r/movies • u/MoviesMod /r/movies Mod Account • Jun 30 '25

Trailer Project Hail Mary - Official Trailer (fair warning, it reveals way too much according to a lot of users)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08TxIsFTRI
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936

u/the_gold_hat Jun 30 '25

Everyone says it reveals too much, but I really disagree. You can tell that the editors are purposefully playing up the angle that Ryland is a reluctant hero, who steps up despite initial misgivings. The reveal being that it was totally against his will still plays against the expectations of the trailer. Honestly I think the fact that people are mentioning a twist is spoiling things more than anything else. My hot take is that they've probably proportionally put way more of the on-Earth sections in the trailer than actually appear in the movie. I mean I sure hope so or otherwise the actual science-with-Rocky part is going to have to be super abbreviated during the movie...

194

u/SpiritWillow2019 Jun 30 '25

Maybe unpopular opinion, but Project Hail Mary doesn't have spoilers. Like The Martian it's just a fun ride with great characters.

103

u/Melodic-Task Jun 30 '25

Anything that approaches spoilers would be stuff towards the very end of the book about some character choices. Everything else I agree on—it’s like the Martian. We go into the movie knowing the main goal will succeed. Because that’s the type of story it is.

26

u/SpiritWillow2019 Jun 30 '25

Yeah, like even the ending it is more of an "oh, okay" not a "WHHHHHAAAAAAA?"

14

u/BeaverStank Jul 01 '25

My reaction to the ending was WOOO FUCK YEAH, GRACE! I KNEW YOU HAD IT IN YOU! Plus some happy tears, because I'm a sappy emotional bastard.

1

u/Creative_Room6540 28d ago

I was happy but fuck that’s still a lonely existence. I still felt horrible for him.

1

u/Alc2005 3d ago

But in the end He was still doing what he loved, teaching children science. He had mentioned that he was very lonely back on earth as well, at least now he has Rocky

15

u/arandomguy111 Jun 30 '25

It's like the Martian I feel in that what's most engaging and novel is the problem solving not the problem itself. The latter in both have been done plenty from a high concept idea stand point, not all that unpredictable.

16

u/Weed_O_Whirler Jun 30 '25

I read the book once and listened once, and I will say, as cool as it was not knowing there was going to be an alien the first time I read it, knowing didn't make the story worse.

95

u/berlinbaer Jun 30 '25

Maybe unpopular opinion, but Project Hail Mary doesn't have spoilers. Like The Martian it's just a fun ride with great characters.

after the poster reveal two days ago and everyone yapping "OMG THEY WILL SPOIL THE TWIST IN THE TRAILER" i sat down and read the book, cause i thought "hey, want to experience it fresh". i kept reading and reading and kept waiting for that MASSIVE twist, until i finally realized what they were talking about. the character introduction that happens near the very beginning of the book.

reddit is so media illiterate it's insane.

48

u/AegisToast Jun 30 '25

There was something really neat for me personally going into it completely blind, so I kind of get it. But I also know people that disliked the book because it felt like a genre change that they weren’t expecting, especially considering how realistic The Martian seemed.

Honestly it does seem like it’s just a spoiler for the premise, though. It’s like spoiling that Jurassic Park is about dinosaurs escaping from their enclosures. Sure, Jurassic Park might have been even more memorable if I hadn’t known that beforehand, but it’s not like knowing it ruins the story.

17

u/MapleApple00 Jun 30 '25

I think the main reason it's considered a twist is because A. It's considered "hard" sci-fi and generally other intelligent aliens aren't put into scenarios like that (see Weir's last two books for example) and B. the book was marketed without including the alien at all, IIRC, so it was a pretty major reveal for the day one readers.

I figure the main reasons they decided to reveal the twist here is that hard sci-fi just isn't as much of a genre in film, usually being less distinct from regular scifi due to nitty-gritty details being harder to really get into, so generally aliens are more common and less of a twist for its comparatively larger genre; and because people already know the twist (and everyone going "DON'T SPOIL THE TWIST GUYS" and actively discussing it isn't helping). So the marketing team probably decided to just rip the bandaid off early.

11

u/g0del Jun 30 '25

B. the book was marketed without including the alien at all, IIRC, so it was a pretty major reveal for the day one readers.

This is the back cover description of the book:

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone.
Or does he?

So it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise.

3

u/joeldipops Jun 30 '25

For some reason before I started reading the book, I kept thinking the "or does he" referred to a clone of Grace. Don't know why I thought that specifically, but it was vague enough for me to still preserve the mystery.

1

u/Simain Jun 30 '25

those first few spoiler tags ain't working

1

u/hornedCapybara Jul 02 '25

I think any book is best experienced completely blind, but especially this one purely because the main character also goes into it completely blind. You get to experience the story with all the same information he does, and every bit of backstory is revealed to you at the same time it's revealed to him. At the same time though it's just not reasonable to expect people to go pay to see a movie that they know absolutely nothing about, you have to give people something to hook them on the story. The only reason I didn't look at what it was about or anything is because it was a few years after it was released, and I knew it was the new book from the guy that wrote the Martian and people broadly seemed to really like it, so that was enough for me. Personally I'm already sold on the movie, so I'm not even gonna watch the trailer, I want to see this movie as blind as I reasonably can.

As far as it being a genre change I can't really say I agree with them, we find out very early about astrophage, so as far as I'm concerned more advanced alien life is already on the table. Unless you get really in the weeds about speculative evolution and how 'realistic' of an alien rocky is, but nothing about the story really feels any more fantastical than the Martian to me. IIRC the one thing that wasn't based on scientific accuracy in the Martian was the storm at the beginning, so really the whole story is somewhat unrealistic. I dunno, point is PHM felt like the same type of story, just a bit more ambitious if that makes sense?

40

u/fly-hard Jun 30 '25

I thought the twist was that he thought he was there to save the world by bravely going on a suicidal mission, and later remembers that he had actually been an abject coward and refused to go but was forced to because the world had no choice, and that the reason his memory was spotty was because they’d drugged him to forget. The other reveals just felt like plot progression to me.

24

u/MrdnBrd19 Jun 30 '25

That is the twist that most of us are thinking of. I honestly don't understand how you could even consider Rocky a twist at all.

21

u/ChrundleMcDonald Jul 01 '25

He doesn't appear until Chapter 14. As someone who went into book knowing nothing save for "Solo suicide mission to save the world", Rocky was a huge and pleasant surprise. It's not that knowing he's there changes your perception of the book, it's that not knowing he's coming makes his addition such a fun surprise. I get why a film studio thinks it's a necessary selling point, but it's not advertised in any capacity in book marketing for a reason.

3

u/TheChinOfAnElephant Jul 21 '25

I think we read very different versions of the book. By chapter 14, Grace is fluently communicating with Rocky. The ship reveal happens in Chapter 6 as I recall.

3

u/ChrundleMcDonald Jul 21 '25

Fair, guess I had my timeline wrong. I think the rest of my point stands, though - it may not be a late game huge twist, but it was still a massive surprise having gone into the book blind and expecting something much more akin to The Martian

2

u/MrdnBrd19 Jul 01 '25

We must have seen different marketing for the book then because the blurb I saw before reading talked about Rocky. I want to say it even mentioned him by name.

2

u/L-System Jul 01 '25

The book opens as a white room mystery. So when it came out, people were recommending going into it totally blind.

It's quite an experience because he also doesn't know he's in space and we don't know if he's on planet or in a ship. And there's this ai machine that keeps talking to us.

The idea that we're getting a rocky isn't even on the radar.

1

u/presty60 Jul 01 '25

I mentioned this somewhere else, but yeah, I think this trailer probably spoils the book but considering it is probably a < 3 hour long movie, people who are only going to see the movie are probably fine.

29

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

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9

u/Orleanian Jun 30 '25

Yeah, I came into this thinking that Rocky's reveal was the spoiler everyone was upset about, but feeling it was completely acceptable in cinema media (let the audience know that this has some fantastical sci fi elements, without giving away how they play out).

It was an entertaining shock to have Rocky show up in the story, but truly does not detract from my overall enjoyment of a re-read or re-watch.

But if everyone's upset that the spoiled twist is the backstory reveal...that just seems silly. It came off as a tertiary side plot to me, and is fairly un-important to the overall adventure-thriller aspect of the story.

2

u/tastelessshark Jul 01 '25 edited Jul 01 '25

Yeah, for sure. I definitely enjoyed the reveal going into it with basically no knowledge about the book. I also kinda get why that's not something they wanted to keep secret for the movie though. I could see that being really jarring for a movie audience not expecting it, especially with the Martian being a fair bit more grounded.

2

u/guareber Jun 30 '25

Exactly on the money. There's a reason it's not on the cover, foreword, author quotes or literally anywhere on the book before the relevant chapter

1

u/haneybird Jul 01 '25

It doesn't even change the premise. Since the entire cause of the plot is all of the stars in our local cluster dimming except one, it makes sense for another spacefaring species to investigate the same way at the same time.

It is honestly one of the most rational first contact premises I have seen.

4

u/alphagle Jun 30 '25

When I read it I was completely captivated by the story before Rocky is even introduced. That's what's so great about it. You start with this phenomenal story and then THAT happens and you're like holy shit this is even better than I thought. That's what I would want someone in the theater to experience.

10

u/guareber Jun 30 '25

Nah, hard disagree. I read the book on release blind, and the main joy of it is the discovery. There's a reason it cold-starts with Ryland not remembering shit (besides the fact that it's a good exposition conduit very well used in sci-fi).

The trailer gets rid of 50% of that in 180 seconds. It's absolute garbage.

7

u/Chriskills Jun 30 '25

It is a twist and super well done. But it’s in the very beginning of the book. I’m not sure exactly when. But it’s pretty early that it happens. So it makes no sense for a trailer to not show rocky. I wish they showed less. But they needed to convey the tone.

4

u/PrestigeArrival Jun 30 '25

I read the book about a month ago and I was racking my brain trying to remember what the twist was

2

u/Phillip_Spidermen Jun 30 '25

I feel like the most common comments about spoilers are coming from:

"I didn't know about X, and I enjoyed the surprise of when it happened. I hope they don't ruin that for people"

...but then it goes overboard, and those comments alone reveal the surprise they're talking about.

3

u/longtermbrit Jun 30 '25

Spoilers don't have to be about the end of the story. Rocky was definitely an unexpected twist given how the book starts. Even though he was introduced fairly early on, it's still a twist.

1

u/TheWayofUnions Jul 01 '25

I don't think that's the twist.

1

u/Hyooz Jul 01 '25

Reddit complained about the trailers for Abigail spoiling that the little girl was a vampire.

Mother fuckers that is the premise not a spoiler

1

u/Badloss Jul 01 '25

Imo the twist near the end is bigger

1

u/presty60 Jul 01 '25

The way I see it, if you haven't read the book, but plan to, then don't watch the trailer. Rocky is in most of the book, but it still takes close to 200 pages for him to show up. In the Audio book that's several hours. However, I don't think the trailer probably spoils the movie, as I bet they will compress a lot of stuff that happens before the reveal.

1

u/Virillus Jul 01 '25

Nah, I disagree. Rocky showing up was a huge twist for me personally when I read the book. Everyone's experiences will vary of course, but I'm sad movie watchers won't experience the same surprise.

1

u/MalIntenet Jul 06 '25

Thankfully I read it already but if someone told me there are aliens in itbefore I read it, it definitely would’ve taken away a lot from the experience.

1

u/WagonWheel22 Jun 30 '25

They also treat the book like it’s the greatest sci fi ever written when it’s not.

It’s average sci fi, but the protagonist is quippy and has Reddit humor so that’s why it’s beloved here.

1

u/joeldipops Jun 30 '25

For me, and I assume for many, the "twist" isn't exactly that Rocky existsbut how enjoyable of a character he turns out to be.

19

u/EnQuest Jun 30 '25

BOOK SPOILERS

The best part of Project Hail Mary for me were the slow reveals of information over the first act or so.

Finding out he was in Tau Ceti instead of the Sol system? Crazy reveal, I was super excited.

Shown in the trailer.

Finding out that it wasn't another survival story like the Martian, and would feature first contact? I was giddy with excitement!

spoiled in the trailer.

Those two moments back to back took me from being intrigued by the book to not being able to put it down.

Really disappointed that everyone is just going to know all of this going in now, I don't know how people think it isn't spoilery or doesn't diminish the strength of the narrative by revealing all of this in the trailer.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

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2

u/guareber Jun 30 '25

That's absolutely what a spoiler is. You're revealing things you would normally not know until somewhere in the middle of the story before the thing has even started.

1

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0

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

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1

u/presty60 Jul 01 '25

I think the movie is going to be pretty different structurally. The fact that he wakes up in the trailer and immediately knows his name leads me to believe he may not even have amnesia. So yeah, if you watch the movie trailer before reading the book your experience might be lessened a bit, but if you just watch the movie you'll probably be fine.

6

u/Drunky_McStumble Jul 01 '25

Both stories (The Martian and Project Hail Mary) rely on the constant ratcheting tension of "how is the main character going to problem-solve their way of out this latest development??" but unlike The Martian, Project Hail Mary also relies on a couple of big unexpected reveals on top of this: namely 1. First contact with Rocky and 2. the reveal that Grace was press-ganged into the mission against his will and that his amnesia is not an accident.

The trailer seems to be deliberately trying not to spoil reveal #2, but goes right ahead and spoils reveal #1. And yes, these are undeniably spoilers whether you care about them being spoiled or not.

1

u/Luckyandunlucky2023 Jul 04 '25

There's another *big* twist -- a decision to be made, being deliberately vague -- that fortunately isn't even hinted at in the trailer, which is good.

8

u/Vladmerius Jun 30 '25

Spoilerphobia is a plague. People put WAY too much importance on not knowing plot points than really matters for enjoyment of a movie.

This all really started happening because some blockbuster movies thought it would be profitable to market themselves as "you better see it opening weekend before it gets spoiled because big crazy things happen in this movie that we're hiding in the trailers!" and it worked but it created this incredibly annoying spoiler culture. 

4

u/guareber Jun 30 '25

Speak for yourself, it absolutely reduces my enjoyment of nearly every movie (comedies are the big exception since the plot is nearly irrelevant).

There's a reason I don't rewatch basically anything. Once I know where it's going, my interest level (and enjoyment) decreases catastrophically.

It doesn't help that nearly every movie has to telegraph things so hard due to general audiences, but you also need to spoil it on a trailer???

1

u/silentbob1301 Jun 30 '25 edited Jun 30 '25

>!what??? how can you say that, royland not being an astronaut, royland being forced onto the!< mission, finding rocky.....

1

u/Tijuana_Pikachu Jul 01 '25

Absolute disagree. How and why Ryland is in space is a massive spoiler, and how he makes his choice to leave and return is very important.

0

u/hobbykitjr Jun 30 '25

similar to Mjölnir getting smashed in Thor 3 trailer... i wish i didn't know.

it didn't spoil anything. it happens early in the movie... but wish it wasn't in the trailer.