Oscar-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have adapted Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary into the newest sci-fi classic on the big screen.

It’s been over a decade since the last Andy Weir book was adapted for the big screen in The Martian. In case you need a reminder, Matt Damon was left to fend for himself and learned how to grow potatoes in his own crap because—much like Jimmy Kimmel—they ran out of time to save him. I kid, I kid—it was a freak accident, and they forgot all about him until satellite activity revealed he had survived. Weir puts a different person in a similar situation, but under entirely different circumstances and no potatoes were harmed in the making of Project Hail Mary.

Middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awakens aboard a spacecraft some twelve light years away from Earth with no memory of his identity or how he arrived. As fragments of his past begin to resurface, he pieces together the purpose of his journey: to unravel the mystery behind a strange phenomenon threatening the sun—and life on Earth. Relying on his scientific expertise and unconventional thinking, he races to find a solution, discovering along the way that he might not be facing the challenge entirely on his own.

Having not read the book and doing my best to avoid the trailers, I wasn’t sure what to expect going into Project Hail Mary. I just knew that Lord and Miller were behind the camera with Gosling in front. But like their other efforts before, they did not let me down. It was nice to see Lord and Miller finally have an opportunity to play in the sci-fi sandbox after leaving Solo over creative differences. Even in that sandbox, they’ve managed to deliver one of the greatest buddy movies of all time by teaming up Grace and Rocky on an intimate level.

Rocky becomes an unexpected ally for Grace—so much so that there’s now a Grace and Rocky poster for Project Hail Mary that spoofs the La La Land poster. Anyway, we have no way of understanding him without technology, so Grace does what he does best. He relies on his unconventional thinking, turns to computers, and rejects a number of voices before settling on one fitting for Rocky. They form an unlikely bond, which audiences can also view as hope. These two think they’re going to be the last survivors of their respective planets, but by working together, they at least know they won’t be alone.

Project Hail Mary could have been a darker film about a catastrophic disaster, but it isn’t. It’s about ingenuity, humility, and working with someone—in this case, an alien—with a completely different perspective. It sometimes means having to think outside the box in order to survive. But it also speaks to the importance of connection. Yes, it’s a space movie and a disaster movie, but it becomes so much more than that, and that’s why it’s one of the best pictures of the year. I realize it’s not even April, but this team has delivered in every sense of the word.

Until Rocky enters the picture, Gosling is doing much of the heavy lifting in Project Hail Mary when the film isn’t flashing back to his life on Earth. I don’t know if it’ll be enough to get him an Oscar nomination, but Gosling delivers another epic performance in an epic film, with his character bearing the weight of the planet on his shoulders. Similarly, one might assume that the book and film were inspired by the pandemic, but the reality is that Andy Weir’s manuscript was sent to Gosling before anybody knew what was going to happen in 2020.

Behind the camera, Lord and Miller have teamed up with a number of Oscar winners on Project Hail Mary, including cinematographer Greig Fraser and visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert. Fraser opts for a handheld, single-camera approach, which is almost unheard of for a film of this scale. Even with the sci-fi elements, they approach the film grounded in realism. The same goes for production designer Charles Wood. The Hail Mary is not a fancy spaceship like the Millennium Falcon—it’s a ship designed by a global community of scientists to do a job and gather what’s needed to save the sun and the planet.

As far as Project Hail Mary’s runtime is concerned, it runs over two and a half hours. If you’re the type who drinks a lot during a movie, you will feel the length at some point. Keep it light on food and drink if you want the full experience, or you may find yourself rushing to the restroom and missing something that’s probably important to the plot.

At the end of the day, Project Hail Mary is the kind of film that reminds you why we go to the movies in the first place. It’s smart, funny, and surprisingly emotional, balancing spectacle with something deeply human at its core. Lord and Miller have crafted an epic sci-fi crowd-pleaser that earns its place among the genre’s modern greats.

DIRECTORS: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
SCREENWRITER: Drew Goddard
CAST: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, Priya Kansara

Amazon MGM Studios will release Project Hail Mary in theaters on March 20, 2026. Grade: 5/5

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