Why Has Project Hail Mary Become Such a Hit?
On March 19th, 2026 Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s movie Project Hail Mary was released in theatres. Originally adapted from the 2021 homonymous book by Andy Weir, it is at its second weekend from release the best performing Hollywood movie of 2026 (so far). Plus, having reached a whopping 4.4 rating on Letterboxd (the court of public opinion on movies par excellence) and a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, it can definitely be defined as the movie that is mainly attracting flocks of people to the theatres at the moment.
The movie opens on Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) waking up on a space aircraft with no recollection of who he is or how he ended up there. He finds out his two colleagues on the spaceship have died, and starts trying to figure out how to survive in that situation. Through flashbacks, we find out that, back on Earth, he was a physics teacher in school, after having been pushed away from academic research as a molecular biologist. Yet one day he gets recruited – unwillingly – by the government in Project Hail Mary, lead by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller): the Earth is at the gates of an apocalypse, as a red line made of Astrophages (from Greek, “star-eaters”) has appeared between Venus and the Sun, causing the dimming of the Sun, therefore leading to a fatal global cooling. In summary, Grace does reveal himself helpful to the Project, as he discovers not only that these Astrophages are cells, but also that they can be used as fuel to reach the only thriving star of the Solar System, named Tau Ceti. A mission (a suicide mission, as there would not be enough fuel to come back from it) to go study Tau Ceti: Grace refuses to take active part in this mission, so, traitorously, Eva Stratt induces Grace in a coma to send him on this mission.
Once figured out what he is supposed to do, Grace meets a spider-like alien made of stone who is on the same mission as him, but for his own planet. Grace and the alien (renamed Rocky) become friends and figure out a way of communicating through technology, and start working together on their missions. In the end, they overcome together every obstacle they encounter, and when Grace is faced with the choice between going back to Earth or saving Rocky’s ship, he decides to help his friend. Ultimately, Grace is seen living on Eridian (Rocky’s planet) in a protected environment the Eridians have created just for him, not certain he wants to go back to Earth.
Now, critical reviews do not fully reflect the warm welcome the popular audience gave to Project Hail Mary. The Guardian gives it three stars out of five, and calls it ‘silly’ and ‘unserious’, indicating ‘Gosling’s charisma’ what ‘keeps it watchable’. Variety states it is ‘too long [...] because there’s not much variation to it’, and generally does not make a very praising review of it; similarly, The New Yorker points out almost mockingly how Project Hail Mary is an ‘exasperatingly insistent crowd-pleaser’ movie in its quirky one-liners, the budding relationship between human and alien, and Ryan Gosling’s dorkiness.
Moreover, many compare it to Nolan’s Interstellar or Ridley Scott’s The Martian not as their equal, but as their funny counterpart almost in a diminishing sense. But there must be a reason, then, for its huge success with the masses, having BBC Culture already calling it ‘being tipped for next year's best picture Oscar”.
And perhaps its easiness and lightness is exactly what makes it an audience-favourite movie. Instead of focusing solely on the tragedy of the apocalypse or portraying one sentimental relationship, Project Hail Mary blends together multiple elements that bring everybody to the cinema, for one reason or the other. It has believable scientific elements like the discovery of Astrophages as cells that makes it a credible sci-fi movie; at the same time, it drips with funny comedic moments that make it a non-heartbreaking watch, and one can walk out of the cinema in a good mood. Moreover, having the main relationship of the movie a budding connection à la E.T. between human and alien makes it a family-friendly movie, and at the same time it maintains heartfelt moments. Plus, its setting at the end of the world and its motif of communication pulls at the heartstrings of everyone right now, and this movie exploits this point perfectly. Project Hail Mary maintains the dark undertones of a movie set in the apocalypse while preserving a light mood, alternating frames that terrifyingly portray the vastness of the universe and the smallness of man to comedy-reliefs scenes and one liners; basically, every time there is a near-death event, the scene after will have a funny one-liner to lighten the mood. In summary, it can be a film to watch with friends to have a laugh, a movie to watch on a first date from which to draw for deep conversations afterwards, or one to have a family movie night.
Written by: Jules Nati (@giuls.nati)
Edited by: Alex Kelleher @alex_kelleher_
