Ryland Grace, the Project Hail Mary protagonist, exhibits intellectual humility while problem-solving to save the Earth. Credit: Jonathan Olley/Courtesy Amazon MGM Studios

Early in Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s science fiction blockbuster “ Project Hail Mary ,” middle school teacher Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling , is tasked by an international coalition to uncover the biology of a strange microbe known as an “astrophage” that has been absorbing energy from an ever-dimming Sun.

Grace is a molecular biologist by training, but his controversial ideas and overconfident attitude have kept him out of academia. The viewer will see through flashbacks that as he’s matured, he’s developed a vital skill for solving the astrophage crisis: intellectual humility.

I’m an anthropologist who studies astronauts and space professionals to understand what space symbolizes to the people who experience it firsthand.…