Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary opens with a man waking up on a spaceship with zero memory of who he is or how he got there. Based on Andy Weir’s bestseller, it’s a high-concept grounded in survival. Rylan Grace (Ryan Gosling) must improvise his way through an impossible situation, and as the stakes keep rising, every solution feels like a gamble.

Gosling leads this sci-fi thriller, which makes a great companion to The Martian. Like Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut, Grace’s survival rests entirely on his own shoulders. Eleven years on, Project Hail Mary is another attempt to ask, “what if?”, centering on another witty and wise protagonist. It’s the story of making the best of a bad situation. Instead of trapping its hero on a single planet, Project Hail Mary uses a broader canvas as the backdrop for a race against the clock. When Grace wakes up on the ship, the grim reality of the situation hits him like a freight train. How did he get here? Who is Rylan Grace? What has happened? Bearded and bewildered, Grace begins to piece together the missing parts of his memory, and it’s instantly compelling. He scrambles for clues – anything that might help him understand who he is and what he’s supposed to do.

Every scene in Project Hail Mary carries an effortless charm. Unlike most science fiction films, it offers a welcome dose of comfort and familiarity. It doesn’t aim to stun viewers in the way that, say, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar does, but it has all the sci-fi hallmarks, with excellent set pieces throughout. Gosling’s presence is as affable as ever, and the film itself has the same breezy tone and humor of The Martian. The flashbacks and memories are seamlessly integrated, never feeling too jarring, and we’re invited to unpack the mystery alongside Grace. But it doesn’t take long for answers to start coming. We see Grace as a biologist forced to take up teaching after he clashed with the establishment. Then, he's recruited into Project Hail Mary by the cool, stoic Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller). As a character, he can be a little out there, but for the most part, he’s an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances. That’s the film’s hook and where it’s most entertaining - watching him ask big questions and figure out the mystery in real-time.

But as we discover, Grace is not alone. The film rests on Grace’s friendship with Rocky – a smart, endearing Alien – and on the time spent trying to figure out how they communicate. Despite their differences, the pair comes together to solve problems, leaving the audience with a sense of hopeful catharsis. Yet the film often falls into silly, more slapstick-style comedy; that said, Gosling raises the roof in what may be one of his best performances in recent years, and the final act delivers a mesmerizing display of space action. There’s no doubt about the weight of the mission, even if the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. Beneath the humor, there’s a constant sense of Grace being stuck in a sink or swim situation, with time fast running out. It is a credit to Gosling and the team behind the film that they sustained momentum for such long stretches with only one human character. But the story feels alive, and some of its more science-heavy ideas are made easy to follow, packaged into dialogue that actually makes sense. In the end, everything about it sticks the landing.