In the six days since I bought my first ticket to see “Project Hail Mary,” I have watched this movie two and a half times.
Ryland Grace wakes up in space, light-years away from Earth, with no memory of how he got there. Grace bumbles around the ship, getting drunk, binging on uncooked instant noodles, and slowly unlocking bits and pieces of his memory.
Eventually, he remembers that the Sun is dying as tiny organisms that reside in an infrared line stretching from the doomed star to Venus, eat away at it. Grace was the only scientist who figured out how to breed the organisms, also known as astrophage.
In a last-ditch effort to save their home, the governments of the world planned to send three astronauts to the only star that survived being exposed to astrophage. However, they ended up with two dead professionals and a middle school science teacher with the fate of the world resting on his shoulders.
Grace quickly comes to his senses and gets to work figuring out what makes this star so special. Before his work is interrupted by a magnificent alien ship turning up to the same star he is studying. He eventually makes contact with the extra terrestrial and learns that the creature, who Grace calls Rocky, has the same mission as him, to find out what sets this star apart.
Grace and Rocky embark on what is to be the mission of a lifetime as they labor to try and save their respective worlds, learning the meaning of friendship, sacrifice, and what it means to do the right thing.
The movie is based on a book of the same title by Andy Weir, published in 2021. Weir also co-wrote the script for the movie adaptation alongside Drew Goddard. The film was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. It stars Ryan Gosling as Grace, Sandra Hüller as Dr. Eva Stratt, and James Ortiz voicing Rocky.
The movie had a budget of 200 million dollars but ended up costing around 248 million to make. It was released in the US on March 20, 2026 and has made over 512 million dollars as of April 15, breaking even after reaching 500 million.
The strongest complaint I have heard about this movie is that it strays too far from the original story told in Weir’s 2021 novel. I have not yet read the book and while this would normally be a deterrent for me, Weir’s position as co-writer gives me the impression that any details lost in the transition from novel to script couldn’t have been too necessary.
The greatest part of this film for me was the raw emotion woven in with both the script as well as with beautiful performances from the actors. In that theatre I laughed, cried, smiled, grimaced, jumped out of my seat, dropped my jaw, rolled my eyes, and I cringed.
What I consider to be some of my favorite movies are emotional. Whether that be heartbreaking emotion, like “Dead Poets Society” or light hearted, like “27 Dresses.” What I find most impressive about Project Hail Mary is the ability to capture such opposite ends of the emotional spectrum so strongly.
If you are looking for a movie, no matter the genre, “Project Hail Mary” checks all of my boxes.
