Spoilers Ahead!
Our ever-loving Ryan Gosling had played in a new science fiction and space exploration film known as Project Hail Mary. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had brought Andy Weir’s story to life, and although the book is rarely ever synonyms?? the book. This movie made everyone feel the emotions that Weir was trying to connect with his audience.
The audience may recognize Andy Weir and his amazing space stories from his books The Martian and Artemis, from which The Martian was turned into a film, with actor Matt Damon playing Mark Watney, who was an astronaut left on planet Mars and had to fend for himself.
Weir has a talent for building characters that are relatable and loving, and he has not disappointed when making Project Hail Mary.
The story follows Ryland Grace, a former junior high science teacher who, all of a sudden, wakes up from amnesia to find himself on a spaceship. Only to later remember that he was placed on a desperate one-way mission to save Earth from a solar-dimming microorganism called “astrophage.”
Grace is one of the main scientists in a government-facilitated organization to know how to control the astrophage, as he had figured out how to create more of the organism and what it does. However, the main mission was to understand why one planet out of all the planets in the galaxy was not infected with the same solar- dimming organism. Grace was then unknowingly put on the spaceship and sent off to the planet to investigate it; while on the trip, Grace meets a fellow traveler, who is given the name Rocky. All of which is solely based on his appearance as an alien rock. We find out that Rocky is on a similar mission to save his planet.
Thus, Grace and Rocky team up to investigate the planet, the astrophage, and the organism that can kill it.
In the movie, Gosling puts in an excellent performance in making Grace’s character experience things in a comedic way that the audience can feel, and all of it is met with laughter in the theater.
Senior Russell Johl had spoken about his experience watching the movie in IMAX, saying, “This was an amazing movie! I had learned so much from Grace and how bravery isn’t something given out, but it is made. Grace was brave enough to risk his life for a friend and save someone else. That is something worth writing about!”
Grace in the story is trying to grapple with the idea of being on a one- way mission, meaning that he would die in space, all of which can be overloading on someone who didn’t know he was going to be on the mission. This brings up the sense of mortality that Grace shows in the film, that he is living every day as if it is his last. From trying to communicate to an alien spaceship, almost falling into another planet, or even risking his life to save Rocky. With Rocky alongside him, life was worth fighting for and saving each other as they were both placed under the same dilemma.
This goes to my other understanding of the story, which is humanity. There is an element of humanity and care for others outside of our being that Weir adds to this story. Grace himself had demonstrated the main element of curiosity and want in saving another being other than himself, which shows that we can be the same and we can care for others. This is how we grow as a person, and Grace has grown to know that other beings out there also have humanity and care. Unlike how the media has portrayed aliens as soul-taking and evil things wanting to take over Earth.
Rocky has shown kindness and understanding to Grace after finding out later in the film that everyone on Rocky’s ship had died. And Grace gives him the same amount of friendship that Rocky needs, because Grace’s team had also died in space.
This movie made me cry and realize the importance of friendship and having the courage to explore the unknown. This is definitely a movie that I would be watching over and over again. The amount of emotions that not only I but the rest of the audience experienced was amazing. This is what going to the theater should be like. Ryan Gosling had not put the not in astronaut.