‘Project Hail Mary’ is amaze, amaze, amaze!

By Sophie Monastra

Alien microbes are eating the sun. In 30 years, all life on Earth will go extinct—including all of humanity. The only solution lies in the Tau Ceti system, located 12 light years away from Earth. Using the microbes as fuel, humanity can create a rocket, name it the Hail Mary, crew it with the world’s most capable astronauts (sent in a coma to limit the number of things that can go wrong) to find a solution. 

When the Hail Mary reaches Tau Ceti, only one of the three sleeping astronauts wakes up-–Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a schoolteacher with no astronaut training … or memories. 

As far as plans go, this one would definitely be a Hail Mary.

First things first,“Project Hail Mary,” the movie, is an adaptation of “Project Hail Mary,” the book. Most screenplays are adaptations, and I’ve found that there are two main qualities that determine whether an adaptation is good or not: How accurate is it to the original story’s themes, plot and aesthetic, as well as what the new visual medium adds to the experience?

Conveniently, before watching “Project Hail Mary,” I wrote a review for the book version of “Project Hail Mary.” Having read the book, I can tell there were several changes made when transitioning mediums.

The entire beginning of the book, where Grace is figuring out where he is, what he’s doing there and what his name is, has been condensed into the first 10-15 minutes of the movie. 

This does affect pacing; since the main space-side mysteries are solved as exposition. “Project Hail Mary” no longer has much material to break up the long 20 minute block of earthside scenes, which then transition to the long 30 minute block of Grace in space scenes. 

This shift in focus also applies to the story-–while the book focuses a lot on the scientific process, the movie is primarily visual and thus has to focus more on the story and characters. The most significant character change is Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), who has been softened from her book portrayal. In the movie, Stratt is more sympathetic and less morally gray, a change I didn’t really mind but that would probably bother some people.

There are a few more plot changes—all of which make sense within the film’s context, including a pretty significant change to the Hail Mary ship’s design. Due to the constraints of filming in small sets, the Hail Mary was expanded from the book’s compact description with spatial additions such as more hallways, an expanded lab and a dedicated ‘Don’t Go Crazy’ projection room for projecting scenes of Earth. This has the added benefit of letting Grace show Rocky (now equipped with a device that turns visual input into a tactile readout) Earth.

Speaking of Rocky, the lovable Eridian alien engineer not only stole the book, but also the entire movie. Rocky is a practical puppet, which helps sell his buddy-comedy interactions with Grace.

“Project Hail Mary,” in the grand scheme of book-to-movie adaptations, is mostly faithful to the important things—plot beats, themes and general vibes. But the real reason I love the film is because of how Phil Lord and Chris Miller use the medium of film itself to communicate and contribute to the story.

All of the earth scenes are shot in a traditional, narrow aspect ratio. The space scenes, however, have a wider aspect ratio—taking up the entire screen in theaters. “Project Hail Mary” was also shot digitally and uploaded onto film stock, giving the color a unique warmth and texture. 

The score oscillates between delightfully clicky percussion, emotional synthetic tones, warm choral and expressive piano and strings. It’s entirely genre appropriate, equal parts playful and pensive, and overall good listening—especially with tracks like “A Moment,” “Box in a Box” and “Erratic Maneuver Detected.”

I was so engrossed with the beauty and fun of the film experience that I forgot to emotionally respond, maybe it will hit in a second viewing. But while “Project Hail Mary” may not have turned me into a leaky space blob, it not only adapts the book in a worthy manner, but adds amazing visual language and score to the experience.

“Project Hail Mary” is currently showing in theaters.

Sophia Monastra is a Senior Professional Writing and Information Design major and A&E writer, statement. She has been listening to the “Project Hail Mary” score on loop for the past week.

Images courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios