This article contains spoilers!
Based on the 2021 novel by Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary is centered around junior-high-science-teacher-turned-astronaut, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), and his adventure into deep space to save Earth from a star-eating amoeba called astrophage. Fans praise the movie for staying close to the original plot from the beloved book and serving heavy scientific elements in digestible bites.
During the pandemic, Gosling was captivated when he read the unpublished manuscript of Weir’s novel and ended up buying the rights to it shortly after. Gosling said in a recent interview on the making of Project Hail Mary that he wanted to make a hopeful movie that families can enjoy. Teaming up with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Gosling took this touching and humorous sci-fi film to big screens around the world.
One recurring cinematography technique this movie uses are flashbacks. The movie begins with Grace waking up in a space shuttle with no memory of how he got there. The film then switches quickly back and forth between his current surroundings and his old life back on Earth, mirroring his disheveled state of mind.
Finally, Grace remembers his mission: travel to a star named Tau Ceti and find out why it is unaffected by the star-eating astrophage cells. All humans are depending on him to save Earth from a catastrophic ice age. However, there’s one catch: it is a one-way mission, meaning that Grace must die in space.
The movie takes a cheerful turn after this revelation: Grace meets an alien, who he dubs Rocky. This heartwarming scene is a consistent fan favorite among viewers. Rocky even offers to supply Grace with extra astrophage fuel so he can return home.
It turns out Rocky’s planet is facing the same problem as Earth, and so begins the remarkable partnership between a human and an alien working together to save their planets. When they arrive at Tau Ceti, they make an amazing discovery: an organism on the orbiting planet, which Rocky names Adrian, feeds on astrophage. However, while collecting samples of the organism from the planet’s atmosphere, Grace and Rocky crash and breach the fuel tank, a disaster that nearly ends their mission for good. In perhaps the most tearful part of the film, Rocky sacrifices himself by coming out of his hamster ball-esque bubble, which allows him to survive in Grace’s atmosphere, to go save the unconscious Grace.
Thankfully, his actions were not in vain and Rocky eventually recovers from his heroic act. They both seal the collected specimen in xenonite, a strong material from Rocky’s home planet, to bring the astrophage predator back home and it looks like all is well again.
In the final plot twist, just when Rocky and Grace have parted ways, there is a sudden problem on Grace’s ship: the organism has evolved to escape xenonite and eat the ship’s fuel. In a moment of darkness, Grace realizes that Rocky’s entire ship is made of xenonite—meaning that he will inevitably run out of fuel and perish in space.
Without hesitation, Grace abandons his chance of returning to Earth to go save his friend. His refusal to let Rocky die even if that meant he had to give up going home was truly heartwarming to watch. Grace successfully reunites with Rocky, all the information on how to save humans gets sent back to Earth, and we learn that Grace has successfully adjusted to life on Rocky’s home as the aliens there prepare to send him back to Earth.
Project Hail Mary truly was such a refreshing watch as it embraces themes of hope and building trust over traditionally dystopian sci-fi movies. It also deserves credit for going the extra ten miles to make even the most minute details in the movie accurate and well thought out. Though it has been criticized for failing to balance the centrifuge on Grace’s ship, Project Hail Mary is an optimistic sci-fi which will be sure to touch the hearts of generations to come.
