A trailer for the film Project Hail Mary has earned a Guinness World Record after being shown high above Earth on 14 March. Sony announced on Thursday that the film won the title for the Highest Altitude IMAX Film Trailer. The trailer was broadcast on a scale replica IMAX screen at 101,896 feet above Earth. The stunt was part of a partnership with the space agency Sent Into Space.
The screen was carried into the upper stratosphere, which is a very high layer of the atmosphere. Sent Into Space said its team built a carbon-fibre launch vehicle for the mission. The screen was also designed to work in the freezing temperatures found so high above the planet. Once the craft reached the right height, the team remotely turned on the screen and played the trailer.
The company said the trailer was shown against the darkness of space, with the curve of Earth and the thin blue line of the atmosphere visible nearby. This unusual publicity stunt helped draw attention to the upcoming science-fiction film. Project Hail Mary is based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir.
Ryan Gosling stars in the film as Ryland Grace. The character wakes up on the Hail Mary spacecraft and discovers that he is the only survivor on board. The story follows a dramatic space mission, making the record-breaking trailer stunt a fitting way to promote the film.
