There's a cultural trend rising that I honestly love, which is rare to say lately. It's called "hopecore," and it's a direct pushback against the nihilism that's soaked our culture for the past decade. It seems that many, including myself, have become sort of fed up with the outlook on our society that only wants to see the bad parts, throw up our hands, and say, "We give up."
I feel that. It's not in me to roll over and die, and I've been accused on more than one occasion of having too much optimism, including by my own readers. It's been nice to see that I'm not alone, and that there's still a good bit of fight left in the populace who want to shrug off the dark and down.
This movement is gaining steam, and I think it really hit me that this is going to be big recently, with one little scene in one great movie.
I was watching "Project Hail Mary" in the theater, eating my popcorn and drinking my Old Fashioned (thanks, Alamo Drafthouse) when a nice feeling settled over me, and it wasn't the whiskey.
I've been touting the film as the best movie of the year, even though it's early in the year. It does everything we've been asking Hollywood to do: Stay true to the source material; make a solid, well-done story that doesn't preach a socio-political message or introduce modern sensibilities where none are needed or wanted.
That's all well and good, but what I really loved about the movie was its unapologetic positivity. After being soaked in negativity for so long, "Project Hail Mary" was like walking out into fresh air with a cool breeze after being inside a stuffy building with no A/C.
There is one scene, in particular, that I think truly defines the film. So many movies attempt to push the culture into where the writers and producers want it to be, and that usually ends up in disaster because it becomes preachy. This particular Hail Mary scene meets the culture where it is and doesn't push it or pull it anywhere, but does define it, and it makes you want to act around it a certain way.
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We're Starving for a Departure From Nihilism
I won't spoil much for those who haven't seen it, but just know that, in the story, the world is in danger, and there is a group of brave scientists and astronauts who are getting together to try to stop the oncoming disaster. The project head, a German woman named Eva Stratt, is talking to one of the lead scientists, the main character named Ryalnd Grace, who is down in the dumps. He sees everyone's upbeat, positive attitude around him, and he can't quite get there because everything is so dire. Stratt gets up to sing a karaoke song, which ends up being Harry Styles' "A Sign of the Times."
Stratt's actress, Sandra Hüller, picked the song after being urged to sing by Ryan Gosling, who plays Grace. Without any input from even the director, the two effectively put the scene together, and it ended up encapsulating one of the main themes of the film, which is to see the darkness in front of you, understand things are grim, and get up and go through it anyway.
“Always thanks to Harry” 🎤 Sandra Hüller and Ryan Gosling talk about how the karaoke scene happened in Project Hail Mary.
— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) April 8, 2026
Watch the full interview: https://t.co/3zpdOQxhm0 pic.twitter.com/edTMwDxsBI
The lyrics are actually beautiful, and despite your feelings on Harry Styles, I do think the song is relevant to our era.
The film itself is being labeled as "hopecore," and I think some people gave it that label to sneer at it. Some say it turns its back on the reality of our situation and substitutes said reality with delusional optimism.
I disagree wholeheartedly. I think this movie actually displays the reality of things far better than any "realist."
The point is that we know things are dark. You have to have an acknowledgement of darkness, hardship, or odds stacked against you in order for you to arrive at "hope." The hope part is the positive attitude that the fear, grief, and challenge you're facing can be fought through, and that on the other side of this hardship is something better. It's the happy warrior mentality. It's the feeling of seeing the dragon in front of you, being sad that you're confronted with said dragon, and picking up your sword and shield anyway.
There's a Lord Huron lyric from the song "Bag of Bones," which kind of hits that same vibe. It acknowledges the darkness of life, even the fact that all things eventually die and wither:
People die and planets turn
And empires rise and fall and burn
Nothing laughs and no one stays
You just spiral off into outer space
In fact, a lot of the song is just like this, but buried in it is a sort of lyrical smile and shrug:
Been a long road, but I'll be alright
I'm living on the countryside
I'll be out there on my own
Just a rattlin' bag of bones
There's even one very odd part of the song where, after some self-denigration and an acknowledgement of some inner darkness, singer-songwriter Ben Schneider wrote in the lyrics, "life is a joke if you laugh."
I'm honestly in love with that attitude, and I really do want to see more of it. Positivity despite the darkness is, in my opinion, a powerful weapon to use to win the future, and the more art we see that's geared toward that mentality, the better.
