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.
And of course, the mere oddity of a man named Grace as the main character is an unspoken statement.