By In the wake of unfathomable ignorance and incompetence from anyone responsible for protecting our lives, a film version of Andy Weir’s (The Martian) 2021 novel, Project Hail Mary, feels like a godsend. That book was a miracle. It embeds us in the mind of an elementary school teacher who is essentially Jimmy Stewart as he meticulously solves the most complicated problem any human has had to face. It is dense with scientific lingo and complex procedural machinations, but is still so remarkably approachable and deeply human. It’s one of my favorite books. This version, coming to us from 21 JUMP STREET meta-comedy extraordinaires-turned-SPIDER-VERSE producers, Phill Lord and Chris Miller, both reveres and fears the source material. It dives all the way into the warmer, more universally pleasing elements that could turn this into a blockbuster, while sanding down the sharper edges that emphasise the story’s potentially apocalyptic stakes. This is one of the most mellow science fiction films to come along in some time, which feels directly at odds with one of the most suspenseful books I have ever read.
We follow middle school teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) as he is tasked with a mission impossible enough to make Ethan Hunt blush. Scientists have discovered the “Petrova Line,” a streak of infrared energy that has begun to block the sun. It is made up of a powerful energy source called Astrophage, which they’ve managed to collect a small portion of. Grace, at one time a vocal and controversial molecular biologist, is recruited by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) to assist with the “Hail Mary” mission to track down the one distant star that the Astrophage hasn’t dimmed. Eventually, he is forced to go on the mission himself. Once in space, he finds that his two fellow crew members are dead, and it is now completely up to him to save Earth, until he encounters an adorable, spider-like “Eridian” alien whom he names Rocky, who is on his own planet-saving mission. The two become best buddies as their quest complicates with each passing light year.
PROJECT HAIL MARY nails the realization of Grace and Rocky’s friendship. To my great relief, Rocky is brought to life via puppetry instead of performance capture. It is so clear in every scene that Gosling is interacting with something that is physically in front of him that can react to his performance in real time. It makes all the difference. Rocky is so expressive and lively, we completely fall in love with him. Grace eventually builds a voice algorithm for Rocky to use, and while I wish that James Ortiz’s delivery was a little bit less THE BIG BANG THEORY-coded, he gets all of the key emotions across. It is a remarkable feat of old school visual effects. Gosling is a perfect choice for Grace. In a noble effort to not traumatize his young children, he has recently been on a streak of approachable mainstream movies that rely on his comedic chops. This feels like the role that era has been building towards, even if Grace is a bit one-note. Weir’s Grace was dynamic in his hyper-polite eccentricities; he’s the type of guy who won’t even cuss in his inner monologue. Gosling is not adding any affectations like that. He is coasting on his most standard-issue movie star persona, making it work because he is one of our best living actors. I don’t think this will be the performance that will finally get him long-deserved accolades, since it is never as dynamic as Matt Damon’s work in Ridley Scott’s vastly superior THE MARTIAN. That film did a much better job translating Weir’s excellent first-person writing into video logs, and though we get a bit of that here, it’s mostly surface-level joking about Grace’s interactions with Rocky until the very end.
Lord and Miller follow Weir’s narrative structure, cutting back and forth between Grace’s mission and flashbacks of the build-up, and it’s in those Earth-set sequences where things get wobbly. Sandra Hüller is an inspired casting for Weir’s colder and more ruthless version of Stratt. Somewhere along the way, it was decided that those vibes were a bit harsh for this comfort food version of the story, so this Stratt is mostly a sweetheart full of “we believe in you speeches” and strange Harry Styles karaoke covers. Hüller does serviceable work (even if her singing is awful), but she feels a bit lost, as if she’s waiting for the material to match her talents. These sequences emphasize that Grace’s mission will mean life or death for the human race in the most casual way possible. Everyone is smiling and joking around, trying to make the best of a bad situation. In the book, Grace was the one ray of light in a cynical system. Here, he is just part of the gang and everybody is on the same team: an Amazon Studios fantasy.
This is certainly Lord and Miller’s most technically accomplished work behind the camera. Greig Fraser’s cinematography vibrantly realizes space in a way that will pop in all 12 available formats to watch PROJECT HAIL MARY in. There’s a fascinating dichotomy between Fraser’s vast and dangerous burning star expanses and the borderline cartoonish ways that Lord and Miller stage the movements of the spacecraft that must survive them. Grace and Rocky’s ships will sometimes zip around the space with LEGO-like lurches, as if a child grabbed two action figures and jolted them around going “BRRRR.” It is a charming trick that is in keeping with the film’s ethos of never becoming too intense.
The impact of the book and film versions of PROJECT HAIL MARY can be summed up by comparing Harry Styles’ original version of “Sign of the Times” to the cover Hüller performs in the film. Styles’ version is a sweeping, deeply earnest plea for compassion and connection in a world where we are always stuck running from the bullets. It wears the existential anguish that fuels a great power ballad on its sleeve and demands an emotional reaction. Hüller’s version has all of the same words and self-consciously attempts to hit the notes, but ultimately chickens out before she has to belt out the bridge that takes the song home. Since we are in a literacy crisis, the vast majority of people will experience Project Hail Mary through Lord and Miller’s competent, if unremarkable, adaptation. The lack of something to compare it to may be enough for the story’s potent and all-too-needed themes to resonate. I’ll just yearn for the version that could’ve sat alongside the classic survival movies that restore your will to live.
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