Project Hail Mary will fist your bump
Welcome back to the BeX Files! Grab some exploded kernels and sugar water because we’re going to the movies this week.
The file today welcomes Project Hail Mary, the newly released space flick starring Ryan Gosling about humans, aliens, stars, and the surprising versatility of Ramen noodles. Since I loved the source material—Andy Weir’s 2021 novel of the same name—I’ve been looking forward to this movie.
Warning: there will be some mild spoilers ahead, though I will not venture beyond what’s already been revealed in trailers. But if you want to go in totally blind, enjoy this Gosling thirst trap and then close this tab.
Scientists involved in the search for alien life often focus on the amazing resilience of extremophiles, which are microbes that have adapted to very hostile environments. Many extremophiles can even survive exposure to space, sparking speculation that these hardy organisms might leap between planets on ejected rocks, just as some animals have accidentally rafted across oceans on Earth.
Project Hail Mary takes this concept to the next level with alien microbes that have evolved to infect stars, allowing them to disperse to new star systems via interstellar panspermia. When this “astrophage” takes hold on the Sun, causing it to rapidly dim, life on Earth faces a countdown to extinction within decades.
Project Hail Mary is a do-or-die mission to travel to Tau Ceti, the only star in our local neighborhood that shows no signs of infection. Ryland Grace, a middle school teacher played by Gosling, is tasked with unraveling the mystery of its immunity so he can, you know, save the world.
After years traveling at relativistic speeds in an induced coma, Grace arrives at Tau Ceti and discovers that he is not alone. A crab-like alien, “Rocky,” has also ventured across space to save his own infected star, 40 Eridani. A buddy comedy ensues, with undertones of scientific salvation.
I love that this concept merges so many existing tropes into some kind of alien crockpot—a space-borne pandemic, a Doomsday scenario, a long shot mission, and a literally star-crossed friendship.
Weir is also great at coming up with narrative bombs that derail the best-laid plans of his beleaguered characters, a talent that also animated much of his debut novel The Martian, and that channels the oft-proven motto: “Space is hard.”
The film is very faithful to the book, retaining the same winning mix of space spectacle, goofy humor, and warm sentimentality. Weirdly, the only time I really felt it suspended my disbelief was Grace getting treated like a pariah for suggesting that water might not essential for life on some worlds. In my experience reporting on aliens, scientists do not find this view remotely verboten, so it was funny that this throwaway scene threw me out of the story more than any of the wildly fantastical and improbable events that followed it.
In any case, I give it two thumbs down (this is actually a good review; watch the last scene of this trailer to see why).
As I cover in First Contact, life beyond Earth has been blockbuster content for thousands of years. And yet, our imaginary extraterrestrials never seem to get old. I’m excited to see creators continue to open new dimensions in old alien lore, from arthouse films like Bugonia, to heartwarming swashbucklers like Project Hail Mary, to whatever the heck Steven Spielberg has cooked up with his forthcoming film Disclosure Day.
Becky Ferreira
As Rocky would say: Amaze, amaze, amaze.
That’s the file for this week! Happy equinox to all who observe. And see you at the cosmic rest stop next Friday.
