We went to see Project Hail Mary tonight. Very enjoyable movie, with some Christological themes regarding sacrifice etc. Not to give much away, but evidently everything evolves to crabs elsewhere as well.
Anyone else see it yet?
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Planning to see it Monday! I’ll avoid this thread until then in case there are spoilers.
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As somebody who hopes to see this movie myself soon - I want to ask this advice. How “religiously themed” is it? All I know about it is that it is “sci-fi” of sorts, and of course, very popular. But I’ve deliberately not paid much attention to any plot descriptions since I hope to see it myself soon.
If I invited an agnostic friend to see it (not because he’s agnostic - but just because he’s somebody I could probably go see a good flick with) - would he feel ‘preached at’, or suspect that I brought him there just to try sneaking some religious talk?
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Nay. I remember there being only one scene where the main character asks “Do you believe in God?” to another. She says something in response (the script or book says “Better than the alternative” but I could have sworn I heard the return “Do you believe in Santa Claus?”). Regardless, I think it is a phenomenal film that focuses more on the science and relationships than any Christian stuff.
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I agree. The closing credits are to gospel music.
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I have not seen it yet, but my two boys (18 and 15) really enjoyed it. My eldest, who does not like religious themed saccharine, said it was a 10/10.
Here is the Plugged In review.
Project Hail Mary - Plugged In Movie Review
Spiritual Elements
While speaking with Stratt, Grace asks her if she believes in God. She responds that “it beats the alternative.” The gospel song “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (Since I Laid My Burden Down” plays through the movie’s end credits. And obviously, “Hail Mary” is taken from Luke 1:28.
Grace jokes that he’s trapped in Hell.
Conclusion
What do you get when you take a wise-cracking scientist and place him in a mostly isolated situation that forces him to talk to a camera as he solves plenty of sci-fi specific problems? Why, that sounds like an adaptation of an Andy Weir book!
You’d be correct, and this time, it’s Project Hail Mary (and you can check out our review of that book here). Like the movie based on another of Weir’s books, The Martian (since it’s only fair to compare the two), audiences follow a somewhat awkward man stranded in a desolate spot in space. But unlike the former entry, humanity isn’t looking to save Ryland Grace; they’re hoping he’ll save them.
And, true to form, we see some of his ingenious ways of accomplishing that goal throughout the two-and-a-half-hour movie. Audiences will also get to watch some magnificent visuals onscreen, too.
But unlike The Martian, Grace’s life is less about the value of one man’s life and more about the bravery of laying it down for others.
As one of the astronauts puts it in a flashback, bravery isn’t something that one is born with—it’s that which is brought forth in the pursuit of protecting others. And no matter the circumstances of his situation nor the many times his fear grips him before and during his mission, Grace proves himself a brave man, one eventually willing to embody that biblical truth: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
To continue the comparison to The Martian, this film is a bit tamer in content. Perhaps because he’s a schoolteacher, Grace limits his crude language (and the movie cuts out even the profanities uttered in the book), though misuses of God’s name nevertheless pervade the film. We do see a couple of corpses, and there are light verbal sexual references, too (these, too, are tamer than the book).
So whether or not you leave the theater describing the movie with a Rocky-like exclamation of “amaze, amaze, amaze,” Project Hail Mary nevertheless will come across as a slightly more complicated but cleaner viewing than Weir’s previous book-turned-movie.
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And of course, the mere oddity of a man named Grace as the main character is an unspoken statement.
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While I wouldn’t say the film explicitly addresses religious themes, there is a 2001 space odyssey-like numinous quality to the book and film that I think does leave you thinking about God. At least it left me thinking about God. Space exploration does have a religious or spiritual element to it. I would argue it is the real reason we explore space since most of the economic justifications for going to space are not currently very convincing.
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Okay I’d like to see it. Can it be streamed online anywhere?
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Nope, just in theaters at present I bet. Sure it will be eventually
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Spoilers lurk here, so do not read if you have not seen the movie.
While Grace can be seen in some levels to be a Christ figure, given his sacrifice, and his reluctance to go on the mission echoing Christ in garden, though with a very different end to that part, I also see Eva Stratt, the leader of the group to save the sun as a Christ figure as well. She had total commitment, even to point of asking others to give their lives for the cause without apology or regret, as she saw the big picture and knew the sacrifice was necessary to save the world. Grace ultimately came around to be willing to sacrifice his life as well, when his love for Rocky made it worthwhile. I thought both characters were well casted and did a great job in their roles.
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Shoot, I just found, rented and watched something called The Last Hail Mary. But there was no travel to another galaxy and no Rocky. I’ve been swindled.
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7,344 views Mar 9, 2026 #JoBloHorror #4kmovies #4kclip
Out now on digital! When the planet Mercury is swallowed up by the Sun’s gravitational pull, a team aboard the Interplanetary Space Station, including a suspicious Martian scientist, must race to reverse the effect before Venus, and even Earth, are destroyed forever. Cast: Juliette Cecile, Esmeree Sterling, Brennen Amonett, Canyon Prince, and Bianca Foscht. Director: Marc Gottlieb
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23,696,519 views Feb 8, 2026 #ProjectHailMary #RyanGosling #AmazonMGM
Believe in the Hail Mary. Watch the final trailer for Project Hail Mary — starring Academy Award® nominee Ryan Gosling and directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Only in theaters and IMAX 3.20.26.
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Have watched a couple videos about the movie and one aspect which interests me is that Rocky is a kind of holobiont. We are too and so are each of our cells inasmuch as they still retain structures which were originally absorbed from the primordial soup before cell membranes became popular. Now I’m curious to watch the movie to get a better idea of Rocky’s self-concept.
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We saw it over the weekend. I was warned in advance by my daughter not to let my inevitable quibbles about the ease of Grace’s cross-lifeform culture and language acquisition ruin the movie for me, so I suspended all disbelief in that area and enjoyed the themes of friendship fixing everything.
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I heard an interview on NPR with the directors. They both previously worked on critically acclaimed animated films, (Lego movie, Spiderverse movies, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Mitchells vs the Machines) and said it bothered them that adults won’t go see excellent movies because they are animated and labelled “family-friendly” or marketed to children, but there are hardly any live-action movies aimed at adults that are appropriate for families. So they were specifically trying to make something that would appeal to adults but not contain anything that would make it wildly inappropriate for older kids. I think they hit the sweet spot really well. They also directed The After Party, which was an enjoyable murder mystery series we watched with our junior high/high school age kids. It wasn’t “clean” by Evangelical standards. Maybe a bit tamer than Derry Girls, which we also watched with our adolescent children. There was some swearing and sexual references, but I don’t remember any explicit scenes that made us uncomfortable like so many shows have.
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So we’re talking C-grade sci fi at best?
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I absolutely despise rip-offs.
The planet Mercury being swallowed up wasn’t in the film. I don’t think the I.S.S. was even in his movie. The plot of Hail Mary, spoiler free, is a man waking up with memory loss on a ship, hearing towards Tau Ceti for a mysterious mission. That second trailer is certainly it.
The first one is just copy slop. As the first comment for the video says, “So, the whole concept for their business is clicking on the wrong thing on Prime Video? 
”
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I saw the movie. I enjoyed it and even got a bit teary eyed at a couple of points (having to do with friendship and sacrifice). However, after a solid science-forward beginning, the story took what I might call a campy turn as Grace and Rocky’s communication took off, so much so that Rocky could understand Grace’s American cultural idioms (while speaking in Caveman phrases). Knowing something about languages, I found this part unconvincing (literally unbelievable). My first reaction to this was disappointment; I felt let down. Then I decided to take the movie as it was and just enjoy it. I’m wondering if anyone else had a similar reaction.
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I did, but my wife kept reminding me that it was just a movie, and embraced the suspension of reality a bit which allowed me to enjoy it. I was a bit put out with the shrinkage of distances in space that allowed all the travel, and the utilization of space microbes for propulsion, but as I was reminded, it’s a movie. And it was sort of neat to see the somewhat science insider details like the crab-like alien, indicating carcinization is a thing elsewhere in the universe. Overall, the story to me is really about relationships, love, sacrifice, and things that transcend self, rather than science. To close the circle a bit, it is a little like how I see how scripture speaks to us.
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