by Brett Manero
There are some movie experiences where you leave the theater thinking, “Wow, that was an experience.” Some in my lifetime include The Dark Knight (2008), Les Miserables (2012), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). The most recent one, and maybe the greatest of all of these, is Project Hail Mary. For anyone who loves the sheer magic that is film, go see it – it’s worth every moment.
Ryan Gosling shines as the protagonist, a quietly brilliant science teacher who is forced to become a reluctant astronaut to save the human race from near-destruction. Gosling is one of those once-in-a-generation movie stars who is everything a movie star ought to be: talented, versatile, and highly likeable. He was the perfect choice for Project Hail Mary.
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILERS AHEAD ABOUT PROJECT HAIL MARY.
There are essentially two plots in this film: firstly, a bacteria is overtaking the sun, causing it to dim its light and causing earth to quickly plunge into a deep cooling, a new ice age, which will wipe out half of the world’s population. Dr. Ryland Grace (Gosling’s character) cracks the code in the bacteria that will enable humanity to save itself from this coming destruction. Volunteer astronauts are chosen to send themselves on a one-way mission to other planets to collect more information about this bacteria, but when a tragic explosion causes them to be killed, Grace is forced to take their place. In one of the more difficult scenes of the film, government agents sedate and force him into a years-long coma, effectively forcing him to get onto the spaceship and take part in the mission. I thought to myself while watching this scene: “This is why I don’t trust government.” But, his mission is indeed essential. One can see the Christian themes here: a man giving his life for the sake of the human race. Sound familiar?
Years later, Grace awakes from the coma, deep into space and slowly remembering his mission. The second and more important plot comes into play here: an alien spaceship follows and docks with his, and he makes contact with a playful, adorable, all-around amazing little alien whom he names Rocky. The friendship between them becomes the main plot for the rest of the film, as they have a common mission to save their respective worlds from the sun-dimming bacteria. Rocky is everything you want in a movie character: a loyal friend, a reminder of what all people should be like. In the biblical classic, Ben-Hur (1959), Charlton Heston’s character Judah says to his horses, “If only men were as good as you.” The same could be said to Rocky, who symbolizes an other-worldly selflessness that is often so lacking among humans. At two points in the film, both Rocky and Grace are willing to give their lives for the other, giving us yet another Christian theme: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). I wept during those scenes, and I nearly weep now as I write about them, seeing two intelligent creatures from distant worlds being willing to die for the other, just as Jesus Christ, who is God become man – from a realm so distant from earth – was willing to give His life for humanity.
The goodness of Rocky the alien brings up the question that is increasingly common among theologians: do aliens exist? And if they do, do they have sin like us humans or do they lack sin? The answer to all of these questions for the moment is of course, we don’t know. Yet. It may be that the human race is the only intelligent race (other than angels) whom God created, but if God did indeed create other intelligent races in the universe, that would not at all contradict Catholic Divine Revelation. We know what God has directly revealed to us, and there could be more which He has not revealed to us.
If aliens do exist, then again, do they have sin? Did their versions of Adam and Eve reject sin and choose to remain in God’s grace? If so, then their wills are perfectly set in God’s will, and everything they do is for His glory and for the good of others. I couldn’t help but think that Rocky the alien embodies this: his loyalty to Grace, his insistence on Grace’s happiness and well-being, suggests that he lacks sin. The film’s ending couldn’t have been better: Grace ends up on Rocky’s home planet, the two of them taking a walk along a beach together – we see that the alien residents of Rocky’s world have built Grace an earth-like realm for him to safely live on. The two friends walk alongside the water: an image of baptism, which returns the fallen human race to God’s friendship. There is no tension, just pure friendship, which is exactly what heaven will be: no cruelty, no unkindness, just pure friendship with God and others. When Grace is informed by Rocky that they have built him a spaceship to return him to earth, Grace says that he will think about it for a very long time. The film brilliantly ends with Grace starting a class with other alien students, clearly suggesting that he will remain on Rocky’s home planet. And why should he return to earth? He has no immediate family to return to. Rocky and his fellow aliens are now his family. Rocky’s planet lacks the sin and cynicism that dominate human life. Why would Grace return to earth where there is so much sin and unkindness? He is better off in this new world which lacks all of these terrible things. What an image of heaven: no more sin, just pure peace.
Project Hail Mary is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Ryan Gosling deserves, at the very least, an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. It’s movies like this which remind us of the magic of filmmaking, and from a Christian perspective, it’s movies like this that remind us of how far the human race has fallen, but of how much we have to long for in the kingdom of heaven. Finally, it is a reminder of how a movie need not be explicitly Christian to have the most powerful of Christian themes.
Leave a Reply