Movies set in space have constantly appeared in cinematic history, intensely stimulating the audience's curiosity. Whether it's encountering unknown alien figures, fighting fiercely against absolute beings invading Earth, or sometimes showing various species living intertwined in a massive universe, the subject matter is endless. However, it is hard to deny that what provides the audience with the most thrilling and realistic entertainment through overwhelming scale and sophisticated visual effects are well-made space sci-fi films produced by Hollywood with massive capital. Hollywood's space movies, perfectly combining cutting-edge technology and immense imagination, make us vividly experience unknown spaces we have never encountered as if they were right before our eyes.
Naturally, visualizing the endless realm of imagination and fantasy of space onto the screen inevitably requires astronomical capital. However, simply pouring in massive funds does not create a masterpiece that moves people's hearts; it is by no means an easy task, as it must be combined with ingenious creativity and solid scientific research that no one could have imagined. In this sense, the recently released film Project Hail Mary was more than enough to provide solid trust and immense anticipation just by the name of its original author. This is because the original novel was written by Andy Weir, the author of The Martian, which previously caused a global box-office storm by showcasing a new kind of space survival story that doesn't lose human wisdom and positive energy even in a barren space environment.
Despite dealing with the cold and ruthless space as their subject and background, Andy Weir's works always have a very warm perspective toward humanity and life, along with a unique optimistic sensibility flowing underneath, which brings a smile to the viewer's face. Project Hail Mary also faithfully inherits these excellent strengths of the original work while boldly investing an astronomical production budget of a whopping $200 million to vividly bring a wondrous universe to the screen. Watching the film, you can truly feel exactly where that massive budget was spent in the intricate details of the spaceship and the depiction of the vast galaxy. Above all, to perfectly translate the ingenious scientific imagination described in text into overwhelming visual results that the public can accept, such capital and technological prowess were inevitably required.
Interestingly, the narrative of this film unfolds by tensely alternating between the protagonist's 'present' and the 'past' he experienced. When the movie begins, the protagonist 'Ryland Grace,' played by Ryan Gosling, struggles to open his eyes, waking up from a long hypersleep inside an unfamiliar spaceship. What is shocking is that he is suffering from severe amnesia, not even remembering his own name, and has no idea why he has been left all alone in the middle of this distant space. The spaceship had already left Earth and had been on autopilot toward deep space for years, and a more horrifying problem is that the captain and other fellow astronauts presumed to have been assigned to this crucial mission with him are all found dead, as cold corpses inside their hypersleep pods.
Through flashback scenes that slowly piece together fragments of his memory, the audience learns the surprising fact that Ryland Grace's original profession was not a great astronaut or a trained special agent, but an ordinary middle school science teacher. He was a warm-hearted teacher who conducted his classes passionately and cheerfully to teach young children the joy of science. In fact, he was once an outstanding scientist who had published a promising doctoral thesis in academia, but after clashing head-on with established orthodoxies and authoritarianism, he left the academic world and devoted himself to teaching children. Meanwhile, Earth in the past was facing a horrific disaster on the verge of an ice age and extinction, as an unidentified space microbe called 'Astrophage' (the Petrova line) began devouring the sun's energy at a terrifying speed, causing the sun's light and heat to rapidly decrease.
The sun losing its light and fading away means the inevitable extinction of all life existing on Earth. To solve this global despair and survive, humanity painstakingly observes the universe and discovers a ray of hope: the existence of a specific star system that, despite having an environment similar to our solar system, remains uninfected by the microbes and maintains its full light. Ryland, who was teaching children, is drafted by chance into the research analyzing the identity and characteristics of this Astrophage, making a decisive contribution that brings hope to Earth. However, due to humanity's current technological limits, while they can send a spaceship to that distant star system, a fatal limitation arises due to massive fuel issues—they cannot return to Earth. Thus, a so-called one-way project is set into motion.
Ultimately, this mission named 'Project Hail Mary' was, true to its name, a noble yet tragic project where astronauts had to give up returning alive and willingly bury themselves in space to save humanity left on Earth. Originally, Ryland was not a trained professional agent for space flight and had no plans whatsoever to board this highly dangerous suicide mission. However, due to an unexpected tragic accident right before departure, he is semi-forced onto the spaceship. Carrying the survival of Earth on his shoulders, he had to endure a terribly lonely flight lasting well over 10 years, and it was a daunting journey where, even if he managed to reach the destination after all the hardships, it was uncertain what exactly he had to do there to figure out why the star was unharmed.
Up to this point, Project Hail Mary feels like a movie dealing with the grandiose and typical sacrifice narrative of a lone hero struggling to save a doomed Earth. However, after Ryland arrives at the destination and miraculously encounters an unimaginable alien presence, the film enters a completely new and wondrous phase. Usually, in Hollywood sci-fi movies, alien beings encountered while exploring space are depicted either as hostile invaders trying to destroy Earth or as overbearing superior beings with civilizations vastly outperforming humans. But Ryland meets a special being—a spider-like alien species he affectionately names 'Rocky'—and begins to carefully build a deep friendship and solidarity that transcends species.
Surprisingly, the terrible disaster caused by the sun-devouring Astrophage was not a problem limited to our solar system; it had equally occurred in the star system of the other galaxy where Rocky lives, putting their home planet on the verge of extinction as well. The two beings, with completely different biological structures and civilizations, had flown across distant space and arrived simultaneously at the planet holding the secret to the solution, driven solely by the same desperate reason: "to save my home." By continuously cross-cutting their amazing encounter with Ryland's past memories, the movie leaves no room for boredom. If all these events had simply been listed chronologically from past to present, the isolated scenes in space during the middle of the film might have felt monotonous and dull.
The film interestingly shows the twists and turns Ryland went through on Earth before leaving for space in the order his fragmented memories are pieced together, providing an excellent rhythm as if two timelines—the present in space and the past on Earth—are progressing breathlessly at the same time. The sight of Rocky, true to a higher intelligence, learning English in a short period and communicating with Ryland evokes deep emotion. To correct one interesting fact: it is true that Drew Goddard, who wrote the screenplay for The Martian, penned the excellent script based on the original novel, but the actual directors who took the megaphone for this film are the duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, famous for their sensational production work on The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The duo's uniquely delightful and warm directing packed Ryland's heavy fate of facing death in a much more touching way.
Boarding a one-way ship with no return to Earth, Ryland was originally destined to end his life in the middle of space. However, toward the end, the film completely overturns the audience's predictable expectations and reaches a highly creative and heartwarming conclusion, leaving a profound lingering emotion. Not only the captivating storyline but also the wondrous visualization of another galaxy and unfamiliar environments we have never been to overwhelmed the screen, providing a great spectacle. Boasting a rather long running time of 156 minutes, it is a top-tier, well-made space movie where you will find the time flying by as you deeply immerse yourself in the two protagonists' desperate survival story and warm friendship.
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