“Project Hail Mary,” starring Ryan Gosling, is based on a novel by Andy Weir. Ryland Grace, Ph.D., (Gosling) is sent into outer space in a last-ditch effort (hence the title, Hail Mary) to save the world from ending. Before we dive too deep into this, I’d like to state that you will get spoilers if you continue reading. I’d also like to say that I am not a movie critic. I won’t give an in-depth summary or insights on the cinematography. What I do hope to provide is a new lens with which to understand this blockbuster film.
To draw on Sean Sims’ article, “What makes a film Catholic?” from The Carroll News, “even totally secular stories can become avenues for glimpsing the deeper spiritual currents running underneath our lives.” Some films explicitly feature Catholic characters or themes, while others have no mention of religion yet have very spiritual undertones. “Project Hail Mary” fits into the latter. The novelist, Andy Weir, describes himself as agnostic, yet he crafted a story that can be praised by many Christians for its spiritual message. Drew Goddard, known for his work on Netflix’s “Daredevil,” adapted Weir’s novel into a screenplay. Goddard is a devout Catholic. The beautiful imagination of Weir and the Catholic heart of Goddard combined to create a film that was full of grace.
Grace begins his space expedition knowing that it is a suicide mission. He expects to die. What he does not expect is to meet an alien. I think many parallels can be drawn between this alien, called Rocky, and Jesus. Similarly, I think we can view Grace as a pilgrim on the journey of life. He’s going until he dies. This may sound odd at first, but go with me. Any quick Google search for a Christian interpretation of “Project Hail Mary” will show you that I’m not alone on this, although I do think my interpretation is a little bit different from what’s floating around on the internet.
For our first parallel, Rocky joins Grace’s ship and not vise versa. Rocky adapts to Grace’s ship and makes it his home. Christ left heaven to make our earth his home.
Next, in a daring quest to collect some astrophage, the organism that is destroying the sun, both Grace’s and Rocky’s lives are in danger. The viewers are left thinking that Rocky died, until a few scenes later they see that he is alive. Rocky has a resurrection, if you will.
When Rocky learns that Grace’s mission didn’t plan on him returning to earth, he makes a selfless sacrifice by giving Grace enough fuel to return home, thereby delaying Rocky’s own trip back home by 6 years. This is a gift of love, even though Grace never goes home in the way he expects.
After Grace watches his friend come back to life, his bond with Rocky becomes even stronger. Together they manage to gather all the astrophage needed to save both their planets and it’s time for each of them to return home. Grace and Rocky are standing in the tunnel that joins their two ships, saying goodbye so each can return home. This scene was reminiscent to me of Christ’s Ascension back to heaven once His mission on earth was accomplished.
On his way back to earth, Grace makes a devastating discovery. The taumoeba, the organisms Rocky and Grace bred to destroy the astrophage and save their worlds, began destroying Grace’s fuel tanks. Grace was able to stop the destruction and contain the taumoeba, but he realized that Rocky’s entire ship was made of the material that they destroy. The taumoeba were also on Rocky’s ship. Sooner or later Rocky’s ship would be destroyed and he would be unable to prevent it. Grace was faced with an ultimatum. He could either go back to earth with the fuel he had left, or he could go to Rocky to save him from his ship, leaving Grace without any fuel to return to earth.
Grace acts out of love and decides to risk everything to save Rocky. In the end, Grace finds Rocky and lives the rest of his life on Rocky’s planet. If we can see Rocky similar to Jesus, and Grace as a pilgrim on the journey of life, then Grace risking everything to be in Rocky’s world forever can be seen as someone risking it all to gain eternity with Christ in Heaven.
I’m not saying that Weir, Goddard and the rest of the creative team involved in telling this story intentionally had in mind a story reminiscent of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ and our desire to be united to Him in heaven. What I am saying is that this is a love story and any good love story should be able to remind us of God. God is love. Rocky joins Grace’s ship and risks his life out of love. Grace then risks his life for Rocky out of love. This is not a romantic love, but it is a different kind of genuine love, modeling the love that God has for us.