We went to see the Project Hail Mary movie as a family. I had already read the novel – well, listened to the audiobook, to be precise – but my wife and kids went in knowing almost nothing about the story.
The film compresses a lot, cutting many episodes from the book, but stays faithful to the main arc. What I saw on screen was close to what I had imagined while reading. I liked it. The family seemed to enjoy it too.
One thing that has stayed with me since the audiobook is how much Rocky reminds me of coding agents like Claude Code or Codex. Give Rocky an idea, and he will build almost anything out of xenonite. Coding agents work much the same way – describe what you want, and they will produce it.
But here is what I think matters. Rocky needs Ryland Grace – someone who understands the science, how the world works, and what to ask for. At least for now, that part of the equation still holds when writing code with coding agents too.