Project Hail Mary has safely become one of the top movies of 2026. Audiences flock to theaters to see the sci-fi juggernaut starring Ryan Gosling.
However, not every point from Andy Weir’s novel is incorporated into the film’s plot.
Nevertheless, a secret hint has been added at the author’s suggestion, and fans of the books may have seen it in theaters.
It’s about the mysterious tattoo on Eva Strait’s (Sandra Huller) neck. But it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.
The story behind Eva Strait’s strange tattoo
The ink on Eva Strait’s neck is not accidental. Instead, it is an eerie clue to what happened to him on Earth.
“One of the things we kept trying to put into the movie and couldn’t stick was the idea that people didn’t cooperate after Grace went into space,” the film’s director Phil Lord previously told Collider.
He added, “The governments turned on (Eva) and hauled her in front of a criminal court and sent her to prison. And she has a tattoo – it came from Andy (Ware), his idea – so she has a tattoo that says, ‘I’ve been in a French prison all my life.'”
Her co-director, Chris Miller, also reflected on Eva’s tattoos, saying, “She has a small tattoo that has a V with a line in it – meaning the ‘V’ as in ‘life’ and then the line meaning ‘without parole.’
“So Andy thought she went to prison without parole, but then got out of prison because of her connections and then was kind of in trouble, still trying to save the world.”
Project Hail Mary is in theaters now.
