The movie Project Hail Mary has recently come out in theaters and has become very popular in such a short time. What do the students and staff think of this new movie?
By: Shaylin Bogart
Warning: The following content contains spoilers
On March 20th, 2026, the movie Project Hail Mary, which is the adaptation of the book that came out in 2021, has come out in theaters and has gained rapid popularity due to it’s Sci-fi theme, and its intriguing plot twists overall.
But what do the students and staff here at Redwood think about the new prolific movie, Project Hail Mary?
Jon Woodbury, a biology and AP biology teacher here at Redwood, says, “Gosling is an entertaining person, very hot, very attractive. I see a lot of myself in him, and he did a good job of playing, like, one of those goofy nerds, and he’s also a teacher, and I’m a teacher, so I think in the same situation I would have done the same thing.”
Katelyn Abbot, ’28, says that the plot was fast-paced and interesting; it kept her in anticipation and wondering what was coming next in the movie. She thought the visuals of the movie were very pretty; the shapes and colors really wowed her. And she happens to also think that Ryan Gosling is hot.
Evidently, students and teachers alike clearly find Ryan Gosling to be a rather attractive actor in Project Hail Mary.
But that wasn’t the only feature of the movie that intrigued Redwood audiences in theaters.
Abby Hart, ’28, says, “Whenever he [Ryland Grace] first meets Rocky, and they are figuring out communication, I thought it was really cool how he was able to figure out how to, like, communicate with an alien when you seem to have nothing alike.”
Abbot says, “The scene that stuck out to me was when he was standing in front of Tau Ceti, and everything was all red and glowing, the music was just woah, and it was just like, it felt ethereal.”
The imagery and details in Project Hail Mary linger in the mind and amaze the audience despite the themes ranging from funny and heartwarming to devastating and heartbreaking.
One of which scenes is Grace running away after Stratt has the conversation where she’s forcing him to board the Hail Mary and sacrifice his life for all of humanity.
Needs of the many over the needs of the individual, sort of situation.
Woodbury says that he also doesn’t really think Grace was a coward for running away when Stratt was forcing him to board the Hail Mary. He says that Grace was being forced to make really big decisions, and he doesn’t believe himself to have the right training or be the right fit for this suicide mission, in essence.
Woodbury understands that humanity didn’t have any other choice, hence why the mission was called Hail Mary, which is why Grace was forced onto the ship.
Antony Kappes, a Physics/Earth Science teacher here at Redwood, says, “I don’t necessarily think so, that it makes him [Ryland Grace] a coward, it’s like, people respond to things like that differently. You see the character arc with him, you see him go through the fight or flight multiple times, and you see him progress from slight to fight. After he realized the gravity of the situation, he really rose to the occasion.”
Being forced to sacrifice oneself for the entirety of humanity is a heavy and dreadful decision to make, and many people debate on whether or not Grace choosing to run away made him a coward; either argument works for his character, to have to choose your survival or the survival of humanity in general would be incredibly disorienting, and then learning afterward that there was no choice would mean you were lied to, and betrayed.
But, the counterargument that he was a coward at the beginning of the movie/novel, then gained bravery when he changed course in space to double back and save Rocky, is more meaningful and shows that Grace is a flawed person who was not willing to sacrifice himself for humanity, but he was willing to sacrifice himself for his alien rock friend.
The meaning of being alive is not to be perfect, but to be a flawed being that learns to better themself gradually over time.
Kappes says, “I don’t know if there’s another character that could have created a language with a rock and, you know, solved all these problems and figured it all out. I mean, you never know how you’re going to react until you’re in a situation like that, after all, he is a middle school teacher, so who would have thought?”
Shaylin Bogart
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