By Mr Hull's Movie Guides
Watch the Trailer
Why Watch This Movie With Your Students
Here's what your students naturally take away from it:
🔬 Real scientific thinking in action. Grace doesn't solve problems with a superpower. He solves them with curiosity, patience, and the scientific method. Students see hypotheses tested, mistakes made, and solutions found through persistence. It is a genuinely positive portrayal of scientific thinking.
🌍 Sacrifice and the bigger picture. Grace didn't volunteer for this mission. He was forced into it, yet rises to the challenge. The movie raises powerful questions about duty, responsibility, and what we owe to each other when the stakes are existential.
🤝 Friendship across difference. At the heart of the movie is the relationship between Grace and Rocky, an alien from a completely different world with different senses, language, and biology. Watching them find a way to communicate and cooperate is an affecting story of connection that students respond to strongly.
🧠 Identity and memory. Grace rebuilds his sense of self from nothing, piece by piece. The movie opens deep questions about what makes us who we are, perfect for older students ready to think philosophically.
🦸 A story that rewards close attention. Grace's memory returns in fragments, and the movie cuts between past and present in a way that keeps students actively piecing things together. It is the kind of structure that rewards attention and makes rewatching genuinely worthwhile.
Age Suitability and Content
This movie is rated PG-13.
📋 A free editable parent permission slip is available for this movie. It explains the educational benefits of watching movies in class and includes a space for parental consent. → Download Free Permission Slip on TpT (Free resource)
⚠️ Things to be aware of:
- Two crew members die (shown as bodies discovered, not graphically)
- Themes of global catastrophe and potential extinction
- Mild peril and tension throughout
- No strong language or sexual content
How My Movie Guide Helps You Teach It
📚 English Language Arts Teachers. Project Hail Mary is rich material for ELA classrooms. The non-linear narrative structure, the relationship between Grace and Rocky, and the themes of identity, sacrifice, and communication all give students genuine material to analyse and write about.
🗣️ ESL and ELL Teachers. The multiple choice question set was specifically designed for language learners. Three differentiated sets mean you can match the work to any reading level in your class.
🔬 Science Teachers. While this is not a science curriculum guide, the pre-viewing task asks students to think critically about how the world might respond to a sun-draining anomaly, and the comprehension questions keep students accountable during the movie. Useful if you're showing the movie as a stretch activity or end-of-term lesson and want students engaged rather than passive.
🌐 Social Studies Teachers. The critical thinking section explores themes of sacrifice, friendship, identity and communication. These connect well to ethics and global cooperation discussions, though again this is not subject-specific curriculum content.
🎬 Substitute Teachers and Cover Lessons. Hand it to a sub and walk away. Everything they need is included, with teacher directions, organised materials, and answer keys for the comprehension questions.
🏠 Homeschool Parents. Project Hail Mary makes for a brilliant homeschool science and English session. The pre-viewing task and comprehension questions give structure to the viewing, and the critical thinking section opens up rich one-on-one discussion between parent and child. The multiple choice set works particularly well for younger or developing readers working one-on-one.
If you teach science or social studies and need curriculum-specific worksheets tied to your standards, this guide will not replace those. It is best used alongside your own subject materials to keep students focused during the movie itself.
What's Inside the Guide
This is a 23-page classroom-ready resource.
Part 1. Pre-Viewing Task
Students use imagination and prior knowledge to think critically about how the world might respond to an unexplained anomaly slowly draining the Sun's energy. Includes problem-solving questions, critical thinking about global crisis and personal sacrifice, and a creative drawing task.
Part 2. Comprehension Questions (Three Differentiated Sets)
- 58 questions requiring full sentence answers
- 40 questions requiring full sentence answers (the same set with 18 questions removed)
- 40 multiple choice questions with 3 possible answers each
All answer keys included
Part 3. Critical Thinking Discussion Questions
Five reflection questions exploring themes of friendship, sacrifice, identity and communication, with example answers included. Designed for individual reflection or class discussion.
Part 4. The Hero's Journey
Students complete a table on Joseph Campbell's 12 stages, identifying how Grace's story follows the Hero's Journey. Includes space for notes and drawings, guiding questions, and an archetype identification task (Hero, Mentor, Shadow, Ally, Shapeshifter).
Part 5. Storyboard, Synopsis, and Movie Review
A 9-scene storyboard task with descriptions, a synopsis writing task using the storyboard as a guide, and a structured movie review with rating, strengths, weaknesses, recommendation, and a poster design.
Optional. Book vs. Movie Comparison
A two-page supplementary section for classes that have read Andy Weir's novel. Section 1 is completed before viewing, and Sections 2 to 5 are completed after. Can be skipped entirely if you're only watching the movie.
What Makes This Guide Different
The pre-viewing task is what sets the tone for the whole guide. Before a single scene plays, students have already thought critically about global crisis, personal sacrifice, and what they would do in an impossible situation. That preparation changes how they watch the movie and how deeply they engage with what follows.
Three differentiated question sets mean the guide works for any class. Stronger students get the 58-question version, developing writers get the 40-question version with 18 questions removed, and ESL or younger students get the multiple-choice set. One guide, three levels, no extra preparation needed.
The Hero's Journey section gives students a structured framework for analysing Grace's story in depth, and the optional Book vs. Movie comparison makes this a natural choice for classes that have read Andy Weir's novel.
Mr Hull's Movie Guides has been creating classroom-ready movie resources since 2017. Browse 390+ guides covering movies for every grade level, subject, and occasion at the Mr Hull's Movie Guides TPT Store.
