Imagine – if you will – that Hollywood wanted a return to greatness, the kind of which gets rewarded with both critical and commercial success, and you might imagine a film like Project Hail Mary.
For example, Hollywood loves to adapt the bestseller, right? Strategically, it’s always been a sound strategy because – right out of the gate – they’ve established that there’s a built-in audience wanting to experience this same story in a different fashion. Well, novelist Andy Weir published the book upon which the film is based back in 2021; and it went on to become a huge hit with readers as well as a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award in fiction. Such ‘street cred’ is actually the kind of thing Tinseltown’s movers and shakers ought to be conscious of, so let’s be thankful that in this case the stars aligned as well as they did.
Furthermore, studios used to create product fashioned to appeal to the – ahem – W-I-D-E-S-T D-E-M-O-G-R-A-P-H-I-C P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E, thus bolstering their chances for universal success and not merely just – in the words of Star Trek showrunner Alex Kurtzman – appealing to the modern audience. In other words, making something that is fully intended to appeal to everyone’s sensibilities when it comes to appreciable entertainment arguably places the completed film to captured the hearts and minds of everyone instead of the vastly miniscule 3% or 10% or even 20% of the whatever-is-hot-crowd today that seemingly never quite shows up to event programming.
Lastly, imagine what might happen if you tailor the media tour to focus on those same principles, that being to educate the consumers that you’ve made a motion picture intended to be for anyone who still loves going to the multiplex?
Whether or not folks remember this, actor Ryan Gosling – who headlines Project Hail Mary – rather famously offended a significant portion of the potential viewership that could’ve, should’ve, and would’ve celebrated 2018’s First Man – a Neil Armstrong biopic – by insisting that his version of the first man to step onto the moon was (I’m paraphrasing) “a citizen of the world.” Now, I’m not stupid. I get what he was trying to do, most likely attempting to lessen the American focus of the space program so that other nations would show up to buy tickets … and yet Armstrong’s fellow astronauts went on record publicly arguing that the man they knew and worked with was decidedly pro-United States. The flick even refused showing the American flag anywhere, especially in the iconic flag-mounting scene. Consequently, First Man didn’t even earn back its production budget from U.S. audiences and had to rely on foreign ticket sales to become even a mid-performer.
Of course, Project Hail Mary – hereafter PHM – gets all of this right (to a degree). While never succumbing to what some might suggest is a patriotic film (the nations of the world are united in figuring out a solution to the central problem), there’s no denying that the story is a rallying cry on behalf of all mankind. Our planet is dying – not (finally) as a result of something we’ve done but a Galactic Mother Nature – and we as a people are thrown together to come up with a solution to avert such a catastrophe. Ryland Grace (played by Gosling) is a disgraced scientist forced to teach middle school science to just get by in life; but when a former research paper of his catches the eye of Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), Grace is picked up and thrown back into the lab where his controversial theory ties into the interstellar creatures who have begun eating the sun.
(Additional note to Hollywood, if you’re still reading: how refreshing it was to watch a film wherein We The People weren’t the tale’s villains.)
All of this leads to Grace eventually waking up from a medically-induced coma bound for the distant system of Tau Ceti where its star has someone avoided the intergalactic digestion process; and the hope remains that if the scientist can figure out why and communicate it back to Earth then we might rescue ourselves from certain doom. But given the fact that this was all designed as a suicide mission and the rest of the Hail Mary’s crew died from some cryogenic accident, the man will need to right his spirits first before getting down to the business of saving life as we know it.
Where PHM takes its most creative narrative turn is that – because we’re not alone in the universe – another spaceship shows up nearby on the same mission of mercy. Similar to Grace’s prospects, its crew was also almost entirely wiped out in the trip, leaving a sole astronaut – Rocky – who wishes to complete the task at hand. As neither characters are trained in diplomacy, their ‘First Contact’ is understandably awkward and occasionally comical; but the two eventually craft enough of a shared language to known that, together, they just might be the last, best hope to avert a disaster of universal proportions.
Now, there’s a bit more to the story that this summary – a good portion of which deals with Grace’s personal character arc – but I’d rather not spoil anything that deserves to be witnessed first; and a great deal of PHM definitely should be experienced on the big screen. No, this isn’t some endorsement of only seeing it in 70MM or Imax or thereabouts. I’m simply agreeing with what a great many others who talked about the film have already said, that being it’s about as cinematic and/or theatrical experience as pictures come, and that makes it worthy of a trip to the cinema. PHM is the kind of thing that Hollywood used to do exceedingly well but gave up on a few decades ago to push its propaganda: no, I do not believe they’ll learn any lessons from this, and I firmly believe such fare will continue to be the exception rather than the rule. There’s no fixing what’s destroyed that town, and I stand by that.
However, projects that warrant our collective attention are few and far between; and it’s for this reason that I’m giving my endorsement. There’s no objectionable language in here. There are no relationships that might irk those who are sensitive to such things. In fact, everything in here is entirely tied to the narrative in some way, shape, or form; and I found it refreshing as a change of pace from what accounts for so much of mainstream drivel in circulation. This is a story wherein you care about the players, and you’re rewarded for having taken part in whatever small way.
Strongly Recommended.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one for this review of Project Hail Mary (2026) as I viewed in at my local theater entirely on my own dime. Imagine that?
-- EZ
For example, Hollywood loves to adapt the bestseller, right? Strategically, it’s always been a sound strategy because – right out of the gate – they’ve established that there’s a built-in audience wanting to experience this same story in a different fashion. Well, novelist Andy Weir published the book upon which the film is based back in 2021; and it went on to become a huge hit with readers as well as a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award in fiction. Such ‘street cred’ is actually the kind of thing Tinseltown’s movers and shakers ought to be conscious of, so let’s be thankful that in this case the stars aligned as well as they did.
Furthermore, studios used to create product fashioned to appeal to the – ahem – W-I-D-E-S-T D-E-M-O-G-R-A-P-H-I-C P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E, thus bolstering their chances for universal success and not merely just – in the words of Star Trek showrunner Alex Kurtzman – appealing to the modern audience. In other words, making something that is fully intended to appeal to everyone’s sensibilities when it comes to appreciable entertainment arguably places the completed film to captured the hearts and minds of everyone instead of the vastly miniscule 3% or 10% or even 20% of the whatever-is-hot-crowd today that seemingly never quite shows up to event programming.
Lastly, imagine what might happen if you tailor the media tour to focus on those same principles, that being to educate the consumers that you’ve made a motion picture intended to be for anyone who still loves going to the multiplex?
Whether or not folks remember this, actor Ryan Gosling – who headlines Project Hail Mary – rather famously offended a significant portion of the potential viewership that could’ve, should’ve, and would’ve celebrated 2018’s First Man – a Neil Armstrong biopic – by insisting that his version of the first man to step onto the moon was (I’m paraphrasing) “a citizen of the world.” Now, I’m not stupid. I get what he was trying to do, most likely attempting to lessen the American focus of the space program so that other nations would show up to buy tickets … and yet Armstrong’s fellow astronauts went on record publicly arguing that the man they knew and worked with was decidedly pro-United States. The flick even refused showing the American flag anywhere, especially in the iconic flag-mounting scene. Consequently, First Man didn’t even earn back its production budget from U.S. audiences and had to rely on foreign ticket sales to become even a mid-performer.
Of course, Project Hail Mary – hereafter PHM – gets all of this right (to a degree). While never succumbing to what some might suggest is a patriotic film (the nations of the world are united in figuring out a solution to the central problem), there’s no denying that the story is a rallying cry on behalf of all mankind. Our planet is dying – not (finally) as a result of something we’ve done but a Galactic Mother Nature – and we as a people are thrown together to come up with a solution to avert such a catastrophe. Ryland Grace (played by Gosling) is a disgraced scientist forced to teach middle school science to just get by in life; but when a former research paper of his catches the eye of Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), Grace is picked up and thrown back into the lab where his controversial theory ties into the interstellar creatures who have begun eating the sun.
(Additional note to Hollywood, if you’re still reading: how refreshing it was to watch a film wherein We The People weren’t the tale’s villains.)
All of this leads to Grace eventually waking up from a medically-induced coma bound for the distant system of Tau Ceti where its star has someone avoided the intergalactic digestion process; and the hope remains that if the scientist can figure out why and communicate it back to Earth then we might rescue ourselves from certain doom. But given the fact that this was all designed as a suicide mission and the rest of the Hail Mary’s crew died from some cryogenic accident, the man will need to right his spirits first before getting down to the business of saving life as we know it.
Where PHM takes its most creative narrative turn is that – because we’re not alone in the universe – another spaceship shows up nearby on the same mission of mercy. Similar to Grace’s prospects, its crew was also almost entirely wiped out in the trip, leaving a sole astronaut – Rocky – who wishes to complete the task at hand. As neither characters are trained in diplomacy, their ‘First Contact’ is understandably awkward and occasionally comical; but the two eventually craft enough of a shared language to known that, together, they just might be the last, best hope to avert a disaster of universal proportions.
Now, there’s a bit more to the story that this summary – a good portion of which deals with Grace’s personal character arc – but I’d rather not spoil anything that deserves to be witnessed first; and a great deal of PHM definitely should be experienced on the big screen. No, this isn’t some endorsement of only seeing it in 70MM or Imax or thereabouts. I’m simply agreeing with what a great many others who talked about the film have already said, that being it’s about as cinematic and/or theatrical experience as pictures come, and that makes it worthy of a trip to the cinema. PHM is the kind of thing that Hollywood used to do exceedingly well but gave up on a few decades ago to push its propaganda: no, I do not believe they’ll learn any lessons from this, and I firmly believe such fare will continue to be the exception rather than the rule. There’s no fixing what’s destroyed that town, and I stand by that.
However, projects that warrant our collective attention are few and far between; and it’s for this reason that I’m giving my endorsement. There’s no objectionable language in here. There are no relationships that might irk those who are sensitive to such things. In fact, everything in here is entirely tied to the narrative in some way, shape, or form; and I found it refreshing as a change of pace from what accounts for so much of mainstream drivel in circulation. This is a story wherein you care about the players, and you’re rewarded for having taken part in whatever small way.
Strongly Recommended.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one for this review of Project Hail Mary (2026) as I viewed in at my local theater entirely on my own dime. Imagine that?
-- EZ
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