Project Hail Mary

by George Wolf

The arguments about Awards Season 2026 may still be raging on social media, but Project Hail Mary arrives to start the conversation about next year. It’s the kind of lavish, well-polished, big movie star project that could generate word-of-mouth excitement, bring crowds back to the theater, and leave audiences with an inspiring message of hope and humor that is sorely needed.

And that will be awesome, truly. So, I already feel like a cynical jerk for not thinking it’s a masterpiece.

Thanks a lot, Ryan Gosling.

Actually, it’s pretty damn hard not to love Gosling’s turn here as Dr. Ryland Grace, a molecular biologist who’s teaching middle school science thanks to some of his less-than-peer-approved theories.

But when he wakes from an induced coma on a ship in outer space, “Grace” is our last hope for saving Earth from the nasty space dust that is about three decades away from destroying the Sun.

How did he get here? And how can a man “who puts the ‘not’ in “astronaut'” hope to succeed all alone?

Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller give us those answers, adapting Andy Weir’s best-selling novel with another crowd-pleasing script from Drew Goddard – who also adapted Weir’s The Martian for the screen. And much like The Martian, we’re among the stars with a solitary man who must rely on science to find the solution to survival.

But Grace isn’t really alone, once he meets a crab-like alien (voiced by James Ortiz) he calls “Rocky” thanks to an appearance that resembles a strategic stacking of stones. Rocky’s planet is also facing extinction, and the two form a bond that quickly aligns the film as a family-friendly mashup of 2001 and E.T.

Gosling’s self-deprecating charm and sharp comic timing are instantly likable, and once Rocky learns some basics of English, the alien’s penchant for inverting certain words and gestures leads to warmly funny exchanges. Lord & Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) bolster the rapport with wondrous IMAX sequences, but can’t completely overcome the feeling that this is all just a little too obvious and cute.

Flashbacks to a terrific Sandra Hüller as the impatiently blunt leader of the Hail Mary project give the film some much needed depth, and the mild twist in Act Three pulls the narrative out of the safe zone, albeit too briefly. The Martian suffered from the same calculated, broad brush feel at work here, and thankfully Lord & Miller don’t follow suit and resort to a succession of eye-rollingly precise needle drops.

The film’s title could also apply toward winning back those finicky theater-goers. And Project Hail Mary is perfectly suited to be a memorable cinematic experience with mass appeal. It looks great, there’s a charismatic leading man, his little alien buddy, and an easily digestible life lesson.

An enjoyable trip to the movies will be had. It just ain’t a trip to deep space.