******SUN-SIZED SPOILERS!******
Few movies lately have filled me with as much anticipation as “Project Hail Mary” (2026), which I’ve waited nearly five years to see on the big screen, after devouring the 2021 novel by Andy Weir (“The Martian,” “Artemis”). The movie is being adapted by Drew Goddard, who previously adapted Weir’s “The Martian” for director Ridley Scott (“ALIEN”) in 2015. Lead actor Ryan Gosling is coproducing with the imaginative directing team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse”), who are getting another shot at directing a space epic after their controversial firing from 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
“The Martian,” starring Matt Damon and directed by Ridley Scott (“ALIEN” “Blade Runner”) was the first motion picture adaptation of an Andy Weir novel. Eleven years later, we finally get another.
Success for the movie of “Project Hail Mary” seemed almost a foregone conclusion, given the wild popularity of the book (and the Audibles audiobook, read by actor Ray Porter). However, books (and audiobooks) are very different mediums than movies, which require some truncation, streamlining and visual impact for a mass audience to take in a single viewing. Like Weir’s other novels, “Project Hail Mary” is bristling with real-world science and fully embraces the challenges of Einstein’s Special Relativity. Weir’s spaceships can’t simply jump to warp; they’re bound by the laws of our universe, with only a bare minimum of fanciful fudging.
Meeting Andy Weir at San Diego Comic Con in 2016 (hence my “Breaking Bad” Los Pollos Hermanos’ cosplay). I’ve been a fan of Weir’s books for over a decade now. and I eagerly read my copy of “Project Hail Mary” the week of its release five years ago. I’ve even downloaded the audiobook for long walks/drives as well.
That adherence to science is the challenge for this film, which was shot with IMAX formatting for maximum scope fitting for an odyssean story set across three star systems. Despite its fantastic scale, my favorite aspect of “Project Hail Mary” is the moving story of interspecies friendship at its core.
“Project Hail Mary” (2026)
Disoriented, amnesic protagonist, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), awakens aboard the largely automated spaceship Hail Mary with no idea where he is, let alone why he is there. Gravity is provided by the ship’s continuous forward thrust, but the star he’s approaching isn’t the sun–it’s Tau Ceti, 12 light years away.
Note: The beginning of the movie is a match with the book, with our groggy protagonist awakening after his long, artificially-induced coma aboard the Hail Mary. We, the reader/viewer discover who he is via flashbacks as he comes around. One concession made for moviegoers early on is that we learn Ryland Grace’s name a lot sooner than he does in the book. As one who’s too often thwarted by my own stupid passwords, I’m fine with that. It’s a curious conceit/coincidence that actor/producer Ryan Gosling has the same initials as his character. The name ‘Ryland Grace’ was a clever witticism from author Andy Weir (“Hail Mary, full of Grace…”).
With help from the ship’s nursemaid AI, Grace learns his name, where he is, and that his crew mates Olesya Ilyukhina and Commander Yao did not survive their extended comas during the years-long voyage. Still suffering his own post-coma amnesia, Grace doesn’t yet remember them.
Note: Many facts made explicit in the book are almost subliminal in the movie’s opening act, such as the higher gravity aboard Hail Mary produced by its thrust (which kept Grace’s muscle mass from deteriorating during his coma). The actual discovery of the infamous “Petrova line” between the Sun and Venus (where the deadly ‘astrophage’ commutes) happens off-camera as well, replacing the cryptic speculations between Grace and other characters from the book. As a fan, I’d recommend reading the book (or audiobook) beforehand if possible, so that you might better absorb the nuances of the movie; which is faithful, but rapidly paced, despite its 156 minute runtime.
Grace’s memories slowly return in stages, via flashbacks–a storytelling device from the book. In the first batch, Grace remembers he’s an 8th grade science teacher who once wrote a controversial paper about waterless life that more or less led to his banishment from the scientific community. Grace however, found greater fulfillment through teaching kids.
Note: The flashbacks used in the book whenever a portion of Grace’s memory returned to him occur less frequently in the movie. In the book, Grace’s flashbacks are more sudden and chaotic, whereas the movie places them in large chunks at regular intervals, which makes the complex narrative a bit more digestible for a viewer.
For the purpose of efficiency in the existential solar crisis, the world powers have been consolidated into one Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), who has commandeered naval vessels, large laboratories and anything else she needs, including an 8th grade science teacher with just the sort of out-of-the-box thinking she needs.
Note: German actress Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) is simply perfect as Eva Stratt, with nearly subliminal nuance in her deceptively no-nonsense performance (much like Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock ). I’ve heard Andy Weir say at multiple conventions that Stratt was designed as a living embodiment of his own private power fantasies; the ability to cut through red tape and simply get things done, like making a single call to end world hunger, etc. Some of Stratt’s broader moves in the book (detonating nukes at the poles, or paving the Gobi desert with solar panels) were eliminated from the movie, leaving her near-absolute power more implicit. Sadly, as we’ve seen in the United States recently, there is grave danger in any one person wielding such broad, unchecked power…
From a sample probe, a sample of the deadly ‘astrophage’ (a solar infection that steals sunlight) is collected along a “Petrova line” between the sun and Venus. Grace becomes the first person to verify that astrophage is alive.
Note: The only deliberate scientific fudge that Weir made for his story was in the astrophage; the spaceborne parasite that feeds off starlight. Weir admitted in a podcast that he hadn’t fully realized the density required for a single-cell lining to contain so much energy. But who cares. The story is so inspiring in its scientific integrity that it’s easy to give Weir’s astrophage the same pass one might give for a thin, breezy Martian sandstorm packing enough punch to topple a rocket…
Project Hail Mary astronauts Olesya Ilyukhina (Milana Vayntrub), Commander Yao (Ken Leung) and science officer Dubois (Malachi Kirby) observe the awesome energy contained in astrophage, as a tiny sample melts a large slab of steel in seconds.
Note: Nice foreshadowing of what mishandled astrophage will do to the Project Hail Mary team later on. We also see ill-fated science officer Dubois (Malachi Kirby) looking closest through the test chamber portal.
The Hail Mary discovers another spaceship has reached the Tau Ceti system; a massive alien vessel whose computer-given designation is “Blip-A.” Grace’s first reaction is near-panic.
Note: This scene is the only false note in this otherwise sterling book-to-movie adaptation. The exaggerated, cartoonish attempts by a panicking Grace to outmaneuver the Hail Mary from the pursuing Blip-A looks like it should be accompanied by “Yakety Sax” from The Benny Hill Show. Yes, it got a big laugh in the theater, but it undermines the more profound impact this moment had in the book.
An alien presence aboard the massive Blip-A sends small models to Grace in cylindrical containers before building an extended docking tunnel made of solid xenon (“xenonite”) to connect the two vessels for contact.
Initially surprised by the alien’s crusty, spider-like, utterly inhuman presence, Grace attempts to communicate with the multi-limbed being through mimicry and gestures. The sightless, faceless alien, who exists in a hot toxic atmosphere, ‘sees’ Grace via sonar-like imagery through translucent patches in his xenonite tunnel.
Note: The face-to-er, face meeting between Grace and Rocky is a cinematic first contact moment on par with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) or “The Arrival” (2016). Like the four-dimensional beings seen in “The Arrival,” Rocky truly looks alien in every sense–a creature that didn’t evolve in our ecosphere. The darkness of Rocky’s hurriedly crafted xenonite tunnel isn’t for dramatic effect, either; it’s perfectly logical for a species that evolved without sight organs.
After a few visits, Grace sets up a laptop to record individual sounds made by the alien he’s named “Rocky,” and creates a crude translation matrix. Soon, the two are able to communicate, and Rocky is even given a synthesized computer ‘voice’ (James Ortiz).
Note: Loved the scene of Grace trying out different laptop-synthesized voices for Rocky, with voice cameos from no less than Meryl Streep (“She can do anything”) and lesser-known but wildly talented voice actor Ray Porter, who reads the audiobook version of “Project Hail Mary” for Audibles, and first gave voice to the character. Porter is to audiobooks what the late Orson Welles was to radio dramas. He is also the narrator of the popular “Bobiverse” sci-fi audiobooks by Dennis E. Taylor, which are currently being adapted into a live-action movie by producer Aditya Sood (“The Martian,” “Project Hail Mary”).
As we saw in Weir’s “The Martian,” Grace records a video log of his progress in communicating with Rocky and their combined attempt to solve the astrophage plague which led them both to Tau Ceti; a local star that seems to have avoided the infections seen in Sol and Rocky’s home star of 40 Eridani.
Rocky creates a portable habitat guided with magnets that he uses to enter and explore the Hail Mary. As the communication between Rocky and Ryland grows, so does their friendship.
Note: The film gives Rocky’s xenonite ball a single soft, flexible patch through which he can hold and manipulate individual objects; a nice addition to the design.
In one of the movie’s few additions to the story, the Hail Mary is now equipped with a virtual environment chamber for the benefit of its crew on their long voyage. With both of their crews gone, Grace now uses it to show Rocky the old home planet (through Rocky’s own sight-to-sonic translator screen).
Note: The wraparound virtual environment simulator aboard the Hail Mary is a smart addition for the film. The book’s version of the ship was more utilitarian and would never have wasted space on such a superfluous device, but it makes sense for crew morale (assuming the rest of Grace’s crew hadn’t died, of course). Grace uses the simulator to show Rocky his home planet, including a sunny beach and the Manhattan skyline. He even shows Rocky his namesake movie. I wondered how sightless Rocky would ‘see’ the chamber’s two-dimensional screens (which would register as flat noise to him) until I realized he’d already created his ‘sight-to-sonic’ translator pad from the book.
Another flashback series shows Grace adapting to his secluded life of dedicated astrophage research on a Chinese aircraft carrier, where he begins bonding with the Hail Mary crew, and even gets Eva Stratt to drop her guard a bit.
Letting her no-nonsense, authoritative guard down for a few moments to bond with her team, Stratt does a kick-ass karaoke of Harry Styles’ “Signs of the Times,” and then abruptly walks away.
Note: Stratt’s karaoke scene with her teammates is a critical character-building moment from the book is faithfully recreated for the film. It’s one of the few moments where Stratt lets her hair down a bit, and offers the extremely subtle suggestion that, under better circumstances, Stratt and Grace might’ve become fleeting lovers. However, the burden of Stratt’s position would never afford her such an indulgence.
The harrowing sample collection sequence sees the Hail Mary drop into a dangerously low orbit over the planet dubbed “Adrian” (named for Rocky’s mate) in an attempt to gain a sample of its upper atmosphere and learn the secret of its astrophage immunity.
With the sample barely secured in time, the Hail Mary blasts out of its rapidly decaying orbit with a powerful acceleration that nearly kills all-too human pilot Grace. The dangerous sample return mission yields the discovery of “Taumeba”; an amoeba native to the Tau Ceti system that consumes astrophage.
Note: The dangerous sample collection mission into Adrian’s atmosphere is the movie’s (and book’s) biggest action set piece, and it’s delivered with white-knuckled intensity. It reminds us that necessary scientific research can incur considerable risk. Rocky’s translated voice telling Grace to “hurry hurry hurry” echoes what runs through our minds as we watch Grace desperately returning inside to pilot the ship out of its rapidly decaying orbit.
Crushed against the front panel by g-forces, Grace is unable to push a button to stabilize their trajectory. As Grace lapses into unconsciousness, Rocky is forced to break out of his containment habitat and push the button himself–a self-sacrificial move which nearly kills the alien.
Note: This is one of the most impactful scenes from the book, and the movie really delivers the goods. A deleted moment from the book saw Grace trying to ‘treat’ the injured, unconscious Rocky by scraping what he believed was burnt residue from Rocky’s carapace, not realizing it was Rocky’s own version of scabbing over a wound in order to heal it. Even as a diehard fan of the book, I was okay with losing that bit. Both characters had already been through enough.
An explosion during an astrophage experiment kills Dubois and his backup, leaving the Hail Mary without a science officer.
Note: It’s a shame Dubois was never developed much as a character. In the book, he was very clinical and literal, even when discussing his sexcapades with one of the Hail Mary team. Ultimately, his character’s death is but a means to get Ryland Grace’s butt aboard the ship.
Short one science officer, Stratt is about to make Ryland Grace an offer he (literally) can’t refuse.
Spirited Ilyukhina reminds Grace of the awesome company he’d be in if he joins their one-way mission.
Grace desperately tries to weasel his way out of being drafted for the Hail Mary crew, until Stratt uses extreme means to place him in an early coma and toss him aboard the ship without his consent.
Note: While the character of Ryland Grace is heroic through most of the story, the final flashback sequence is unflinching in its depiction of his earlier cowardice. While Grace was subdued and rendered unconscious more easily in the book, the movie makes an extended, almost comedic chase out of it, and to be honest, I could’ve done without most of that. The movie wisely jettisons schoolteacher Grace’s frequent use of cursing euphemisms, such as “gosh darn,” or “what the heck”; a habit born of minding his language around middle schoolers. In a movie, this could’ve made him sound like Ned Flanders from “The Simpsons,” and might not have worked so well.
As Rocky recovers, robotic “Beetle” couriers from Hail Mary send samples of the astrophage’s natural amoebic predator to Earth with all necessary research, forcing Rocky and Grace to go their separate ways. Before parting, Grace gives Rocky a crocheted model of Earth, while Rocky gives Grace a tour of his ship (in a xenonite suit). On the way home, Grace discovers an integrity problem with xenonite that threatens Rocky’s mission. He then makes the selfless choice to relocate the Blip-A, and save Rocky at the risk of his own life.
Note: Grace’s tour aboard Rocky’s darkened spaceship was another addition for the movie (as was his clunky xenonite spacesuit). In the book, Grace regretted not being able to board Rocky’s ship, since its atmosphere and temperature would test the limits of his too-precious EVA suit, and that was the end of it. Grace’s agonizing choice to turn his ship around and save Rocky’s civilization over his own life is the final redemption of the character to atone for his earlier cowardice.
The movie’s coda is straight from the book, with Ryland Grace now living on a small plot of terraformed land on Erid, where he’s able to resume his teaching career with a class of eager young Eridanian students.
Note: The final coda with Ryland Grace on Erid is more or less accurate to the book, but with a few liberties. In the book, Grace was visibly older, and needed a cane to walk in Erid’s higher gravity. Grace was also living in an enclosed, well-lit habitat surrounded by the planet’s pitch darkness beyond his field of vision. In the movie, we see Grace now living on a terraformed plot of shoreline surrounded by giant video screens with earthly beach vistas (how would Rocky’s sightless race learn how to construct Jumbotrons, anyway?). The final scene of Grace residing on a virtual alien beach has a lot more visual oomph than a man living in a nice cage. By their very nature, movies have different demands than books.
The End.
Summing It Up
Superficially, “Project Hail Mary” shares elements with “Interstellar,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Silent Running,” and perhaps even a bit of “E.T”, though these elements are combined in a fresh new way, with enough intelligence, gravitas and irreverence to wow an audience without intimidating them. I was amazed with how quiet and attentive the expectantly rowdy Friday night crowd was during this film. Didn’t see or hear the usual texting or distracted chatter during the movie, either. They were really paying attention. A rare surprise these days.
The not-so-freshly thawed Ryland Grace finds himself lost in space with two corpses for comrades.
As a hardcore fan of Andy Weir’s book, I was most impressed with Drew Goddard’s smartly streamlined screenplay, which retains all the essentials of the story, while smartly truncating and streamlining it in all the right places. While I thoroughly enjoyed the book (my favorite sci-fi book of this century), there are the usual subplots and extraneous bits that aren’t necessary to the core story. In addition to the fine performances by star/coproducer Ryan Gosling and costar/performer James Ortiz, the movie’s most memorable performance comes from Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt; the story’s authority figure who’s given a blank check for the titular project, with the means and power to accomplish it any way she sees fit. Stratt’s power is inferred through Hüller’s deceptively simple yet nuanced portrayal.
Seeing into the infrared “Petrova frequency” of the astrophage mixes menace with elegance.
Despite its faithful adherence to Weir’s book, there’s room for inventive direction by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. We see “Petrova-vision” views of the astrophage infection through red filters and tiny dancing blobs of light. Rocky’s sightless sonar-vision is also realized with three-dimensional, metallic-monochrome imaging that is surprisingly similar to what I ‘saw’ when I read the book. One moment of the film I didn’t care for was the almost cartoonish maneuvers of the two spaceships when a terrified Ryland Grace desperately pilots the Hail Mary away from the Blip-A. Yes, the scene got a big laugh from the audience, but for me, it undercut some of the awe in that moment. Also wasn’t a fan of the borderline comedic chase between Grace and the base security guards in the final flashback sequence. Nevertheless, these are minor nits, and I might’ve expected a lot more of them in a typical book-to-movie adaptation. Fortunately, the directors Lord and Miller really understood the assignment.
I can only imagine the volumes of fanfic written about the relationship between Rocky and Grace, who can’t even share an atmosphere, let alone anything more intimate.
Beyond the various crises of the story, the interspecies/interstellar friendship between Ryland Grace and Rocky is the heart of the movie, and it’s as strong and real as any friendship between two human characters, even if Rocky doesn’t have a face. That friendship is what separates this from other ‘lonely astronaut’ movies (“Silent Running,” “Moon”). While Rocky crafts solutions to technical challenges perhaps a bit too quickly at times (part of his alien nature), he is a fully realized and dimensional character, and not some alien deus ex machina. The ‘synthesized’ voice of Ortiz fully expresses Rocky eagerness, intelligence and even a bit of his smart-ass side. Gosling’s Grace is a bit more hip and cool than I imagined his character to be, but that interpretation is a smart one for a wider audience, and I’m very okay with it.
As adaptations go, I was truly delighted with the final result of “Project Hail Mary.” As a movie experience, it captures the right mix of awe, fidelity and heart to win over a mass audience, but without compromising its story’s hard-earned scientific integrity. As Rocky might say, “Good good good.”
Where to Watch
As of this writing, “Project Hail Mary” is available only in theaters in IMAX (1.43:1) and other aspect ratios. This movie deserves as grand a presentation as one can afford.
