By Maverick Langill, ’27

Staff Writer

When my mom asked me to see this movie with her, I was not expecting the stunning cinematography or the absolute emotional rollercoaster that I was sent on while watching. Now I am among the many who are rushing to buy the book and experience this story again and again.

Music had a huge impact on this movie’s success, from the film score by Dainel Pemberton to songs from artists including Harry Styles, The Beatles, Ike & Tina Turner and Prince. The music was absolutely breathtaking, and incredibly important to one of my new favorite characters Rocky; he communicates through echolocation that sounds like and is music. This was not just a small detail to the book’s author Andy Weir. In a recent interview, he explained that he chose to have Rocky communicate with echolocation because of Rocky’s home planet’s relative location to a star. “Since the atmosphere is so thick, light doesn’t reach the surface so there’s no need to evolve vision,” he explained. “If you cannot evolve vision, I’ve got the obvious answer — echolocation.”

Even though the book Project Hail Mary only came out in 2021, the rights to it had already been sold in 2020 to MGM. Ryan Gosling, who stars as Dr. Ryland Grace in the movie, saw this book as an amazing opportunity to pursue a passion project, and he helped develop the film before the novel’s release. Unsurprisingly, the book was an immediate success upon its May 2021 release, debuting at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list and quickly becoming a popular and critically acclaimed sci-fi hit. Since its release, this bestseller’s popularity has only grown. As of today, Project Hail Mary has sold millions of copies and become one of the most-read books on Goodreads.

Another factor of Project Hail Mary’s success is the work of its clever marketing team.  Synchronizing the movie release with the Artemis II launch was a great marketing strategy. Using the buzz around the Artemis II launch prompted multiple companies such as Lego to hop on this opportunity and make a couple new sets inspired by the Artemis II launch and Project Hail Mary. The timing of both events created  more revenue  for both Lego itself and the Project Hail Mary franchise. Lego developed the Project Hail Mary set rapidly after the film team showed designers a 10-minute preview. The Project Hail Mary set, an 830-piece model focusing on the spaceship’s rotating gravity configuration, was released in March. The Artemis II set, scheduled to be available in May, features 3,601 pieces. 

Speaking of the Artemis II,  NASA was quoted saying “amaze amaze amaze” to commander Reid Wiseman during the mission. This echoes a line that Rocky says when he is overjoyed in one of the scenes from Project Hail Mary. Before they left, the crew of Artemis II had a private viewing in their homes with their family members of the movie team. And just like the rest of us, their hearts were captured by the pure joy that Rocky emitted throughout the movie. 

This movie is one of my personal favorites so far this year and I know a lot of people would certainly agree. The film had a wide range of scenes from heartwarming moments with Ryland Grace and Rocky to action-packed moments where we were left on the edge of our seats. If you were going to go to any movie in theaters, and not wait for it to stream, Project Hail Mary would be the movie to see.