Project Hail Mary (2026)

Plot of Project Hail Mary: So Dr Ryland Grace wakes up on a space craft but due to memory loss does not remember how he got there. He is one of three crew members. The other two are dead. Gradually his memory returns. He is a bio scientist whose brilliance may help earth survive from an invasion of bugs which are causing the sun to dim and if a solution is not found those on earth will die in 30 years. The world has selected scientist Eva Stratt to head the rescue attempt with unlimited resources, and Grace discovers the culprits, called astrophages, which breed on Venus. Grace also remembers that he has been added to the crew against his will, after an explosion has killed most of the original crew.  Astrophages are also used to power his space ship, and were the cause of the unwanted explosion. Grace’s space ship is bound for Tau Ceti (I read the Wikipedia) which is the only close star which is not being dimmed. As he gets close he detects an alien space craft also on the way there. Someone else is looking for the answers.

Content: No sex or nudity, just a bit of social drinking when the space team get together. Virtually the whole film takes place on board or close to the earth space craft, Hail Mary. Grace awakens in a state of distress bearded and unkempt, and finds the bodies of the other two crew. Thereafter gradually gets his memory back which allows for flashbacks about what was happening on earth, and how he came to be one of the crew. They asked him to go on the one way mission and he refused, but was forcibly included. The female scientist in charge can do anything to save the earth. The main aspect of the drama is how Grace communicates with the alien, and how they develop a relationship even though they breath different air – the alien, methane, and what the consequences of this relationship finally are.

A View: Well, this film has been a big hit both with the critics and the general public. It has taken its place at No 77 on the IMDb hit list. I admit that I have read the book, so had a good idea about how it was all going to go. Andy Weir’s forte is providing logical means by which difficult stuff can be done, in this case creating the means by which different alien races can communicate if they want to. The alien’s super power is the ability to make quite detailed models very easily. Apparently in American Football a Hail Mary pass is one carried out as a sort of all or nothing last ditch attempt. I look back. Every step in ‘The Martian’, the previous Andy Weir outing, worked really well but this one not quite so much. But if you go for sci-fi still worth the ticket price.

Fun Fact. There are actually quite a lot of them, but I go for this one – every author’s dream. Andy Weir sold the rights to the book for $3 million.