Lord & Miller’s Transcendent Jewel Brings The Joy Of Discovery Back To Sci-Fi

Some cynics argue that true sacrifice is impossible. Any act of selflessness carries with it at least a modicum of selfishness, so the idea goes. But does enjoyment diminish an act of altruism? If you’re the type of person who gets pleasure from giving, is that intrinsically less valuable? Perhaps we’re wired this way for a reason. Perhaps evolution, or a creator, or however you want to think of it, constructed beings who derive satisfaction from working for something bigger than themselves. What a magnificent notion.

Project Hail Mary adds one further wrinkle to this armchair philosophy. What if you’re put upon to help? What if the choice isn’t really yours at all? Phil Lord and Christopher Miller‘s triumphant, Rubik’s Cube-like adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel of the same name asserts with tenderness that this is where our true humanity reveals itself: in situations where, for whatever reason, we are forced to make a choice which goes against our most selfish desires in order that others may pursue theirs.

Lord & Miller’s film is a remarkable achievement. Drew Goddard (who also adapted Weir’s The Martian) wrote a script with the expansiveness of Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but also the deftness of lighter fare like E.T. and even Planes, Trains & Automobiles. The Lego Movie filmmakers have made something which earnestly touches on our collective anxiety about the future of the planet’s health that still leaves room for delight, humor, and awe at what one human can do.

Project Hail Mary Is Destined For The All-Time Great Sci-Fi Movie Pantheon

Goddard’s script retains much of the novel’s latent joy. For much of the film, Lord & Miller let us sink into the pleasurable, tactile labor of scientific research and experimentation. That might seem odd, considering the apocalyptic premise at hand. The sun is dying. Earth’s global temperatures are dropping to such a degree that there will be widespread crop failure. Entire species of animals will go extinct. When the chain of food production and distribution collapses, whatever social order still exists will fall with it.

We will, in other words, die quite soon. In about thirty years’ time. And that’s if world leaders work together to ration their food, which, according to Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), won’t happen. Stratt is a mysterious representative for a hastily thrown-together global organization trying to determine how, and why, a bacteria-like alien species is siphoning off the sun’s energy just to travel to Venus and back again. But whatever the reason, it’s ruining Earth’s main source of energy.

Though Dr. Ryland Grace (Gosling) is merely a middle school science teacher, Stratt turns to him for guidance. Back in his research days, Grace argued in a speculative report that extraterrestrial life forms wouldn’t necessarily need water to survive, a theory that flies in the face of well-established evidence. But now, suddenly, it seems the disgraced academic might be right. Or, at least useful. Despite his early protestations, Grace soon finds himself – against his will – doing research in a top-secret lab on a sample of the “astrophage,” the alien species that happens to look like boba balls.

Most of this is communicated in flashback. In current day, Grace is alone aboard a spaceship, somewhere in a different solar system. He has just awakened from a coma and has no idea how or why he got here. His overgrown beard and hair make him look like popular conceptions of Jesus Christ, which is fitting, considering he is sacrificing himself for the futurity of humanity. In spite of his amnesia, Grace has a wealth of scientific knowledge, and, in between sudden bouts of memory floods, works out what it is that he is doing here, so far from home.

Even without the beguiling cinematography or the mesmerizing turquoise space which envelops the Hail Mary ship, you’d still be pulled into the film’s sharp and cogent poetry.

Project Hail Mary operates this way for a while, with us learning about Grace’s past at the same time that he does. The approach, taken from the book, gives us the distinct, haptic feel that we, too, are aboard a mysterious ship on an even more mysterious mission. It’s daunting – but it’s also kind of fun. Who said high-level math and physics couldn’t be cinematic? Daniel Pemberton’s plucky score emphasizes this; the film sounds not unlike old Schoolhouse Rock videos. It is the sound of enjoyment in intellectual discovery.

There’s a distinct strain of optimism through which Project Hail Mary is filtered which has been largely absent from sci-fi fare of the last couple of decades. Films like Ad Astra have eschewed the hope of, say, Star Trek to reflect a world that is hurtling towards ecological disaster. But Lord & Miller don’t ignore that existentialism, either. Instead, they insist, in implicit and explicit ways, that we can save each other through hard work and education. In lesser hands, that might produce a film that is preening, saccharine, even. But here, this outlook is refreshing, inspiring, and achingly beautiful.

As for Ryan Gosling, this is, without a doubt, the eminently charming actor’s best work yet. The great acting theorist Konstantin Stanislavsky asserted that combing hair can be dramatically interesting if done with enough truth in intent. Given that about 75% of the film is just Gosling, alone on a ship, crunching numbers and analyzing samples, his magnetism proves that adage with extraordinary aplomb. If every human being is a universe, then Gosling’s Ryland Grace is a wonderful one to live in for two-and-a-half hours.

Even without the beguiling cinematography from Greig Fraser (Dune, The Batman), or the mesmerizing turquoise space which envelops the Hail Mary ship, you’d still be pulled into the film’s sharp and cogent poetry. It tells us that we need human connection to live. Anything less is not enough, and it helps to know what you’re fighting for when extinction seems imminent. We perpetuate ourselves on life – not just in physical ways, but in symbolic ones, too. Through dance; through music; through language; through reaching across the great expanse to hold the life of someone you never knew you could connect with. What Project Hail Mary asks is, are you willing to fight for the life of someone you do not know? Are you willing to sacrifice yourself to do so? Of course, you are. You’re only human.

Project Hail Mary releases theatrically in IMAX on March 20th, 2026.