What age is Project Hail Mary appropriate for?

Rated PG-13 in the US. 13, alone or with a parent; 10 in France. The whole movie, watched in full: what's in it, and how to talk about it with your child.

Why is Project Hail Mary not recommended under 13?

What's in it: the official rating, first; two dead at waking, and a man alone; the Sun going out: the end of the world explained; gunfire and fights in the flashbacks; a friend you think you are losing; a lot of dark, a few jumps, a little vodka. The detail, fact by fact, is in the zinema guide, which reads the work itself (images, sound, dialogue).

zinema · movies · what age

Project Hail Mary: what age is it for? 13, alone or with a parent

From 13, alone or with a parent.

Movie · 2026 · 2 h 35 · science fiction, adventure

YRS

The trailer

Alone, or with you

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not yetwith an adult, or to talk about afteralone

The official US rating is PG-13, and we never go below it. Alone from 13, and not before, even with an adult.

Official US rating: PG-13. In France, zinema would say 10.

Watch the trailerContinue in zinemathen where to watch it, in zinema · more trailers, and where to watch films · Where to stream itWhere to watch

What it's about

Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction.

Why 13

The official rating, firstRated PG-13 in the US (parents strongly cautioned, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.
rule
Two dead at waking, and a man aloneGrace wakes up next to the bodies of his two crewmates, dead during the voyage, and talks to their photos: 'I wish I wasn't alone'. Death is named twenty times, the bodies are seen without detail, and it weighs on the first quarter hour.
shown
The Sun going out: the end of the world explainedEarth has a few decades before it freezes, and the film says so plainly, with scientists who have no solution. A ten-year-old may take it personally; an adult can say it is a story.
shown
Gunfire and fights in the flashbacksOn Earth, in flashbacks, an armed takeover, a brawl, twelve seconds of shots; in space, a creature that growls before becoming a friend. Nothing bloody, a dozen images of injuries.
shown
A friend you think you are losingRocky, the alien, falls ill and Grace watches over him without knowing what to do; then comes a goodbye. Children who have grown attached to him cry there, like the adults.
said
A lot of dark, a few jumps, a little vodkaHalf the film in the dark of the ship, three jump scares, cigarettes in the Earth flashbacks and a joke about a cosmonaut's vodka.
shown

What the movie brings

Science as an adventure: every problem gets solved with chemistry, physics and nerve, explained out loud by a teacher.
A friendship between two species: Rocky and Grace invent a language, jokes and a fist bump, the heart of the film.
The courage of an ordinary guy: Grace is no hero, and he is the one who stays.

Watching it together

Before

The opening is heavy, two deaths and the end of the world in a quarter hour; from Rocky's arrival on, it is a film about friendship and scientific tinkering. Afterwards, look up Tau Ceti together, it exists.

After

at 13 and up

How do Grace and Rocky manage to understand each other when they share neither a language nor a body?

See the facts

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For the same age, on zinema

Les Parfait(s) : Arnaques en famille 10, 9 with a parent
Masterplan 17
Blücher 11, 10 with a parent
Le Château dans le ciel 11, 10 with a parent

The latest guides

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A zinema reading from September 13, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made