“Project Hail Mary” is a beloved book read by many Monroe-Woodbury students and staff that was recently adapted into a film and hit theaters across the globe.
“Project Hail Mary” was written by Andy Weir, the author of “The Martian”, and later made worldwide success as a movie directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord. It is a sci-fi film that follows the story of Dr. Ryland Grace trying to find a way to save the stars of the universe from a mysterious substance called Astrophage.
Ryan Gosling, the actor of Dr. Ryland Grace, was also a producer of the movie upon Andy Weir’s request.
Ryan stated that “Project Hail Mary” was his way of making an opportunity to recreate the experiences that he had as a kid at the movie theater with his family.
With this movie, he had the desire to show his kids the message that, “Maybe the future isn’t something to be feared, but just to be figured out.”
During the production of the movie, Ryan Gosling’s family provided small but impactful moments to the movie that were not in the original source material, such as when Gosling’s daughter told him that he looked smarter with glasses on, which prompted him to wear them for the whole movie, ingraining it into the character of Ryland Grace.
Andy Weir, the author of “Project Hail Mary,” had grounded the story in real science to the surprise of many. Although the story is widely known as science fiction, it is real science, having few scientific errors within the story.
At a glance, it would seem that there would be a lot of green screen usage within the movie, but on the contrary, there was no green screen usage throughout the entire movie. Every scene had its set entirely man-made, along with some CGI for a polished look.
One of the movie’s main characters, Rocky, is an alien that Grace finds on his travels that helps him on his mission to learn how to save the stars in the universe.
Rocky was one of the hardest parts of the movie’s production, having to be puppeteered by six professionals, led by James Ortiz. The difficulty of puppeteering the spider-like alien was mainly because of the narrow walkways of the set and the geometric shapes of the “Xenonite” covering Rocky. Although Rocky was one of the hardest parts of the movie to make, it was well done and helped immerse the viewer within the story.
In the beginning of the story, Ryland was portrayed as an amnesiac: having no memories of why he was on a spacecraft. Throughout the story, he slowly gains his memories back through flashbacks, starting from the moment he met Eva Stratt.
Eva Stratt is the first of the main characters. She is first introduced through a flashback within the movie, having many appearances throughout the story. Stratt is a character that gives the viewer the impression that she is a serious and demanding person, but as the movie progresses, as the viewer, you get to see the more human side of her, especially during the karaoke scene of the movie where she sings “Sign Of The Times” by Harry Styles.
During the production of this scene, the actor of Eva Stratt, Sandra Hüller, chooses “Sign Of The Times” to sing because it was a goodbye song about space. Hüller had asked her daughter about the song to see if it was still popular enough to sing for the movie; having her go ahead, she sang the song for the movie, showing a more human side of the character, leaving a strong impression on most viewers.
Overall, the movie was well received by fans of the novel and casual movie enjoyers alike, as well as highly rated by critics, having a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating. “Project Hail Mary” is now considered one of the best sci-fi movies, being in the leagues of “Interstellar” and “The Martian”.
Most Monroe-Woodbury students, after watching the movie, left the theater extremely satisfied, as the movie had been enjoyable to new fans of the story, as well as being faithful to the book, which is read and beloved by many within the walls of Monroe-Woodbury High School.
