The sun is being eaten, and we’re all going to die. An organism called Astrophage is slowly consuming the sun’s energy, bringing on a new Ice Age that will kill humanity. Our last hope as a species: your overlooked high school biology teacher. Ryan Gosling’s character, Dr. Ryland Grace, as portrayed in Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s adaptation of the book “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir into the movie of the same name, is not your typical hero. He represents a larger, underappreciated field of scientists who make global change through slow progress and undaunted perseverance.
“Project Hail Mary” centers around a global collaboration to save Earth’s sun after scientists have discovered that other solar systems are dying out as a result of billions of Astrophage. The story takes place almost entirely in space on Grace’s spaceship The Hail Mary, as he is the lone survivor of this suicide mission. What sets “Project Hail Mary” apart from many science fiction movies released in recent years is its scientific plausibility in a nearly accurate portrayal of the scientific discovery and experimentation process. (Nearly accurate, because sophomores learn within the first few weeks of PolyEnriched Chemistry that xenon is very much a noble gas incapable of forming a solid, which makes it impossible for Grace’s alien friend Rocky to be composed of xenon)
Grace discovers Astrophage’s breeding requirements by systematically testing variables like temperature, pressure and nutrients in his makeshift lab on the ship in order to generate enough fuel to return to Earth ( yes, the same star-eater microbe that threatens our earth is also Grace’s last hope of returning home.)While scrambling to figure out how to breed a sufficient supply of Astrophage to get himself home, he iterates through failures such as initial low yields until pinpointing precise conditions, which enables mass production to refit his ship. While scenes like this may be glossed over in favor of emotional and climactic moments, which the movie delicately balances with moments of comic relief, there is something so compelling and exciting about revealing the scaffolding behind a major scientific breakthrough.
The story centers around a galactic-scale crisis, but the small problems that are constantly popping up on Grace’s ship require urgency and critical thinking. Despite mistakes, Grace, along with Rocky, an alien engineer who befriends the human astronaut, collaborate to destroy the Astrophage using a whiteboard and the universal language of math to catch each other’s errors. The movie acts as a love letter to the collaborative nature of science and its awe-inspiring power in combating both minor and major issues. Vulnerable, zoomed-in scenes of Grace and Rocky working together become particularly influential in making science more accessible to audiences. In today’s harsh political climate, which is openly hostile to scientific research, these scenes remind us of how profoundly important science is. The Congressional budget bill recently proposed a greater than 50% cut to the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency. The American public does not necessarily know what happens in the labs that the U.S. government has sought to defund, but “Project Hail Mail” manages to portray science in an exciting and accessible way, helping to inform the public while entertaining them at the same time.
“I hope that stories like this can have an important role in reminding people that science is a necessary process for the continued success of our species,” Upper School science teacher Will Mason, who had recently viewed the film, said. “We are living in a moment where it does appear that science is misunderstood and or questioned. That tension is not entirely new, but it does feel more visible right now.”
Weir wrote “Project Hail Mary” in 2021, but the release of the film’s adaptation right now is especially timely. Just last week, a crew of NASA astronauts on the Artemis II embarked on the farthest journey ever undertaken by humans in space. It’s an achievement that wouldn’t have happened without rigorous experimentation just like in this movie. In the wake of new achievements, there is only one possible conclusion, even if it sounds counterintuitive with the National Institute of Health funding on life support: It’s a wonderful time to be nerdy.
