It has been several years since I read Project Hail Mary but I remembered enough to know how the movie would go. A few things were a little different but for the most part the plot followed the book fairly accurately and that meant it was filled with something rare for movies these days and that is unflinching optimism.
The set-up of the story is that there is a world ending event. A new organism is discovered in space and it is eating the sun. The earth will cool down and reach extinction level temperatures in 30 years. Somehow, against all odds, all the world governments work together and form a task force to save the planet.
Now this begs another question. What is optimism but action without thought. Nowhere in the movie or book is there much reflection time spent on the nature of the project. It is named Project Hail Mary after all. The name of the project encapsulates the risk. It is acknowledged and then never mentioned again. It is straight to work.
It is an insane story. A disgraced scientist that became a school teacher is recruited to help with the project and then through a series of actions is given a mission to save the planet. In some strange ways it reminds me of Saving Private Ryan. I don’t know if we can call that movie optimistic, but it is about a school teacher surviving against impossible odds but it isn’t a unique story in that context. That was WWII. America’s professional army didn’t exist until afterwards and has had a much lower success rate than the non-professional army that existed before.
Belief in ourselves, our cause, and our actions can go a long way. It is something that we lost. It is a good and necessary lesson to reflect on. How much more could we accomplish during the day if we stopped thinking about every possible risk to our actions and simply acted towards a predetermined goal?
David Huzzard Writes 