Project Hail Mary is set to blast off on March 20th, but why exactly should you care? Here's every reason why you should be stoked about this heartwarming sci-fi extravaganza. Mild spoilers ahead.
When the first trailer dropped a while back, you might have experienced some light pangs of deja vu. A lone man struggles for survival in space. He's a scientist and thus incredibly resourceful.
He's also a big nerd and seems to have dad sense of humor. Why does this sound so familiar? Right, let's do the math.
Ah, yes, of course. Project Hail Mary is based on a book written by the one and only Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian. The 2015 adaptation of The Ladder was incredibly successful in pretty much every sense of the word.
It grossed over $630 million against a budget of $18 million. The critical response was stellar. It currently holds a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Fans of the book were more than pleased that director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Drw Goddard stayed true to the source material in all the important ways and the perfectly chosen cast really brought the story to life, especially the always lovable Matt Damon. I am the greatest botonist on this planet. That being said, we have justifiably high hopes for Project Hail Mary.
It has many of the same ingredients that made The Martian a cosmic success, plus a generous handful of others that we'll get into as this video goes on. Also, we actually read the book in recent months. So, we can tell you with near scientific certainty that Weir's latest story of deep space problem solving is just as well suited for the big screen, maybe even more so.
If you don't like the sound of that, we honestly don't even know what to tell you. The next reason you should be stoked is the plot. As evidenced by the trailer, the crux of the movie is an apocalypse scenario, and it obviously doesn't feature any of the usual existential threats that make such movies appealing, like catastrophic weather due to global warming, nuclear war, rogue AI, or even a good oldfashioned alien invasion.
Nope, it's actually something pretty original. The sun is dying. You are the only scientist who might know what this is.
We know what you're thinking. But wait, isn't that what Danny Bole's 2007 film Sunshine is about? the one where Killian Murphy and the crew are tasked with reigniting the dying sun by flying a huge stellar bomb into it.
While it may seem pretty similar on the surface, those of us who've read the book know that it definitely has its own thing going on. We're not going to ruin it for you, but we'll give you a hint. It has nothing to do with the stars natural death process, which involves running out of nuclear fuel, growing into a red giant, and then either going supernova or collapsing into a black hole.
Also, Earth's sun isn't the only star that's dying. The sun is not the only star dying. Every star was infected by its neighbor except one.
Why? We don't know. Weir put a lot of thought into this whole scenario.
And while astrophysicists could probably nitpick the specifics, it's all firmly rooted in science. Another main reason Project Hail Mary is pretty much destined for success is Rocky, the friendly ET that Ryan Gosling's character, Dr Grace, runs into after he sets out to save the world. So, I met an alien.
He's kind of growing on me. At least he's not growing in me, you know, which was a concern for a little while. Rocky is a small spiderl looking alien who has a rock-like outer shell, hence his nickname.
His language sounds more like music instead of spoken words, which actually makes it relatively easy for Dr Grace to run through a computer and translate into English. Try this. I am Rocky.
I like sounds kind of goofy, right? Well, like the specifics of the dying sun plot, Weir went out of his way to make everything about Rocky very believable. His biology, his home world, and of course, his reason for stumbling upon Dr Grace out there in space.
We're here for the same reason. His son is dying, too. And trust us, the friendship they develop while they search for a way to save their respective species is heartwarming and wholesome in all the best ways.
And also hilarious. Call it fist bump, by the way. Fist my bump.
No, it's fistbump. Everyone loves a good teamup movie, right? And it doesn't get much better than a team up between a wannabe astronaut and a friendly alien.
While Rocky is obviously the main attraction, Dr Grace is a great character as well. He's a once prominent microbiologist turned school teacher who has the same sort of nerdy dad joke energy that made Mark Wattney so likable in The Martian. And Ryan Gosling is by far the best possible actor they could have picked to portray him.
And you know what? I don't mind it. Gosling is one of the most versatile actors out there.
He can go dark like in Place Beyond the Pines or Drve. He can play a lovable idiot like in Barbie. He can go from being awkward in a film like Lars and the Real Girl to being super smooth in a blockbuster like The Fall Guy.
You can basically do anything. We need to keep it super profession. Profess is my middle name.
That said, the character of Dr Grace is basically an amalgamation of all of Gosling's greatest strengths, but his sense of humor is the true selling point. Weir himself even praised him in a recent review with YouTuber Ma Garrett. He said Ryan has played a lot of like really hilarious humor roles.
He's funny. He's really funny. We are also joked.
I didn't imagine Ryland as being so ridiculously good looking. Yeah, literally Ken. Something you may not realize by watching the trailers is that there is a lot more to the story than what happens in space.
In the book, there are two interwoven plots. What happens on Earth leading up to launch and what happens in space afterwards. This isn't an arbitrary storytelling choice.
The book starts with Dr Grace waking up on the ship with amnesia. It takes him a good while to recover his memories and piece together why he's there and what actually happened in the months leading up to his big mission. Again, we won't give too much away, but let's just say that the preparation part of the story isn't as simple as the sun is dying.
You're a scientist. Get your suit on and let's go. I put the knot an astronaut.
I've never done anything. I've never done a space. I can't even moonwalk.
Enter one of the hidden main characters, Eva Strat, played by Sandra Hooler. Strat is the head of Project Hail Mary, and she's about as humorless and dead pan as someone can get. The consensus here is that it would be preferable if you did not die, which makes sense since she's been given more authority than any one person on Earth has ever possessed.
Not only can she boss around the president of the United States, she can boss around any world leader she wants if she feels it would benefit the impossible mission to save the world. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but she's an interesting character to say the least. And her relationship with Dr Grace on Earth is just as important as all the sci-fi action that takes place among the stars after he blasts off.
The next reason you should be excited about Project Hail Mary is the creative team behind its production. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. If their names don't ring a bell, you've probably been living under a rock the past few years.
Their recent work on the Spider-Verse movies really cemented their standing in the hallowed halls of Hollywood animation royalty. This came after their success with Cloudy with the Chance of Meatballs and The Lego Movie, which were also very wellreceived upon the releases. Given how Project Hail Mary looks to be quite the visual feast, it makes all the sense in the world that this duo were chosen to coax out the epic sci-fi magic of the story.
Object approaching. Oh my god. Beyond the visual aspect though, there are other reasons we're happy that Lord and Miller are in charge.
During an ask me anything session on Reddit, they fielded a wide range of questions from fans. One of them asked about the accuracy of their adaptation, which is always a primary concern for book lovers who are understandably jaded after watching filmmakers blatantly disrespect beloved source material time and time again. Lord responded, "We worked hard with Andy and Drw Goddard to honor the spirit and integrity of the book at all times.
So even though the movie isn't long enough to include every detail we loved from the book, we tried never to take any shortcuts. We definitely like the sound of that. We also like what Miller had to say about how they got involved with the project.
After saying that Adit Ya Sud, the guy who runs their company, has a long-standing relationship with Weir, he said, "Because of that, we got an early manuscript of PHM before it was published and were both blown away and knew we had to be a part of it. " Since then, I've read the book three times and listened to the incredible audio book four and a half times because my kids are obsessed with it. So, yeah, this is a straightup passion project for them, which pretty much guarantees that we're in for a treat once it hits theaters.
The world is counting on you. As we mentioned before, both The Martian and Project Hail Mary have a very similar vibe. Nerds in space, epic backdrops, light-hearted humor in the face of impending doom.
The Martian, both the novel and its adaptation were incredibly successful. In your face, Neil Armstrong. Project Hail Mary was a finalist for the Hugo Award for best novel when it was published in 2021, which in case you weren't aware, is pretty much the most prestigious award you can receive as a science fiction writer.
So, all signs point to the film being a huge hit as well. It's now or never. But this doesn't mean there aren't people out there who didn't think too much of the book.
Amidst the heaps of praise to be found on Reddit, there are some threads that revolve around the whole narrative being a bit too nerdy. As one person wrote, "It was fine. Too hokey, too quippy, too dad jokey.
Just felt like a high school physics teacher desperately trying to convince his students, "See, isn't science cool? " and just built a narrative lesson plan around that. There were some cool interesting concepts, but the writing was so corny to me.
They went on to say, "However, I do think it will lend itself to a much better movie. I really like The Martian, but haven't read the book, and if it's anything like Hail Mary, I probably won't enjoy it for the same issues. " Another Redditor agreed, writing, "This exactly.
I'm like, NASA is sending this guy doesn't seem like the type of person I'd send on a mission to save humanity, but maybe I'm just used to more realistic science fiction. " There are plenty more comments that more or less say the same thing, but the underlying point is this. A lot of people seem to be disappointed by how the overall tone of the book doesn't match too well with the hard science aspect.
This is understandable to a degree. Typical hard science fiction novels don't feature goofy alien buds and rampant humor throughout. It is time go.
I think you mean go time, pal. But we respectfully disagree on our end. What's wrong with pushing boundaries and challenging established norms?
Isn't that the whole point of literature and of science? While Project Hail Mary sides of the aisle. Honestly, once you learn a bit more about how Weir put the whole story together, it's pretty much impossible to not think it's rad.
And that's what we're going to spend the rest of this video diving into. The first cool thing about how Weir went about writing the novel is that it wasn't just a single aha moment that got him typing. as he explained to Penguin Random House.
Project Hail Mary, for instance, is is the result of like five or six completely unrelated separate book ideas. I had one idea he had was that he wanted to write a story about an astronaut who wakes up in a spaceship with amnesia. Another was that he wanted to explore the idea of mass conversionbased fuel in some way.
He also thought about focusing on a first contact story, as in humans meeting an alien race for the first time. And of course, he had this idea which led to the creation of the affforementioned Eva Strat character. What if like a person was given complete utter authority over everything in the world to solve a critical problem?
When asked if it was difficult for him to put all these pieces together after he realized that he wanted to use them all in the same story. He said it wasn't hard whatsoever. Basically, he started thinking of an actual plot separately and then let those pieces fall into place on their own as he went along.
Oh, you know what would slot in well here is that one idea I had earlier about this and oh I could put this in there and that would fit. George RR Martin, infamous author of the yettobe completed a song of ice and fire series once said that there are two kinds of authors, architects and gardeners. Architects meticulously plan out their novels before they set their fingers on the keyboard while gardeners basically just start typing or should we say digging and see what sprouts up out of the ground.
From the sound of things, Okay, back to the hard science aspect of this story. It's definitely worth noting that Weir is not a scientist. He's actually a computer programmer who never finished his computer science degree.
As such, he had to research quite a bit to make his outlandish story believable. And considering his background, it makes sense how he went about it. Most of my research was Google.
According to Weir, most of the folks he needed to consult were technically savvy and had published a majority of their research online, which made it really easy for him to find exactly what he needed with a few clicks of his mouse. But this, of course, wasn't the only way he went about doing his homework. He did still go out of his way to speak to experts directly when it became necessary.
One of them was uh Dr Jim Green, who um is currently the chief scientist for all of NASA. Weir has known Dr Green since his days writing The Martian. Back then, Green was still the chief planetary scientist for NASA and this was why he wanted to speak with him again for Project Hail Mary.
The book involves a lot of planetary sciences and so it was uh really handy to have a top tier planetary scientist to talk to. There are numerous reasons he needed to learn about planets. We won't spoil them all, but we're going to touch on what we think is the most important of them, which doesn't give away much, so don't worry.
It has to do with Rocky and his home planet, Erid. Believe it or not, we are based it on an actual exoplanet that exists out there in our solar system. I took all the information that we know about that exoplanet and said, "Okay, that's set in stone.
That's that's canon. Anything that we don't know, I could just make up. " share similarities with countless other stories that have already been told.
In the realm of science fiction and fantasy, this is especially true. Well-lex explored tropes are cornerstones of these two genres. In fact, readers basically welcome them.
The catch, though, is that they're always hoping for an author to do something unexpected with it, which is easier said than done. In his interview with Penguin Random House, Weir acknowledged that the premise for Project Hail Mary definitely isn't original in and of itself. It's such a trope, right?
Like, you know, starting a story with a guy waking up with amnesia. Okay, that's been done just 10,000 times or something. He goes on to say that it was just a cheap way to ensure that the flashbacks he wanted to incorporate throughout the story didn't disrupt the natural flow of the narrative.
He did think about telling the story in a linear fashion at first, but it didn't feel right. This is because, as we've mentioned before, a lot of stuff happens on Earth before Dr Grace finally blasts off to figure out what's going on with the sun. So, it just wouldn't have worked out to tell it this way.
As we said, it would almost be like that was all a prologue to a different book and it would be really unsatisfying. After reading the book, we can wholeheartedly agree with him here. It's a fun experience to learn what really happened before launch right alongside Dr Grace.
The Amnesia plot device basically puts you in his head rather than continuously yank you out of it to lather on exposition whenever it's convenient to do so. And the best part is if you can do this effectively in a book, it's basically easy as pie to do it on the big screen. After all this, you're now very well aware that we're fans of Andy Weir.
A big reason for this is because he really cares about staying true to science when he goes about plotting his novels. If I come up with a cool idea, but it's not supported by the by the science, then I've got to ditch the idea or modify it. Of course, this is an obvious expectation from someone who professes to write hard science fiction.
If they were to just throw caution to the wind and write with only a vague understanding of the scientific principles they're basing the entire novel on, it would result in some pretty harsh criticism once the book hits the shelves. But as we mentioned before, Weir writes his hard science fiction in a very soft science fiction sort of way. He incorporates all sorts of goofy elements that almost make the story seem like it's straight fantasy at times.
Part of this is accomplished by being loose and creative when he has enough wiggle room. And the way he does this is by creating his own set of rules that are basically just as solidified as anything scientific. He references Star Trek as an example of science fiction that takes plenty of liberties while also staying true to the fictional mechanisms that make all of its outlandish aspects like warp drive possible.
You've come up with the rules of the universe that your story takes place in. You have to follow those rules. All of that being said, the overarching reason we love Andy Weir is that he writes smart books that are both fun for him to write and fun for people to read.
This is a wonderful service to provide in an era that's defined by a general populace that doesn't read much anymore. Many of us are glued to our phones or TVs day in and day out and have developed comically short attention spans as a result. It's incredibly hard to keep someone watching a longer YouTube video these days, let alone keep them interested in a 500page novel.
