‘Project Hail Mary’ is pure movie magic

Last Updated on March 12, 2026 by Fadra Nally

Moviegoers for Project Hail Mary will likely fall into one of two camps: purists who have read this rollercoaster of a science fiction tale hoping it won’t be demolished by Hollywood, and those who’ve never read the book and may even, likely, be going in blind. Both will not be disappointed.

Let me start with the camp that I fall into. I’m a pretty huge fan of Andy Weir and have read his biggest works to date: The Martian (loved the book, didn’t love the movie), Artemis (didn’t love the book), Project Hail Mary (loved the book and found the audiobook, narrated by Ray Porter, to be a masterclass in voice acting). It’s also worth checking out Weir’s short story, The Egg.

What I love about Andy Weir’s stories is that they are cerebral enough for the science nerds, just plausible enough for the scientists, and completely entertaining for everyone else. He’s a smart storyteller, creating high stakes and extremely likable characters.

So the natural fear, of course, is that that all gets Hollywoodized during the moviemaking process and we get a shiny, CGI-heavy blockbuster that’s missing all the nuance of the story. And my fears were furthered when, last year, I found out that Ryan Gosling would take the lead as Dr. Ryland Grace. Could a mainstream Hollywood actor do this story justice?

Turns out my fears were completely unfounded.

Although I read the book almost five years ago, the movie sequences jogged enough of it back into my mind to assure you that the story stays pretty close to the book. I didn’t pick up on any major departures. And if there were any, they certainly worked.

Coming in at 2 hours 36 minutes, the movie had to make some edits and concessions to the story. The timeline is condensed but never feels rushed. The characters still have depth. The stakes are still high. The consequences are still understood. And more importantly, the relationship between Rocky and (Ryland) Grace is still the star of the show.

For those of you new to the story, Dr. Ryland Grace is a middle school science teacher with a PhD and a penchant for bucking the system. He’s voluntold that he needs to help save the earth from astrophage, a single celled organism that feeds on sunlight and threatens the future of the Earth.

He becomes part of a one way mission to find a solution in a solar system many years away from Earth. After waking from a travel coma, he’s tasked with remembering his mission and figuring out how to solve it on his own.

But it turns out he’s not alone.

He encounters an extraterrestrial being unlike any you might have imagined. Think of a rock spider, with no discernible face, who navigates with echolocation, and “speaks” with vibrations and sounds.

Coming in cold, you might think it’s nearly impossible to establish a relationship between the two, much less humanize it. But that’s the heart of the story and where the movie magic happens.

It’s an interspecies buddy pic unlike any you’ve ever seen. It’s intelligently told, warmly acted, beautifully shot, and satisfying until the very end. It’s everything you would want in a Hollywood movie. In fact, it’s surprising how well it delivered.

And in case I understated it, this movie would not be this movie without Ryan Gosling. By nature of the story, he carries the entire movie and he doesn’t disappoint. It’s fair to say that I laughed, I cried, and I will be seeing it again.

Don’t let the space spiders fool you. This movie will put a smile on your face and maybe even give you a little more hope for humanity.