Spoilers. But there is a point to this...
It's been a while since I've seen a film worthy of a cinema trip. There's so much formulaic, predictable rubbish. If half way through you wonder how the actors get on with each other or what they were paid, I'd say it's a fail.
Just after Covid, I found black Covid masks doubled as excellent blindfolds for kids' cinema trips leading to some brilliant naps.
I drove home feeling humbled, joyful and a bit envious of the writer and production team behind Project Hail Mary. It's a space story about a scientist sent to a far off star against his will to save humankind against a growing space bacteria that is eating the sun.
It's a wonderful story about hope told well.
There are many twists in the story: the first is when Grace, the scientist, wakes from his space coma, he finds his crew dead. The second is that he cannot remember who he is or how he came to be there.
The third is that he is not alone.
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But it's not jaws in space. In fact, the film is about collaboration, diversity and bringing the best of human thinking together to solve problems when every turn in the story is an unknown.
'Feelgood' would be underselling as it teaches many lessons. The film reflects adversity to doom - and there is plenty of doom today.
No matter how tough life became for Grace with a one-way trip to the star, he and his alien pal 'Rocky' manage to figure out a solution. Grace somehow never lost hope.
Ryan Gosling holds the show together - as most of it is him on the ship - but it is his alien friend Rocky who brings joy and tension to the story. I will say no more on this because it's marvellous to watch and you must have some surprises, but Rocky represented some of the AI unknowns we're debating.
I left the cinema thinking of King Charles and the fantastic speech he gave to a room of difficult people. He won the room with brilliant writing and pace - but also hope of better collaboration.
Both the film and the speech were about the same thing. Hope is a decision and a discipline beyond our own selfish wants and wishes. If we allow that to slip, our world falls into chaos.
In the film, Grace makes that decision. In his speech, Charles made that point, reminding us to not forget it.
