Summary
- Both Spaceman and Project Hail Mary feature lonely astronauts bonding with spider-like alien creatures in deep space.
- Spaceman is based on a novel published before Project Hail Mary, exploring themes of isolation and personal redemption.
- Author Andy Weir dismissed claims of plagiarism, noting similarities are not unique to these stories and categorizing the two works differently.
Released on March 1, 2024, Spaceman is an ambitious science fiction tale that instantly shot to the top of the most viewed movies on Netflix. The movie stars Adam Sandler as Jakub Procházka, a Czech cosmonaut tasked with investigating a dust cloud called Chopra near Jupiter. Lonely and isolated, Jakub must confront his painful memories with the help of Hanuš (Paul Dano), an extraterrestrial arachnid with telepathic abilities.
As Hanus helps Jakub navigate his repressed memories and realize what is most important to him, Jakub goes on an existential journey that many have likened to the protagonist in the 2021 Andy Weir novel Project Hail Mary. The novel follows Ryland Grace, an astronaut who suddenly awakes in a coma with amnesia before slowly remembering who he is and where he came from. Although a movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary is currently in development, it’s worth analyzing how much of Spaceman, if any, lifts ideas, plot points, and themes from the acclaimed sci-fi novel.
The Similarities Between Spaceman and Project Hail Mary
Spaceman
- Release Date
- March 1, 2024
- Director
- Johan Renck
- Runtime
- 1hr 47min
- Writers
- Jaroslav Kalfar , Colby Day
On the surface, Spaceman and Project Hail Mary appear to follow a similar story, both feature a lone astronaut on a solo mission in deep space making friends with a spider-like alien creature, leaving many to wonder if the former stole from the latter. While it’s easy to note the similarities between the two stories, it’s worth stating that the Netflix sci-fi original movieSpaceman is an adaptation of the 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Czech author Jaroslav Kalfař. The novel was written four years before Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary was published.
Despite Kalfar’s story being published well before Weir’s, there are many similarities. First, both stories focus on the solo journey of a male astronaut with a problematic mental state. In Jakub’s case, he’s neglected his wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan) and buried the most painful memories about their miscarried child deep in his mind. In Ryland’s case, the character awakes in a medical coma due to amnesia. In both stories, remembering the past to forge a better future is a thematic motif that Jakub and Ryland contend with.
Hanus Vs. Rocky
The biggest similarity between both stories involves the spider-like alien creature that helps both protagonists overcome their existential plight. In Spaceman, Jakub befriends Hanuš, a telepathic creature resembling an 8-legged spider who can read Jakub’s mind and see all his memories. Over time, Hanuš helps Jakub see the folly of his ways by prioritizing his work over his wife and ultimately assists Jakub in understanding what is most important in his life.
In Project Hail Mary, Ryland encounters a 5-legged spider-like alien entity that he names Rocky for its stony outer layer. Much like Jakub does with Hanuš, Ryland spends time with Rocky alone on a spaceship as they travel through the cosmos. Jakub and Hanuš investigate Chopra, a mysterious dust cloud past Jupiter, while Ryland and Rocky explore the Tau Ceti galaxy on a mission to prevent solar dimming.
Although their professional missions and backstories are very different, it’s easy to see the basic similarities between Spaceman and Project Hail Mary. Another parallel between the stories involves an infectious disease that threatens the species that Hanuš and Rocky belong to in each story. In the popular Adam Sandler Netflix movie, Hanuš explains to Jakub that he is the last remaining creature in his species due to a deadly infection that has wiped out his kind. In Project Hail Mary, Rocky explains to Ryland that he comes from 40 Eridani, a star system devastated by Astrophage infection.
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In both cases, the human protagonist attempts to save their alien friends from dying from the infection. However, without spoiling too much, the endings of each story differ quite a bit. One ends happily for the two unlikely friends while the other ends tragically. Even so, Jakub and Ryland are forced to make high-pressure decisions in a life-or-death ultimatum that adds tension and suspense to both stories.
Andy Weir’s Assessment of Spaceman’s Alleged Plagiarism
While it’s easy to spot the similarities between both sci-fi stories, the Project Hail Mary author has settled the dispute online. When inundated with internet theories that Spaceman stole ideas from his novel, Andy Weir pushed back and refuted the claim on January 17, 2024, saying:
“No, they didn’t steal the idea from
Project Hail Mary.
The film is based on the novel
Spaceman of Bohemia
by Jaroslav Kalfař, which was released four years before Project Hail Mary. While bearing superficial similarities, the stories are completely different. Spaceman of Bohemia is a psychological story about isolation and loss – more about the astronaut’s personal life than anything else. PHM is hard sci-fi about an existential
threat to all life on Earth
.”
Although Weir refuted the claim that Spaceman stole ideas before the movie was released on Netflix, the author noted that spider-like alien creatures are not unique to his and Kalfar’s stories. Weir cited the 2015 novel Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky as a glaring example of a science fiction story featuring such arachnoid creatures. In Children of Time, a nano-virus infects various species, including jumping spiders known as “Portiids” who become stranded in space with a lone astronaut named Dr. Avrana Kern.
Final Conclusion
Whether a case of coincidence or parallel thinking, Spaceman did not rip off Project Hail Mary as some internet theories have suggested. Nor did Project Hail Mary lift ideas from Spaceman, according to author Andy Weir. While both lost-in-space stories revolve around lone cosmonauts who make friends with an alien spider en route to a harrowing space mission, the cosmetic similarities end there. Spaceman is a more personal, psychological story of Jakub atoning for his past sins relating to his wife and child. Project Hail Mary is a broader science fiction tale about the potential end of humanity.
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While there is no way of telling if Weir read Kalfar’s story before writing Project Hail Mary, it’s worth noting that a movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary has been in production since 2020, four years before Spaceman hit Netflix. Ryan Gosling is attached to play Ryland Grace in the movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary, with directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller slated to helm the project for MGM. Drew Goddard, who previously adapted Weir’s novel The Martian, has been hired to write the screenplay for Project Hail Mary. According to The Hollywood Reporter in May 2023, production on Project Hail Mary is set to commence in the UK in early 2024.
