Project Hail Mary is a movie about having hope when all seems lost and the power of friendship. The film itself is beautiful, both in visuals and sound, but the underlying theme about working together really makes it special and makes you cry.
I read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the book the movie is based on, a couple of years ago in about a day. It was a Christmas present I finished before I even came home from my relatives’ place. I loved the book—Andy Weir’s most famous work, The Martian, was my favorite, and I loved how he wrote extremely realistic science fiction. When I heard that they were making it into a movie, I thought, “Why not?” I enjoyed the book, so the movie should at least be good.
It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while. Project Hail Mary is about an Earth that is dying as the sun begins to dim. Earth decides to send off one last ‘Hail Mary’—a rocket to the only star that is unaffected by the mysterious Petrova Line. Ryland Grace wakes up from a coma, in the middle of space, alone and with amnesia. He is the only one who can save Earth now.
Going into Project Hail Mary, I wasn’t sure if Ryan Gosling would be able to pull off scientist Ryland Grace. Hollywood and science can seem so far apart sometimes, with countless movies and shows misrepresenting scientists. So how could a famous actor represent someone so down to Earth? I was proven wrong by Gosling, and his performance cemented his version of Grace as the version I would imagine any time I read the book. He balanced the character’s humor with the devastation of the movie’s events perfectly.
If you’ve read the book and wonder if it’s a faithful adaptation, I say yes. There are always limitations when it comes to switching to a different medium, and parts of the book were cut out or unable to be represented in film form, but the core of the story stayed the same. It’s still about space, cool science, and the end of the world—and, of course, our bonds with others. Unfortunately, they do not nuke Antarctica in the movie.
Project Hail Mary is an adaptation that builds on its source material. Greig Fraser, who you may know from Dune, is the cinematographer for this film, and he certainly shows off his experience. Throughout the entirety of the film, I remained in awe of how these scenes from the book were brought to life and how beautiful he made them. One of these visualizations almost brought me to tears. The movie was also directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, of The Lego Movie and Spider-Verse fame, and you can certainly tell. The direction of the scenes builds a story about finding hope in hopelessness, the beauty of Earth, and the humans that live on it. There are scenes that will surprise and awe you, whether you’ve read the book before or not.
The science in the movie tries to be accurate, following Weir’s book. While the movie is still science fiction, with several implausible events, the actual science stays grounded in reality, and implausible things still follow scientific laws. There is one scene where, front and center, molecular biology doctorate Ryland Grace loads a centrifuge completely off balance. I still find it in myself to forgive them, when everything they are introducing to us seems so interesting.
Maybe it’s a movie about our true strength being the friends we made along the way, and maybe that’s what makes it good. But it also has a solid story, excellent sound design, and visuals that will make you interested in space all over again. You should really go see it in theaters.
