How Neil DeGrasse Tyson Really Feels About Project Hail Mary
by Joe Roberts · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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Is it any wonder that Neil deGrasse Tyson has found a kindred spirit in "Project Hail Mary" author Andy Weir? One is a professional stickler for scientific accuracy in works of fiction, and the other is the modern day savior of hard sci-fi. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Tyson has finally found a sci-fi movie with which he has little to no problem. Yep, "Project Hail Mary."
Bearing in mind this is the man who previously confronted Nobel prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne on his contribution to Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar," it's remarkable that what is essentially a live-action Pixar movie featuring a lovable pet rock sidekick has finally won him over. "Project Hail Mary" became a box office hit and easily one of the best sci-fi movies of 2026 without sacrificing hard science in favor of more easily understood explanations for its light-eating microbe story. That was always going to go down well with Tyson.
Evidently, the astrophysicist is indeed very pleased with "Project Hail Mary" for featuring a non-humanoid alien in the form of Rocky, the extra-terrestrial being from the planet Erid. In a GQ interview, he said, "In this film 'Weir' once again paid high attention to physics, to chemistry, to biology," before going on to praise Weir's inclusion of a crab-like alien buddy. "He, once again, blew open the Hollywood stereotype by having an alien that's not humanoid, it's craboid," Tyson continued. "In fact, it lives in a different kind of atmosphere. It doesn't breathe oxygen. What's up with all the aliens that visit Earth? They step off their spacecraft and they're just breathing our oxygen. What's up with that?"
Neil deGrasse Tyson finally makes a solid point about scientific accuracy in movies
This might be one of the few times Neil deGrasse Tyson's dogged commitment to pointing out scientific inaccuracies in movies actually rings true. During his GQ interview, the astrophysicist went on to say, "People aren't thinking how creative the universe might be, all the ways of being alive beyond the ones that our own physiology and our own biosphere have delivered to us. So, Andy Weir goes there and more power to him." Tyson's comments and the scientific accuracy of "Project Hail Mary" are a reminder that following real science can lead to just as much wonder as trying to dream up improbable ideas on our own. It's also a reminder that the point of all this is to use science as a way of igniting our collective imagination rather than hindering it. That's a fair enough point.
Still, Tyson was never going to give Weir a hard time. During an episode of Tyson's podcast "StarTalk" featuring Weir, the physicist read out a quote from the writer. "Whenever I was tempted to use hand-wavy physics, or take a shortcut and not be accurate I honestly thought to myself, 'What if Neil deGrasse Tyson reads this?'" That's not quite the compliment Tyson seems to think it is, but he certainly got a kick out of it.
The StarTalk host even used the opportunity to express his respect for Weir. "Andy, what we love and deeply respect about you is how much attention you give to the scientific detail infused within your storytelling," he told the writer. "Because most stories don't get that level of attention." Clearly, Tyson was a fan of Weir and had his mind up about "Project Hail Mary" before even seeing it.
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Andy Weir avoid coming off as scolds this time
Andy Weir is no stranger to calling out inaccurate sci-fi himself. In fact, the "Project Hail Mary" author had many of the same issues with "Interstellar" as Neil deGrasse Tyson, and has even criticized "Black Mirror" for being "anti-tech." As such, he was always going to align with Tyson to some extent.
Interestingly enough, however, during his StarTalk appearance, Weir did address Tyson's criticism of Hollywood relying too much on humanoid aliens, pointing to budget and time constraints as the main reason for this trend. "To be fair, Hollywood aliens are usually not in $200 million movies," he said. "[...] Most of the time, if you're going to write a science fiction story and you want to tell it on a reasonable budget, like an episode of 'Star Trek' or something like that, you get the forehead prosthetics, you have the alien be in the same environment, you're good." Again, a fair point.
Ultimately, there's still a sense that criticizing studios for not following the exact science is sort of missing the point of filmmaking and any creative art form. But in this particular instance, Weir and Tyson manage to avoid coming off as joyless scolds. With "Project Hail Mary," Weir demonstrated how hard sci-fi can provide the basis for a transporting experience full of imagination and wonder without sacrificing scientific accuracy. That's something worth highlighting and in this instance it seems both the author and Tyson are trying to do just that.