An ordinary teacher, now space bound. How could this be possible? The story of “Project Hail Mary” goes over the star-clinging disease that spreads a space belt of bacteria from planet to planet, ultimately destroying their stability in space. The main goal is to send three of the smartest and most knowledgeable about said bacteria, Astrophage, into space to find the real cause of why it spreads to all planets but one.
Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) is previously a molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper that claimed life does not need water to evolve. When Atrophage began destroying the sun, appearing to be a non-water based life form, Grace’s perspective became most relevant. Only then was he recruited by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), the leader, for the on-land Astrophage study.
Grace agreed to work on the project and began doing research. He determined that the astrophage were single celled organisms that consumed solar energy and stored it as mass, He figured out that the mysterious, thin line of infrared light extending from the Sun to Venus, the Petrova Line, was actually caused by Astrophage reflecting light while traveling between the sun to feed and Venus to breed. Afterwards, he discovered that Astrophage actually uses water, which directly disproved his own previous academic paper that suggested life could exist without it.
He also succeeded in figuring out how to breed Astrophage in a controlled lab environment, which was essential for developing fuel for the “Hail Mary” ship, as the Astrophage stores an incredible amount of energy, capable of powering interstellar travel. His work in the lab proved him to be the world’s leading authority on the organism, which directly led to him being chosen as the backup (and eventual) science specialist for the mission.
The original crew chosen for the Hail Mary mission consisted of Yao Li-Jie (mission commander), Olesya Ilyukhina (backup commander), Annie Shapiro (lead scientist) and Martin DuBois (backup scientist). An explosion in the lab caused by an oversized Astrophage sample killed DuBois and Shapiro, as well as several other people. Because there was no time to train anyone else, Stratt—the leader of the operation, who stayed on Earth instead of going with the crew—forced Ryland Grace to take their place on the Hail Mary. Each astronaut was informed that departure from earth meant going into a coma with zero chance of return.
Awoken on his death mission and regaining his cognition, Ryland tries to remember everything he knows and why he is where he is. He searches for some other source of life, only to find out that the two other crewmates on board died from a malfunction of the coma feeding tubes.
Completely alone, Grace gets familiar with the only other thing he can, the ship itself. He tries to figure out how to get to the designated planet that is the base of the mission. While working, he sees a foreign triangular space ship to the right of him, which follows him when he tries to flee out of fear for his own safety.
Suddenly comes a flying object from the foreign ship. Grace, thinking it’s some kind of bomb, fears for his life, but the object merely bounces off the Hail Mary ship and returns to the alienated ship. Another one is sent to his ship, and this time, wondering what it is, he slips on a space suit—one that lets him walk outside of his space craft—and obtains the object. After figuring out how to open it, Grace sees that it’s a 3D map of the planets and their names, helping him figure out which planet he is supposed to be going to, while also showing him where this foreign ship’s home is with help of how to get there.
Something unknown is also extending from the side of the foreign ship to Grace’s, the technology clearly differing from his. The extension is a tunnel to connect both of the ships together, in order to get into easier contact. Bravely, Grace enters the tunnel and makes his way down until he reaches a barrier of glass. Knocking, something comes his way. . . BANG.
That’s where the halfway point of the two-and-a-half hour movie ends. Personally this has become a true favorite of mine: it was an amazing movie, especially in theaters. There has been a lot of commotion online about the movie as it has become a favorite to many. I recommend this 10/10 movie for anyone who enjoys a good plot with interesting characters and a love for space.
