Andy Weir, the author of the novel that inspired the film ‘Project Hail Mary‘, likes heroes who face loneliness and overcome it. Mark Watney, the hero of Weir’s first published novel and of the film inspired by this novel, is abandoned on Mars after a sandstorm and will live a story of survival on the dimensions of the solar system. For Ryland Grace, the science teacher who is the hero of the writer’s second novel, ‘Project Hail Mary‘, the adventure takes place on a galactic scale. He wakes up from an induced coma, on a spaceship that is racing towards one of the nearby stars (‘nearby’ meaning a few light-years). He is in a state of almost total amnesia, knowing only that he is entrusted with a mission of critical importance, but he remembers nothing about it. The novel and the film script combine two narrative planes. The one of the present in which the hero faces loneliness and the attempt to remember and then carry out the mission that was entrusted to him, with that of the past which is gradually reconstituted, like in a memory puzzle, and which will contribute to finding his own identity but also to the revelation of the unique mission that he has to fulfill. There is an essential difference between ‘The Martian’ and ‘Project Hail Mary‘ (the films). The first had as its director the brilliant, prolific and unequal Ridley Scott, for whom even failures look good and say a lot. For the recently released film, MGM studios chose Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who had not made a feature film for 12 years, and their previous was ‘The Lego Movie’.
I will reveal very little of the film’s story, so as not to take away from the viewing pleasure. The stakes in ‘Project Hail Mary‘are not individual salvation as in ‘The Martian’ but neither more nor less than saving the Universe. In the book, the Sun (the star Sol) begins to die out. ‘Something’ is stealing its energy, more than one percent every year. In a few years, the Earth will enter an ice age, in a few decades, life will no longer be possible. That ‘something’ proves to be a life form as primitive as it is harmful. The sole survivor of the crew sent to save the solar system from extinction will discover that it is an intergalactic pandemic, that not only the Sun but also other stars are in danger and that the solution can only be a collaboration between the species that populate the universe. On the way, we will witness an encounter of the third kind.
While I’m still quoting Spielberg, the film owes a lot to Spielberg’s stories from the 70s and 80s that told of encounters between the human species and aliens who were benevolent even if not very attractive at first sight (and to the following ones). Not only does Rocky, Ryland Grace’s friend from other stars, imagined and handled by James Ortiz, seem to be a cousin of E.T., but texts such as ‘ … go home’ are borrowed (or perhaps introduced as an homage). Ryan Gosling was offered the role from the beginning of the discussions about the film adaptation of the novel and the character seems to have been imagined for him. Gosling has already played an astronaut on screen in the past, that was Neil Armstrong from ‘First Man’. Here he adds not only humanity but also a lot of humor. A very interesting character is that of the leader and coordinator of the mission, Eva Statt, who is allocated unlimited resources and authority in the attempt to save the planet. When reading the book, the character intrigued me and I wrote that she could be the heroine of a movie just about her. In this film, she loses some of her depth but gains Sandra Hüller‘s performance, in her first movie overseas. It’s not the only detail that gets lost in the screenplay (and I’m not a fan of faithful screen adaptation). The passion for music in general (the Eridian language spoken by Rocky is described in the book with notes) and for the Beatles in particular, for example, cannot find cinematic equivalents. ‘Project Hail Mary‘ tries to create emotion with Hollywood stereotypes where more original solutions could have been found, maybe even from the book. We can only imagine what the movie would have looked like if directed by Ridley Scott or someone in his league. But even so, it’s a film that adds to the great intergalactic stories. Those who believe – like me – that the human species will only exist if it explores space will love the movie. I think it’s not just them.