Rousing 'Project Hail Mary' is 2026's first great movie – Review

The science is accessible and Ryan Gosling is a superb Everyman in the excellent space adventure \

Who knew putting glasses on Ryan Gosling and giving him an alien best friend could lead to something so spectacular – and the first great movie of 2026?

Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, “Project Hail Mary” (★★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters March 20) is an epic space adventure that checks all the sci-fi boxes – emphasis on “sci” there – and casts Gosling as a brainy Everyman who is mankind’s last shot to avoid extinction. Funny and dramatic when it needs to be as well as exceptionally rousing throughout, the movie perfectly captures the story of human resilience and interstellar bromance that Andy Weir’s 2021 brilliant novel did so well.

“Hail Mary” also follows the original book’s parallel narrative structure. Ryland Grace (Gosling) wakes up from an induced coma, looking like a cosmic caveman, and has no idea who he is or how he ended up on a spaceship in a whole other solar system. And via really helpful flashbacks, we learn how he got there.

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Grace boasts a molecular biology degree and because he ticked off some scholars years ago, he teaches middle school science. But he’s recruited by mysterious government operative Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) for a monumental mission. Our sun is dimming because an unknown organism dubbed “astrophage” is eating its radiation, and Grace is tasked to help figure out what the thing is and how to fix the problem before everybody dies out courtesy of an ice age.