Project Hail Mary review: Ryan Gosling's new sci-fi movie is a mesmerizing and profoundly moving near-masterpiece that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible

Light spoilers follow for Project Hail Mary.

Project Hail Mary (PHM) is a movie I've been itching to see for some time. The second book penned by sci-fi author Andy Weir to be adapted for the big screen — the first being 2015's extremely well-received The Martian — PHM has all of the ingredients necessary to similarly be critical and commercially successful.

Sometimes, though, said components — the cast and crew, production, and translating a story from page to screen, to name just three — don't gel as well as they should. Color me relieved and delighted, then, that Amazon's latest silver screen vehicle is not only an emotionally resonant and eye-popping visual experience, but also a near-perfect masterpiece that's a shoo-in for 2026's best movies list.

Save our stars

A direct retelling of the nonlinear narrative in Weir's 2021 hard sci-fi novel namesake, Project Hail Mary introduces us to Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a junior high school teacher and infamous former molecular biologist.

Waking from a coma, a disoriented and amnesiac — and, after surveying his surroundings, understandably panic-stricken — Grace finds himself aboard a spaceship 12 light-years from Earth.

Eventually, Grace remembers why he's here: the Sun is dying. In fact, all but one of the galaxy's known stars — Tau Ceti — are waning at an incredibly rapid rate.

Consequently, Grace has seemingly been sent on a one-way mission to discover the root cause of this cosmic phenomenon, learn why Tau Ceti isn't affected by it, and — potentially — find a cure. Fail, and the catastrophic ice age will engulf our world in approximately 30 Earth years. No pressure, then.

At a time when the real world seems bleak, PHM's dystopian premise might be the last thing we need right now — and yet, its overarching narrative is one built on hope, optimism, collaboration, and companionship.

Sure, its first act doesn't indicate that'll be the case. Indeed, it plays out like a survival thriller as Grace resigns himself to his fate — that being, getting drunk and living out his days until his supplies run out — rather than embrace his status as Earth's unlikely hero.

Expository flashbacks, which shed more light on the cosmic mystery at large, as well as Grace's personality, backstory, and role in trying to solve said enigma, also paint a vivid picture ofPHM's disaster movie sensibilities, and the supposedly insurmountable task facing our overwhelmed and lonesome protagonist.

As I alluded to, however, one of 2026's most exciting new movies isn't an emotionally cold or haunting sci-fi tale like Moon or another Gosling-led film in Blade Runner 2049, but rather a surprisingly funny one, especially once Project Hail Mary becomes a buddy adventure (more on this later).

The integration of humor won't surprise fans of Weir's works and/or anyone who's seen The Martian, which is similarly multi-genre to PHM in its make-up. The same can be said of directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller's previous works (The LEGO Movie, 21 Jump Street), which have surprising emotional depth amid their riotously funny moments.

Still, Project Hail Mary highlights Gosling's impeccable comedic timing — a talent that, until his performances in recent flicks including 2024 megahit Barbie and 2025 action-comedy The Fall Guy, was severely underutilized. Thankfully, Gosling is given ample opportunity to showcase his aptitude for comedy in chucklesome scenes laced with physical, deadpan, situational, and miscommunication-based humor.

Needless to say, Gosling is as much a tour de force in PHM's quieter and dramatic moments as its amusing and action-oriented ones.

Films of this emotional magnitude and multi-tonality require a certain caliber of actor to anchor them — without one, movies can easily fall apart. But, with its lead star firing on all cylinders, Project Hail Mary has enough emotional thrust to catapult it into the stratosphere.

A Rocky road trip

As any experienced vehicle operator will say, though, you can never have enough fuel in the tank — and, from an emotive perspective, that's where Gosling's adorable alien co-star comes into play.

Indeed, as Project Hail Mary's first trailer and subsequent teasers showed, Grace soon learns he isn't the only one trying to crack the case. Indeed, Rocky (voiced by puppet designer/performer James Ortiz), an eyeless, arachnid-like extraterrestrial, is on the same mission to save the star that its home world, Erid, orbits.

Rocky doesn't appear until the start of the film's second act. Once he does, though, PHM's story subtly shifts from an introspective solo flick to an intimate two-hander as an unlikely yet deeply warm friendship — one that unmistakably becomes the film's emotional core — forms between Grace and his instantaneously lovable new bestie.

A far cry from the uninspiring bond between Jakub Procházka and Hanuš in Netflix's 2024 sci-fi flick Spaceman, Grace and Rocky's bromance is one that evokes the very best on-screen human-alien friendships. Think E.T. and Elliot in E.T: The Extraterrestrial, Han Solo and Chewbacca in Star Wars, and Lilo & Stitch in their eponymous animated and live-action films, and you'll get a sense of how integral Grace and Rocky's dynamic is to Project Hail Mary's entertaining yet perilous plot.

And fraught with danger it most certainly is. Eye-bulgingly beautiful and electrifyingly euphonious as PHM is — believe me, you'll want to see this in IMAX or on the biggest Dolby Atmos-supported screen you can — our unlikely heroes' quest is terrifyingly treacherous.

Nowhere is this more apparent in Project Hail Mary's tentpole set-piece, which sees Grace and Rocky embark on a high-stakes and life-threatening mission that'll go a long way to solving their celestial conundrum. It's an intense, nail-biting action sequence that, combined with Greig Fraser's (Dune, The Batman) visually powerful cinematography and Daniel Pemberton's (the Spider-Verse movies) heart-pounding, otherworldly score, gripped me from start to finish.

I'm not afraid to admit that the final 45 minutes, which include the aforementioned extended scene, had me choked up on more than one occasion, too. No spoilers, but if you welled up or cried watching poignant sci-fi movies like Interstellar and The Iron Giant, or even feel-good genre fare like The Martian, I'd bring some tissues with you.

My verdict

Project Hail Mary - Official Trailer - YouTube

Watch On

It's the sign of a spectacular movie when you never glance at your watch, so it won't shock you that I consider Project Hail Mary to not only be a spellbinding genre epic, but also a contender — even at this early stage — to be one of the best films of the year.

Okay, the story occasionally strays into predictable territory, but that's the only fault I found with what I expect to be the latest addition to the sci-fi movie pantheon. An edge-of-your-seat, spacefaring comedy-drama that'll resonate through its 'ordinary individuals doing extraordinary things' narrative lens, there won't be many films this year that'll restore your faith in humanity like PHM will. In the words of Rocky himself, go see this "amaze, amaze, amaze" movie as soon as you can.

Project Hail Mary arrives in theaters on March 19 (UK and Australia) and March 20 (US and everywhere else).