Hardest Project Praise Mary Scene in Film, According to Directors – SlashFilm

If you thought being transported to another planetary system, connecting with an alien, and working together to save multiple worlds was hard enough, imagine trying to film it all. Don’t let “Project Hail Mary” and its box office success fool you – this big budget change was a big risk and the most important thing from a safe bed. Not that it looks that way from the outside looking in, of course. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are masters at making the impossible look impossible.

That’s what makes it all the more exciting to hear about the behind-the-scenes work involved in bringing “Project Hail Mary” to life. One would imagine that nothing presents a greater challenge than pairing star Ryan Gosling with the alien Rocky (James Ortiz), brought to life by combining old-school animation with impressive visual effects. Or maybe it was the adaptation process, with screenwriter Drew Goddard carefully picking and choosing what to keep (or change) from author Andy Weir’s original novel. To hear King and Miller tell it, it was none of the above.

Do you remember the amazing sight of astronaut Ryland Grace taking a spacewalk outside his spaceship and suddenly being attacked by red “astrophage”, invisible algae-like insects that eat the sun? Not only did it become one of the most enduring images of the film during its promotional period, but it also doubled as the most difficult scene to fully realize. Both directors said so during a recent episode of The Big Picture podcast with Sean Fennessey. About 90 minutes in, Miller explained that this “took some time in R&D but, when we got it, it was crazy crazy.” He explained, “We get time to see what it is [infrared] the camera would also see what was really around him.”

In space, no one can hear or it devours the sun and threatens the continued existence of many spacefaring nations. Despite the complex science cleverly sprinkled throughout the film, the astrology at the heart of “Project Hail Mary” is menacing enough for the uninitiated to understand: The sun is dying and these bugs are eating it, oh no! Of course, seeing that to a mainstream audience, however, was another matter entirely. During their appearance on The Big Picture podcast, Lord and Miller went into more detail, explaining how they found the perfect way to film this moment. As Miller said:

“The way we did it was, you take the filter out of the camera block. [infrared] bright and made this beautiful pink, red color. And what we did was put Ryan [Gosling] on a stage surrounded by a bunch of chicken wire filled with flashing infrared lights.”

If that sounds like enough, Lord chimed in to reveal that there was a lot of work involved in designing this machine. “[Cinematographer Greig Fraser] he built an aquarium, which is like a double-glazed window with a pipe that drips water into it.” According to Miller, this water dripped in front of a hand-held camera and Fraser stood next to Gosling while he played the scene – a source of endless entertainment on the set, by all accounts, since no one could see the final infrared effects naked.

Who knew that a film like “Project Hail Mary” would end up giving viewers a path to the destruction of infrared light, xenon gas (or solids, as we see in the film), interstellar travel, and all kinds of other unusual topics? In a neat way that a teacher like Ryland Grace would appreciate, the fun doesn’t stop there. While the usual marketing for this blockbuster has been successful as you will see, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are getting even more involved in social media.

Just the other day, Miller took to X (formerly Twitter) to give an inside look at how they shot the aforementioned stellar sequence. It’s one thing to read about the technical ingenuity and ingenuity required to pull this off – it’s quite another for them. As he explained:

Here is a video I took while we were shooting. You can see Tomas on the top right pouring water into a tube that runs between 2 glasses in front of the handheld camera Greig is working on, giving it a dirty look. Ryan stands in a cage of flashing IR lights that… https://t.co/9B1w540Zfa pic.twitter.com/hVfYEJzsMY

– Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) March 30, 2026

“Here’s a video I took while we were shooting. You can see on the top right Tomas pouring water into a tube that runs between 2 glass panes in front of a hand-held camera. Greig is working, giving a smeary, drippy look. Ryan is standing in a pit of flashing IR lights that are invisible to the naked eye, but we use them beautifully. It was done in an atmosphere with lights less and more digital enhancement/transfer from ILM, and width was fully digital from ILM, to match this look.”

Based on the positive feedback from moviegoers (especially those lucky enough to get this on the big IMAX screens), this was a job well done by the entire creative team. A little creativity goes a long way – who knew!

“Project Hail Mary” is now playing in theaters.