Ryland Grace, played by actor Ryan Gosling, awakens from hibernation to find himself aboard a spaceship arriving at another star system. Problem is he has lost his memory and has no idea who he is let alone why he is there. To make matters worse the ship’s two other crewmembers have died in hibernation. That’s the beginning of the film ‘Project Hail Mary’ based upon the novel of the same name by Andy Weir. I think this is the first time I have reviewed a movie based upon a novel that I have already reviewed, to see that review check out my post of 18 August 2021.
Without giving too much of the story away our Sun has been losing energy, within 30 years the Earth’s temperature will drop by more than 10ºC leading to widespread famine and if the trend continues the end of all life on the planet. Ryland Grace is a schoolteacher who majored in biochemistry and published an article about life not based on water. Because of this the governments of the world ask him, and other scientists to analyze samples brought back by a space probe. It is Grace who discovers that the Sun has been infected by a virus-like ‘Astrophage’ and it is this Astrophage that is consuming some of the Sun’s energy. Not only that but our Sun appears to be on the outer edges of a cluster of stars that are all affected by astrophage. The virus is spreading from star to star.
Except for Tau Ceti, a star right in the middle of the cluster at a distance of 12 light years. Tau Ceti isn’t dimming at all, it appears to be immune to the astrophage. Hoping that the solution to controlling the astrophage may lay at Tau Ceti the nations of the world band together to send a spaceship there, a Hail Mary pass as it were. So, Ryland Grace ends up being the only human being in the Tau Ceti system as he tries to save Earth by finding the secret to controlling astrophage.
Grace may be the only human at Tau Ceti, but he’s not alone. Even as he’s trying to gain control of his ship, and remember what he’s doing at Tau Ceti an alien spaceship appears and makes contact. The alien is from the star 40 Eridani and their star is also infected by astrophage so they are also making a Hail Mary pass hoping to save their planet.
The alien turns out to be based on a chemistry using silicon rather than carbon, an alien made of rock who lives in an atmosphere of ammonia at a temperature well above the boiling point of water. Grace gives the alien the name Rocky and together the two have to learn how to communicate and survive each other’s environment before they can work together to save their planets.
Like most good SF ‘Project Hail Mary’ works because once you accept a couple of strange ideas, astrophages and aliens based on silicon, the rest is sound science. Besides which ‘Project Hail Mary’ is just a fun story with a likable protagonist, or should I say likable protagonists.
Like most movies based on novels ‘Project Hail Mary’ cuts out a bit of the story, mostly where Grace and Rocky learn to communicate. Also the movie is pretty much a one-man show since Ryan Gosling is the only human most of the time. Gosling does a great job but if you like to see a lot of interplay between actors, well mostly you get Gosling and a rock!
Still ‘Project Hail Mary’ is a really fun film, the kind of story we need right now. It’s a story about a very bright but non-heroic kind of guy who sacrifices himself to save the world. It’s also a story about a very strange friendship, two very different kinds of ‘people’ who work together to save their worlds.
So go see ‘Project Hail Mary’, it’s probably the best SF movie since ‘The Martian’.