Today is March 6, which means you have about two weeks to read or listen to Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir before the film comes out. It doesn’t matter if you have to listen to it on 2x speed, do yourself a favour and read it, you just have to trust me.
I’m not even going to tell you why because I’m trying to be a good friend. You know, that friend that isn’t going to spoil anything, reveal anything, heck I won’t even hint at anything, because I want you to experience what I’ve experienced after reading and listening to the book each time, turning me into an emotional leaky space blob.
Because I’m sure, it’s exactly how I’m going to feel again, when I get to experience the cinema in a few weeks.
Let’s be honest, the world’s a little broken right now
You don’t need me to tell you that, because the onslaught of negativity is so real and so frequent. And strangely, as much as I think we are in a sci-fi boom right now with so many quality shows and films—Silo, Dune, Andor, Mickey 17, and the latest awesome entries into the Alien franchise—you can’t help but notice that it may be affecting our current dark societal narrative.
Sci-fi was once a storytelling medium that was used to warn us of a potential future, but now, it’s feeling more like a documentary and we’re experiencing the story in real time.
Neil deGrasse Tyson explains so brilliantly our portrayal of aliens on the Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know Podcast:
In movies, other than ET, they are all smart and hostile… All of our tropes that we have on aliens are not based on any actual knowledge (of aliens), they’re instead based on actual knowledge of how we would behave in the presence of a civilization with lesser technology than ourselves. So, I have no recourse but to declare that all portrayals of hostile aliens are mirrors to ourselves.
For all we know, aliens are the most peaceful things ever, but we are violent against other members of our own species if we have higher technology than they do. The history of exploration and colonization has shown, either they are exterminated, enslaved, somehow reduced to lesser personhood than those who did the conquering.
Our worst nightmare is that we meet aliens who are just like us.
We’ve all seen the arrogant guy on the team who thinks the alien is stupid or silly, who walks up in a patronising manner, only to immediately die. I can’t help but think, with the power of film and television, that these aggressive and hostile portrayals must also be shaping the way we think and act.
We’ve learned to shoot first and ask questions later.
Do you want to be the idiot whose face was just sucked off?
Why are we like this?
I think it’s because we’re not taking the time to listen to each other… to understand each other. I can’t go onto YouTube or Instagram (and forget about X) and leave those platforms without watching people just fight with each other.
In Paul Arden’s book God Explained in a Taxi Ride:
You will know the story of the tower of Babel, where men were building a tower to get closer to God.
It was really built for their own self-glorification.
So God decided to restrain them by making them speak different languages.
Suddenly, they started to argue and pass judgement on each other.
The project collapsed.
Speaking different languages leads to misunderstanding which leads to animosity, which leads to fighting.
There have been many wars in the name of religion simply because people speak different languages.
Most religions are different ways of saying the same thing. But we hear things differently because we all speak different languages.
That is why we have misunderstandings and that is why we have wars.
We fight our neighbours because we don’t understand them, not because we disagree with them.
But does it have to always be this way?
Most of our sci-fi heroes are captains, soldiers, and even teams of underdogs, but even they are oil drilling underdogs. Heroes are portrayed as badass mofos.
That’s why Project Hail Mary feels different.
Ryland Grace is anything but a badass. He’s a molecular biologist turned junior high school science teacher, who couldn’t even tough it out in academia because people didn't like his paper. And among his powers? Unlike Thor’s thunder, he instead wields the power of lightning… that is the fun lightning rounds of a science quiz. And instead of tossing boulders, he tosses beanbags. In fact, his greatest superpower is probably his ability to listen to hormonal tweens while earning the title of being the cool teacher.
Andy Weir presents us a hero who isn’t a hero.
He’s just an insecure, chip-on-his-shoulder person like us, the reader.
When the hero is just a scared guy who’s got some listening skills, does it change what trying to save the world looks like?
So do yourself a favour
Find yourself a copy of Project Hail Mary.
Read it.
Then listen to it.
In a few weeks, go watch it, because I think Project Hail Mary really has the chance to become 2026’s first major blockbuster hit. Amidst the negativity and darkness we’ve all experienced in the last year, this story does the opposite of Hollywood’s latest dystopian obsession, giving us a bit of hope and fist my bump fun.
And I’ll be here, excited to talk to you about it.
Normally, this is where a media outlet would leave the trailer, but for this film, you don't need it.
Trust me.
Project Hail Mary comes out around March 19 or 20 depending on your country with special previews March 14 and 15 in select locations.
