Imagine this, you walk into your local theater ready to watch a movie about a science teacher who wakes up on a space ship with no recollection of how he got there. How would you expect the movie to be?

I’d imagine it to be suspenseful, and maybe action based. However, I didn’t imagine I’d go through emotional warfare throughout the movie. From what I can recall, I teared up more than three times and less than five times. 

If you haven’t caught the hint, I am talking about “Project Hail Mary,” a movie that follows Ryland Grace as he awakens on a space ship with no memory of how he got there.  

Movie Overview

This movie is based off the book by Andy Weir. He also wrote another book that got turned into a movie called The Martian. In my opinion that is another great read and watch.

I digress, the movie was directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. This dynamic duo directed other popular movies such as, various Lego movies, both Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs movies, wrote the spider-verse films, and many others.

Our main man in the movie is none other than Ryan Gosling. He has stared in multiple blockbuster movies, notably Barbie, Fall Guy, LA LA LAND, and FIRST MAN. In my honest opinion, any movie Gosling stars in, I know will be an amazing movie. He has a history of making the character truly come to life, which makes the movie ten times better.

Plot Summary

Now onto the actual summary of the movie. Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there. As his memory slowly returns, he realizes hes the sole survivor of a desperate mission to save Earth.

A mysterious microorganism, which they name astrophage, is draining energy from the Sun which will eventually cause the mass extinction of the human race, and probably animals too. This makes Grace’s soul mission to find a way to stop it through one planet that is defending itself against the microorganism.

During this long journey, he discovers that the same problem is affecting another star system through an alien which he later names Rocky. As one would in the event of having absolutely no one else, a rock alien, and a shared goal, Grace and Rocky agreed to work together to save both of their planets.

Using science, experimentation and teamwork, they discover how to neutralize the Astrophage. In the end, Grace makes a selfless choice: instead of returning to Earth as a hero, he stays behind to save Rocky and his planet.

Analysis

As one who has watched the movie, my particular focus was Rocky and Grace’s relationship and how it progressed throughout the movie.

At first, they communicated through Rocky’s crafts and Grace speaking, however they progressed into using a translator on Grace’s computer to further understand each other.

Rocky and Grace formed a strong bond throughout their time together and it was just amazing to witness.

One of my favorite scenes is when Rocky builds himself a hamster ball structure that can help him survive in Grace’s environment and he totally invades Grace’s privacy, but Grace eventually gives in. Due to this scene, which is comedy gold, we have one of our new memes of Rocky running around saying, “Dirty, Dirty, Dirty, why room so messy?”

Another one of my favorite scenes of everyone’s favorite duo is when Grace is whispering in the other room to the video diary about Rocky’s incredible hearing and how he can see through walls. This scene comes with my favorite lines, “Personal space is at a premium,” from Grace.

This scene also is followed by Rocky asking, “Who is Grace talking to, question,” and Grace testing Rocky’s hearing and showing how far away Rocky is. This also results in Rocky saying, “Hello Grace, Hello Grace friend.”

While yes, I am a very emotional person, the entire execution of this movie was perfect. They built up Rocky and Grace’s relationship up so well, it made it extremely heart breaking to see them separate. Not to mention, it made me panic when I truly thought Grace would die trying to save Rocky.

All of the scenes and the plot twists were so perfectly crafted it was hard not to feel emotion watching the movie.

Not to mention Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace was perfect. Gosling often puts his heart and soul into movies he makes, and I believe his execution of the role is what brought his character to life. When watching the movie, you can tell he cared about every scene with the way everything turns out.

Conclusion/Recommendation

Before I overwrite and start typing gibberish, it is time I give you my official thoughts on the movie if you haven’t yet realized.

I give the movie a 10/10, I would watch it again in the theaters in a heart beat because such an amazing movie deserves to be watched in the best way possible. I 100% recommend this to anyone and everyone, even if you aren’t interested in sci-fi or space films.

This movie not only is about an astronaut but it is about friendship, it is about being a hero. It has many other themes that you can find out when you watch the movie!

Go and watch the movie before it is out of theaters! It’s “Amaze, Amaze, Amaze!” 👎👎👎