An actual good movie about friendship, and incidentally about stopping the end of the world. More than one world.
Ryan Gosling plays Doctor Ryland Grace; an elementary school teacher with a PhD in molecular biology. This sometimes happens, usually when the person in question has pissed off the wrong committee in academia. But in this case the black SUVs show up to whisk him away to a super-secret project where he will be their lead scientist.
And then a Bad Thing happens and they need him to become an astronaut – a job for which he is temperamentally unfit. When he protests that he isn’t built for adventure, he’s drugged and stuffed on a spaceship. We come to believe he really would rather be a schoolteacher than an astronaut, but when push comes to shove he and his new friend really come through.
It’s written by Hard Science fiction author Andy Weir (The Martian) and does a fine job of confronting existential terror with deep humanity. He meets an alien; they learn to communicate, then have to figure out why one particular star is NOT dying, and see if they can come up with a way to save both their worlds. Picture if Arrival and Interstellar had a baby and named it, well, you know.
It’s not all nerd science and edge-of-the-seat terrifying action; there are moments of deep visual beauty. Look for them.
You’ll believe a man can become friends with a rock. And you’ll know why gas giant planets are really dangerous places to be in a fragile spaceship. Whether you’ll believe the sketchy biology and energy physics is another story. But the movie isn’t really about that anyway.
In conclusion, here’s the Cinema Therapy channel, “Psychology of a Hero: Dr. Ryland Grace from PROJECT HAIL MARY
Notes:
- As usual, Honest Trailers has a great take
- Hank Green: Project Hail Mary’s Science Mistakes It’s Ok
