Project Hail Mary

Like a box of ready-to-make macaroni and cheese, Project Hail Mary is satisfying if not substantial, and the less you think about the science behind it, the more you’ll enjoy it. Following in the footsteps of The Martian — a previous instance of screenwriter Drew Goddard adapting a novel by Andy Weir — this is another saga of one smart guy and a few strategic helpers thinking their way through a life-and-death situation. It’s not as rich an experience as The Martian, but having Ryan Gosling on board as the smart guy propels this film light years past where it might have gone.

It’s the not-too-distant future, and astronomers have observed a flowing chain of some mysterious substance that seems to be feeding off our sun. Scientists from around the globe are called in to deal with the problem; one of them is seventh-grade science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling), whose doctoral thesis so brashly challenged existing theories that it caught the attention of shadowy government figure Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller). Even though Grace’s troublemaking theories turn out to be wrong, he winds up being the only scientist on Earth who can figure out how to attract and regenerate the mystery substance. He’s sent into deep space to the one place in the universe where the alien matter isn’t devouring a star, so he can learn why and subsequently save all life on Earth. No pressure.

This backstory comes at us in bits and pieces, however: Goddard and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (22 Jump Street) open the movie with Grace waking up from a medical coma on a space station, unsure of who he is or how he got there. And while he’s putting all that together, he’s also got to deal with a visit from a faceless, stone-like alien (Grace eventually dubs him “Rocky”) who’s on a similar mission from another galaxy.

Like The Martian, it’s a story about process in which someone intelligent and capable can, in the words of Matt Damon’s character in the earlier film, “science the shit out of” a problem. But while the problem facing Damon and his NASA cohorts was clear-cut even for the lay mind — stay alive on Mars, figure out a way for a rescue team to bring him back to Earth — Project Hail Mary’s alien substance, what it is, what it does, and how to contain it or reverse it, isn’t as easy to follow, at least not in the way that Goddard presents it. By the time Grace and Rocky start making vital discoveries, I found myself apportioning their dialogue to a folder in my brain marked “Science Stuff.” (And yes, Rocky does eventually speak, through a computer translator, voiced by James Ortiz.)

Project Hail Mary is absolutely working toward something unique, combining awe-inspiring galactic vistas from cinematographer Greig Fraser (Dune: Part Two) – Amazon MGM really, really wants you to see this movie in IMAX, and they’re not wrong – with the free-wheeling wit that Lord and Miller have brought to their earlier projects (which also include The LEGO Movie and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) as directors and producers. The gags are practically the architecture, whether Gosling is on his own, or trading banter with Rocky or, in flashbacks, with Hüller’s stone-faced bureaucrat.

What the film doesn’t deliver, even with Gosling giving it his all, is a character for Grace. We know why he left academia to become a schoolteacher, but does this guy have friends or family? Is there anyone on Earth for whom he wishes to make this ultimate sacrifice, and will anyone miss him while he does it? Even if the answer to those questions is “No,” Goddard’s screenplay never tells us, so even as Grace reconstructs his memories and the events that brought him to galaxy’s edge, he remains a puzzling enigma. Some of his strongest character notes come courtesy of costumers David Crossman and Glyn Dillon, who give Grace the best collection of hip-nerd T-shirts since Val Kilmer in Real Genius whenever the reluctant astronaut isn’t modeling the latest in form-fitting, space-station sportswear.

Ultimately, the film’s breezy attitude and calculated audience-pleasing wins out. Project Hail Mary offers plenty of laughs alongside of a dollop of sentiment, and it centers science in a tale where the apocalypse isn’t necessarily inevitable; it celebrates both humanity’s ability to save itself, and the idea that humanity might be worth saving.

Directors: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Screenwriter: Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, Priya Kansara
Executive producers: Patricia Whitcher, Lucy Winn Kitada, Nikki Baida, Ken Kao, Drew Goddard, Sarah Esberg
Producers: Amy Pascal, Ryan Gosling, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Aditya Sood, Rachel O’Connor, Andy Weir
Director of photography: Greig Fraser
Production design: Charles Wood
Editing: Joel Negron
Music: Daniel Pemberton
Sound design: Erik Aadahl, sound designer/supervising sound editor
Production companies: Amazon MGM Studios, Pascal Pictures, Open Invite Films, Waypoint Entertainment, Lord Miller
In English
156 minutes