Project Hail Mary

5 outta 5

Project Hail Mary is a brainy sci-fi epic that has species coming together to save the universe via science. The situation feels “real” even though it is totally outlandish and you will believe that a human man can make scientific breakthroughs with his rock alien buddy. The film is visually lush with intense sequences of DIY science and things going progressively wrong. There is a great lead performance that manages to hold the screen even when it is just them for an extended time. It is a story of someone having to push themselves to achieve the impossible, with a little help from a friendly space creature.

Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up alone on a spaceship far from home. He is completely disoriented, can barely move or talk, and his crew has perished. Grace was a schoolteacher who wrote a scientific paper that got him fired from his research job, but his notions attracted the attention of Eva (Sandra Hüller). She is the leader of an international task force that is trying to save the sun from being drained by an alien force, because in 30 years humanity will die. Grace figures out how the aliens replicate, and is invited to join a task force called Project Hail Mary that will destroy the microscopic plague.

Now alone and with no way to contact home, the situation looks hopeless and an alien spaceship has appeared near the star he is studying. After being terrified for a while, he begins to communicate with the occupant of the spacecraft, a rock-like alien that Grace names Rocky (James Ortiz). Rocky’s species is also dealing with a dying sun and Grace and Rocky are both studying a star that is holding back the sun eating creatures. With basic translation, they make a breakthrough and while Grace has the ability to transmit data back, he isn’t able to make it back home. Now Grace has to save the universe but be left to die, something his new rock alien buddy isn’t going to let happen.

A lot of this movie is either Ryan Gosling solo, Ryan Gosling on Earth doing science, or Ryan Gosling acting with a puppet. He totally nails all three. The film is structured with repeated flashbacks to the situation on Earth before Grace got shot into space. Based on a novel by Andy Weir (The Martian), this portion of the film feels the most like The Martian where Grace comes up with jury-rigged science solutions. There’s a whole bit with the sun eating critters in a box inside another box that involves plywood and duct tape. While the movie explains things in a fun way, if it gets too complicated to follow, Gosling’s exuberant performance sells when things are going great or badly. Hüller’s project leader has to make some hard decisions to save the planet and there is a dramatic revelation about how Grace got added to the mission.

Grace’s isolation highlights the vastness and loneliness and hopelessness of the situation he finds himself in. When he wakes up and sees that all the crewmen are dead, he calculates his inability to get back, and then proceeds to drink up the ship’s supply of vodka. When he first meets the alien craft, it lobs an object at his ship, which he immediately thinks is a bomb and he yells “Raise shields!” and the ship responds that the craft doesn’t have any shields. Grace investigates the object, and in a great moment he opens it by flipping the notion of righty tighty, lefty loosey because it’s alien. This eventually leads to him hooking his ship up with the other craft and meeting the occupant.

Rocky is a really fun character, and once they figure out a translation mechanism, the two spacemen get to know each other. The vocal performance by Ortiz is a cool spot between somewhat flat and mechanical sounding to gradually showing more emotion. The little rock alien can only travel into Grace’s ship with a protective bubble, and when he first rolls into Grace’s ship he is overjoyed. Brought to life by mostly puppeteering with some CGI enhancements, Rocky seems very real. The fact it doesn’t look remotely human, it doesn’t even have a face, makes the emoting with squeaks and shaking even more impressive. It even feels sad for losing their fellow crewmen and is missing their mate, and Grace can relate.

Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie and Spider-Verse) the movie has big laughs and the zippy feel of their comedy and animated work, and can deliver pathos when called for. There are some great visuals like the alien-ness of Rocky’s ship, or just the grandeur of space and how Grace is a tiny speck against the vastness. And intense bits when it seems like everything is going to fall apart, like a moment when there is a tear in the engine that is downright harrowing. Project Hail Mary is an epic sci-fi tale with heart between two very different space traveling individuals. They may be from across the galaxy but they speak through the language of science to save solar systems and themselves.