Hollywood has always had a natural flair for ending the world. Project Hail Mary (2026) joins a long list of films centered on impossible missions to save planet Earth from total annihilation. More specifically, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s film fits neatly into the category of lone-man space adventures. The reluctant cosmonaut this time is Ryan Gosling. His Ryland Grace becomes humanity’s last hope against a mysterious force slowly draining the Sun’s energy.
The screenplay, written by Drew Goddard and Andy Weir, reunites the duo behind the 2015 film The Martian. Like that Matt Damon-led story, this one is based on a Weir novel exploring the journey of a man confronting the vastness of space while searching for answers within himself. The key difference here is that Ryland Grace is not trying to save himself, but all of humanity. The story balances spectacle with introspection, aiming to explore profound themes such as the meaning of life.
If you were to blend the most iconic space exploration films, you’d get something like Project Hail Mary. Its DNA clearly carries traces of films like Solaris (1972), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Gravity (2013), Interstellar (2014), Ad Astra (2019), and of course The Martian (2015). The element that ultimately helps it connect with audiences is the inclusion of a peculiar extraterrestrial being, reminiscent of a mix between E.T. and WALL-E. The film works best as an adventure, where it finds its most entertaining rhythm. The nonlinear structure, jumping between past and present, aims to deepen the emotional core, though it occasionally slows the pacing.
Ryan Gosling and Rocky manage to keep the film afloat, despite it feeling somewhat overlong and struggling to land a perfect ending. The theatrical experience adds significant value, and watching it at home would likely diminish its impact. Project Hail Mary takes audiences on a journey that strives to balance the epic with the intimate, not always successfully. What it does achieve, however, is ticking all the boxes to satisfy viewers. It delivers what it promises and stands firmly on Gosling’s charisma and his rocky companion.