What if the most ideological moment in Project Hail Mary is not when the main character, Rylnad Grace, saves the world, but when he insists, repeatedly, that he is not a hero?
We are tempted, of course, to read this in the most obvious way, that a man who begins as a coward becomes, through narrative necessity, a hero. This is a standard character arc, the ideological comfort of many stories. But this reading misses something more interesting. What if Grace’s problem is not that he fails to be a hero initially, but that he is too invested in the very category of the hero itself?
The Ideological Trap of “I’m not heroic in any way”.
Consider Grace’s insistence that “I’m not heroic in any way. I get sick on an elevator!”
This is not modesty. Nor is it simple fear. It is something more precise, an identification through negation. He tells us who he is by telling us who he is not. And in doing so, he reveals the structure of ideology at work. Drawing upon Michel Foucault, we can say that the “hero” is not a natural category but a discursive position, it is a role produced by institutions, narratives, and expectations. Grace does not stand outside the discourse; he is fully caught within it. His refusal is not a rejection of the system, but a form of participation in it. He accepts the terms hero vs non-hero and places himself on the “correct” side. In other words, he believes in the category enough to refuse it.
The Body as the Site of Ideology.
Here is where psychologist Burno Cayoun’s MiCBT framework becomes unexpectedly useful, not as a competing explanation, but as a way of further pushing this issue of identification. Of course, one should note that Cayoun’s MiCBT is a therapeutic framework designed for clinical application. Its use here is not to “diagnose” a fictional character, but as a way of reading how the film represents the relationship between thought, sensation, and action.
Cayoun’s model suggests that what we call “identity” is not just an abstract concept, but embodied in how we feel. Evaluations like “I’m not heroic” are not neutral statements because they trigger body sensations such as elevated heart rate, constriction, and heat, which in turn produce a reaction, such as avoidance.
So when Grace says “I’m not heroic in any way,” this is not simply an ideological statement. It is a somatic event, a moment where a clear physical sensation occurs rather than just an abstract thought. He is not just anxious; his face flushes, his chest tightens, his stomach drops and so on.
According to Cayoun, this evaluation activates the “I/me” network; it produces an unpleasant bodily state, and the reaction (refusal) then aims to reduce that discomfort.
We might say, then, that ideology is not just something we think. It is something we feel in the body. Grace does not refuse the mission simply because it is dangerous. He refuses it because the situation produces a bodily state he cannot tolerate, and this state is inseparable from the identity he has constructed.
Amnesia: The Fantasy of Escape from Ideology.
The film begins with the central conceit that Grace has amnesia. This appears, at first glance, to offer a kind of liberation. Without memory, Grace is no longer burdened by the past, his failures, his self-doubt. He becomes capable, adaptive, even, dare we say, heroic. But we should be careful here. Amnesia is not simply a narrative convenience; it is a fantasy. It asks, what would remain of someone if we stripped away the accumulated layers of identity?
From a Foucauldian perspective, this is a temporary suspension of subjectification. The subject loses access to the discursive positions that previously structured their existence. From a MiCBT perspective, something equally important happens: the evaluation loops are disrupted. Without immediate access to identity-based schemas, the chain of evaluation> sensation > reaction is weakened.
What emerges is not a new self, but a different relation to experience of less immediate judgment, less reactive avoidance, and more direct engagement with the situation.
The Return of Memory: The Real Test.
The true test comes when memory returns.
If identity were simply a matter of content, this would mark the return of the old Grace, the man who insists, “I’m not heroic in any way.” But this is not what happens.
Instead, something more subtle occurs. Grace no longer needs to declare who he is. In the final act escalation [SPOILER], when faced with the decision to return to Earth or to sacrifice that return to save Rocky, the alien, who unexpectedly becomes both collaborator and companion to Grace, he does not announce “I am a hero now” or retreat to his earlier avoidance and refusal. He simply acts. And here we encounter a paradox: the only way to become a hero is to stop needing to define yourself against or within the category of the hero altogether.
Beyond Identity.
This is where Cayoun’s notion of “equilibrium” crosses over with cultural studies theory in a useful way. In MiCBT, equilibrium is achieved when attention is no longer dominated by evaluation and reaction, but balanced with sensory and bodily awareness. This does not eliminate thoughts; it changes the relationship to them.
In Foucauldian terms, we might say that the subject is no longer fully governed by the ned to position itself within available discourse.
Grace’s transformation, then, is not from coward to hero but from someone who must constantly declare and defend their identity TO someone who can act without first wrestling with and then deciding who they are.
Conclusion: The Failure of the Hero.
The ultimate irony of Project Hail Mary is that it appears to affirm the heroic narrative while quietly undermining it.
The film gives us the spectacle of sacrifice, bravery, and salvation. But beneath this, it suggests something more unsettling, that the possibility of identity itself, this constant need to say “I am this” or “I am not that “, is the very mechanism that traps us in a reactive pattern of thought and behaviour.
Grace does not save the world because he discovers he was a hero all along.
He does so because, at a crucial moment, he no longer needs to know whether he is one.
References
Cayoun, B. A. (2015). Maintaining well-being and personal growth, in mindfulness-integrated CBT for well-being and personal growth: four steps to enhance inner calm, self-confidence and relationships. UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester,
Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality: An introduction. Vintage.