I Watched Project Hail Mary (2026)
Context note: between watching Project Hail Mary and publishing this review of it, I read the novel it was adapted from. My love of the book helped me find more appreciation for the film in retrospect, and I suspect that means this review would be a little more positive if I had experienced the two versions in reverse.
Project Hail Mary, released in 2026, is a film that might best be described as “cosmic hope”. The plot finds joy in the interaction between human and alien, appreciating the friction and camaraderie equally. The success of the eponymous space mission is shown to be largely a product of the doggedly good natures of both Ryland Grace, humanity’s last hope in the Tau Ceti system, and Rocky, a stone-skinned spider-like alien from the (astronomically) nearby 40 Eridani star system. I had a rather mixed reaction to the film: it made me feel things and was generally interesting to watch, but I was left with a lingering discontent.
My largest gripe after watching the film was with what I saw to be a number of missed opportunities for the plot to go harder and dig deeper than it did. Whilst this issue may be endemic in the type of story the film was trying to tell, I would have loved to have seen a greater exploration of some of the conflict in the narrative. A great example is the film’s choice not to explore the harsh utilitarianism of Director Stratt’s decision to forcibly draft Grace onto the mission. Was she right to kill somebody (to the best of her knowledge at the time) in order to save the earth? In such a dire context, I expect many would agree with her decision, but I would have liked to have seen the morality explored even a little more on-screen.
The structure of the film inherits its love of flashbacks from the original novel, and whilst these work well for delivering much needed context to both Grace and the audience, their transitions don’t always fully land. Despite this, when Grace remembers how he came to be on the mission at the climax of the film, Ryan Gosling sells the revelation with confidence, reminding us once again that he excels in offbeat leading roles. Gosling’s acting chops are helped by the fact that the plot’s structure brings the audience along with Grace for the recovery of each previous memory, making the final fading of his amnesia all the more powerful.
On the whole, I would still recommend Project Hail Mary, as I suspect most folks will have a better time with it than I did. Its a fun film, and its message of cooperation is painfully timely. Watch this space for my review of the book.