What is it like to have your future pulled from you? To put your beliefs to the test and make one last shot at an attempt to bring salvation to not just yourself but to the entire world? “Project Hail Mary,” directed by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, provides a good example of a long shot that is the one final attempt at achieving a goal — a literal Hail Mary. 

Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, is an 8th-grade science teacher who was once a renowned scientist until his theory of life not requiring water was seen as ridiculous by members of the science community, and he lost his credibility. 

However, when his theory is proven right by a mysterious new organism — which by initial observation does not require water — he is brought into a global effort that ends with a life-or-death mission in outer space to save the human race. 

What’s interesting about this backstory is that it is not revealed all at once; how Grace gets on a spaceship and what he’s doing is initially lost on the audience. However, it’s also lost on Grace. The film opens with him waking up on a spacecraft, not knowing where he is and having to remember his mission and reason for being there. 

Grace is an interesting character who, as a lead, can seem rather hard to follow at first. He’s reclusive and uncooperative with other scientists, taking things with a pessimistic outlook, as he sees himself as not as able to help the effort as much as the other scientists. 

Once in his element, though, Grace takes off, researching tirelessly and looking for any roundabout solution to get his ideas off the ground. This showcases the potential Grace has, but also his fear of judgment, as he was judged before for his ideas.

Considering the vast majority of the film takes place in a giant spaceship, there was actually zero use of a green screen for the entire film. Shots of the spaceship in space were obviously VFX, but others, like Grace walking on the exterior of the ship, were done with a black background, confirmed by Miller in an interview. VFX added effects like stars and lighting afterwards. 

The entire interior of the spaceship is a 360-degree built environment, meaning sets weren’t built for specific camera shots. Scenes where Grace is interacting with an alien environment, and there’s a vast amount of lighting and particles, were done in-house, with a shifting LED screen providing different hues for lighting and reflection on Grace and the ship.

“Project Hail Mary” is incredibly profound and represents a stellar feeling of positivity and hope. What was most surprising was the amount of humor in the film. You’d think the film would be extremely dark and isolating, but Grace finds a way to make the trip more fun, especially later on, when a secondary character is introduced. 

How do you introduce a character to a guy isolated in space? Through buildup and foreshadowing, which the film delivers exceptionally. 

Directors Miller and Lord are known in their films for having great lead-ins and innovative ideas, and to see this brought to a big-budget blockbuster is truly a sight to see. The film feels complete and fulfilling by having a definite beginning and end that don’t come across as tacky, but a true evolution for Grace’s character.

The film is an adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2021 novel of the same name and shares some noticeable differences. The character Carl, a government security officer who helps Grace in his experiments on Earth in the first quarter of the film, is not even a character in the book, but was written in as someone for Grace to bounce off and share ideas. He’s more of a stand-in for the audience as Grace explains all the techno-babble and sciency stuff to him through exposition. 

He becomes a motivation for Grace later on as one of his real human connections; he remembers him fondly as he soars through space, isolated with only a faint remembrance of Earth. 

Other aspects involving Grace’s relationship with a certain figure — whose surprise would be better left unmentioned, as the more unaware of this character you are, the more engaging your experience will be — were also changed, as the film isn’t solely about Grace in isolation.

The film also touches on bonds and relationships under tough circumstances. The heart of this movie is the faith that through effort and research, the enormous task of saving the Earth is feasible, with a little help from your friends, a la The Beatles, which Grace makes a ton of references to in the novel, with only one sly reference toward the end of the film. 

The directors for this film have an insane track record. Miller and Lord are geniuses of emotional storytelling and pulling on heartstrings. I would even go as far as to call them one of the many kings of bromance. Their other films, like “21 Jump Street” or even “The Lego Movie,” have very similar themes of found purpose and drive to complete tasks that seem impossible, so it’s no wonder they were perfect for a feature about a science teacher in space, saving humanity.