Project Hail Mary

Seems like I’m at that point in my life where I am too busy to watch good movies in the cinema.

Instead, I am writing this somewhere above China, as I fly from Tokyo to Dubai onboard an Emirates A380.

Hype doesn’t get me anymore, which is why I have a hard time going out there and committing to the exorbitant pricing of theatres nowadays.

Usually I consider myself a raw-dogger. I bring a book, sleep, listen to music, edit, write and very very rarely ever consider the infotainment systems on modern airliners.

Today was one of those days where I broke my rule.

If there’s one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s space movies. And space movies are not easy to do right. Here are just a few of my favourite ones:

Interstellar

Sunshine

Event Horizon

Life

The Martian

Gravity

Alien

And now, a brand new addition, Project Hail Mary. A movie that I had very small expectations for, yet it overdelivered massively. Even though I watched it on the sideways retracting tiny monitor that Emirates provides for the 68K emergency row exit seat, it gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes about 4 times throughout the movie. I only cry when the movie is good, so Ryan Gosling really delivered here.

I won’t go into the details of the plot. I won’t even try to justify writing about yet another “save the world” movie entry, because that’s the one thing they always have in common. It’s like some sort of equation that Hollywood always follows:

Mankind discovers Earth is dying -> Mankind sends man to space -> Man finds alien form -> Man saves Earth -> Someone dies as sacrifice

The main reason for my writing is that I continuously forget how strong an effect the movie industry has had on me. I miss the catharsis of walking out of a packed cinema theatre into the dark moonlit sky, and contemplating everything about life. And it almost always happens precisely when you need it most. I sometimes feel like the universe has already decided the best time for me to watch a certain movie. And this was no different occasion.

I’ve written in my previous blog that I am moving to Dubai. That I am leaving my home country, my home continent, my family, my cat, my friends, and in many ways, my old life.

I feel like Ryan Gosling’s character Grace aboard Mary. I feel like I’m travelling into the unknown, into the dark night and venturing into a void that I am unfamiliar with. It’s not fear, and it’s not excitement either. It’s longing. It’s the gravity of discovery that is propelling me. New challenges, a better life, a bolder life and a unique experience of the journey that I don’t have to take, but wish to.

Amidst this escapade, I begin to feel longing for things of the past. Failed relationships, passed-away relatives, future losses and pains, with hopefully as few regrets as possible.

I am 29 years old, and I don’t know how much this space manoeuvre will cost me, but I aim for it to make me culturally richer, and a few alien lifeforms closer to my own project Hail Mary.

Movies are such a spectacular form of art. They teleport you into an imaginary world, bring out your deepest desires and emotions, and cleanse your soul from within.

If you’re still reading this, it’s because it’s something different. And it speaks to you.

I am writing this because I want to show you what a useful tool language is, what wondrous things we can create and manifest.

Your accent is no different.

Unlock your Hail Mary.

"Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal."

- Andy Weir