“Project Hail Mary” follows the story of a sixth grade science teacher who wakes from a 10-year coma on a spaceship. He doesn’t remember anything and the rest of his crewmates are dead. Through a series of flashbacks he recovers his memory and it’s revealed to him that he was sent on a mission to the only star that is not slowly being eaten away, 11 light years away from Earth. Not only was he forced on the mission against his will, but it’s also a suicide mission as there is not enough fuel to return to Earth. Soon after waking up on the ship, he meets an alien named Rocky who is in the same situation, and they quickly bond despite having nothing in common and work together with the goal of saving their own planet and surviving to go home.
One thing this movie did well was the relationship between Grace and Rocky. The movie creates an alien deuteragonist that has a different look, language, and brain from Grace, yet somehow makes you feel sympathetic for him within minutes of his appearance. Despite having nothing in common with each other, they were still able to bond and become friends, making their farewell with each other before leaving to their separate planets even more powerful.
The movie was also able to use complex scientific topics without turning it into a lecture on those topics, and it was able to do this while staying realistic compared to many other sci-fi movies. The movie presents complicated problems as if they are puzzles that Grace solves, rather than the movie simply explaining to us how they get solved. It is a great example of showing over telling. The movie manages to keep it human as well. Grace still reacts to his problems as someone who is missing half of their memory and just woke up after a 10-year induced coma and that’s what keeps the movie engaging and relatable.
There is one thing the movie could have improved on: it is lighthearted for the stakes the characters are in. A man is sent on a suicide mission to save humanity from a dying sun, yet a lot of the movie feels very upbeat and you don’t feel the dire emotional weight of the situation. The stakes are enormously high, but instead of using that to resonate with the audience, it downplays it with humorous scenes such as Rocky running all over Grace’s spaceship and their misunderstandings of each other’s world. It’s not that the movie should have been totally devoid of humor, just that they could have leaned into the incredibly high stakes more, something that similar space movies such as “Interstellar” did a lot better at than “Project Hail Mary”.
Overall, the movie is great, especially if you want to see something that’s uplifting and lighthearted. However, if someone booked tickets and walked into the theater expecting a deep story that leaves them feeling heavy and pondering for the rest of the day, they may be disappointed. It’s essentially a combination of “The Martian” and “E.T The Extraterrestrial”. Ultimately, it’s a fun movie and the humor combined with the plot will make watchers leave the theater feeling uplifted.
