Writer Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods) and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller delivering a stirring and heartwarming science fiction film that channels wonder and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
PROJECT HAIL MARY (2026)
★★★★ OF ★★★★★ stars
PROJECT HAIL MARY hits the big screen this weekend from Amazon/MGM Studios and this science fiction adaptation of the New York Times bestseller starring Ryan Gosling as the lead is one of 2026’s best films of the year. Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, a school teacher and former science prodigy who is drafted into a world saving task force by Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller). The Earth’s sun is dying, being consumed by an alien microphage reaching out from Venus called the Petrova Line. Grace figures out how to breed the phage and he is clued in that his discovery will be used to help power a ship to the distant star Tau Ceti which is the only planet unaffected. This mission is one-way only and this Project Hail Mary is the only way to stop the Earth from dying.
However, upon waking, Grace finds he is the only survivor of the crew of three and the entire mission is on him. The prospects of dying alone and the fate of Earth initially emotionally destroy him but he resolves to carry through with the mission. As he gets closer to Tau Ceti, he discovers alien life – another ship where there is one survivor and the two have to learn to communicate so they can both save their planets. The alien’s planet is called Eridia. Grace and the alien slowly learn to communicate and the alien, whom Grace nicknames Rocky, start to work together to find that Tau Ceti has an amoeba that can kill astrophage and if the two can fish for it, they can grow this aliens to save their worlds.
The film has the tone of something like Interstellar or The Martian, a human trying their best to make it home and be honorable despite being away from what they care about. Gosling is on screen the whole time and it’s to his credit and Goddard’s script punched up with Lord and Miller’s visual inventiveness that it works. Think the Lego Movie – guy out of his depth who rises to the challenge – meets Castaway. These are big films we’re comparing it to but it stands right there on the dais. This is one of the best films of 2026 – no hyperbole needed. Once you think it ends, it finds a new thread and you feel rewarded watching the journey. The movie is inspirational and relatable and the structure – punctuated with flashbacks of how Grave got to be on the ship is great a db at times heartbreaking. But the film is gold on the silver screen.
PROJECT HAIL MARY hits theaters on March 20th.