Project Hail Mary is made up of blockbuster ingredients: a beloved science fiction IP, outer space, a faceless (to us) but oddly endearing alien, the incredibly likeable Ryan Gosling, and the directing tandem who did “The Lego Movie” aka Christopher Miller and Phil Lord.
“Project Hail Mary” is based on the 2021 bestseller by Andy Weir, who also wrote “The Martian.” It has shades of “Interstellar,” “E.T.,” and also, “Arrival,” “Ad Astra,” and “Gravity.”
The movie begins with science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling) waking up on a spaceship and trying to piece together who he is and why he’s there. One of the first things he finds out is it’ll take him 11 years and some change to get back to Earth. If he were from Metro Manila, he’d probably shrug his shoulders and take it, after all, we’re used to spending an eternity trying to get home each day.
Astrophages are feeding on our sun’s energy causing it to slowly dim to the point where our food supply, and eventually life as we know it, can no longer be sustained. This phenomenon is apparently being replicated all over the universe except on Tau Ceti.
It is Ryland’s mission to find out what makes Tau Ceti different and hopefully use that information to save us all.
A Hail Mary is a last resort football pass, where a team needs a miracle to win. As my seatmate pointed out “Hail Mary, full of grace…” I can’t believe I didn’t catch that obvious inspiration for the character’s name.
Ryland Grace eventually meets an alien he names Rocky, because Rocky resembles a tiny rock formation. Both come to understand they are on the same mission, to save their homes and their people from extinction. The utterly refreshing and endearing part of this story happens when both Ryland and Rocky’s first efforts after meeting are communication and collaboration.
Gosling turns in an effective performance as a truly reluctant ‘hero’ who nevertheless carries on with nerdiness, humor and tenacity.
In a world where aggression is too common a knee-jerk response when encountering an ‘other,’ where distrust, suspicion and takes over any sane analysis of evidence, here was this reminder of the beauty of cooperation. Classic Sesame Street tried to teach this to us all with the story of the Geefle and the Gonk.
The universe we occupy is so vast, we are so incredibly tiny and we have this tendency to blow such stupid, petty things out of proportion. We all need light from that same sun. We humans are much more alike than we are different, and yet too many people behave as if that were not true.
Project Hail Mary is a crowd pleaser that runs two hours and 36 minutes. A little bit long for my taste, and yet I’ve got a ticket for the “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” extended edition screening this weekend. Now that runs four hours and 23 minutes.
It looks like outer space isn’t ready to let Ryan Gosling go just yet, his next movie is a Star Wars product called “Starfighter” set for release next year.
