Project Hail Mary (2026) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08TxIsFTRI

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

The best friendships will always come from unexpected places. Proof is in the pudding when watching Project Hail Mary.


PLOT


Based on Andy Weir’s novel, the 2026 film follows molecular biologist Ryland Grace wake up from an induced coma light years away from Earth. Alone with the corpses of Yao Li-Jie and Olesya Ilyukhina (Ken Leung & Milana Vayntrub), making him a sole survivor, he doesn’t remember why he is in space to begin with. Flashbacks would show he was a school teacher who grew up in a generation under the discovery that an astrophage substance proliferating on the surface of the planet’s sun, dimming at a rate that can cause catastrophic global cooling. Eva Stratt, head of the Petrova Taskforce reaches out to Grace for his astrobiology expertise that can find a solution to save the Sun. Overtime with the company of security personnel, he did discover the astrophage to be composed of unicellular organisms absorbing the sun’s electromagnetic radiation expelling it for propulsion. Once leaning how to breed it as well, he was tasked to a one way trip for the only star not occluded, Tau Ceti. In the present, Grace encounters an extraterrestrial spacecraft docking his craft, the Hail Mary. He makes contact with the beings that come from the 40 Eridani A system made up of solid xenon. Given the rock like appearance, he names the eridian ‘Rocky’ and given the fact he sees via echolocation, he creates machine translation system to understand his language. Once that is figured out, Rocky would explain he is a mechanic and is too a sole survivor of a mission to save his planet from astrophage infection. When they agree to work together, Grace builds a pressurized xeonite ball for him to roam around in the Hail Mary since they cannot breathe the same atmospheres. When studying the Tau Ceti E aka Adrian, they discover that its lines host a microbial atmosphere; This gives the theory that earth is likely consuming it which keeps the population in check. Aware that Grace can’t go home, Rocky offers some of astrophage fuel to get him back, leading to him remembering that he was forced to join the mission due to the original crew dying in an astrophage explosion; Although Carl befriended him, he didn’t intervene, knowing he had to go at that point. Maneuvering to Adrian’s atmosphere backfires as the Hail Mary loses control after a fuel leak. When it knocks Grace unconscious, Rocky briefly exits his ball to save him. And while the alien recovers, the astronaut studies the astrophage predator, ‘Taumoeba’, long enough to discover its survival of Venus’ nitrogen comes from selective breeding. When the two part ways, the Taumoeba would also learn how to escape xenonite breeding tanks only for Grace to contain it in a plastic container. Realizing Rocky’s ship is completely made of xenonite and the Taumoeba will quickly consume his fuel enough to leave him stranded, Grace decides to save him and the Eridians rather than return home. After sending his video logs and Taumoeba samples, Stratt would retrieve it to cure the Sun as planned. Grace would then find comfort in a biodome on Erid that Rocky’s kind made for him. When Rocky tells him the Hail Mary has been repaired and he has enough fuel to return him home, the film ends with the human protagonist pondering over the news and teach science to Eridian children before he makes a decision. 


THOUGHTS


Phil Lord & Christopher Miller have grown to be my favorite filmmaking duo over the years because they remain consistent with the stories they adapt and this is no expedition in this sci fi adventure. You know any setting involving space is going to be beautiful, so the visual aesthetic instantly delivers as expected because I had such chills when seeing Tau Ceti E. The way it goes from red to green just blew me away and I’ll never get that transition out of my head. Greig FraserMa cinematography is even a big factor to emphasize the stakes whenever seeing the landscape of the titular ship or seeing Grace dangling around to do outside work such as capturing the astrophage. The big standout has to be how Rocky is brought to life with a mix of VFX and puppeteering. I would’ve not minded the character being voiced by Ray Porter or Meryl Streep, but lead puppeteer James Ortiz was the most ideal for bringing alot of authenticity to it, being able to capture his wondrous mindset that makes him most adorable. From him alone, he teaches the movie’s main message of how much of an incredible power connection is in every situation possible, that can bridge the divide that scares us. On the other hand, this message is at full gear when following lead Ryan Gosling. Like Rocky, he is easy to adore as Grace because he’s the reluctant kind of protagonist since he had no one to go home to on Earth which doesn’t motivate him to step up as needed originally, yet even after he remembers what led him to where he is, he refuses to give up because he’s not the only one who wants to live. He and Rocky get along so well because when putting aside the language barrier between them, they relate to the feeling of isolation and love of science. The fact they’re both able to save each other comes to show some things were just meant to be. I like the ambiguity on how we don’t know if Grace will stay in Erid because while he knows he’ll be praised for his heroism, he knows he’s fine where he is especially when feeling expendable by those who needed his help. It was definitely hard to see Carl choose competent enough to get used to him as portrayed by Lionel Boyce, but his loyalty was to a point since he knew the stakes were too high taking too long for a replacement. On top of that, Sandra Hüller showed Stratt to be the most neutral of characters because she’s more blunt about the absolute no matter how much of a heart she showed when singing karaoke with the crew. She can’t compromise with Grace because training for another replacement would take too long and Earth didn’t have that time. You don’t have to like how she had to force Grace to save the Sun, but you’re likely gonna respect it since it all worked out. Then again, it won’t matter what Grace does next because he’s at least happy where he is and that’s enough for him at this point. I’ve grown to love this movie dearly, but there are some things storywise that don’t make much sense upon rewatching. Like it’s already unfair Grace didn’t go to space willingly, but the fact no one of NASA considered programming robots to exposit the mission to him knowing it’d be possible for him to have memory loss once he wakes up. I want to respect Stratt trying to embrace her respect towards Grace based on a college essay he wrote related to their crisis long before it happened, but if the sun is at stake, she should just lead with that. It’s even pointless for Grace to ask of the hazmat suit being necessary when he could’ve done so before putting it on. If anything, she should’ve just send fuel later knowing he’ll need it if not to be stranded. It is impressive that Rocky knew Grace was wearing a helmet when they met rather than assume it’s an intrinsic part of him, but I was more surprised he didn’t think of making an actual astronaut suit for himself rather than the ball he makes for comedic purposes. It’s definitely a great twist Grace was sent against his will, but why were both backup science officers together during the explosion? They should’ve been separated to avoid losing them both from every possible accident and there should’ve been more replacements available for the mission if they knew Grace would not want to go. Hell, Stratt should’ve put him in astronaut training way before she had no choice to send him to space. Other than that, Project Hail Mary is an excellent sci fi movie for succeeding for having the right balance of exciting optimism throughout. If you dig that especially from sci fi flicks, check this out.