By Rob Eschmann

Spoiler alert:  This post includes plot details about Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary, the 2026 science fiction film which garnered a 94% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has made over $670 million in the two months since being released, is one of the most well-received blockbusters in recent years. Ryan Gosling’s quirky performance as high school science teacher- turned astronaut Ryland Grace balances hilarity with moments of deep reflection on the fragile human condition. Grace’s space friend “Rocky,” a spider-like alien, is as charming as the beloved droids and tiny aliens in the Star Wars franchise. The film is stunning, with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller using practical effects to create mind-blowing visuals and otherworldly scenes of alien planets, calling to mind shots from Christopher Nolan’s 2014 classic film Interstellar.

In the midst of its success and near-universal acclaim, Project Hail Mary is being championed by anti-woke, anti-DEI fans and critics.

I found a 90-minute interview of author Andy Weir, who wrote the Project Hail Mary book and is a producer on the film, being interviewed on “The Critical Drinker,” a YouTube Channel known for right-wing, anti-woke, rage bait takes. The interviewer says of the film:

It’s a great example of what you can do now with movies if you’re faithful to the source material and you don’t insult the intelligence of your audience… and you know, dare I say, don’t try and shove like crappy identity politics into it. You end up with a goddamn good movie at the end of it that people just want to watch.

Andy Weir responds:

I think we’re, you and me, are kind of on the same wavelength there when it comes to fiction writing. I never put any politics or messaging in any of my stories at all. There’s no, you know, there’s no deeper meaning. There isn’t even any symbolism… My books are always just purely to entertain.

Weir’s allegedly apolitical approach to writing is not only antithetical to the role of art in society and the legacy of social commentary in science fiction— it is also dishonest. Suggesting that politics has no place in art is itself a political statement in defense of the status quo.

Elsewhere in the YouTube interview, when asked about the lackluster reception of a previous project, Weir suggests the book came out during the “peak woke era,” which led to him being criticized for how he wrote a woman character. Wokeness, he seemed to suggest, is the reason his book didn’t do so well.

To blame wokeness in this way is as political as it gets. The anti-woke agenda has wreaked havoc on American institutions, people, and policies over the past four years, from banning books and defunding science, to the recent Supreme Court ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act.

It began with the idea that critical race theory (CRT) was being taught in elementary schools, and that this theory taught White children to hate themselves. This was a pure myth, using CRT as a straw man to stir up fear and policy support.

Anti-CRT evolved into anti-DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and conservatives sought to rid schools, institutions, and businesses of all symbols, content, and programs related to race and gender. Proposals to ban “DEI” content have been proposed in 44 states, and teaching about racism or sexism was banned in 20 states.

Beginning in 2024, anti-DEI executive orders led the federal government to cut thousands of grants awarded through the National Institutes of Health (estimates put the total cancelled at over $9 billion), illegally disrupted $12 billion in K-12 education funding, and used grant cuts to pressure colleges and Universities to change their diversity policies.

Most recently, the anti-woke agenda can be seen in what Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan called the, “demolition of the Voting Rights Act” with the Court’s decision on Louisiana v Callais in April of 2026. Before the decision, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 protected Black voters from discrimination in redistricting. Discrimination could be demonstrated by measuring the impact of redistricting efforts on Black voting power. But with the decision, discrimination was made nearly impossible to prove, as it now must be demonstrated by intent, rather than impact.

This is backwards logic, given what we know about how racists tend to hide their racist ideas and intent, and how racism can be unintentional or subconscious. CRT originated from scholars who were investigating how post-Civil Rights Movement race neutral policies and laws were still having a deleterious effect on Black people and communities of Color (including voting redistricting). That CRT was defanged and delegitimated several years before this Supreme Court decision feels more strategic than ironic.

Within 48 hours of the decision, several southern states had already redrawn their maps to strip Black votes of their power. Elections in Louisiana were postponed until the maps were redrawn, and conservatives in Alabama passed a law to deny election results in May pending their potential new election maps.

This Supreme Court decision is built on the scaffolding of the anti-woke movement’s attack on the logics of diversity and anti-racism. On one hand, Weir is not responsible for the actions of conservative politicians. But on the other hand, for Weir to double down on anti-wokeness in this context is a subtle form of social commentary that helps legitimize anti-woke rhetoric and policies, from school boards to the Supreme Court.

One of my favorite aspects of Project Hail Mary is its protagonist’s character development. When Grace is initially asked to join a mission to the stars to save humanity, he says no. He’d rather die with the rest of humanity on earth than take a one-way ticket to outer space. Grace is eventually put into a coma against his will and forced onto the spaceship, because no one else is qualified for the mission.

He is not a hero.

But he grows. And by the end of the film, he is faced with a similar choice. To save himself as he makes the unexpected return trip to earth, or to turn around, using the last of his fuel to save his alien friend Rocky, and Rocky’s entire home world, Erid.

Grace becomes a hero, saving both earth and Erid, where he takes a job working as a teacher to a classroom of excited, tiny, rock-spider Eridian children.

Andy Weir is one of the most talented sci fi writers out there. Here’s hoping he turns the ship around, using his typewriter to become part of the solution, instead of promoting the problem.