Film REVIEW: Project Hail Mary (2026) - ★★★★

Mix Up Theatre (Stewart)
3 minutes ago
5 min read

Ready to join Ryan Gosling (La La Land, The Notebook) on a do-or-die mission to save the Earth? Then brace for the most realistic space movie on record as Project Hail Mary blasts off in cinemas. Before we hit the hyperdrive, check out our quickfire guide.

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Writer: Drew Goddard

based on Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Huller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce.

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi

Themes: Outer Space, Alien, Space Sci-Fi

A science teacher wakes up alone on a spaceship. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing Earth's sun and that an unexpected friendship may be the key.

The film received highly positive reviews

MIX UP REVIEWS:

Stewart - ★★★★

"This initially comes across like a very realistic sci-fi movie with a plausible disaster on the horizon played out very well by the cast and filmmakers - Gosling is as likable as ever. However then we get to the alien buddy comedy element and the film just gets a little too cheesy. Still it's a lot of fun and when I did eventually buy into the concept it was a fine sci-fi adventure comedy."

Have you seen it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08TxIsFTRI

Project Hail Mary buzz - Why is everybody talking about the Project Hail Mary movie?

With stellar space movies coming at us like asteroids in 2026, cinema is basically your own personal rocket ship. But what if The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (April), The Mandalorian & Grogu (May), Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow (June), Masters Of The Universe (June), Disclosure Day (June) and Dune: Part Three (December) still feel light years away?

Well, strap in, because the first blast-off of 2026 is Project Hail Mary. Boasting a hard-science plot from the author of The Martian, mouth-open SFX and Ryan Gosling fully invested in his role as a “space caveman”, the only thing breaking the illusion is that you’re eating popcorn, not freeze-dried mash potatoes.

“Everything that a regular movie would be like, ‘Oh, we can change that,’ we were like, ‘Anything that makes it harder, we’re not going to change’,” explained Christopher Miller (who co-directs with Lego Movie partner Phil Lord) (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) at San Diego Comic-Con. “We’re going to stay true to it, and then that difficulty is what makes it interesting and makes it special.”

Is Project Hail Mary a true story?

No, but it’s based on Andy Weir’s forensically realistic 2021 science-fiction novel of the same name. “I was sent the script by the greatest sci-mind of our time,” recalled Ryan Gosling of the story adapted by Drew Goddard (The Martian).

“I knew it would be brilliant because it’s Andy,” he added, “but nothing could prepare me for what he came up with this time. It took me places I’ve never been, showed me things I’d never seen, it was as heartbreaking as it was funny. I was not just blown away, but overwhelmed, because this story is about a scared guy who has to do something impossible.”

Project Hail Mary plot - What happens in the Project Hail Mary film?

The Sun is dying. That’s not just bad news for your summer holiday. It’s an existential crisis that will turn Earth into Hoth from Star Wars and the human race into ugly ice cubes. Our brightest minds are flummoxed, helplessly scribbling equations on huge chalkboards. Only one man can save us. And he’s a middle-school science teacher who has never left orbit and looks alarmingly like Barbie’s airhead boyfriend.

Fortunately, Dr Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) is also a genius-level molecular biologist who might just have cracked what is killing every star in the night sky. Less fortunately, the only way to test his theory is to fly 11.9 light years to the one surviving planet in the solar system, Tau Ceti. And it’s not exactly encouraging that the mission’s codename – Project Hail Mary – means a last-ditch act of desperation with zilch chance of success.

Cast of Project Hail Mary - Who stars alongside Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary?

Once Project Hail Mary blasts off, Ryan Gosling mostly carries this movie, and the La La Land star has never been better. As Ryland Grace, he’s witty, cynical, scared, brave and painfully relatable (except for his planet-sized intellect). Waking up from a coma with partial amnesia and serious beard growth, we’re right there alongside Grace as he teaches himself rocket science in real-time.

“What’s so inspiring about the character is he reacts to a lot of things like I might or a lot of us might, and he’s terrified appropriately of the task at hand,” explains Gosling. “But he’s somebody who on Earth had given up on himself, and has been given this opportunity to believe in himself again.”

The Project Hail Mary cast also includes fellow astronauts Olesya (Milana Vayntrub - Ghostbusters, This is Us), Yáo (Ken Leung - Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, X-Men: The Last Stand) and Annie (Liz Kingsman - F1: The Movie, Borderline). Meanwhile, enjoying a cushy desk job back at NASA are mission leader Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller - The Zone of Interest, Munich: The Edge of War) and science officer Steve Hatch (Lionel Boyce). Finally, there’s Orion Lee (Skyfall, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi) as Xi. Oh – and did we mention Rocky…?

Project Hail Mary trailer - What footage can we watch from the Project Hail Mary movie?

The Project Hail Mary trailer is at the top of this post, ready to watch, and from these flashes of footage alone, we can tell we’re looking at one of the all-time-great space movies. It seems you lot agree, with the first Project Hail Mary trailer breaking records for an original movie, racking up 400 million views in its launch week alone.

Project Hail Mary alien - What do we know about Rocky?

Light spoiler incoming: Project Hail Mary sees Gosling’s character encounter a stone-skinned extra-terrestrial that will radically redirect the mission (for better or worse). “We called our friend Neil Scanlan at the Lucasfilm creature shop, and we tackled it together,” said Christopher Miller of creating Rocky.

“We built a practical creature that was puppeteered by James Ortiz and a team of five, which we called the Rocketeers,” he continues. “It was amazing having Rocky there on set every day so we could have a real interaction and shoot the whole thing practically. Ultimately, it’s going to end up being a beautiful blend of creature puppetry and animation, and he comes alive in a way that you would die for this character.”

Project Hail Mary age rating - Who can watch the Project Hail Mary film?

Bad things happen in space. Suits rip. Oxygen tanks fail. Lungs freeze. Eggs hatch. Infant xenomorphs erupt from ribcages. Project Hail Mary certainly has its hairy moments, but this is not a horror movie, with the ‘12A’ age rating making it a mission that astronauts of all ages can sign up to.

Project Hail Mary is in cinemas now – and with space-age screen and sound, cinemas are light years ahead of the streaming experience. “It’s an insanely ambitious story, massive in scope,” explained Ryan Gosling at CinemaCon. “We tried to put it on a TV once… it wouldn’t fit!”