‘Project Hail Mary’ Creator Andy Weir Just Taught Me a Surprising Thing About Sci-Fi

Ryan Gosling straight to space Project Hail Marya big-budget sci-fi movie from the Oscar-winning directing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller shockers this weekend. The film, adapted from Andy Weir’s best-selling novel of the same name, finds school teacher Ryland Grace immersed in a secret government mission. The sun is setting, he is wondering why he stopped.

If I didn’t mention the people involved in the movie, that description could easily be traced to a variety of space disaster films that have come and gone. But this is not A Michael Bay movie. In fact, Project Hail Mary is unlike many titles of its genre because the story avoids the bleak, pessimistic tone that comes with galactic doom-and-goom, survival-against-time stories. And there’s an alien in there, to boot.

When I walked into the IMAX press screening, the person presenting Project Hail Mary said it was ultimately a story about the power of friendship. I rolled my eyes at the idea, but I ate my words right through the credits. It certainly is, and it shows how a simple emotional connection and the drive to solve a shared problem can unite people from different backgrounds, including a faceless rock-spider alien.

“It’s a bromance,” Weir said over Zoom. “It’s a story of two people who become friends and work together. So collaboration, collaboration… I’m optimistic and I have these great ideas about humanity and stuff, so I’m expressing those ideas to imaginary aliens.”

I had a chance to chat with Weir earlier this week about Project Hail Mary. I wanted to explore the story’s hopeful, fun vibe, and a famous sci-fi author taught me a few things he learned when he first brought a story to life.

“I believe that humanity is very beautiful,” he began, “and I think that we do great things, especially when we are under pressure. So, I think that we are an amazing species, and we do amazing things.”

That’s the idea that makes Project Hail Mary so inspiring. I told him so, acknowledging the “science is cool” message the movie conveys early on, when Grace appears to be teaching her students. He, too, put on his teacher’s hat and taught me the deep logic behind almost every space exploration story in science fiction.

“I wrote down a list of everything I thought an alien species would need to get to the point where it could build a spaceship,” he said. “What do you need?”

(Insert my weird wink and shrug, here.)

“You need the transfer of knowledge, which means you need language,” he continued. “You must be able to communicate with each other, that enables knowledge to live beyond a certain member of the tribe. It’s like my grandfather told me how to weave this thread, now I’m going to tell my grandson how to weave the thread, and that knowledge stays in the tribe, right?”

Yes. But so far, all this seems to be basic. What does this have to do with spaceships? I do my best not to interrupt.

“Then I thought about another aspect that is really important: having a nation,” he continued. “You have compassion and care for other members of your tribe. You’re like, ‘I care about that guy even though, if he dies, it doesn’t affect me directly.’ That changes so that the nation as a whole cares for each other. So it’s almost like one multi-family business, right?”

Of course, it’s not like Star Trek: The Next Generation alien species, the Borg. I was very proud of this statement, which I said out loud.

And, without skipping a beat, he corrected me: “The most compassionate thing the Borg can do is measure people. Because they’re part of the Borg, the best thing you can do is be like them.”

I think that if Weir hadn’t made it as a writer, he, like Gosling’s Grace, would have made a solid career as a teacher. Anyway, back to the lesson…

“To get to the point where you’re building a spaceship, your species has to have a sense of empathy and concern for each other,” he said, while watching my brain tick in real time. “You wouldn’t make a spaceship if you didn’t have that.”

What does all this have to do with the movie’s optimistic vibe? However, as he told me, the emotional foundation of the film (which is a complete mix of sympathy, compassion and caring) is built on the friendship between Ryland and his new alien friend, whom he names Rocky.

“When Rocky and Ryland meet in space on ships built by their different species, they are both entities that should, by definition, have this sense of empathy and concern for the other,” he said. “This sense of empathy and concern is a necessity to get to where we are. It’s the best part of humanity. And I think any intelligent alien race we meet will have to have it.”

I will tell the truth. I’ve been thinking about this conversation for days, putting this idea to the test on every science fiction movie I’ve seen that involves space travel. Suddenly, I look at the brand in a new, optimistic way.

That led me to immerse myself in the feel-good vibe of the film, which is also present in the book. Why did Weir decide to make this seemingly terrifying situation feel so exciting?

“It’s just an outlet, the result of my worldview, I guess,” he said. While there are themes of collaboration, friendship and hope throughout the film, Weir added that he made Project Hail Mary without a clear agenda or lesson.

“What I want in any of my lyrics is to entertain. No messages, no morals. I’m not trying to change any of your beliefs or cause any beliefs. What I want when you leave the theater or when you put my book away is for you to think, ‘That was cool. I’m glad I experienced that.’

Well, it was cool. And I’m so glad I went through with it. You win, Andy. You won.