Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's 2026 space adventure follows Ryland Grace, a middle-school science teacher who wakes alone on a starship with no memory and learns he is humanity's last hope against a dimming sun. Outmatched and out of time, he works the problem, makes an impossible friend, and learns what it costs to turn back for someone.
How It Captures Spirit, Skill & Strategy
Grace did not volunteer for this sacrifice: he refused the mission and was placed aboard against his will. His growth appears when he chooses to help Rocky even at the cost of his own way home.
The film shows science as a practiced craft: hypothesis, test, failure, revision, again. And it shows how the habit is built — the teacher who taught kids to love questions becomes the lone survivor who uses them.
The mission has one clear priority: find what is killing the Sun and stop it. Grace adapts as problems emerge, working within new limits rather than clinging to a failing plan. When Rocky needs saving, he changes course again, putting his safety and his available route home at risk for his friend.
Virtues in Play
Under Wisdom , Project Hail Mary asks what leaders do when no one else can solve the problem. Grace's genius isn't that he knows everything, but that he keeps learning. Grace’s growth comes through confronting failure and learning to understand someone profoundly different from himself. ( Teachability ). Piece by piece, he works out what is killing the sun and what can stop it ( Understanding ). After every failed experiment and near-death setback, he simply begins again ( Perseverance ). In the end, he gives up his only way home to keep his friend alive ( Courage ).
Watch for the opposite
Watch Grace refuse the mission out of fear. Stratt then overrides his refusal and has him put aboard. This loss of agency makes his later, freely chosen courage especially significant.
Watch This Week
Watch Grace turn fear into a testable question. Then take one problem you have been avoiding and write it as a question small enough to answer this week.
Resilient Leader Film Room · Phil Lord and Christopher Miller · 2026
Project Hail Mary Scene Guide
Five moments to watch for, in story order. Each names what to notice, the virtue it shows, and one question to discuss.
- Watch for Grace examines the evidence before drawing conclusions.
- Virtue Wisdom
- Ask When everything is unfamiliar, what is the first question you ask?
- Watch for Two species with no shared language choose patience over fear
- Virtue Teachability
- Ask Who have you stopped trying to understand and what could you learn from them?
- Watch for Grace and Rocky trade what each knows; every breakthrough belongs to both
- Virtue Understanding
- Ask What problem are you carrying that someone else could help you solve?
- Watch for Grace continues working when the problem remains unsolved.
- Virtue Perseverance
- Ask When your solution becomes the problem, how do you respond?
- Watch for Grace gives his way home to save Rocky and his people
- Virtue Courage
- Ask What helps you choose another's good over your own comfort, safety, or plans?
The takeaway
Grace cannot choose how his mission begins, but he can choose what he does when his friend needs him. We practice that same courage whenever we accept a cost to care for someone else.
Source: Project Hail Mary (2026), directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller; written by Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir (Amazon MGM Studios) A note for discussion: the title borrows a prayer and Grace's final act echoes John 15:13, but the film's salvation is entirely human ingenuity and friendship; Scripture grounds such hope in God's faithfulness rather than a long shot
Poster art © Amazon MGM Studios.
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