Every First Contact Movie Gets This Wrong (Except Project Hail Mary)

Fist my bump. Another day in the yard!!!! The first thing the alien in Project Hail Mary builds for Ryan Gosling is a wall. Most first contact movies skip the three problems that wall solves: can we share a room with them, can we talk to them, and can we trust them? E.T. breathes our air, the alien in Independence Day talks through a scientist's throat, Contact's alien shows up as Jodie Foster's dad, and Arrival settles the standoff with a phone call from the future. Project Hail Mary does the work. Rocky lives in ammonia at 29 atmospheres and over 200 degrees, behind a clear wall of xenonite. He has no eyes, so the whole first contact runs on sound, and the film plants that eight minutes in, in a middle school classroom. And the trust comes from the oldest winning strategy in game theory: move first, then answer in kind. No spoilers for the ending. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 1:19 The first contact is a dot 2:56 Can we share a room? 5:13 The gravity (and a fun fact) 6:34 Can we talk? 8:45 250 words 11:04 Can we trust them? 12:40 Tit for tat 14:44 The verdict Narrated by: Me :) SOURCES Project Hail Mary (2026), dir. Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, screenplay Drew Goddard, from Andy Weir's 2021 novel; cast and voice credits (James Ortiz as Rocky; rejected voices by Meryl Streep, Ray Porter, Eunice Huthart, Damien de Froberville): Wikipedia, "Project Hail Mary (film)" Andy Weir on Erid (29 atmospheres, oceans over 200 C, no light, echolocation): StarTalk, "Neil deGrasse Tyson Confronts Andy Weir on the Science of Project Hail Mary" (April 2026) Xenon: freezing point -111.75 C; Neil Bartlett, the first noble gas compound (University of British Columbia, 1962); K. A. Goettel, J. H. Eggert, I. F. Silvera, W. C. Moss, "Optical Evidence for the Metallization of Xenon at 132(5) GPa", Physical Review Letters 62, 665 (1989) Wall load: (29 - 1) atm x 101,325 Pa = about 2.84 MN, roughly 290 tonnes-force per square metre Centrifugal cream separator: Alfa Laval history (Gustaf de Laval begins work 1877; first continuous separator demonstrated in Stockholm, 1879) Daniel Kish, human echolocation: BBC, World's Weirdest Events; Wikipedia, "Daniel Kish" Ernst Chladni, Entdeckungen über die Theorie des Klanges (1787); Royal Institution Christmas Lectures demonstration B. McCowan, J. Hubbard, L. Walker, F. Sharpe, J. Frediani, L. Doyle, "Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: 'conversing' with an Alaskan humpback whale", PeerJ 11:e16349 (2023) (UC Davis, Alaska Whale Foundation, SETI Institute) M. S. Dryer, "Position of Polar Question Particles", World Atlas of Language Structures Online, feature 92A R. Axelrod, "Effective Choice in the Prisoner's Dilemma", Journal of Conflict Resolution 24 (1980); R. Axelrod & W. D. Hamilton, "The Evolution of Cooperation", Science 211 (1981); R. Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation (1984) FOOTAGE Film clips are used under fair use for commentary and criticism: Project Hail Mary (2026), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Contact (1997), The Abyss (1989), Arrival (2016), Independence Day (1996), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Signs (2002), District 9 (2009). Clips and footage via: 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Studios UK, Amazon MGM Studios, BBC, Carnegie Science, FilmClips, Movieclips, Paramount Pictures, Periodic Videos, Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers, Sony Pictures Entertainment, StarTalk, The Royal Institution, Universal Pictures At Home, Warner Bros. Rewind, WhaleSETI. Archival footage: Destockd (public-domain U.S. government films). Stills and portraits: Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia (Neil Bartlett, Gustaf de Laval, Ernst Chladni, Robert Axelrod, Anatol Rapoport, Andy Weir, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Meryl Streep, James Ortiz, NOAA blue whale). Comments quoted: @dougim, @CyrilZero, @joshuadtaft. Thank you.