This week on Movie Mistrial, we blast off into deep space with Project Hail Mary, the highly anticipated adaptation of Andy Weir’s beloved sci-fi novel.
With its mix of hard science, humor, and high-stakes survival, Project Hail Mary promises the kind of smart, emotionally engaging space adventure that made The Martian a modern classic.
Adapting such a science-heavy and internally driven story to the screen is no small task, and some may wonder whether the film can preserve the novel’s balance of heart, mystery, and scientific detail.
Join us as we ask whether this could be the next great sci-fi blockbuster—or a mission that risks getting lost in translation.
[00:00:00] Welcome back to Movie Mistrial, the podcast where we put the IMDb Top 250 on trial, one film at a time. I'm Johannes. And I'm Raji. Today we're making a slight detour from the list and heading into deep space with Andy Ware's Project Hail Mary. A story of survival, science, and one man waking up alone on a mission to save humanity.
[00:00:22] Told through fragmented memories and real-time problem solving, the story follows Ryland Grace as he pieces together who he is, why he's there, and what went wrong. It's part mystery, part hard science, and part unexpected friendship. Built on the same DNA that made the Martian such a hit. But here's the question. Is Project Hail Mary a brilliant, heartfelt sci-fi story, or just a series of science puzzles?
[00:00:47] With astrophysics, memory loss, extinction level stakes, and one unusual ally on trial today, Project Hail Mary is on trial. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Let's talk about Project Hail Mary.
[00:01:16] Yeah, but let's flip a coin. Uh, I'm gonna go with my usual heads. Tails today, buddy. Okay. You're out of luck. What do you wanna do? That's a very good question. Um, I'll speak against this film. I was going against it? Sure. Hey, cool. Always a hater. Alright, here we go.
[00:01:46] The witness will address this quote as judge or your honor. Ladies and gentlemen, Project Hail Mary is a wannabe interstellar. There, I said it. Everybody felt it. Everybody thought it. I'm the first one to say it. Um, this film is, um, so hyped and I don't fully understand why.
[00:02:09] Um, we get the basic same concept of we need to save the earth. We need to save the world, um, through a space mission that is a Hail Mary because we don't know what we're doing here. We're just tiny humans. And, um, it's, uh, the, the way it's been made more compelling is by having a main character that doesn't know why he's there and who he is.
[00:02:38] And we kind of get to learn that with him along the way. And then he meets a sidekick that's a pet rock from a different planet. And they figure out how to communicate and then solve the problem, uh, together, um, with different strengths and weaknesses based on their backgrounds. And, um, what can we take from that?
[00:03:03] It's, it's, it's, it's a space movie that shows us how diversity is helping us be better at life. And that sounds like I'm criticizing diversity now, which, you know, for the sake of the argument, sure. Can we not have just humanity saved ourselves here? No, I'm kidding. But, um, like I said, this film is, it's just so it's brutally long for what we're doing here.
[00:03:33] And that is one of the main concerns. Like, why is this film two, two and a half hours long? Because the, the, the concept is dude goes to space, wakes up in space. All the rest of the crew are dead. So he has to figure out both who he is and what he needs to do in order to save humanity. And then we learned that he was basically forced to do it. He was voluntold to do it.
[00:03:58] Um, cause you know, his little suffering is not as important as the bigger picture of humanity. Morally interesting. And, uh, then he finds the sidekick and, uh, we spent a lot of time learning how they learn to communicate and grow a bond. Then they figure out the problem, do experiments and yada, yada, yada.
[00:04:22] It's, it's so much time is wasted on figuring out who he is and building that relationship that is so manipulative. That is like, ah, we feel for the bad foot foot foot for the cute little rock dude. And, um, I found that kind of frustrating to be honest, because it's like, can we, can we focus on the, the core at hand and not just on the, on the cutesy kind of fake out. He's almost dead. He's dead. He's not dead. He's alive again.
[00:04:52] He's dead back and forth. It was kind of frustrating. I think this film was too long. I think this film, um, could have been really tightened up. Um, I don't think we necessarily need the distraction of him not knowing who he is. I think we could have just gone like, okay, this is the problem. And then have, have the big hindrance in the way of like, oh, this is actually nothing like we expected it to be. So we need to now figure out what we need to do.
[00:05:22] Would have been a compelling story nonetheless, I think, but I'll leave it at that for now. You know, you really got me at, you know, it's a wannabe interstellar. Um, and I think that outside of the concept and you know, with the last one we talked about was a Christopher Nolan movie where there's a high concept where the earth is being destroyed and you need somebody to save it.
[00:05:48] Outside of that, this, the content of the film, totally different directions. I don't think that they're close in any way. Only the concept is the same. And there's nothing unique about the concept of interstellar and the concept of this movie. Many a film has been about sending humans to space to try to save the earth from impending doom. Um, and I think the way they went about this movie is relatively unique.
[00:06:18] This movie is new. Oh, I should give you disclosure too. I read the project Hail Mary in 2021. And I fell in love with the book. Um, you had, you, in one of the opening statements, you were saying like, why is this book? Why is this movie so popular? The concept of this, the book was, and it was a hit. And I remember reading through the book and going, Oh my God, we meet Rocky. Holy smokes.
[00:06:47] This is crazy. Who writes about these kinds of things? Nobody. And I want to say that the movie captures the feeling of reading the book. Um, and for a lot of, for all the book readers out there who went to watch this movie, I think it does an amazing job of capturing, um, the concept and the idea of what the book was trying to do. Um, what are some of the strengths it has?
[00:07:14] Um, I would say that the, the high concept is overdone, but you know, that sense of diversity, and I'm going to take your word for it. Um, was very, very good in this movie. The movie is high science. Um, and in a sense, there's a lot of experimentation. Um, there's a lot of failure and a lot of, um, retries, uh, to try to get the concept right.
[00:07:41] Um, and the, the interesting thing was that we get to see it from two perspectives. One from an alien who gets to do this. And two from a human who is not so good at engineering, but very good at thinking high concepts. Um, and those two take their strengths. One of them is very good at high concepts, like I said, and the other one is good at building things. And they try to solve the problem that both of them are facing.
[00:08:10] And I think that the movie does a good job of taking this idea of. Corporation beyond. The interstellar world and bringing it into full display within the film. We get to see two people who have the same problems work together to try to solve it. And I think for people who are smart, who enjoyed like the problem solving aspects of it.
[00:08:38] This movie does an amazing job for people who just want to see spectacle. I think you get a lot of good humor. You get a lot of slapstick comedy from Ryan Gosling, who does an amazing job of keeping the story, keeping the audience attentive with his humor and the way they relate. Um, I think that the human in this movie was used to build a relationship between the two characters.
[00:09:08] Um, and by the time we get to the, um, the turning point where, you know, uh, the bond needs to be, um, tested. It felt real. It felt like Rocky and grace had, um, a strong enough bond that you believed the emotional weight of what was going on. Um, and I think that that was a strength of the film.
[00:09:38] Um, I also think that the ending of the movie was very, very good. Um, and there was, anyway, let me not talk too much about the ending just in case somebody wants to go watch it in the movies. Uh, this, this is a spoiler review, by the way. Uh, well, save that for later. All right. Uh, that's my point. Huh? I, you bring up the ending that just, uh, sparked something in my head.
[00:10:08] Um, if you think about it, the ending is good. If you take this as a buddy film, um, you know, it's almost like, you know, if, if you made a space film with, I don't know, Luke Skywalker and R2D2 just as a buddy film, just kind of go on an adventure, save the universe. Um, kill the Death Star.
[00:10:33] Um, if, if we think about why we're here, uh, it is to save the earth and humankind, the galaxy, basically, um, not just earth, but, but you know, every, um, I find it fascinating that we don't really, we go back briefly, but it's not like we, we really learn, um, like the impact that it had on earth. Uh, we, we, we don't see where this has led.
[00:11:04] We don't learn about, you know, how earth is handling, uh, grace's character as, as the savior of, of humankind in a way, which, you know, it would have been a nice nod to just be like, oh yeah. And by the way, we named this bridge after him at least. Right. Um, and I find that weird because it's, it's really showing that, that all the science.
[00:11:30] The sciencey stuff around this film, uh, are, are the little, uh, embellishments and the heart of this film and the core of this film is the, the relationship, the buddy, the buddy thing. Um, because we get the, the buddy ending. And for somebody who likes kind of sciencey spacey films, um, I find that a little frustrating.
[00:11:59] Like I would find a R2D2, the Skywalker buddy film, a little frustrating, I think. Um, because the more I think about that, the, the more it makes sense to me because it's like, you don't understand what R2D2 is saying. Now we have an iPad that is interpreting whatever, uh, Rocky is saying, but, um, that is all handled in Star Wars by other characters magically being able to understand robot.
[00:12:27] Um, and, um, yeah, I don't know. I, uh, it's, it's so manipulative because it is, of course it is designed to have you feel something for when Rocky is going out and he's, he's breaking out of his little enclosure and he's sacrificing himself. Um, but it's, it's manipulating you because it's like, he's not really sacrificing himself.
[00:12:56] He's still kicking at the end. There's still, he's, he's still okay. So the stakes, sure. He was hurt. If you could say that. Um, but he recovered. So it's like, it's a really a sacrifice. I just feel like there's a lot of weirdness and funkiness around it. Framing it as a buddy film versus framing it as a high science film, which it's wants to be, but it's really cheapened by the, by the whole relationship thing. And I'll get a lot of flag for that. I understand, but that's fine.
[00:13:27] I think that I disagree with you. I think that the buddy film aspect of it is well done. Um, one of the things that I will say as my dog is trying to jump on my lap again, um, is that, um, uh, Oh God, that's my three left. Uh, the, uh, the, the, the, the ending was justified, right?
[00:13:53] This guy who has agreed his faith, who knows that he's never going go back to earth, gets given a second chance. And Rocky tells him, Hey, um, we'll give you astrophage that will get you to earth in a relatively good amount of time. And you can go back home. This guy has been suppressing this feeling of like, I don't feel like I'm ever going to go back, uh, to earth. And then he busts into tears. He's crying.
[00:14:23] Um, on his way back home, he realizes, Hey, the containers we had to seal this astrophage is leaking. If you now double back to the beginning of the film, when, um, he talked about why everybody in Rocky's crew died was because they had exposure to astrophage. He feels like Rocky could die as a result of that exposure before he gets home.
[00:14:52] Um, so he has one option. He has two options. He can be selfish and go back to earth, save himself, or he can send all that astrophage to earth, which will arrive much faster. And then go and save his friend.
[00:15:09] And the fact that they built enough of his relationship that he was thinking about sacrificing himself to save his friend was the big point of the film. And I felt like all of the film, but all of the interactions they had led to that specific scene. And I think it saved the movie significantly. I think that it was well, it was well developed.
[00:15:39] I think that Rocky's relationship with him was very strong. And as an audience who was watching the movie, I felt like that was not big based on their relationship, based on the struggles they've been through, based on the humor they've had, based on every single scenario that we've explained. Um, and they accepted each other for what they were. He found the way Rocky ate disgusting. Rocky found the way he ate disgusting.
[00:16:07] But they were able to deal with science. And science is the universal language of the planet. I think that this movie is an amazing film. Um, I have still not gotten my wife to watch it. But I think that the movie does an incredible, I think it's even better than The Martian. Um, you know, I rewatched it. Well, let me not go into a tangent. But The Martian, I rewatched it.
[00:16:34] The movie's not as good as the book, but the movie's very good. This movie is as good as the book. And I think that they did an amazing job of taking the idea. And one of the biggest differences between this movie and Interstellar is that the protagonist did not choose to do this.
[00:16:55] He was kidnapped and sent on the strip without his consent by, um, the Strass engineer, Everstrat. Uh, and she sent him after he told her no. And they realized that there was no other option but to send him. Um, yeah, I, I think that's a major departure.
[00:17:23] Because when he woke up and he was trying to recall everything and how he got there, one of the things that he had to deal with was that he didn't want to be there, but he had to save the world. Um, and I think that is also, uh, very important to the notion that he had a chance to go back home. I mean, chose to stay with Waki. So, yeah.
[00:17:48] Well, but I mean, if you think about it, why would he go home understanding that they forced him to go out and save the world, right? Like, he was alone kind of to begin with. It's not like he had big relationships on, on, on, on, on earth. I don't think so. Um, but I also think that he was, in a sense, he was ostracized on earth. This was an opportunity for him to get accepted. He always wanted acceptance.
[00:18:18] He feigned that he liked being ostracized. But when he got an opportunity to redeem himself, he jumped on it. Um, he felt he was worried. He was scared of going into space. And he felt like there were more, there were better people to do it than he was. I think there was a sense of, um, inferiority, which in some senses is justified.
[00:18:41] But when you think about it also, there was an innate ability that he did not understand until he was put under pressure to solve things. Um, he just had a different way of solving problems than other people do. Uh, and I think that if he had gone back to earth, he would have been treated like a superstar, which he is for saving everybody's lives.
[00:19:07] Um, and I think that that was one of the reasons why he wanted to go home because he would have gotten the justification that he always yearned for. Hmm. I'm not sure. I, I, I don't know. So you're saying it's all an ego thing despite everything that happened to him. Um, 100%. Both of them are legals. Him and Rocky. Both of them are egotistical.
[00:19:32] Um, but they have a very good relationship based on the foundation of science. That was how they communicated with each other. That was how they gained respect. They use science as their foundation. Um, and Rocky noticed that, you know, Grace had high concept thinking that could, he could use. But Grace did not know how to build anything.
[00:19:59] Rocky didn't have the high concept thinking, but he had the ability to build things. And they use that bond, that difference, those different skills to create a solution that works for both of them. Yeah. I mean, again, this is kind of going back to the whole diversity, right? Like different backgrounds, like give you different strengths. And then as a team, you, you benefit from, from all that. Yay for diversity. It's a great thing.
[00:20:28] Um, yeah, I don't know. I, I, is this a good movie? I mean, technically it's, it's, it's good, I think. But I was expecting more on the science kind of interspace side. And, um, if you come in with that, uh, the whole buddy thing is just kind of a put off for me.
[00:20:54] Um, you know, so yeah, I've, I've had higher hopes, uh, than, than what I got. And that's why I'm not super thrilled about this film. I mean, we can go to the, um, we can go to, we can go to the sidebar and I can talk about some of the things that I didn't like. Sure. Um, about it. Overruled. Sidebar. Guilty. Speculation. Hearsay. Bailiff. Briefcase. Disregard. In my chamber.
[00:21:40] Um, what is the problem we have? Astrophage. How can we get from one point of this stuff to the other? Astrophage. Um, what killed all the scientists? Astrophage. Uh, astrophage became, uh, both a solution and a problem for a lot of the things that happened in the film.
[00:22:00] Um, I also thought that, um, all of the supporting characters, except from Everstrat, were just could, um, were just like, did nothing. They did nothing in this movie, except from Everstrat. Um, and I felt like this movie became a one-man show of, um, what do you call it? Of, um, what's his name?
[00:22:29] I don't know what's going on with me today. Um. The Ryan Gosling? Ryan Gosling. Jesus. Uh, it was, became a one-man show of Ryan Gosling being able to captivate the audience. Um, and I think that he did an amazing job of that. I think he got a lot of strong, um, acting energy from Everstrat, this, um, the woman who got him into space against his own will.
[00:22:58] I think that she was a good fall for him. Um, because she forced him to make decisions that he would never have done if he was comfortable. Um, and I also felt like this movie, for all the talk about space, became more about a problem-solving loop, where you get presented with a problem.
[00:23:20] You get, you get the, the, the hypothesis, the theory, the solution, and they just keep doing that. Um, and for a space movie, we only get, like, one major space scene where they eventually get to the planet, and they try to get the astrophage-eating, you know, substances from the, from the, from the surface. And I felt like, for a movie about space, about light years being so far away,
[00:23:50] it became very hyper-focused on the relationships they have. Um, so, I mean, those are the main issues I have with it. Uh, I still feel like this movie's an amazing film. Uh, and I feel like, you know, you can, I, I was contemplating taking my daughter to go watch the movie, because I think it's so good. Oh, wow. So good. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I suspect this is also clearly one of those things of, uh, if you know the book,
[00:24:20] um, that probably helps you, because you already have that expectation of what's, what's going on, what's going to happen, and, and whatnot. And I think that'll, that'll probably help you significantly. Um, as somebody who does not know the book, and who avoided trailers and everything. So, going in completely blind.
[00:24:46] Like I said, I was expecting more of a sci-fi film, interstellar-y kind of vibe. And then getting that, that just very obvious buddy film, um, is unfortunately not what I wanted, what I was hoping for, what I expected. So, with that, just kind of comes a, eh, okay. You know, didn't, didn't vibe with me, because it's not necessarily, um, what I was hoping for.
[00:25:15] Now, that is purely on me. You know, I, I could have learned more about it, but I, I didn't want to. I didn't want to, I wanted to go in cold. Um, again, is it, is it, technically it's a good film. Um, I do think that there are some, there are some weird clunky things. Like the, the rest of the crew have, are kind of insignificant. Um, because they're dead.
[00:25:44] But even in the flashbacks, when we learn about them, um, I think the, the, the male, the pilot, I think he's a pilot. Like, he's a big actor. He was in the industry. Um, he gets what, like three lines. Um, and it's like, okay, could we, because it's like, we wake up with this guy, right? And then he finds dead people.
[00:26:12] And I, I guess it kind of makes sense that he doesn't really care for them. I mean, he, he, he shoots them out because it's like, it's not like he went to training with them really. But he also kind of taught them everything about the science stuff, I think. So there should be something. I don't know. It just feels so cold, um, for a long time. And then we, we meet Rocky and then all of a sudden we are supposed to feel the warm and fuzzies. And the feel that there's just something odd about that.
[00:26:41] Like construction wise, it's, it's a little odd. Um, and yeah, like I said, I, I was hoping for a little more, I was hoping for a little more something that makes me feel something. And of course you feel like, oh no, Rocky is sacrificing himself. But then it's also like, they're, they don't necessarily go the full way, right? He didn't really sacrifice himself. He's still alive. And then at the end, it's, it's like the twisting of like Ryan Gosling is sacrificing himself to save Rocky.
[00:27:09] But again, he's not really sacrificing himself. Right? Because he's going back and live with his buddy. So it's, it's this constant kind of fake out of the stakes are super high, but they're kind of not, uh, it's, it's, I don't know. It's just not, it didn't fully work for me. I think you're, I think you're being unfair. I think. How dare you?
[00:27:34] I think the moment where Rocky sees, um, Grace, um, and the spaceship was spinning. And he was stuck trying to push the button. That moment. That moment, Rocky in that moment, Rocky did not know what was going to happen to him. If he came out of the container that was protecting him from the atmospheric pressures of the ship.
[00:27:58] Um, I, I think maybe they didn't make that concept very clear in the movie, but the reason why Rocky was saying in all of those stuff was because he has a totally different atmospheric pressure. Uh, and he needed to stay in very hot environment. So when he came out of that capsule, he had no clue if he was going to survive or not. He wanted to save Grace from death.
[00:28:27] And that was all he wanted to do at that moment. When Grace sent all of those things out, he didn't think that, you know, Rocky was going to create a subset of the planet for him that would mask, that would allow him to stay within their, their planet for a long period of time. Um, he was sacrificing himself at that very moment to save Rocky.
[00:28:53] And I think that that's where just because they have good, good endings doesn't mean that, you know, it wasn't a major decision on their end. Uh, and I'm becoming it from it, from a bias perspective because I love the book so much and I love the movie. Uh, and I'm just trying to protect it. Uh, but I, I, I thought it was a very well thought out thing.
[00:29:18] You know, one of the people who was in the movie was Milana Vayntrop, who was the AT&T spokesperson for a long time. I keep going, I know this face. I know this person. Who is she? Who is she? And throughout the film, she only has one talking scene. One talking scene. When she spoke out like a Russian, uh, in the, in the scene of when they were just, I don't know where they were.
[00:29:45] I think they were just in like in a room and she, she just talked back to him after he made a statement. Uh, and that was basically the whole scene. And she was in many, many scenes in the film. Didn't say anything. So, uh, even, you know, you talked about Ken Leong, who plays the, the, uh, the other astronaut from industry. He also didn't have much to say.
[00:30:10] I felt like the, the character usage outside of Ryan Gosling, um, Eva Stratt and Rocky, every one of them was very, very weak. Uh, except from Lionel Boyce, who played Officer Carl, there was a lot of humor between the two of them that kind of gave the foundation that, you know, Grace could be buddy-buddy with a lot of people.
[00:30:34] Uh, and it gave also the foundation that, of how he was going to relate to Rocky. So, I mean, what else can I say? I think you should go watch the movie. Um, I love the film because it makes smart people feel justified. It's, it's not a movie about brawn, about how strong you are when you meet up with aliens. It's a movie about, hey, let's use your sense. Let's use your brain.
[00:31:03] Um, yeah, I love the film. All right. All right. It's, uh, it's okay. I don't, don't, I don't, I'll probably watch it again at some point when it goes on streaming, but it's not like I was, I wasn't wowed by it. So, you know, you win some, you lose some. There we go. That's fair. Um, from outer space to Broadway's stage next up. Hamilton. That was a good, that was a good one.
[00:31:32] That was a good one. Uh, all right. I'm looking forward to talking about Hamilton. Yeah. Hamilton. Um, is this, is this the, is this the Disney show? Yeah. Yeah. It's the recording of Disney. Yeah. All right. Cool. I'll go, I'll go watch that one again. Yeah. Yeah. Until then, where can people find us? You can find us on Instagram. They can find us on Facebook on, uh, man, Blue Sky and on X.
[00:32:02] Um, at Movie Mistrial. There's something going on with my brain. Uh, or you can send us an email to contact at MovieMistrial.com. All right, everybody. I'll be the same. Go, go touch a pet rock.