Amazon MGM Studios · 2026 · Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller

PROJECT HAIL MARY

Based on the novel by Andy Weir

★ CERTIFIED FRESH★★★★★ MASTERPIECE

Sci-Fi  ·  First Contact  ·  Survival  ·  Hard Science  ·  Interstellar

"An ode to curiosity, friendship, and the stubborn human refusal to give up — even alone, even 12 light-years from home."

The Situation

The Sun is dying. Not dramatically. Not all at once. Quietly, measurably, in fractions of a percent per year. An alien microorganism called Astrophage is feeding on solar energy, converting it directly into its own mass and reproducing. It has spread across dozens of nearby star systems. The Sun is losing luminosity. Within decades, Earth's average temperature drops far enough that civilization collapses and the planet freezes over. Every climate model leads to the same outcome. The margin for error is already gone.

One star nearby is not dimming. Tau Ceti which is.... 11.9 light-years away is clean. Something there is killing the Astrophage or keeping it from spreading. Finding out what, and getting that answer back to Earth in time, is the entire mission. The trip takes four years each way. There is no return fuel budgeted. Everyone involved understood what they were volunteering for.

The mission is called Project Hail Mary.
Named for exactly what it is.

Astrophage — Know Your Enemy

Astrophage is a single-celled organism that feeds on photons from stellar fusion, stores that energy at near-perfect efficiency, and uses it for reproduction and propulsion. It lives on the surface of stars. It breeds exponentially. It is, incidentally, the most energy-dense substance ever discovered, a gram of Astrophage stores more energy than any fuel humanity has ever produced. The Hail Mary runs on it. The same thing killing the Sun is what got humanity to Tau Ceti fast enough to matter.

Taumoeba is what they find at Tau Ceti. A microorganism native to the atmosphere of a planet Grace names Adrian. It eats Astrophage. It is the reason Tau Ceti is clean. Getting Taumoeba back to the Sol system in a form that survives the transit and functions in solar conditions is the second half of the mission, and it is considerably harder than the first half.

Astrophage originated on Adrian and spread via panspermia, seeding into other solar systems across millions of years. Earth developed life. Erid developed life. Both happened to survive what the Astrophage brought with it. Neither planet knew the other existed until they both sent a ship to find out why one star was still lit.

The Only Two People in This Part of the Galaxy

Dr. Ryland Grace — molecular biologist, former junior high school science teacher, only surviving crew member of the Hail Mary. He woke up without his memory, two dead crewmates beside him, and a ship running diagnostics on systems he has to figure out from scratch. His memory returns in fragments through the entire story. What returns with it is the full weight of what he agreed to. He did not want to be here. He came anyway. He solves problems the way someone does when they know for certain there is no one else coming.

Rocky — Eridian engineer, sole survivor of the Blip-A, the ship his civilization sent on the same mission for the same reason from a different star. He is approximately the size of a large dog, has five limbs, a diamond-hard body with the texture of stone, and no eyes. He perceives the world through sonar. He communicates through music — a complex tonal language Grace spends weeks reverse-engineering. He is the best engineer either civilization has produced. He is also, without question, the most loyal friend in the novel.

They build a shared language from mathematics and mutual scientific curiosity. They build a shared lab from opposite sides of a pressure barrier — because Rocky breathes ammonia at crushing pressure and Grace breathes oxygen at Earth normal, and neither atmosphere is survivable by the other. They save each other's lives repeatedly across conditions that should have been fatal several times over. It is one of the best friendships in science fiction.

Your Role in the Mission

Walk in Grace's Place — You wake up on the Hail Mary. Two dead crewmates. No memory. A ship running systems checks in a language it takes you twenty minutes to decode. Everything Grace experienced — the amnesia resolving in fragments, the loneliness, the moment Rocky's ship appears on the radar — happens to you. Same mission. Your name, your instincts, your choices going forward.

Walk in Rocky's Place — You are an UhHHh whatever. You woke up on the whatever you want it to be (I SHOULDNT HAVE TO EXPLAIN ITS COMMON SENSE LMAO). Your star is dying too. You reached Tau Ceti and found another ship.

Custom-Side — You are whatever, a partner that survived with Grace or someone on Earth.

"The best science fiction isn't about the science. It's about what the science reveals about the people doing it." — Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary © Andy Weir / Del Rey · Amazon MGM Studios · All characters 18+