for one. There's a scene in PHM where Gosling talks about being a single man, about how he cared for someone once but she left, and he never really figured out who he is on his own. This informs a lot of the decisions he makes in the movie — if he had a family, he might not have saved Rocky at the end, instead choosing to go straight home to the people who love him. But that doesn't make the scene a twist, right? It's a reveal, a detail that we didn't previously know that we now do.

Actions can be reveals too. Huller's character is firm but kind enough for most of the film, yet in a late flashback we see her force Gosling to take part in the mission when he refuses, drugging him and throwing him on the Hail Mary. This is certainly closer to a twist than the reveal that Gosling is single, but it's still just something that has happened, even if it is surprising.

Twists are reveals that go one step further. They not only reveal something about the story or a character, but they reframe how you've seen the entire movie up to that point, begging you to watch the film again now that you've seen the whole picture. The classic example is "The Sixth Sense." I've always enjoyed the twist at the end of "The Prestige," as well as "Down With Love," a movie that more people should see! It's rare to see a twist in a rom-com, especially one that effective. Though they all come in different forms, these are things that seismically upend the 90+ minutes that came before.

Rocky showing up doesn't change the movie at all. In fact, it is the entire point of the movie. No, no, it is the movie. Rocky is arguably the second lead of the film, and Gosling would not succeed in his mission without him. He would die alone in space. The two characters meeting is the story. It is simply what happens. Nothing about it is a twist. Honestly, the Huller reveal is much closer to a twist than the Rocky thing is, as it does reframe the audience's understanding of why Gosling is in this situation. But not enough to qualify as a real twist. It's just a little unexpected.

You know what else is decidedly not a twist, while we're on the subject? The unmasking of a killer in a mystery/slasher. By definition, if someone has been killed, someone else has to have killed them. That information coming to light is not unexpected. It is actually, possibly, the most expected information of all time. Which is why some of the best films in the genre subvert that idea, like "Zodiac" and "Memories of Murder" (and even fun trash like "Bodies Bodies Bodies").

What else is not a twist? How about the fact that Gosling and Rocky do, in fact, succeed in their mission to save the sun. I mean, it's probably what you thought would happen, right? It would be weird if the crowd-pleasing blockbuster ended with its main characters dead in space and the Earth doomed to die in darkness soon after. But even if it did end that way, it would not be a twist. It would just be what happens. "But Ryan, I was surprised by the movie!" Yeah, that's what good movies tend to do, mate: Surprise you. Why would I want to watch a movie where I can predict everything that happens? That's usually a sign of a movie not having many new ideas. (Again, it works in Project Hail Mary, because there's a ton of stuff that is new and fun besides the ending. I'm just speaking generally.)

Does any of this matter? I don't know. I just want people to use words correctly, is that so bad?

I was going to think of a twist ending for this blog, but candidly, my stomach had been on the fritz all day and I don't feel great. In fact, I've written some of this from my bathroom. How's that for a reveal?0