Project Hail Mary

The man finally remembers his name, Dr. Ryland Grace, as well as his past life as a middle school science teacher. In a flashback, he engages his students in a fast-paced “lightning round” of science trivia, tossing beanbags as rewards for correct answers. Despite the global crisis caused by the mysterious “Petrova line,” life has continued with a sense of normalcy. He reflects that people adapt to disaster, much like Londoners did during the Blitz, and he sees teaching as his role in preserving knowledge for the next generation. His classroom is filled with odd decorations, including a solar system model hanging from the ceiling and a jar of spaghetti disguised as a specimen, all carefully curated to make science engaging.

After class, as Ryland prepares to leave, a woman named Eva Stratt enters and introduces herself as a representative of the Petrova Taskforce, an international organization created by unanimous UN vote to address the Petrova crisis. She wastes no time, telling him she wants to discuss a scientific paper he once wrote. The paper argued against the widely accepted belief that life requires liquid water, a stance that ultimately cost him his career in academia. Though he insists he is content as a teacher, Stratt tells him she believes his work was right.

Stratt asks if Ryland thinks the Petrova-line dots are alive. He isn’t sure and suggests they could be dust caught in magnetic fields. Stratt informs him that the ArcLight probe, which collected samples from the Petrova line near Venus, is returning to Earth soon. Stratt wants Ryland to be the first scientist to analyze the samples. He laughs at the idea that the world’s solution to this crisis is recruiting a middle school teacher. Assuming the conversation is over, he walks out, dismissing her as either lying or delusional.

However, when Ryland returns to his apartment, four FBI agents intercept him before he can reach his door. They silently escort him to a plain, unmarked building where Stratt is waiting in a fully equipped biology lab. She explains that she has absolute authority over the crisis and that the sun is losing energy exponentially, suggesting that the Petrova-line dots are consuming its output. With the ArcLight probe returning soon, she wants him to examine the samples immediately. Though reluctant, he is struck by her reasoning: these organisms, if alive, do not require water, which would vindicate his dismissed theories. He remains uneasy but realizes that he has no choice.

Back in the present, Ryland climbs the ship’s ladder to open the previously sealed hatch. He enters a new, conical-shaped control room filled with monitors, buttons, and touchscreens. A pilot’s chair sits at the center, surrounded by displays. As he sits, the computer alerts him to an “angular anomaly” and displays data showing an astonishing velocity—over 11,000 kilometers per second. He assumes the large image on the screen is the sun.

Examining the ship’s trajectory, Ryland realizes that his velocity is gradually decreasing at a rate of 15 meters per second squared—the same force he previously mistook for gravity. This confirms that he is aboard a constantly decelerating spacecraft. A more unsettling realization follows: his velocity is so great that he must have escaped the sun’s gravity entirely. He may be on a one-way trip into deep space. To confirm whether the displayed image of the sun is real-time, he times the movement of sunspots across the screen. When he checks his results, he is shocked to find that they are moving more than ten times faster than they should be. He runs calculations and discovers that the nearest star is not the sun, meaning he must be in another solar system.