Project Hail Mary is a movie based off a novel of the same name written by Andy Weir. Ryan Gosling plays the titular role of Ryland Grace, a school teacher and biologist who gets recruited by a government entity to go into space and save the planet.
Grace wakes up in a spaceship with amnesia and does not know or remember where he is. He begins to piece together his life and story about what happened to him. It’s through memories and flashbacks that we see what led to him ending up in space.
There was a cell called Astrophage that was eating stars, only one star, Tau Ceti managed to fight off this world eating cell. Coincidentally, the cell is also provides energy that they convert to make the long trip to the star. So the mission for Grace was to go to this star and using Astrophage as the energy source and try to figure out how Tau Ceti was fighting off the same cell.
The trip was a one way ticket, with any information discovered being sent back by a probe. Grace would never make it back to earth. When he arrives at the star, there is another ship there. The ship begins to follow him and to his surprise, there is a friendly alien onboard. Through a series of very fun and super cute events they become friends, Grace comes up with a language for them to communicate and names the alien Rocky. Rocky cannot survive in the spaceship atmosphere nor can Grace survive in Rocky’s atmosphere. They find a way to work around it and discover they are both alone. Together they research the star and try to figure out how to save both of their planets from the Astrophage.
This movie is about 2 1/2 hours and it certainly didn’t feel like it. The pacing, story and character interaction keeps you so engaged, you don’t even feel time going by. When you meet Rocky is when the movie really picks up and I don’t know how anyone could not love that little guy. Drew Goddard did the screenplay, he also did the Martian so I feel like this is just his vibe.
Directed by the duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller who did The Lego Movie and 21 Jumpstreet movies, and for what appears to be their first sci-fi movie, they should definitely do more!
This is a great movie for everyone, even if you’re not big on sci-fi, this film has it all! Definitely a must see in theaters, I would want the whole experience and not wait for streaming.
This is a great movie for everyone, even if you’re not big on sci-fi, this film has it all! Definitely a must see in theaters, I would want the whole experience and not wait for streaming.
PROJECT HAIL MARY Filmed for IMAX® is only in Theaters March 20th, 2026.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Ashley Kethley (Contributing Editor) is a frequent traveler currently living in San Diego. She's a super nerd who enjoys all kinds of movies and doesn't always think the book was better. Click Here to check out Ashley's Articles.