My quick rating - 8.4/10. Project Hail Mary starts with a body bag, and immediately, I am sitting there thinking, "okay, this is my type of flick," LOL. I know, wrong genre entirely. But when a movie opens with a guy waking from a coma, confused, in space, beside a couple of dead bodies, it definitely gets your attention fast. Turns out it's not horror, just one very confused man aboard a spaceship, seemingly all alone and very far from home.
Ryan Gosling plays middle school science teacher Ryland Grace, who wakes up light-years from Earth with no recollection of who he is, why he is there, or what exactly humanity expects him to accomplish. As his memory slowly comes back, Project Hail Mary fills us in through flashbacks and introduces the very big problem at hand. The sun is dying, Earth is in trouble, and somehow this science teacher has been roped into humanity’s last desperate attempt to stop extinction.
Thankfully, the movie does not spend forever playing the “who am I?” card. Grace regains his memories fairly quickly, so the mystery becomes less about what is happening and more about why he specifically ended up on this mission. Watching him piece things together while trying to science his way through impossible problems keeps things moving nicely, and surprisingly, the science itself is actually fun. The movie throws plenty of scientific concepts at you without making it feel like homework. Although honestly, if Ryan Gosling were teaching science back in middle school, attendance rates probably would have been through the roof.
What really surprised me about Project Hail Mary was the humor. It isn't some laugh-out-loud comedy, but the subtle humor works incredibly well. Then Grace makes contact with his alien companion Rocky, and suddenly the movie becomes a fantastic buddy story I didn't see coming. Watching these two awkwardly figure each other out while teaming up to save not just our sun, but all the stars, was quite entertaining. Rocky quickly becomes the heart of the movie, and their friendship ended up hitting way harder emotionally than I expected.
Sandra Hüller is also excellent as Eva, the organizer behind this impossible mission, bringing a bit of seriousness to the Earth-side story. Also, random fun moment, one of the astronauts is Milana Vayntrub from the AT&T commercials LOL. Definitely had one of those “wait, I know her” moments.
Visually, Project Hail Mary looks fantastic, especially the scenes outside the ship. Even more impressive is learning that they avoided green screen and relied heavily on practical sets. Rocky was largely performed practically as well, with puppetry used so Gosling had something physical to react to, while CGI mainly cleaned things up. Considering Gosling spends most of this movie essentially alone acting opposite his little puppet buddy, he absolutely carries this thing.
Instead of another sci-fi disaster movie, Project Hail Mary caught me off guard by its surprisingly heartfelt story. One about loneliness, friendship, bravery, sacrifice, and change. I went in basically blind, and I am really glad I did. I expect to be hearing more about this one come Oscar time.
https://jackmeat.com/project-hail-mary-2026/
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