Gosling goes interstellar
Amazon MGM's "Project Hail Mary" saves sci-fi
Science fiction movies enjoyed a renaissance in the early to mid-2010s with hits like “The Martian,” “Gravity,” “Arrival,” and “Interstellar.” But something happened around 2017. Hollywood stopped making sci-fi. Perhaps the cultural winds shifted, perhaps a new slate of execs moved past the century-old genre. Whatever it was, the box office had superheroes now, not space missions gone wrong.
Amazon MGM has been in a rough patch for years now. Their hits come every three years or so, with dozens of bombs in between. “No Time to Die” (2021) showed audiences still have an appetite for James Bond. “Creed III” (2023) showed the same for boxing movies. Right now, “Project Hail Mary” (2026) is showing audiences still love sci-fi.
With the lack of competition in the sci-fi genre, “Project Hail Mary” could be the sci-fi movie of the 2020s. That is if it doesn’t spawn a sci-fi renaissance like the one in the 2010s.
“Project Hail Mary” is the story of Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling. Grace is a middle school science teacher that happens to have a Ph.D. in molecular biology. His students ask him about the Petrova Line, which he comes to understand are billions of single-celled organisms eating the Sun. Each star in the Milky Way galaxy has the same destructive line, except for one. Grace is sent on a mission to see what’s different about that star in a desperate attempt to save Earth from an ice age mass extinction event. In other words, Grace’s mission is Earth’s Hail Mary for survival.
At the beginning of the film, Gosling’s character, Grace, wakes up from a cryosleep-style coma in the vicinity of the last healthy star in the galaxy. He’s startled to see a spaceship, but not one like he’s ever seen before. It looks like bronze scaffolding. On board is an alien, whom Grace calls “Rocky.” You can imagine Rocky as a pig-sized boulder shaped like a crab. He’s inquisitive and slightly childish, despite being over a century old. After learning to communicate across their language boundary, Grace and Rocky realize they came to the star for the same reason. Rocky’s home star is dying too. In buddy comedy fashion, Grace and Rocky must work together to save their stars.
“Project Hail Mary” comes from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. You know their work, even if you don’t know their names. They’re the minds behind “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “The LEGO Movie,” “21 Jump Street,” and the Spiderverse movies.
Lord and Miller rehired some of their favorite collaborators for “Project Hail Mary.”
Daniel Pemberton, who composed the Spiderverse movies for Lord and Miller, delivers a competent score in “Project Hail Mary,” mostly consisting of classic music. The occasional pop song can be heard too, including a well-timed Beatles beat.
Joel Negron, who edited “21 Jump Street” for Lord and Miller, also edited “Project Hail Mary.” Negron’s edits in this movie are not only seamless, but beautiful. His transitions between flashbacks and the main story are flawless.
Lord and Miller also hired some new faces.
Grieg Fraser, the cinematographer behind “Rogue One” and “Dune,” shot “Project Hail Mary.” His greatest cinematographic achievement is his inventing LED virtual wall production while filming “The Mandalorian.” In “Project Hail Mary,” Fraser contrasts rich, vibrant colors with dark shadows to create a unique, moody visual language for the film. Fraser also uses reflections in glass to shoot distant, yet emotional moments.
David Crossman and Glyn Dillon dress “Project Hail Mary” in a comfy wardrobe. Their costume designs include soft sweaters and vibrantly colored outfits. Grace’s astronaut flight suit leaves an impression. It’s a mustard yellow corduroy jumpsuit.
Andy Weir’s other book to become a major motion picture, “The Martian,” was adapted for the screen by Drew Goddard, who returned for “Project Hail Mary.” Just as he wrote “The Martian” perfectly for Matt Damon, Goddard made certain “Project Hail Mary’s” script played into all of Ryan Gosling’s acting strengths. Gosling is known for his quippy sense of humor and semi-awkward on screen presence. Goddard’s script accounts for these quirks, giving Gosling the space to be himself, up to and including rewrites.
According to IMDb, Gosling added a scene that wasn’t initially in the script. As the story goes, Gosling overheard the singing of his on-screen counterpart Sandra Hüller. Gosling liked her voice so much he asked her to do a karaoke scene in the movie. Hüller agreed, and one of the most iconic scenes in the film was born. Hüller’s character, Eva Stratt, sings “Sign of the Times,” a song she apparently chose herself. The song fits perfectly into the story, so much so that it was used heavily in the film’s marketing.
There’s only one issue I had with Goddard’s script, and it’s one that apparently comes from Andy Weir’s book. My father read the novel earlier this year. He said the movie follows the book’s story beats nearly verbatim. Unfortunately, that includes Weir’s long-winded ending. The climax of the movie happens what feels like 45 minutes before the credits, with a drawn out postlogue flip-flopping on what should conclude Grace and Rocky’s epic tale. On the one hand, I’m happy to hear the movie was faithful to the book. On the other, it made for a somewhat painful third act in an otherwise perfect film.
The core message of the novel and movie is very positive. It’s a story about duty and sacrifice. Grace has a duty to the human race to find a solution before they all die. Rocky has the same duty for his species. It doesn’t matter how the pair of them ended up in the middle of nowhere in space, or that they’ll probably die before returning home. They have a job to do and need to do it well. If they don’t, their species go extinct. Through their personal sacrifices, Rocky and Grace model Jesus’ words in John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
“Project Hail Mary” also includes some intriguing ideas, as any science fiction should. It questions why life is both a creative and destructive force, what it means to make peace with your circumstances, and if God exists. In one scene, Grace asks Sandra Hüller’s character, “You believe in God?” She replies, “It beats the alternative.”
Looking at the numbers, “Project Hail Mary” is a hit, perhaps MGM’s biggest since “Creed III.” To date, it’s made a quarter of a billion dollars, with weeks more in the box office to rake in more. Critics are happy too. IMDb rates “Project Hail Mary” 8.5 out of 10, and it enjoys 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. While it may not be on track to make as much as “The Martian,” this movie is set to make a comfortable profit for Amazon’s embattled studio.
On all fronts, “Project Hail Mary” is a success. Hopefully, Hollywood will realize audiences miss sci-fi and a renaissance like the 2010s will begin.
Was talking with some friends I saw the movie with. There is a scene from the book where Grace and a young engineer discuss whether God is giving humanity a gift with astrophages, as it unlocks interstellar travel while also potentially dooming humanity. Is God really good if the astrophages are causing a global (in fact, cosmic) catastrophe?
I can think of a biblical parallel if we imagine what happens after the story. In the book, I think it is also noted that if many stars are affected, only the ones capable of advanced physics and space-travel would be able to do anything about it. That is, many civilizations may be simply doomed to freeze (only two races showed up at the special star, after all). I think it is cool to imagine that humanity, after saving itself, would send probes releasing the astrophage-predator amoeba to all the other affected stars - hopefully saving any aliens in those solar systems. In that way, humanity would be like Joseph in Genesis. Joseph undergoes great trials, but God used these to put him in the position to save an entire civilization from famine: "God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive" (Gen 50:20). Humanity would undergo a great trial, but through it humanity would save all the other civilizations. It's a fun headcanon inspired by the Biblical story.