Project Hail Mary — High-stakes space mission fuelled by wit, wonder and human connection

A mysterious microscopic organism is eating away at the sun’s energy, threatening the survival of the human species and Earth itself. The solution? Recruiting a goofy academic biologist turned school science teacher to travel more than 11 light years away to find an answer in another solar system.

Despite its science-fiction genre, the premise of the box office smash hit Project Hail Mary doesn’t seem too far-fetched in today’s world of technological advancements and catastrophic climate disasters.

The film, based on the 2021 book by Andy Weir, is brought to the screen by directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, together with writer Drew Goddard, who previously adapted Weir’s The Martian to film in 2015.

Like The Martian, Project Hail Mary is driven by the protagonist Ryland Grace’s (Ryan Gosling) dry sense of humour. Recovering from a medically induced coma that got his body through the astronautical commute, Grace’s narrative comes to life through his gradually piecing together recollections of the events that led him – a person who believes he puts the “not” in “astronaut” – to have the fate of the world in his hands.

As an audience, we’re brought alongside Grace as his realisations and memories unfold through scattered flashbacks to his recruitment into the Project Hail Mary space mission.

These scenes are often accompanied by the international task force leader Eva Stratt, played by Sandra Hüller, whose effortlessly deadpan comedic performance, punctuated by a poignant musical moment, make for entertaining and emotionally resonant scenes that hold up against its thrilling interstellar counterparts.

Unlike many book-to-screen adaptations, which have been more often than not using overexplanatory voiceover narrations — frequently lifted from the literary text itself — as a narrative crutch, Project Hail Mary refreshingly brings Grace’s interiority to the surface through video diaries, purposeful dialogue with other characters and chatting to himself in ways that align with how his character would react to finding himself inexplicably alone in space, not to mention the amnesia.

“Why do I know that? Am I smart?” Grace shouts out into the void after a flash of mental clarity.

The film’s writing, together with its pacing, is adamant in never underestimating its audience. Author Andy Weir is known for storytelling that is deeply researched, rooted in science that is rationally probable, albeit fictional. Lord and Miller’s Project Hail Mary, however, skims over Weir’s expansive scientific exposition in a way that keeps the film’s plot steered by gripping action, dramatic tensions and heartwarming development in character relationships — trusting viewers to hold on tightly for the ride.

It’s a movie capable of demonstrating that to adapt a work of literature is not to create a word-for-word translation, but rather to spark a conversation between two distinct modes of storytelling.

In Project Hail Mary’s adaptation, this conversation homes in on how Grace learns to navigate the fact that his solo mission takes a turn to become an unexpected space buddy movie. By putting aside elaborate molecular biological and astronautical descriptions, the movie rockets itself towards its core theme: bridging the gap between civilisational divides through intentional communication and mutual empathy.

Even through its soundtrack, Project Hail Mary embodies this impulse of bringing together nations and bodies into amicable partnerships by featuring a few tracks from around the world, including Argentina, New Zealand and even South Africa’s very own Miriam Makeba with Pata Pata becoming an unexpected – yet bizarrely placed – needle drop in the movie.

In the film’s score, composed by Daniel Pemberton, there is a palpable sense of awe-inspiring wonder, which, through its twinkling chimes that ring out beneath swelling choral and orchestral tones, captures humanity’s microscopic presence in the universe’s vastness.

Project Hail Mary’s pacing moves at the speed of light, throwing viewers straight into the action, which can be just as disorientating as Grace’s post-amnesia state of mind.

On the one hand, this pacing makes the runtime of two-and-a-half hours fly by like a breeze. But, on the other hand, it does mean sacrificing much of the story’s elaborate scientific grounding – a loss that could at times be felt by viewers unfamiliar with the complex context and conflicts set up in Weir’s book.

With that being said, however, Project Hail Mary has quickly been dubbed 2026’s best film so far, and for good reason. It’s a film that begs to be experienced on the largest screen – and in the loudest cinema – you can get to.

“It’s not [the audience’s] job to keep [cinemas] open,” Gosling says during a screening of the film, “it’s our job to make things that make it worth you coming out.”

But more than a crowd-pleasing, escapist sci-fi blockbuster, Project Hail Mary is a testament to the value of innovation and collaboration that is propelled not by self-importance, but by selfless curiosity and the humility to recognise our place as creatures to whom the Earth and the galaxies do not solely belong.

“I am wrong about everything, and everything is wrong,” Gosling’s Grace declares after a shocking encounter near the Tau Ceti star. Not unlike Andy Weir’s Grace who says: “I’m smart enough now to know I’m stupid. That’s progress.” DM

Project Hail Mary is playing in cinemas.