Project Hail Mary Review

Project Hail Mary is a big-budget sci-fi film based on Andy Weir’s third novel, which sees the fate of Earth rest on Ryan Gosling’s shoulders.

Dr. Ryland Grace (Gosling) awakes on a spacecraft with no memory about how he got there or what his mission is. Slowly, Grace’s memory comes back, and he remembers that the Sun is dying because of a species dubbed “Astrophage.” He becomes an important part of the multi-national effort to save the world. In space, Grace encounters an alien spacecraft with an alien also looking for a way to stop Astrophage and save his home world.

The previous adaptation of an Andy Weir novel was The Martian, and it was a critical and commercial hit. It was arguably Ridley Scott’s best film of the 2010s. It came out when there was a flux of space films, i.e. Interstellar, First Men and Ad Astra. It was a science fiction film that put an emphasis on science since the main character used his knowledge and skills to solve problems and survive on Mars. It aimed to be a more grounded sci-fi story.

Project Hail Mary shared a lot of similarities with The Martian. Drew Goddard adapted both novels, and they both showed scientific problems that needed to be solved. Project Hail Mary was more ambitious than The Martian, which had a dual narrative with the action in space only having two characters. The stakes were higher in Project Hail Mary since failure for Grace and Rocky would mean both their planets would die.

The premise of Project Hail Mary was similar to Sunshine and Interstellar, where there’s a desperate mission to get into space in a last-ditch effort to save Earth. There was also a bit of Arrival due to a human trying to figure out how to communicate with an alien, and the early scenes where an amnesiac Dr. Grace explores a spacecraft felt similar to Moon. A cynic would say Project Hail Mary was derivative, but at least it was influenced by some of the best sci-fi films of the past 20 years, and puts its spin on these ideas.

Project Hail Mary was focused on problem-solving. Grace needed to create more of the Astrophage so it could be used as fuel for speed-of-light space travel, make calculations to figure out what’s feasible, and make machinery and devices for scientific research. Even Grace’s approach to communicating with Rocky was treated as a logic problem, and he needed to find some common ground to build on.

Project Hail Mary had the highest stakes possible, but it was actually an optimistic film. On Earth, the nations of the world work together to ensure the planet’s survival, and Grace and Rocky worked together, using their collective skills and knowledge. The heart of the film was the relationship between Grace and Rocky, since they were more than colleagues, they became friends and audiences would be invested in them, even though one of them was a rock creature. Both Grace and Rocky were likeable presences: Gosling gave Grace an everyman quality and at times a bit of a goofball, even with his good looks, and Rocky was brought to life with some fantastic puppetry, which gave him physicality.

There was a great sense of awe throughout the film, especially during the sequences in space. It would be incredible to see a new star and planet, an alien spacecraft, and experience weightlessness for the first time. There was a sense of weight and grandeur, whilst also having peril, because things can go severely wrong. The film’s large budget was on display for all the space sequences.

There was a fair amount of humour in Project Hail Mary. The Martian was also fairly humorous, and this film was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directors of The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street films. It was a film that was filled with witty dialogue that was genuinely funny and helped viewers to invest in the characters and feel the gut punches when things went sideways.

Project Hail Mary had everything you want from a big-budget sci-fi film: big ideas, visual spectacle, and most importantly, wonderful characters and emotion.