The film ‘Project Hail Mary’ includes a scene in which three crew members — a pilot, an engineer and a scientist — talk before boarding a spacecraft meant to save Earth as the sun dies.
Grace, the scientist, suddenly realizes he is the only scientist assigned and protests: “I get motion sickness even in an elevator.” Yao, the pilot, replies, “That’s good. There are no elevators on the ship.” Grace answers, “No. This is a suicide mission.” Ilyukhina, the engineer, adds, “We’re perfect friends to die together.”
The pilot and engineer have already agreed to go. Grace has not — and never intended to. The mission is one-way: once they leave Earth, they are expected to carry out their task at the destination and then die, unable to return.
Grace is a middle school science teacher ostracized in academia for challenging the theory that all life requires water. That work leads to a request that he analyze a sun-dwelling microbe called ‘Astrophage,’ pulling him into the Hail Mary project.
He expects to handle research and analysis, not fly into space. But an accident kills the scientist originally slated to go, leaving Grace as the only option.
Stratt, the project’s hard-driving leader, tells Grace he will be given time to decide whether to die for the mission: three hours. After agonizing, Grace answers through tears, “I can’t go.” Earth may be in trouble, he notes, but there is said to be about 30 years left.
Stratt refuses to accept his decision. She stops the fleeing Grace, renders him unconscious and puts him on the ship anyway — a blunt choice of sacrificing one for the many. The film asks whether that decision gives Earth a chance to recover.
Set against Grace are Yao and Ilyukhina. Unlike Grace, who has no family or pets, they have loved ones and wide circles of friends. The two appear to have accepted death long ago, even discussing what kind of death would be most tolerable.
The review recalls a line from the film ‘Deep Impact,’ when astronauts face a final self-sacrifice: “A high school will be named after us.”
In ‘Project Hail Mary,’ Yao and Ilyukhina’s willingness to die is portrayed with a light touch, but the stakes remain stark. Even if the number of people they might save amounts to a quarter of humanity, the film suggests, that does not make any single life insignificant. Still, Yao, Ilyukhina and Stratt move forward, executing the logic of a few dying for the overwhelming majority — grimly, calmly and at times with humor.
Grace, by contrast, cries that he would rather live on Earth a little longer, even if only for a few more years. He sobs in front of Stratt. Even without anyone depending on him, the film treats his desire to keep living as a choice that is hard to condemn.
The film does not rule on which side is right. It presents, on equal terms, those who want to stay and those who choose to leave to die, emphasizing that different people make different decisions. The review argues that the film’s gaze is warm in the way it acknowledges and contains those competing human impulses.
It even invites viewers to understand Stratt, who forces Grace onto the ship, as someone acting from her own position and sense of necessity. The review concludes that the film leaves an additional, lingering impression: people pursuing what they believe is the best choice, from where they stand, can appear admirable even when their decisions collide.
* ‘Leftover review’: A review of the smaller impressions that remain after the main takeaways from cultural content.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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