Project Hail Mary Beat Sheet Analysis
Shari Simpson
Why we chose to do a Save the Cat!® beat sheet analysis of Project Hail Mary
Lord and Miller have created a new sci-fi classic, an incredible adaptation of Weir’s novel, and a film that deserves to be a part of 2027 Oscar consideration already. With Project Hail Mary, Lord and Miller have crafted a film that’s truly out of this world in every possible way. – Ross Bonaime, Collider
See how the blockbuster starring Ryan Gosling hits the Save the Cat! beats and ends with a well-deserved synthesis.
Screenplay by: Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir
Directed by: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Genre
Dude with a Problem (with some “road trip” elements of Golden Fleece)
An innocent hero is yanked into a life-or-death problem and, despite massive odds against them, must overcome it using their wits. Many stories are about dudes or dudettes with problems. But the keys to this genre are ordinary people who are undeservingly pulled into the predicament and forced to react.
The 3 elements of a Dude with a Problem story
- An innocent hero who is dragged into a mess without asking for it—or even aware of how he got involved.
- A sudden event that thrusts our innocent(s) into the world of hurt—and it comes without warning.
- A life or death battle is at stake—and the continued existence of an individual, family, group, or society is in question.
Save the Cat! Beat Sheet Analysis for Project Hail Mary
Opening Image
Flashes of light. Hazy visions. Strange noises. We begin our journey with Project Hail Mary inside our Hero’s head, seeing what he sees as he struggles to wake from a coma, disoriented and utterly confused. It’s a wise choice on the part of the filmmakers to quickly bond us to a protagonist with whom we’re about to spend a good chunk of time, since even Ryland Grace’s (and Ryan Gosling’s) charm could wear thin at two hours and thirty-six minutes.
The tone and pace are set immediately by Grace’s frightened and funny reactions to an overwhelming reality; he is in a rocket ship in outer space, completely alone except for a couple of dead bodies, and he has no idea how he got there.
This Opening Image presents way more than six things that need fixing and it’s a bang-up “Before” snapshot that teases the enormity of the story’s stakes and scope to follow.
Theme Stated
The Theme is not subtle in this film; in fact, it’s spoken over and over in various ways, beginning with Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) telling Grace “The world is counting on you.”
What constitutes an act of bravery? Is bravery inherent or developed through battling incredibly challenging circumstances? And most importantly, for whom can we be brave, for whom would we sacrifice?
It’s one thing to perform a brave act “for the world,” it’s quite another to do it for a beloved individual.
Set-Up
In the thesis world, we move back and forth between time frames, Grace in the present and Grace’s memories, a duality that structures nearly the entire film in double bump beats.
The backstory is parsed out in brief recollections beginning with Grace as a middle school science teacher who reluctantly tells his class about the Petrova Line, a streak of infrared light that appears to be dimming the sun, with possibly catastrophic results within 30 years.
Somehow, this tidbit eventually landed him in a spaceship where his communication to Earth is on a time lag of 11 years, 10 months, 14 days and 6 hours, but Grace has no idea how or why. He’s going to have to discover it right along with us, the viewing audience.
Catalyst
The formidable Eva Stratt from the government’s Petrova Line Task Force approaches Grace and asks for his help.
Debate
And why would the government need the help of a 7th-grade science teacher? Turns out that Grace has a doctorate in molecular biology but ruined his academic reputation by proposing that life in the biosphere may not need water to evolve or survive.
Our wounded Hero subsequently tries to run away from Stratt, until curiosity gets the better of him.
To add insult to injury, when Grace finally agrees to analyze the “space dots” from the Petrova Line, he discovers that the alien cells consist almost entirely of water, so his entire thesis and the only original idea he’s ever had was wrong.
Grace freaks out, then gets over himself just enough to conclude that this “astrophage” consumes the sun’s energy and expels it for propulsion.
Grace wrangles with Stratt to be a part of the research team for Project Hail Mary: three astronauts, a pilot, an engineer, and a scientist, will fly to the planet Tau Ceti to investigate why it’s the only planet that isn’t being consumed by astrophage.
Because of the enormous amount of fuel this journey will require, it’s a suicide mission; the astronauts will not return.
In the present, Grace realizes that the two dead bodies on the spaceship must be the pilot and the engineer, and somehow, someway, Grace himself is the scientist. Who will also die in space.
Break into Two
With tears, Grace bids farewell to the deceased astronauts and promises that he will do his best to honor their mission before releasing their bodies into space.
He has no choice but to take on this journey alone and force an Act 2.
B Story
The relationship between Grace and the alien “Rocky” (James Ortiz) is the heart and soul of this film—a beautiful friendship, beautifully told.
It teaches Grace the theme that is underscored when Grace claims that he doesn’t have the same bravery gene as the astronauts. Dr. Yáo (Ken Leung) responds that bravery is not a gene; you just need someone to be brave for.
Fun and Games
Grace sails semi-boldly into the antithesis world as he approaches the atmosphere of Tau Ceti with plenty of (nauseating) astronaut film fun: gravity disappears so he bounces wildly around the ship; there’s another ship orbiting Tau Ceti, a terrifying alien one; he has to don a space suit and do a nerve-wracking spacewalk to intercept the other ship’s message.
All the outer space movie tropes turned upside-down in the first five minutes!
After a number of unusual missives from the aliens, a tunnel connects both their ships and Grace encounters his B Story pal, “Rocky,” a little alien who looks like a pile of rocks with no face. Of course, Rocky is freaking adorable in true E.T. fashion and their “meet-cute” totally wins us over.
Grace finds out that Rocky’s planet, Erid, has a Petrova Line problem too and they can possibly solve it together if they learn how to communicate.
Once Grace has developed a computerized voice for Rocky (not Meryl Streep’s, although she really can do anything), they are able to talk like friends and Grace shares some of his memories. Selected ones, because Rocky is still emotional over the deaths of his crew and Grace can’t bring himself to tell Rocky about his inevitable fate.
Rocky rolls over to Grace’s ship in a pressurized ball of xenon and becomes his hilariously bossy roommate, putting all the necessary “fun” in this Fun & Games section and keeping us from having to think too deeply about the science slipped into the dialogue.
Rocky and Grace discover that there’s life on Tau Ceti and those bacterial cells act as “predators” for astrophage. If our dynamic duo can breed and transport these predators, later nicknamed “taumebas,” they can save their home planets. Amaze, amaze, amaze!
However, Grace is remembering more and more of his less-than-amaze life on Earth. He recalls the send-off night shortly before the launch of the Hail Mary where he tried to connect with Stratt, listening to her sing, and awkwardly asking about her plans for the future.
Grace’s longing for home and the thwarted possibility of having a mate like Rocky’s “Adrian” sets us up for a doozy of a false victory.
Midpoint
Grace finally confesses to Rocky that he’s not going back to Earth; the plan was always for him to die in space. But Rocky cannot bear this and decides he will give Grace enough astrophage to power his ship home. It will slow Rocky’s return to his planet by six years, but our sweet B Story alien already knows the theme: you sacrifice and do brave things for those you love.
Grace hugs Rocky in his xenon ball, weeping with gratitude and happiness. But now the anticipatory time clock starts ticking and the stakes are raised, because doesn’t hope always compress time and raise stakes?
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Bad Guys Close In
Just as Grace and Rocky begin the insanely dangerous task of getting close enough to Tau Ceti to collect the taumeba without blowing themselves up in the process, Grace suddenly recalls some external bad guys of the past: a huge explosion at the launch site that killed the science astronaut and all his backups, leaving the entire Project Hail Mary in jeopardy.
In a double bump, some bad guys reappear in the present as debris tears a hole in the fuel tank of the ship, spinning it out of control, badly injuring Grace and knocking him unconscious. Rocky shrieks in despair and busts out of his safety bubble, pulling Grace to the sick bay to save his life, then collapses in a smoking heap.
As Grace drifts in and out of consciousness and we’re not sure if Rocky is dead or alive, what we assumed all along is confirmed in a flashback. Stratt asked Grace to be the third astronaut and he utterly balked, claiming “some people are failures; some people don’t rise to the challenge.”
All Is Lost
Stratt steels herself, telling Grace that she knows he has it in him to succeed—and then directs armed men to take him by force.
Dark Night of the Soul
Screaming in fear and rage, Grace runs, but is chased down and forcibly drugged.
In the present day, Grace’s internal bad guys torment him with his cowardice and any self-respect he’s mustered since disappears in a puff of smoke, or in this case, a whiff of death.
Break into Three
But there is some good news for our Finale! Rocky is alive and the two buddies embrace (through the xenon ball that Grace repaired, of course).
Finale
As they prepare to return to their planets, Rocky tells Grace that is very brave. It’s like a stab in the heart, but Grace has to move forward with storming the castle while carrying the shame of the past with him.
So, he gathers the team and executes the plan: returning to Earth with taumeba, the antidote to all their problems.
But any Save the Cat! fan worth his fur knows that this can’t be the end of Grace’s internal journey—where’s the synthesis?
In a high tower surprise, Grace is woken from sleep to a distress signal: the taumeba have evolved to being able to break through xenonite, so the breeder tanks have been breached. Grace is able to stop the leak, but he realizes that Rocky’s entire ship is made of xenonite. The taumeba will consume it and Rocky will die of radiation sickness, all alone.
Our reluctant Hero now has a choice to either save his friend or save himself. Turns out that Stratt was right all along, Grace does have it in him; he just needs to dig deep down.
Grace executes the new plan, sending the taumeba in probes to Earth and turning his ship around to do a Hail Mary for Rocky, because you don’t need a bravery gene, dude, you just need someone to be brave for.
Final Image
Earth and Erid saved, Grace now lives in a biodome on Rocky’s planet. Engineers have readied his spaceship for the journey home, but Grace has a BFF and a job teaching science to adorable Eridian rock children, so why would he give up this sweet deal?
The joy on Grace’s face in the Final Image is infectious and sends us out of the theater all warm and fuzzy… and synthesized.
NOW TRY IT ON YOUR STORY
Apply the same structure you just read to your own script or novel. Start mapping your beats for free.
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