Project Hail Mary has captured the hearts of millions of readers since its novel release in 2021, however its new movie adaptation has sparked interest in the story, capturing a whole new audience of viewers. The movie came out this past spring and in the first six weeks grossed over $600 million worldwide.

Starring Ryan Gosling, the film follows a molecular scientist who left his research-filled past to teach at a local school. However, despite his best efforts to escape his past, one day he is presented with an opportunity to study an unknown organism, not knowing it would change his life. Flash forward in time and the scientist, Grace, is now a part of a top secret mission to save Earth, not initially knowing that he would soon find himself in space alone, trying to accomplish his mission after befriending an alien that looks like a rock. The story of Grace and Rocky, is one not only of scientific exploration and adventure, but also a journey of two worlds coming together evoking emotions of joy, sadness, and hopefulness for similar companionship to find us in our own lives.

Eli Andaya, a junior at Morris Hills, reflects on the movie as “one of the best” he has seen in a while, watching the movie two times already and planning on watching it a third time. In addition, Isabel, another junior at MH, had read the book before watching the movie and remembers being, “skeptical on how they would adapt it to a movie” but after seeing the movie, she noted, “they did a really great job, it was really funny!” Also, Isabel found the movie more easy to follow in comparison to the book as the adaption left out some of the detail that made the book hard to understand.

From a teacher’s perspective, Mrs. Doyle not only watched the movie adaptation but also was an original fan of the novel beforehand. In contrast to Isabel’s opinion, she wishes that “more of the science from the book had made it into the movie” but understands why they left some of the detailed portions out of the final adaption. With this, she explains that the movie was “one of the best adaptations of a book” she has ever seen, becoming not only a fan of the book but also becoming very fond of the movie. More importantly, Mrs. Doyle notes the reason she enjoys the storyline in general, saying, “I really enjoyed the fact that both Ryland Grace and Rocky were working out of their comfort zones (Grace was not an astronaut and Rocky wasn’t a scientist) but they worked together to solve a difficult problem that neither could have solved alone.” For this reason, Mrs. Doyle rates the movie a ten out of ten, noting Rocky as her favorite character due to his perseverance and willingness to learn.

So, if you’re looking for a movie filled with adventure, emotional turmoil, and the possibilities science has to offer, Project Hail Mary is the perfect movie to watch. In the words of Rocky and the ones that Eli most notably remembered, “AMAZE! AMAZE! AMAZE!”, till we meet again.