Editor’s Note: This article includes spoilers for the “Project Hail Mary” book and movie. 

This past weekend, I went to AMC with high hopes and a ticket to Project Hail Mary. I was so excited to see it, especially because it had great reviews. I was not disappointed; the movie was amazing, and I’m not ashamed to admit I cried multiple times throughout watching it. 

I had read the book a couple days before going to watch it, so the story was fresh in my mind. Book-to-movie adaptations don’t have the best track record, and it’s easy to absolutely butcher one. Despite this theme, it was obvious that a lot of time and care had been put into this movie. Although there were differences from the book, the differences were—dare I say it— even better, than the original. 

The story follows a man named Ryland Grace, who wakes up from a medically induced coma aboard a spaceship orbiting a star named Tau Ceti. As his memory comes back, he remembers that back in his own solar system, the Sun was dying. A type of microorganism called astrophage was “eating” the Sun, effectively dimming it, and it had infected all the nearby stars—except for Tau Ceti. Grace was sent on an expedition to learn why, and while he’s there, he befriends an alien named Rocky, whose planet is also being affected by the astrophage. They find an astrophage predator, called Taumoeba, on Adrian, a planet orbiting Tau Ceti. At the end, Grace ends up going to live on Rocky’s home planet, but sends information back to Earth to save the planet. 

The movie did not use any green screens, and fans seem to like the “authenticity” of the sets. Speaking of the sets, the spaceship was well thought out and really detailed. The score was one of my favorite things about the movie and it enhanced the movie-watching experience incredibly well. Since Grace is, at first, alone on his spaceship, there’s a major lack of dialogue for a good part of the movie. It’s easy for that to make watching it boring, but the music used filled in any gaps that talking left behind. The music added so much emotion, some that could be lost by the lack of dialogue, and all in all, it was just beautiful. It was composed by Daniel Pemberton, who is a famous composer known for his work in the “Spider Man: Into the Spider Verse” and “Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse” movies.

Another great choice for the movie was the casting. At first, I was skeptical of having Ryan Gosling playing the main character in a sci-fi movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. He did an amazing job playing Grace, and I can’t imagine another actor doing as well of a job. He brought Grace to life and the emotional scenes weren’t awkward to watch; I actually ended up crying along with him. 

One critique I do have is how fast-paced the beginning of the movie is. It was hard to really get a grasp on what was happening, especially for the people in my family who hadn’t read the book. Captions would definitely help since they did also talk fast, but overall, the first couple scenes were a little rushed. 

Some differences in the movie versus the book were miniscule scene changes, but I personally thought they made quite an impact. For example, in one part of the story, Rocky risks his life to save an unconscious Grace. In the book, Grace wakes up and saves Rocky in turn.. In the movie, however, Grace doesn’t wake up immediately, and Rocky has to drag himself to his spaceship to try and save himself. When Grace eventually wakes up, he has to follow Rocky’s trail, believing that he’s dead, which makes it a gut-wrenching watch. 

Another difference is that in the movie, they have a shot of Earth receiving the probes containing the Taumoeba and it adds a special sort of closure, one that the book does not offer. It’s a good way to answer any questions still remaining about the future of Earth, before it cuts to one last final scene where Grace is on Rocky’s planet, teaching a bunch of kids. That scene actually mirrors one of the first scenes in the movie, where Grace is on Earth as a science teacher with his students. 

Overall, the movie was absolutely amazing, and I would highly recommend it. Of course, I’d say you should read the book first, but I am totally satisfied with the way this movie was made.