The sci-fi subgenre of “ordinary man with remarkable but niche skill set ends up reluctantly saving the world” somehow still finds fertile ground in 2026 – perhaps the triumph of the charming nerd is as sure as death and taxes. Certainly it has provided fertile ground for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ever since 2009’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, who return to live-action filmmaking for the first time since 2014 with Project Hail Mary, adapted by Drew Goddard from Andy Weir’s novel of the same name. This is familiar ground – Goddard wrote the script for Ridley Scott’s The Martian (based on Weir’s 2011 novel), which landed seven Oscar nominations and an impressive half a billion dollars at the box office. If it ain’t broke…
The charismatic everyman with an insane intellect this time around is Dr Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a molecular biologist who’s been slumming it as a middle-school science teacher due to his bad-boy science theories making him an outcast in the academic world. He genuinely loves his job, but one day the ominous figure of Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) enters his classroom and attempts to recruit him into her crack squad trying to figure out how to save Earth’s dying sun. Unfortunately for the reluctant astronaut Grace, he can’t remember any of this – he wakes up from an induced coma aboard a spaceship with no recollection of how he got there or what he’s supposed to be doing. It’s a chance encounter with a chirpy alien life form that sets him back on the correct path.
Much like Matt Damon’s casting in The Martian, Gosling’s presence in Project Hail Mary is a canny move and integral to the film’s success. With Gosling spending most of his screen time alone in space with only a rock-like alien for company, his charisma really sells an otherwise fairly familiar premise and lifts the onslaught of technical jargon. His alien companion (dubbed ‘Rocky’ and voiced by the puppeteer James Ortiz) is cute and quirky in a way that Lord & Miller sidekicks usually are. It’s a crowd-pleasing package, and Gosling is likeable enough to sell even the corniest jokes.
Less charming is Greig Fraser’s obsession with motion sickness-inducing Dutch angles, or the relegation of the excellent Hüller to a sour-faced German villain (though a scene where she mournfully sings Harry Styles’ ‘Sign of the Times’ at karaōke is a highlight). But if you can buy into the hopecore suggestion that humanity is capable of setting hundreds of years of self-interest aside to work with an alien species, Project Hail Mary is an entertaining adventure – just not necessarily a memorable one.
