Review: PROJECT HAIL MARY Wins for Lord & Miller

Project Hail Mary (2026)
Screenplay by Drew Goddard
Based on the novel by Andy Weir
Produced by Amy Pascal, Ryan Gosling, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Aditya Sood, Rachel O’Connor
Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
PG-13, 2hr 36m

This is a definite win for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

As Project Hail Mary succeeds at the box office, I have to wonder just what Solo: A Star Wars Story would have been like had Lord & Miller not be unceremoniously fired from the picture. Of course, coming out six months after The Last Jedi was enough to kill the movie, regardless of who directed it. But after seeing this one, and especially with how impressive the visuals are, I’m willing to entertain the notion that these two could conceivably produce a Star Trek movie.

The visuals are stunning, with the end credits even incorporating actual astronomical imagery. Miller says there wasn’t any bluescreen used in the film, and I can believe it. While there may be some judicious use of CG to hide the puppeteers for Rocky (designed and voiced by James Ortiz), none of the spaceship shots or planetary images struck me as feeling artificial. No uncanny valley. As I’m watching these ships, I’m thinking about how these shots resemble those of 2001: A Space Odyssey or Apollo 13. It’s model-level work, and it’s hugely impressive.

As for the story, I haven’t read the book by Andy Weir, so I have only the film to work with. But it’s a satisfying mix of humor and pathos. The jokes land when they’re supposed to, and they don’t undercut the severity of the problem at hand: namely, there are alien particles that have been discovered around a cluster of stars, including the sun, and those particles are essentially eating those stars — save one. Earth sends a team out to find out why.

Deftly edited by Joel Negron, the film shifts back and forth between the present and past. Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) finds himself on the Hail Mary, destined for Tau Ceti, the only star not succumbing to the “astrophage” — Grace’s name for the particles eating the sun. As he regains his memory after being in an induced coma for so long, we bounce back and forth to see the beginnings of the mission, with Grace recruited by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), who leads a team desperately trying to find a solution before the sun dims to the point where all life on Earth dies.

As Grace’s mission progresses toward Tau Ceti, and as we see the progression of the mission as it comes together on Earth, we get insights into Grace’s personality as he re-discovers himself. This is helped along the way by his encounter with Rocky, a native of 40 Eridani (which some would say is home to Vulcan, but I digress…). Rocky’s sun is also suffering from the astrophage, and he’s also the only survivor on his ship sent to find out why Tau Ceti is immune. Rocky and Grace quickly — maybe a bit too quickly? — figure out a mathematics-based program that allows Grace to translate Rocky’s musical language into English and vice-versa, and that allows them to begin working together to find a solution.

Rocky is the breakout element of the film. As reported in a few places, he’s an animatronic puppet, not CGI, and you can tell the difference. Rocky inhabits the space and is really there in front of the camera, making his interaction with Grace all the more compelling because it’s not photographic fakery. According to Ortiz in an interview with Variety, CGI was used when Rocky was moving through the ship in his environment ball. But the scenes with him and Gosling have both of them in front of the camera.

That interaction is the source for a lot of the humor — and of course, the pathos that comes with it. There’s a point in the story where Grace has to make a choice, and it works so well because that moment has been earned by the relationship Ortiz and Gosling have built between these two characters throughout the film.

Props also to Sandra Hüller, who delivers an emotionally charged performance throughout. It’s clear that Stratt is focused on the mission of saving lives, and she’ll do whatever she has to in order to achieve this goal. But she also demonstrates empathy as well as a good dose of regret in how she has to go about it. She’s backed into a corner by circumstances beyond her control, and even as she’s making the hard choices she’s recognizing that it’s going to be painful for some, especially Dr. Grace.

Choices and sacrifice make up the heart of this story, and it’s not without irony that you can find some Christian allegory here as well. I mean, come on, the Hail Mary full of Grace is on the nose, and he’s making the ultimate sacrifice to save humanity, building his work on the rock — a rock that believes that Grace can save both humanity and the Erids. When Grace asks Stratt if she believes in God, her answer is reminiscent of Pascal’s wager: “It beats the alternative.”

Grace even experiences a sort of “born again” moment as he emerges from an induced coma, only to come into his own as he gradually remembers why he’s there. He’s not brave, and he even has a “let this cup pass from me” moment with Stratt. But ultimately he’s got choices to make that will save humanity or doom them to oblivion. Even though you already know what he will choose, Gosling sells us on the emotional journey to get there.

This is, by far, the most ambitious project to date for Lord and Miller, and it’s worthy of numerous awards and repeat viewings. It’s also not dark, grim, or gritty, even in spite of the fact that the sun’s dying. The subject is there, yes, the 800-pound gorilla in the room, but it’s the people who make the story flow. Lord, Miller, screenwriter Drew Goddard, and author Andy Weir have done something rare in Hollywood these days: they’ve delivered characters that make us care. And Grace is a “good guy” in every sense, not some nihilist brooding about his fate. It’s enough to put this film in that “superversive” category we’ve discussed on several occasions — a rich, character-driven story with heroes who do what they have to in order to save the day.

We need more films like this. Go see it.