What is Project Hail Mary's IQ Score?

Project Hail Mary has an IQ Score of 179/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient framework, placing it in the Masterclass tier. The score breaks down to 46/50 Cognitive Stimulation, 44/50 Educational Value, and 44/50 Craft & Quality.

Is Project Hail Mary educational?

Project Hail Mary is strong on Educational Value, 44/50 on TVI's rubric, which rates the density and integration of substantive information within the work.

How does TV Intelligentsia calculate IQ Score?

TV Intelligentsia's current published formula is round((Cognitive Stimulation × 0.4 + Educational Value × 0.35 + Craft & Quality × 0.25) × 4), scoring titles from 0 to 200 across five tiers. TVI publishes a three-dimension breakdown only when those values reproduce the displayed composite. The framework is published at tvintelligentsia.com/methodology/.

Project Hail Mary IQ Score 179/200

Project Hail Mary has an IQ Score of 179/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Masterclass tier.

By Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH·Updated 2026-10-05·Methodology

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179/ 200

Masterclass

Exceptional cognitive and educational substance, delivered with craft that sustains close attention

Score Breakdown

Legacy score. Published under our earlier workflow, before the current standard took effect in August 2026. A founder reviewed and approved it against our methodology, under a process that does not meet the standard we hold now. What this means →

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Cognitive Stimulation/50

Educational Value/50

Craft & Quality/50

Cinematic Score/50

IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4) · How we score →

What these dimensions mean

Cognitive Stimulation: observable narrative complexity, conceptual density, ambiguity, inference, and sustained intellectual demands in the work.
Educational Value: the density and integration of substantive academic, historical, scientific, cultural, ethical, or practical information in the work.
Craft & Quality: production excellence in service of the work, its direction, writing, performance, and aesthetic intent.
Cinematic Score: composition quality, emotional impact, and how the music integrates with the work. Does not affect the IQ Score.

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The Verdict

Best forHard sci-fi readers who want astrophysics and xenolinguistics doing the actual plotting

Skip ifYou want brooding space dread; this is sunny problem-solving with an unlikely alien friendship

Use it asA gateway to the scientific method in action, one improvised experiment at a time

Why you should trust this score

Scored under Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH

Physician and founding editor. Maintains the adult catalog against the published rubric and reviews the rubric application.

Methodology

Published rubric, v1.3.1

Formula

round((C × 0.40 + E × 0.35 + Q × 0.25) × 4)

Database scale

2,608 titles, version-controlled

How we stay independent. Editorial scores are not for sale. TVI may take on paid advisory or research work, but no commercial relationship buys coverage, advance access to scores, favorable treatment, or a change to a published finding. We pay for our own streaming subscriptions, and no reviewer sees sponsor data or affiliate revenue tied to a score. More about how we work →

The TVI Take

Adaptation of Andy Weir's bestselling novel about an amnesiac astronaut who must save Earth from an extinction-level threat using science and an unlikely alien alliance. Exceptional cognitive demands from the scientific problem-solving that drives every plot beat, the protagonist literally thinks his way through astrophysics, molecular biology, and xenolinguistics.

High educational value from the accessible treatment of real science. The Weir formula of optimistic hard sci-fi delivers tremendous entertainment through relentless ingenuity.

People & Production Phil Lord · Amazon MGM Studios · United States 27 connections