**This article contains spoilers for Project Hail Mary**
As we enter the next movie release cycle, I’ve been excited for several of the summer blockbusters, eagerly awaiting the next Superman, but I wasn’t expecting Project Hail Mary to jump to number one in my top movies of the year.
The film, based on the book of the same name, was released on March 20. This sci-fi space adventure stars Ryan Gosling as the reluctant savior of Earth, Ryland Grace, and an alien as his best friend and sidekick, Rocky. Move over, Baby Yoda, a new lovable alien pal is sweeping the nation.
Project Hail Mary follows the same major plotlines as the book, with a few minute details cut to shorten the runtime, and with the majority of the hardcore scientific concepts not described nearly as in depth as they are in the novel.
However, this works in favor of the success of the movie since most moviegoers aren’t paying for an impromptu lesson on astrophysics and atmospheric chemistry.
Andy Weir, the author, also wrote The Martian, which has a movie adaptation as well. Project Hail Mary has a similar style to The Martian, and while the actual mathematics can be outlandish at times, the general science is conceptually sound. Although I’m still not quite sure how Rocky knew the pressure at which pure oxygen is breathable.
What Happens
The plot of the movie follows Grace as he tries to save Earth’s sun from energy-consuming astrophages by examining a star several light-years away that is unaffected by the growing threat.
Upon waking up alone from his space coma, Grace can’t remember the details of his trip or anything about his mission. To fill in the audience, there are intermittent flashbacks where Grace is shown to be a leading researcher on the astrophage project, Project Hail Mary, where he’s sent up to space against his will in a massive betrayal by his fellow man.
The relationship Grace develops with the alien ship he spots is played up for laughs, and the audience gets to watch him play catch with this cosmic piece of metal while swapping creations made from stuff around the ship.
Grace later makes contact with the alien inhabiting the ship, and after the first jump scare, you may be expecting something akin to Ridley Scott’s xenomorph, but Rocky is instead small, spider-shaped, and made of rocks.
Our two heroes journey to the star Tau Ceti to discover why it’s unaffected by astrophages and collect samples of the predatory bacteria that keep Tau Ceti safe, which Grace dubs Taumoeba.
Grace and Rocky initially split up to go back to their respective planets, but to save Rocky’s life, Grace decides to send his samples to Earth in probes and separately travel back to Rocky’s planet, Erid. This is valid, since I also wouldn’t want to go back home after getting a massive suicide-mission-shaped knife in the back.
My Opinion
The film itself is a sci-fi masterclass, from beautiful visuals to a compelling storyline revolving around Grace’s own self-confidence.
Gosling puts on a spectacular performance parallel to his CGI puppet co-star, one that I think will get him some nominations during the 2026-2027 award season.
Project Hail Mary is comedic in nature, but I felt that the humor was balanced well with the reality of a suicide mission to space, with Grace and Rocky’s dynamic becoming more playful and friendly as the plot progresses.
With a total runtime of just over two and a half hours, the movie seems to unfold well, aside from places near the end where it begins to drag a bit. If you enjoy space and sci-fi, you definitely need to go see this movie, and if space isn’t your thing, you should at least go to see Ryan Gosling’s biceps in IMAX.
While it’s not the next Interstellar, I do think that Project Hail Mary creates better character development than many other “alone in space” epics.
Instead of the plot of the movie only revolving around a main character doing everything to beat the odds of survival, it lets Grace fully realize himself as a hero at the end, while he spends the entire movie grappling with how he feels unqualified for any of the roles he’s given.
Reception
Project Hail Mary debuted with a record high rating, and now it’s been sitting at 4.4 stars for several weeks. Critics seem to have enjoyed it less than the public, but the film’s box office results speak for themselves.
It raked in over $140 million domestically in only its opening weekend, which is astronomically higher than most other blockbusters, like Dune: Part Two, that’ve ‘smashed’ the box office.
I think that between the cinematography and acting, this film is a shoo-in for award season and is a must-see beginning to this year’s summer blockbusters.
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