If it were up to author Andy Weir, nerds would be the coolest people in the world. They would be the real celebrities, their intellect making them rich and famous worldwide, the social media superstars, the envy of all. Weir’s book The Martian, released in 2015 to tremendous acclaim (seven Oscar nominations) and huge box office ($630M), was smart, entertaining, and had folks hoping it would inspire an entire generation of future brainiacs to love science. I don’t know if that happened or not, but the world gets another crack at it with Project Hail Mary, another Weir adaptation that, like its predecessor, is hopeful, fun, crowd-pleasing, curious, and features a single gripping lead performance.
Ryan Gosling has never been more like someone you want to hang out with than as science teacher Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary. Grace is basically a younger, hipper, better-looking Mr. Wizard, and he likes it that way. Some of his more radical theories, and arrogant attitude, made him a foe of the larger science community. But it’s also what caught the eye of the stern Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), who wants to recruit him for a desperate longshot mission, to save the planet’s dying sun.
The interesting thing about Grace is that he’s not a typical hero. He doesn’t claim to be brave, or smarter than anybody else. In fact, he’s almost self-deprecating to a fault, because this mission needs people who are unafraid to say what needs to be said. If Earth and all of humanity are to survive, there’s no room for humility.
Readers of Weir’s book will understand how Grace ends up on a spaceship lightyears away from Earth, with little to no memory of how he got there. But he finds himself all alone, and needing to remember quick if the mission is to succeed. So yeah, the setup, one man on an interstallar adventure for survival, is very similar to The Martian. However, there’s one major change: Rocky.
While Project Hail Mary is mostly a one-man-show, Grace is soon joined by an extraterrestrial colleague, who he dubs Rocky. The charming alien is also trying to save his planet from the same threat to Earth, a heat-absorbing organism called astrophage. It’s the friendship that builds between Grace and Rocky that becomes the movie’s true heart. Rocky is quite a character, getting many of the film’s biggest laughs due to the communication gap. He’s also a visual marvel that feels tactile and real, generating warmth and emotion the way E.T. did so many years ago. And that he’s not some CGI creation but a modernized puppet, makes Rocky even more amazing. Or “amaze amaze amaze!!!” as he might say. Admittedly, when Rocky was first revealed in the trailers I was upset by it. No, he’s not a spoiler or anything; but he’s such a surprising, welcome addition that I think it would have greater impact if kept more of a secret.
Speaking of visuals, Lord and Miller, directing their first movie since 22 Jump Street in 2014, have denied the use of green screen in favor of practical effects and some CGI, giving the film a classic sci-fi feel. It’s striking how the inside of Grace’s ship resembles something that would’ve been built by people today, with buttons and levers and monitors and other things that can break under extreme stress. And there is quite a bit of that, too, with Grace and Rocky’s journey threatened by all sorts of intergalactic dangers. Combined with the shifting aspect ratios, unmissable especially when seen in IMAX, Project Hail Mary is constantly keeping you on your toes.
Writer Drew Goddard just knows better than anyone how to capture the best aspects of Weir’s novels to present to a moviegoing audience. Having adapted both The Martian and Project Hail Mary, Goddard takes a “show, don’t tell” approach to the technobabble and science jargon that would bog down other movies. The pace is quick, at times breathlessly so, and the 156-minute runtime zips by. Even the Earthbound sequences, slower moving by necessity, are full of heart and no small amount of thrills. It’s on the ground that Grace begins to melt Stratt’s icy exterior (there’s a fantastic karaoke sequence), and learn what he’s truly capable of.
Amazon MGM Studios is throwing all of its considerable weight behind Project Hail Mary, the biggest theatrical release of its existence. This movie is a winner, superbly executed both in front of and behind the camera. There’s a damn good chance this will be a huge hit, and a film that people will be talking about throughout the year. I’m a bit stunned that Amazon didn’t hold it for the awards season, but as I said, this is a crowd-pleaser first and foremost. Project Hail Mary is popcorn entertainment with a brain, a combination that will send your enjoyment into orbit. Will it inspire younger audiences to find a love for science, to become astronauts themselves? We can only hope.
Project Hail Mary opens in theaters and IMAX on March 20th.
