Ryan Gosling heads to space in Project Hail Mary, the big-budget sci-fi adventure movie from Oscar-winning directing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller that hit theaters this weekend. The film, adapted from Andy Weir’s best-selling novel of the same name, finds school teacher Ryland Grace immersed in a top-secret government operation. The sun is dying, and he’s enlisted to find out why and to stop it.
If I didn’t mention the people involved in the movie, that description can easily be pegged to a variety of space disaster films that have come and gone. But this ain’t no Michael Bay movie. In fact, Project Hail Mary is unlike most titles of its kind in that the story avoids the bleak, hopeless tone that comes with galactic doom-and-gloom, race-against-time survival tales. And there’s an alien in there, to boot.
When I settled in for the IMAX press screening, the person introducing Project Hail Mary said it is ultimately a story about the power of friendship. I rolled my eyes at the notion, but I ate my words once the credits rolled. It is exactly that, and it shows how a simple emotional connection and a drive to solve a shared problem can bring together people from different backgrounds, including a rock-spider alien without a face.
“It’s a bromance,” Weir told me over Zoom. “It’s a story of two people who become friends and then work together. So collaboration, cooperation… I’m optimistic and have these positive views of humanity and stuff, and therefore I project those views onto imaginary aliens.”
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I had the opportunity to chat with Weir earlier this week about Project Hail Mary. I wanted to explore the story’s hopeful, fun vibe, and the celebrated sci-fi author taught me a few things he learned when he first brought the story to life.
“I believe humanity is pretty frickin’ awesome,” he began, “and I think we do great things, especially when we’re pushed. So, I think we’re an amazing species, and we do amazing things.”
That’s a perspective that makes Project Hail Mary such a breath of fresh air. I told him so, acknowledging the “science is cool” message the movie imparts early on, when Grace is seen teaching his students. In turn, he put on his proverbial teacher hat and schooled me on a deeper concept that underlies nearly all space exploration stories in science fiction.
“I wrote down a list of everything that I think an alien species would need to have to get up to the point where they can make a spaceship,” he said. “What do you need?”
(Insert my baffled blink and shoulder shrug, here.)
Ryan Gosling stars in Project Hail Mary.
“You need information transfer, which means you need language,” he continued. “You need to be able to communicate with each other, which allows knowledge to live beyond a given individual member of the tribe. It’s like grandpa told me how to weave this rope, and now I’m going to tell my grandson how to weave the rope, and that knowledge stays with the tribe, right?”
Yes. But so far, this all seemed pretty basic. What does this have to do with spacecraft? I did my best not to interrupt.
“And then I thought of another really important aspect: having a tribe,” he continued. “You have compassion and concern for other members of your tribe. You’re like, ‘I care about that guy even though, if he dies, it doesn’t affect me directly.’ That evolves so that the tribe as a whole cares about each other. So it’s almost like a single multi-family entity, right?”
Ryan Gosling and Sandra Hüller star in Project Hail Mary.
Right, so not like Star Trek: The Next Generation’s alien species, the Borg. I was pretty proud of this statement, which I actually said out loud.
And, without skipping a beat, he corrected me: “The most compassionate thing the Borg can do is assimilate people. Because then they’re part of the Borg, which is the best thing you can be like.”
I suppose if Weir didn’t make it as a writer, he, like Gosling’s Grace, could’ve carved out a solid career as a teacher. Anyway, back to the lesson…
“In order to get to the point where you’re making a spaceship, your species must have the concept of compassion and concern for each other,” he said, while watching my mind being blown in real time. “You would never have made a spaceship if you didn’t have that.”
What does this all have to do with the overall optimistic vibe of the movie? Well, as he told me, the film’s emotional foundation (which absolutely includes empathy, compassion and concern) is built on the friendship between Ryland and his new alien friend, whom he names Rocky.
“When Rocky and Ryland meet in space on spaceships that their respective species built, they are both entities that, by definition, have to have this concept of compassion and concern for the other,” he said. “This concept of empathy and concern is a necessity to get where we are. It’s the best part of humanity. And I think any intelligent alien race we meet would also have to have it.”
I’ll be honest. I’ve been thinking about this conversation for days, putting this idea to the test against every science fiction movie I’ve seen involving space travel. Suddenly, I’m viewing the genre in a whole new, optimistic light.
That led me to drill down into the movie’s good-feeling vibe, which is also in the book. Why did Weir decide to make this seemingly terrifying scenario feel, well, so joyful?
“It’s just an outcrop, an outgrowth of my worldview, I suppose,” he said. While there are themes of teamwork, friendship and hope throughout the movie, Weir added that he made Project Hail Mary without an agenda or clear-cut lesson.
“All I want from any of my words is to entertain. There’s no messaging, there’s no moral. I’m not trying to change any of your beliefs or induce any beliefs. All I want when you leave the theater or when you put my book away is for you to think, ‘That was cool. I’m glad I experienced that.'”
Well, it was cool. And I am absolutely glad I experienced it. You win, Andy. You win.
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