Ryan’s Rocky Horror Picture Show.
TAU CETI. It’s quite the popular term right now. As I found myself watching Project Hail Mary, written by Andy Weir. Adapted by Drew Goddard. Directed by Lord and Miller and starring Ryan Gosling. I felt myself almost leaping from the chair as they plotted a course for Tau Ceti. You know. The world all the Runners in Marathon are currently occupying. But alas, not in this universe. Instead, it might just be the answer to saving our world’s dying sun.
A man awakes from an induced coma. He’s confused about who he is. Where he is. And what he’s meant to do. But he sure seems to know a lot about space technology and advanced math. That man is Dr. Ryland Grace. A school teacher with an impressive background in molecular biology, and he might just have to save the world. That man is in space, and he remembers why he’s there. And from there, Project Hail Mary steers its course.
Impressively led by Ryan Gosling, featuring the exceptional Sandra Hüller and Lionel Boyce in support, Project Hail Mary is about hope. Add a touch of Andy Weir’s need to insure that the majority of the science is real. Then combine these two things together. And what you get is a stunning sci-fi film about how the hope that everything will go alright, is all that fuels the mission. Sure there’s some really great sci-fi elements in there. Including rocks! (“They’re minerals, Marie!”) But it’s the hope that every decision works out. And as each decision does or does not, it leads to hefty emotions as the film’s epic final set piece concludes.
“Will it be alright?”.
“Can it be alright?”.
That’s up to you decide. But in times like these, believing that it will be is a wonderful choice to make.
You know how there's those films, where you just know you could easily watch them again? That was me when I finished Project Hail Mary.
What a film.
