Iron Lung is the Dark Counterpart to Project Hail Mary and I HAVE to Talk About It

So my husband and I just watched Project Hail Mary. I DEVOURED the book when it released back in 2021, finished it in a single weekend.

Anyway, it dawned on me this evening that Iron Lung is 100% the dark counterpart to Project Hail Mary in tone, message, storytelling, visuals, and even shares eerie similarities in story beats and character development. Let me explain (PROJECT HAIL MARY SPOILERS AHEAD! if you have not read or seen Project Hail Mary and wish not to be spoiled, please do not read further).

1. Both stories are based on the premise that the stars are going out, no one knows why exactly, and the main character is set with the impossible task of figuring out how to help humanity survive.

2. Both main characters are sent on their suicide mission against their wills. Simon as a convict forced on his mission as his sentence by a female authority figure. Grace was sedated and placed on the rocket against his will by a female authority figure as well.

3. Both stories illustrate that when times are considerably dire, it's not about you anymore. Both main characters have to come to terms with the positions they were forced into, and ultimately sacrifice their lives (Simon literally, Grace figuratively) for the cause, even though they never really had a choice to begin with.

4. Both stories have semi-religious undertones. Project Hail Mary with its grappling of faith during impossible odds, and Iron Lung with Simon's developing psychosis when faced with the corporal form of eldritch cosmic horrors.

5. While both stories are very lead character focused with limited setting other than the ships they're crammed into, Project Hail Mary reaches out while Iron Lung withdraws, both in it's storytelling and visuals. Project Hail Mary has grandiose wide shots of the majesty of exoplanets, the emptiness of space, the massiveness of spacecrafts, and shows Grace's life leading up to his mission with emphasis on how he interacted with the team he was working with. It also reached out by introducing Rocky, the most lovable alien ever to grace cinema, with his assistance being instrumental to discovering the solution to their shared predicament. The story of Project Hail Mary constantly reaches out for help, and it is gladly given. It illustrates a hopeful perspective on how completely different people (or species) would potentially work together to solve a shared problem.

Whereas with Iron Lung, Simon is confined in a tiny sub, completely cut off from the outside save for a radio to communicate, welded in, and when he does reach out for help he is either given minimal information or is outright refused. The cinematography being confined to a single location emphasized this feeling of being completely cut off emotionally, figuratively, and literally. The only glimpses we get to the broader world are during a moment that is arguably happening in Simon's head (when he is dripping in blood looking up to the sky) and at the end when the eel monster has his sub in it's jaws as it explodes.

6. Both stories reveal how our main characters got in their predicaments, and why they specifically are being sent on their missions, by slow dripping information via flashbacks.

7. Both stories involve an explosion as the impetus for their placement on their missions, and both characters are not responsible for the incident.

8. Both stories share a moment where it seems like the main character might make it out after all, only to have that taken away from them. However, Simon was never realky given a choice. If he refused his task, he never would have been picked up by his authority figures. Grace, however, chose to save Rocky instead of continuing on his path back to earth, after he had obtained the solution to the core problem. He chose to go save him, and Rocky's entire species, because he finally had something worth sacrificing his life for, with the probes containing the solution for earth already on their way back.

There are probably more parallels to draw but I'll close with this; i am over the friggin moon that in the first quarter of 2026 we've had two sci fi movies that are mirrors to each other, showing the pessimistic (Iron Lung) and optimistic (Project Hail Mary) perspectives on a shared core premise; humanity is in dire straights, and our reluctant heroes have to come to terms with the fact that it isn't about them anymore. It's bigger than either of them. And getting to see the dark and ambiguous "did humanity make it?" ending of Iron Lung, knowing that Simon is indeed dead, alongside the less ambiguous but endearing ending of Project Hail Mary, where it appears Grace chooses to stay at his new home instead of returning back to earth, and thereby experiencing a more figurative ego death, is just incredibly satisfying and thought provoking. God i love both these movies so much.