Project Hail Mary’s author dishes on what happens to Grace beyond the film’s vague ending

The ending of the Project Hail Mary film is a bit mysterious. Although Grace and Rocky save the world and whatnot, we don’t see whether Grace chooses to return to earth on the Hail Mary or not. Thankfully, the author of the original Project Hail Mary book, Andy Weir, has nicely cleared up what happens to Grace beyond the film’s ending.

The ending of the book is a little different to the film. Rocky flat-out asks Grace if he will go back to earth now the sun is saved. Grace tells him: “I… I don’t know. I’m getting old and the trip is long.” He contemplates going home “someday”, but decides not to do it “right now”. Then, the book ends with him teaching a science lesson to a bunch of mini Eridians. Nawww.

Andy Weir (who wrote Project Hail Mary) broke down Grace’s ending to Entertainment Weekly. He explained: “Rocky does tell him, ‘Hey, we can fuel up the Hail Mary now, and you can go home.’ And he thought about it and decided either against it, or decided he’d think about it for a bit. Because, honestly, he doesn’t know what’s there. He doesn’t know what’s waiting for him on Earth. I mean, it could be a complete post-apocalyptic nightmare, and here he is with his best friend doing what he loves.”

He also give more detail about what state the earth was in by the ending of the story. “You can assume that 25 years after the Astrophage problem began, things are probably pretty cold on Earth.” Based on the climatologist’s doom-and-gloom predictions in the book, more than half of the humans on earth would have died off by this point.

Grace is put off by how long it would take to travel back to earth in the Hil Mary. Andy Weir has clarified that Grace’s return trip to earth would take 16 years from humans’ point of view. Or, “it would be between four and five years” from Ryland’s point of view.

Hmm, that does sound like a lot of faff.

For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page.

Featured image credit: Amazon MGM Studios / YouTube