Project Hail Mary (2026)
Andy Weir's 2021 novel Project Hail Mary arrived with a fair amount of goodwill already attached to it. Weir had, after all, written The Martian, a book that had been turned into a reasonably beloved Ridley Scott film, and readers of the new novel were almost immediately asking who should play Ryland Grace on screen. The book sits in a particular tradition of hard science fiction, the kind that takes genuine scientific principles seriously while still constructing an accessible, propulsive story around them. It is not po-faced academic fiction, but it is the sort of thing that expects you to keep up. Translating that to a mainstream blockbuster was always going to be a challenge, particularly given that a significant portion of the novel's emotional weight rests on a relationship that would require considerable creative and technical ingenuity to bring to life convincingly. The fact that the project spent years in development, with various directors and stars attached at different points, only added to the sense that this was a genuinely difficult piece of material to crack.
The filmmakers who eventually landed the job are Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, a pairing whose career has been built on the premise that irreverent genre fare can be smarter than it looks. Their work on 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street demonstrated a genuine talent for comedy that earns its laughs through character rather than cheap gags, and their producing credits on the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse films showed they were not afraid of ambitious, technically demanding work. The adaptation is produced through their Lord Miller banner alongside Amy Pascal's Pascal Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios, which suggests a budget comfortably in the range required to realise deep space on a convincing scale. At 157 minutes, it is a significant commitment from any studio, and the decision to let the film run that long speaks either to confidence in the material or, depending on your perspective, a slight reluctance to let the editing room have the final word.
Ryan Gosling carries the picture as Ryland Grace, a casting choice that, on paper, raises an eyebrow or two. Gosling has built a career on a certain kind of internalised cool, from the quiet menace of Drive to the looser, more comedic energy of The Nice Guys, and the question was always whether he could make a confused, amnesiac science teacher feel grounded and sympathetic rather than simply stylish. Sandra Hüller, fresh from considerable international attention following Anatomy of a Fall, joins the cast alongside James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce, and Milana Vayntrub in supporting roles. Hüller in particular brings a European seriousness to proceedings that usefully counterbalances any tendency toward the glossy and the polished, and her presence alone signals that this is not a production content to coast on star power alone.
Going into Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s 2026 adaptation of Project Hail Mary, I was fully bracing myself for a cutesy, quip-heavy sci-fi comedy. The early critic chatter had been heavily focused on how "cute" and "funny" the companion Ryan Gosling’s character finds was, which had me expecting something closer to a cosmic disney-esque romp.
Honestly, I was positively surprised. As a massive space science nerd, this picture absolutely tickled my fancy, but not because it was trying to be a laugh-a-minute sitcom. Instead, Lord and Miller have delivered a remarkably grounded, deeply compelling character study that takes the vast, isolating terror of deep space seriously.
What really elevates the film is the sheer quality of its central dynamic. Gosling is fantastic, anchoring the picture with a weary, brilliant intensity that grounds the high-concept astrophysics in genuine human emotion. And fair play to the creative team for the choice of companion; it is an absolutely awesome, brilliantly realised piece of cinematic wizardry. It provides the humour and the heart the early reviews promised, but it never undermines the very real stakes of the mission. The interactions between the two feel incredibly earned, transforming what could have been a gimmicky sidekick role into a profoundly moving partnership.
However, the picture isn't entirely without its flaws, primarily when it comes to its sheer, length. Clocking in at nearly two and a half hours, the film's pacing in the middle act feels a bit of a drag. It simply didn't need to be that long; there are stretches of procedural problem-solving that, while scientifically fascinating to a nerd like me, occasionally drag the narrative down to a crawl. A sharper editorial scalpel could have easily shaved twenty minutes off the clock without losing any of the narrative meat, keeping the tension wound a bit tighter throughout.
Despite the bloated runtime, the sheer ambition and technical brilliance on display make it a thoroughly rewarding watch. It is a really well-made, beautifully acted piece of hard science fiction that respects both its source material and its audience's intelligence. Lord and Miller have crafted a cracking, emotionally resonant space epic that proves you can have your mind-bending astrophysics and your heart-warming character dynamics all at once.
A four-star score from a self-described space science nerd who walked in sceptical is, frankly, about as trustworthy an endorsement as you are likely to find for a film of this type. Project Hail Mary appears to be that reasonably rare thing: a big-budget science fiction film that treats its audience as adults, invests properly in its central performances, and uses humour as seasoning rather than wallpaper. The runtime concern is real and worth factoring in if you are the sort of person who notices when a film outstays its welcome, but the consensus here seems to be that the bones are strong enough to carry the extra weight. Lord and Miller have made their career out of confounding lowered expectations, and on this evidence, they have done it again. Sometimes a Hail Mary lands.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2026 | Watched: 2026-07-19
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Project Hail Mary (2026) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads · MGM Plus Amazon Channel
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · fuboTV · MGM+ Amazon Channel · Philo
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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