Movie Review: Project Hail Mary (no plot spoilers)

Project Hail Mary movie poster. Image: Wikipedia

Movie Review: Project Hail Mary (no plot spoilers)

The most anticipated movie of 2026 has been Project Hail Mary. Amazon has spent about $200M on the film, and I think it’s going to be money well spent. It has grossed an estimated $33.1 million on its opening day, including $12 million from Thursday previews and early access screenings. Forecasts are on track for a domestic opening weekend of between $63M to $77M.

Update after the weekend:

The film earaned $80.5M at the domestic box office, $141M globally — the second-biggest debut for a non-franchise movie after “Oppenheimer.”

Without giving away any of the plot, I can say that I believe it’s the best movie of the year, so far. In fact, I think it’s the best movie I’ve seen in a year. The reviews so far have been overwhelmingly positive.

The Movie Setup

The near-lightspeed spaceship, the “Hail Mary”, is on a mission from Earth to save our world. Sounds like something that the U.S.S. Enterprise routinely does, doesn’t it? During the mission, the ship encounters an alien vessel on a similar mission.

The novel, written by Andy Weir, shares some similarities with his previous novel/movie, The Martian. I’ve read both novels. There is a solitary astronaut involved in a “man against nature” scenario. In both cases, it’s a man-against-the-vacuum-of-space scenario. The astronauts in each book are brilliant scientists who not only have to survive but also have to figure out how to complete their mission.

Author: Andy Weir

Andy Weir is one of the most popular science fiction authors of his generation. He does what is called “hard science fiction” in the same manner as his early sci-fi heroes Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein. This means he writes about science and technology as accurately as possible. And where he used imaginary science, he said

“You can do whatever you want, as long as you’re consistent.”

Andy Weir was a computer programmer at Sandia National Laboratories before he became a writer, serializing his early science fiction and comics on his blog.

He did the same with his first novel, The Martian, and then published it in 2011 as a $0.99 Kindle ebook on Amazon. Crown Publishing Group picked it up, and it debuted at Number 12 on The New York Times bestseller list in 2014

He is an admitted lifelong space nerd with a particular interest in relativistic physics and orbital mechanics, which can help when writing about sub-luminal (near-light-speed) space flight. For Project Hail Mary, he had to bone up on molecular biology, biochemistry, and neutrino particle physics.

Andy Weir: Teacher?

Ryan Gosling, as Dr. Ryland Grace

Andy Weir does not hide the science, as a Star Wars movie might. He features, uses it to solve problems, and shows you just enough to understand what is going on. He originally thought that only science nerds would appreciate it, but it turned out that the general reading public loved it too. People love to watch clever people problem-solving. Weir is not trying to educate, but entertain.

However, Weir does it in such an infectious way. Unlike the world-building of Tolkien, Lucas, or Roddenberry, Weir draws on current real-world science. If the reader comes away understanding a little bit more about science, that’s a bonus.

Unlike for The Martian, in this film, Weir was a producer. So he got to explain to the filmmakers some of the “nitty-gritty stuff.” He designed all the calculations that the actor, Ryan Gosling (also a producer), wrote on the whiteboard in the film. He also consulted with Gosling each morning about the character’s thoughts and feelings before filming the scenes.

Project Hail Mary: the Music

The music is atmospheric, but not overpowering. Nevertheless, it amplifies the story’s emotions at key points. There’s an immersive texture to the music that is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar. It was nominated for Best Music Supervision in a Film Trailer for this year’s Guild of Music Supervisors Awards.

Project Hail Mary: the Visuals

Project Hail Mary poster

While the spaceships don’t have to be completely aerodynamic – as some sci-fi ships are – they do have to be streamlined. Weir said of the Earty ship “Hail Mary”:

“Out in between two stars, there’s like one hydrogen atom per cubic meter. But when you’re going that fast, you encounter so many of them that I made the ship actually streamlined.”

The alien ship looks nothing like the Earth ship, and it’s fascinating.

The visuals of the stars, especially the nearby Tau Ceti, are stunning. One of its planets, named Adrian, looks like a beautiful blue-green world that is stunning from space.

Science Fiction Trivia:

The mission destination is the star Tau Ceti, a mere 11.9 light-years away. However, the alien is from a planet of 40 Eridani, a triple star system in the constellation Eridanus, 16.3 light-years from Earth.

According to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, along with three scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 40 Eridani A, one of the three stars, hosts the planet Vulcan, the home of Mr. Spock.

Lego has already released a model of the Hail Mary spacecraft earlier this month. And if you listen to the soundtrack carefully, you can hear a song by The Beatles.

Conclusion

The movie is alternatively funny and tearful. There is danger, near-death situations, the relief of victory over adversity, and the joy of discovery. It is a very moving, quite satisfying film, and worth seeing on the big screen.

Grade A-

You’ll like it if: you enjoy immersive (both visual and auditory) atmospheric films, mind-blowing space scenes, a small cast, and evocative acting.

You won’t like it if: space scares you, science puts you off, or you don’t like space humor.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com