Project Hail Mary

Metadata

The Movie in 3 Sentences

• Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or why he is there. As his memory returns, he realizes he has been sent light-years from Earth to solve the mystery of a substance that is draining the Sun’s energy. The survival mission becomes unexpectedly emotional when he forms a bond with an alien named Rocky, whose world is facing the same crisis.
• Based on Andy Weir’s second novel, it has some similarities in structure of The Martian in that a man in isolation must use power of science and wit to save himself; however, this movie was made for the general public, not the sci-fi super fans and nerds, so it glanced over lots of scientific details and Weir’d signature dry-wit humor and made the movie more about a friendship story. Its strongest idea is that intelligence matters, but survival may depend even more on trust across difference.
• There was a lot of research about the hard science that I needed to do to understand what was going on, and I was convinced enough that I bought the book. Looking forward to reading it!
• The film is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, with Greig Fraser as cinematographer, so that combination explains the large-scale space spectacle with a more playful, buddy movie. I thought this would be one of the movies that a kid would watch in the theaters and walk out in wonders. Why can’t we make more movies like these..

My Top 3 Quotes

• Rocky watch whole crew die. Could not fix. Grace say Grace will die. Rocky fix.
• Rocky: What is Grace doing, question? Ryland Grace: [softly] I'm having a moment.