Ryan Gosling Redefines the Reluctant Hero in a Buddy Comedy We Didn’t Know We Needed
The first time we meet Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), he’s barely conscious, strapped to a table with robots assisting his resuscitation. He is in a space shuttle, bearded, fighting the machine to understand what’s happening around him since he has lost his memory, and we fall in love with him right away.
As Grace gets a grip on his reality, what dawns on us is the utter loneliness of his situation. The movie takes us back to Earth, where Grace was a high-school teacher and an infamous molecular biologist. Grace wrote a paper once that drew attention from the mysterious Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller). Stratt heads the International Task Force and is assigned to lead the mission to save the world.
Grace is content being a high school teacher and is not looking for additional responsibility. He is told he doesn’t have a choice, along with being seduced by the opportunity to work on astrophage, the microorganisms that have taken residence on the Sun, causing it to dim. If the Sun continues to dim at this pace, all life on Earth may end in 30 years, we are told. All the science is explained in a simple and swift manner that keeps the story in motion and the audience engaged.
The science is plausible, too, as Project Hail Mary is based on the book with the same title by Andy Weir, author of The Martian, known for his well-researched novels that combine scientific concepts with heroic stories.
As his memories slowly return, Grace grapples with the reality of being the sole survivor in his mission to a star that is light-years away, and the only chance to save our planet, as we know it. Alone, scared, ill-equipped and burdened by the enormous responsibility, Grace has no choice but to move forward. Thanks to the bag of vodka he finds in one of his colleagues’ belongings, Grace manages to maintain his positive attitude.
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The project is called Hail Mary because even if Grace’s ship reaches the other star, he still has to figure out how it survived the attack from those alien microorganisms, and how he can use that information to save our sun. This sounds more impossible than Mission: Impossible. But just like unexpected problems arise, unexpected pathways to success open, too.
Grace finds an ally in the dark emptiness of the great unknown. He finds an alien from a foreign planet that is also going through the dying sun dilemma. As the two work out a way to communicate and possibly work together, we realize we are watching a buddy movie that takes place in space.
The movie doesn’t work if you don’t like Grace and Gosling. The fact that it works tells us a lot. Grace represents the men the world needs today. Intelligent, quick on their feet, humble, affable, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s as good-looking as Gosling. As Ken in Barbie, Gosling presented the fractured male ego to great comedic effect. In Project Hail Mary, he epitomizes the reluctant hero. Battling against all odds, and doing it with sense and sensibility, without being animalistic.
The reluctant hero archetype has appeared since the oldest stories ever told, like Arjuna in the Mahabharata or Moses from the Book of Exodus. Grace is a new version of that hero. He constantly doubts his ability to conquer adversity, thereby exhibiting bravery in its purest form: knowing the danger, fully recognising it, daunted by it, and finally facing it because it must be done. The result works like a charm in Project Hail Mary because we can’t help but empathise with Grace and get immersed in his journey. There are no bad guys or evil doers in Project Hail Mary. No beast to subdue. Everything acts as per its natural inclinations. A predator preys because that’s part of its design, which in turn forms a part of an ecosystem. Subtextually, the film attempts to explain the role of humankind in that ecosystem.
By focusing on the positive aspects of our kind, the movie makes the argument for our survival stronger. Yes, we are a sum of our parts. And yes, while some of those parts may be shameful, the total is a thing of beauty.
Another reason for the absorbing nature of the storytelling is the directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. They have proved their mettle with complex sci-fi tales with their Into the Spider-Verse movies and with buddy comedies with the Jump Street movies. Accompanied by the Dune franchise’s cinematographer, Greig Fraser, they give us some haunting images that illustrate Grace’s journey.
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Project Hail Mary is a family movie that provides entertainment for all age groups, which is hard to find these days. It is a celebration of the power of stories and the strong bonds that hold us together. The kind that have survived with man since the early days and revived through blockbuster Hollywood movies for the last 100 years. It is delightful, heartwarming, and it reaffirms humanity’s fight for survival.
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