Project Hail Mary is full of Grace

Total moment of transparency here, I really struggled to find a direction for my blog post for this week. In this day and age, we consume gargantuan amounts of media and it's telling that so much of it is really just an easy dopamine kick. We're creatures of habit and if that habit means spending hours scrolling on a tiny screen or rewatching The Office (Ok, but honestly The Office is still good, no matter how many times you watch it), so be it as long as it scratches an itch. In many ways, church life is incredibly similar. Every week, we gather with the same structure, the same stories, the same cycle of songs and responses. But, as odd as it sounds, I never seem to get bored with it.

This past week, as an example, I finished my re-read of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It's a story I've read and watched more times than I can count. There's something new and exciting I get out of it every single time I revisit the story. And it's fantastic storytelling. If you have never read the series, I strongly recommend it. It's ambitious - perhaps a bit too ambitious for a light "Pastor's Playlist" for the summer. But I promise that it's worth it. But, that won't be the topic of today's post. Instead, I'm turning my attention to something a bit more novel.

A few years ago, I was introduced to Andy Weir's science fiction work - The Martian. It's a tale of survival and persistence in the face of adversity for a NASA scientist who gets stranded on Mars. It was a bit more lighthearted but just as cool as the blockbuster Interstellar that was released just the year before. Andy Weir has this way telling story that will not only make you think but make you laugh, as well. Which is exactly the experience I had watching his latest inspired film - Project Hail Mary.

The story centers on Dr. Ryland Grace, a microbiologist played by Ryan Gosling. He's had a tumultuous relationship with the scientific community after standing by a controversial paper he wrote that was rejected by practically everyone. He is forced out of the realm of "serious academia" and instead becomes a middle school science teacher. As the story begins, news coverage centers on a strange phenomenon taking place between Venus and the Sun - a line of infrared light, named the Petrova Line, is detected and the sun is beginning to dim. The energy output of the sun is failing and the Earth is headed towards another ice age if nothing can be done. Eva Stratt, former administrator of the European Space Agency is selected by a collection of worldwide governments to investigate and solve the problem. She approaches Grace, finding his commitment to his principles and outside-the-box thinking to be just the sort of scientist to be working on this problem. Grace studies a sample of microscopic "dots" captured from the Petrova Line and discovers that the dots are actually living cells using the carbon dioxide in Venus's atmosphere and the energy of the sun to thrive and reproduce, later named Astrophage. The energy potential that they are able to capture is enough to supply vast amounts of energy - all robbed from the sun. It is revealed that the sun is not the only star experiencing the same problem. All of the nearby stars are losing significant amounts of energy - save one: Tau Ceti... 11.9 light years from earth. Grace is chosen to be a member of a crew that will travel to the star to investigate the reason for its resistance with the understanding that it will be a one way trip. Probes will be sent back to earth in lieu of the scientists who will eventually perish. And this is where the movie actually begins - with Grace waking up on the spaceship the "Hail Mary" and being unable to recall much of anything that happened. Side note: It took me embarrassingly longer than I care to admit to discover the pun - The Hail Mary full of (Dr.) Grace.

Grace discovers he's the only surviving crew member on the ship. He's in a different solar system with little recollection as to what got him there and no one to talk to - including Earth at almost 12 light years away. He discovers some kind of strange construct near his ship - much larger and clearly constructed by something - an alien ship. He apprehensively makes contact and discovers that there is a single crew member on board - similar situation to Grace. The creature comes from the Eridani system - it's an almost spiderlike creature with a rocky exterior, but clearly intelligent and capable of communication. The two first communicate through simple motions and puppetry until they can establish a working vocabulary with one another. Eventually they are able to communicate and Grace dubs his new colleague "Rocky". Rocky boards the Hail Mary, taking refuge in a kind of hamster ball to keep him safe from oxygen, which is toxic to him. They work together to try and figure out how to salve their shared problem and even teach each other about their home planets and culture. At the climax of the story, there is this moment where Grace makes a risky move to get a sample of a potential predator cell for the Astrophage, a Taumoeba. But in the move, Grace is knocked out and Rocky saves his life at his own expense. Grace recovers and nurses Rocky back to health - all the while trying to breed the right kind of cell that will be able to be sent back to Earth and solve the problem with the sun. Grace and Rocky eventually celebrate and they depart. I won't spoil all of the details of the movie, but it is really a fantastic watch.

Honestly, there's a few really incredible themes in the story and it's hard to pick just one. Sacrifice and duty, friendship and connection, the power of hope, problem solving, and identity. I think the thing that sits with me the most in this story is how Grace must reassess his own identity, values, and commitments in the light of his situation. To spoil the story a bit, he did not choose to be a part of the mission, but find himself there anyway - doomed to die far from home. And yet, he's given an opportunity to return home because of the generosity of Rocky. When Rocky finds himself in a perilous position of his own - one that will doom himself and his home, Grace must make a decision to help Rocky or to return to his own planet.

While Grace has been put in a situation that has robbed him of his life on earth, he experiences a remarkable amount of grace in the story - from the discovery of an unlikely partner and new friendship to a solution to the problem he was sent there to solve. And when he risks his life for the mission, Rocky graciously saves his life at his own expense. Grace has received grace upon grace. And now, at the end, he must make a decision with the grace that he has been given.

Much is the same with us. We are people who have been given grace from God. And grace abundantly. But what good is grace if we treat it as something that we deserve and no one else does? There's this interesting parable in Matthew 18 where a servant to a ruler owes him a great debt - 160 years worth of labor, in fact. The ruler threatens to sell the servant and his family into slavery to recoup the loss, but the servant begs for mercy. The ruler has pity (a lot of pity) and cancels the debt. The servant leaves and confronts a fellow who owes him money (100 days worth of labor). The servant demands payment and when his debtor begs for mercy, the servant has none and throws him into prison. When the ruler finds out, he revokes the forgiveness he gave and has the servant imprisoned and tortured until he can pay back his unpayable debt. Oof. That's heartwarming, isn't it? But I think it gives us something to think about. You have been given grace in one way or another. What are you going to do with it? You have been given mercy and love in one way or another. What are you going to do with it? Grace isn't meant to stop with us. It's meant to be shared and grown. It puts us, sometimes, in decisions that seem impossible. But that's a big part of what being a person of faith is all about. We love because God first loved us. And when we love to the point of self-sacrifice, there may be nothing more Christlike that we can do.

Movie: Project Hail Mary (2026)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime

May the grace of God be yours, now and always.

-PT