With Project Hail Mary heading to theaters soon, fans of Andy Weir's bestselling novel already have a clear sense of several major story turns and how the film's ending will likely unfold. The sci-fi adventure, set to release on March 20, stars Ryan Gosling and follows a lone astronaut who forms an unexpected bond while trying to save humanity. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, with a script by Drew Goddard, the movie's trailers suggest a very faithful adaptation, making it easy to identify some of the biggest spoilers more than a month before release.
Some fans are already frustrated by how much the trailers have revealed, arguing that they strip away the mystery that made the book so compelling for first-time readers.
Still, marketing is in full swing, and Amazon MGM Studios clearly views Project Hail Mary as a potential breakout hit, possibly even its own version of The Martian, Weir's other massively successful screen adaptation also written by Goddard.
As one of the biggest sci-fi releases of the year ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, the film carries real pressure to help kick off big-budget theatrical moviegoing in 2026.
For viewers who haven't read the novel, the trailers play like a standard high-concept space thriller, but for readers, they feel more like a highlight reel, already signaling where the story of teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace (Gosling) is ultimately headed.
Every Major Spoiler for Project Hail Mary, According to the Book
The Story is Told Out of Order
In Weir's Project Hail Mary, upon waking up in a spaceship, Ryland Grace doesn't remember anything, and his memories slowly return as time passes. This is a captivating storytelling method for readers, and the expectation is that Lord and Miller have followed a similar path with the film.
The beauty of this back-and-forth plot unraveling is that the audience fully gets to experience Ryland's journey through space with him, putting all the pieces together as he goes.
It also gives the movie a similar feeling as The Martian, which switched between Mars and Earth, but that was all in real-time. The difference here is that everything on Earth will have already happened, including the other main human character: Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller).
In writing, this type of device is certainly less jarring, so you do expect fewer flashbacks to Earth before the Hail Mary mission than in the book.
Project Hail Mary's "Villain" Twist
The villain of Project Hail Mary is dark alien goo... and no, this is not a Venom crossover event.
While most sci-fi blockbusters rely on bug-eyed invaders or AI, the true antagonist of Project Hail Mary is significantly smaller and far more mindless. Known as "Astrophage," this single-celled organism is essentially an interstellar mold with an appetite for solar energy.
Don't expect any bone-chilling soliloquies from this antagonist.
The microbe lacks a master plan for galactic domination, yet its biological drive to reproduce creates a "Petrova Line" that slowly drains the Sun's lifeblood. In a twist, this microscopic villain also serves as the story's primary resource, providing the fuel necessary for the Hail Mary ship to reach deep space.
Project Hail Mary's villain is essentially a scientific problem that needs to be solved. Why the story is so effective is that Ryland is not alone, and he has his spider-like alien friend to help him save both their worlds.
Rocky the Alien is Brilliant
One of the worst-kept secrets about the new film is that Gosling's Ryland Grace meets up with a non-humanoid alien. Meet Rocky, a spider-like alien from the 40 Eridani system.
In fact, Rocky (a fan-favorite) will be the emotional core of the film, and the reason why Earth (and his planet, Erid) is ultimately saved (with the help of Ryland).
More than just an ally, Rocky is a brilliant engineer; he possesses a grasp of physics and materials science (beyond the understanding of Earth). It also helps that the little alien needs very little sleep, unlike weak humans like Ryland.
Rocky's inherent smarts and Eridian background allow him to construct complex tools from "xenonite," a super durable material from Erid.
It turns out that Erid is a high-gravity world with a crushing atmosphere and scorching temperatures, where the inhabitants evolved without eyes, relying on sonar to navigate, which explains Rocky's appearance.
Despite these radical biological differences, communication between Rocky and Ryland is achieved through a melodic language of musical chords (a joy to listen to on the audiobook), eventually translated through a custom software program.
Their partnership transcends typical "alien encounter" tropes, with a shared intellectual curiosity and a mutual need to solve the Astrophage crisis.
Following this best friendship, Gosling will be in a mentor and apprentice relationship in Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter.
Ryland Grace is No Hero
Ryland Grace may wake up in Chapter 1 as humanity's last hope, but the memory-wiped scientist is actually a "hero" by force rather than by choice.
Originally a disgraced biologist turned middle school teacher, Grace was recruited by the iron-fisted Eva Stratt (in charge of the international task force trying to save the world) to decode the mysteries of the Astrophage.
In a shocking twist to the readers and Ryland, a pre-Hail Mary launch explosion wiped out the intended crew, and it turns out the "hero" of this story was a coward.
Stratt tapped Ryland for the mission, only to be met with a flat-out refusal because the teacher had no desire to die on a one-way suicide mission.
Recognizing him as the only person who could save the world, Stratt ignored his pleas and had him forcibly drugged and loaded onto the Hail Mary like cargo. Ryland was kept under heavy sedation and given amnesia-inducing medication, meaning his journey to save the Sun began as a literal kidnapping.
This twist shatters the "brave explorer" archetype, but also sets him up for great things as the story unfolds, now that he's in this dire situation.
Ryland Grace Doesn't Return to Earth
"Wait, he doesn't go home?" - moviegoers this March, probably.
In a major departure from traditional survival epics, Ryland makes the gut-wrenching decision to abandon his journey to Earth after realizing the Taumoeba (a single-celled predator that naturally consumes Astrophage) will leave Rocky's ship stranded and fuel-less. The plan was thought to be foolproof, until Ryland realizes that he engineered it to go through xenonite, which Rocky's ship is made entirely of.
It might sound crazy, as Ryland could have, at this point, easily gone back to Earth as a savior, but everyone reading the book knows he's going to turn around to save his friend. In doing so, Ryland exhausts his own food supplies, trading his life on Earth for Rocky's survival.
Before the rescue, he successfully launches "Beetle" probes back to Earth, which ultimately cures the Sun of the Astrophage and saves humanity from a frozen extinction. In the moment, readers are unaware whether sending the Beetle actually works; that's not revealed until the very end of the novel.
While Weir's previous protagonist, Mark Watney of The Martian, famously fought to return home, Grace finds a different kind of peace as a permanent resident of Rocky's alien planet Erid.
Living in a specialized climate-controlled habitat and eating synthetic food, he spends his days fulfilling his original passion by teaching science to a classroom of young Eridians. A lot of fans love this ending, but some critics say it was too easy, or too quick for them to make Ryland comfortable on a planet that should be uninhabitable for humans.
This bittersweet conclusion will certainly be part of the movie; seeing Gosling's character find fulfillment as an interstellar immigrant rather than a returning hero is a twist that provides a new take on what qualifies as a happy ending.
