Project Hail Mary

image for Project Hail Mary

Short takes

Not suitable under 9; parental guidance to 11 (themes, scary scenes)

Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
classification logo

This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Project Hail Mary
  • a review of Project Hail Mary completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 16 March 2026.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 9 Not suitable due to themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 9–11 Parental guidance recommended due to themes.
Children aged 12 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Project Hail Mary
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Science fiction themes
Length: 156 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) a middle school, science teacher awakens alone on a spacecraft with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. As he explores the ship, fragments of memory return, revealing that Earth is facing an extinction level crisis caused by a mysterious organism draining energy from the Sun. Grace slowly realises he was part of a last chance mission to reach a distant star system that appears unaffected, in the hopes of discovering a solution that could save humanity. While investigating the system, he encounters an alien spacecraft and forms an alliance with its sole occupant, an engineer named Rocky (voice of James Ortiz), whose species is also suffering from the same cosmic threat. Despite their vast differences, the two develop a deep bond, conducting experiments, exchanging knowledge, and uncovering the scientific key to stopping a parasite threatening both their worlds. As their mission progresses, Grace remembers that he was originally forced onto the mission, but he ultimately chose to stay when he realised the stakes for humanity. When disaster strikes and Rocky’s ship and life is threatened, Grace makes an incredible sacrifice and abandons his return home in order to help his friend, demonstrating that saving the world sometimes begins with saving each another.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Sacrifice; Survival; Inter-species cooperation; The fragility of life; Loneliness.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Astronauts are shown dead, it is unclear how they died.
  • All the crew from Rocky’s spaceship also dies. He is unclear how it happened as well and blames himself.
  • Grace is asked who he would die for.
  • Grace is knocked in the head and momentarily collapses on the outside of the spaceship, while Rocky, watching on monitors, panics inside.
  • Grace goes after a ball containing important alien matter and is hit and nearly knocked unconscious while bits of the spaceship start to fall apart.
  • As the ship struggles to maintain altitude, while bits are falling off, Grace is violently propelled forward in his chair. He smashes his face into a panel, looks like he breaks his nose and subsequently blacks out.
  • Grace tries to escape from a group of doctors and technicians who have been sent to subdue him when he refuses to take part in a mission that will cost him his life. He is chased down and injected with a tranquilliser before being sent into space against his will.
  • Grace describes how Rocky will have a long, slow, painful death if he doesn’t track him down to save him from his ship, which has been contaminated and will expose him to radiation and certain death.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Grace wraps the dead bodies in sheets and sends them out into space. There are close-ups of parts of the corpses that show their decaying flesh.
  • Some children may be frightened by the appearance of Rocky, who moves like a spider but has no face and has a body shaped like small rocks or boulders.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • There is a jump-scare when Grace approaches the tunnel of an alien ship and taps on the glass. Suddenly a creature appears from within.
  • Rocky desperately tries to save Grace when he is unconscious and unresponsive. He breaks out of his glass enclosure, disregarding the fact that the oxygen can kill him, and he quickly struggles to get Grace the help he needs while black smoke steams from his body and he makes terrible sounds as he seems to slowly die. Grace wakes up to find Rocky unresponsive, back in his glass enclosure, sprawled on the ground. He tries to keep him warm but is very scared that he may be dying. He keeps an emotional watch over his friend as he remains unconscious. Eventually Rocky begins to recover.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Packets of skittles are clearly shown. Multiple packets are purchased and consumed.
  • Grace repeatedly eats Twizzlers.
  • Ramen noodles are eaten and used to build models in an effort to communicate ideas.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Grace excitedly describes how he and another character “made a baby”, in relation to the reproduction of alien cells.
  • There are references of an alien life form going to another planet “to breed”.
  • Grace mentions that he is grateful that an alien substance is not “growing in me”.
  • Grace experiments with different voices to give to Rocky. One sounds very sexy, husky and inappropriate. He quickly chooses another.
  • There are references to people hooking up the night before the mission is due to leave Earth.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Grace awakens from a coma, wearing underwear and a see-through suit. When he falls over, he lands in a position with his bottom up and his underwear pressed against the transparent fabric of his suit.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • There are numerous pouches of vodka which Grace consumes.
  • The lyrics of a song mention having beer for breakfast.
  • Characters drink beers and wines at a party.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Hell
  • What the fu…fudgey?

In a nutshell

Project Hail Mary is a sci-fi drama that blends high-stakes space survival with an unexpectedly warm, character driven plot, turning complex scientific challenges into emotional, human moments. The movie is best suited to audiences aged 12 and over.

The main messages from this movie are that even in the darkest of moments, human ingenuity and compassion can find a way forward; and that connection, even across unimaginable differences, can save more than just worlds.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Curiosity
  • Friendship
  • Bravery
  • Determination
  • Sacrifice and Selflessness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of finding courage, trusting yourself and taking chances when you are faced with an impossible situation. Also, to remember to focus on what you can do, not on what you can’t when it comes to things that are beyond your control.