‘Project Hail Mary’: Ryan Gosling Befriends a Lovable Alien To Save the World in Delightful Sci-Fi Odyssey

Alci Rengifo

Despite all the depressing headlines, sci-fi insists on imagining a future where we somehow pool the resources needed for interstellar travel to save our species. “Project Hail Mary” is the latest epic to send a weary traveler out into the stars and make contact with extraterrestrial intelligence while trying to stop a cataclysm. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller manage to refresh the material with some basic elements in the casting, humor and sense of awe. They’re out to craft a cosmic epic that would make Christopher Nolan proud while tickling the funny bone and daring us to cry. Like an overcooked feast most of it works quite well.

Dr. Ryland Grace (Gosling) awakens onboard a ship somewhere far away in space. His mind is hazy from the induced coma that allowed him to sleep through much of the near-light speed journey. Flashbacks show how Ryland was recruited by an international coalition headed by a commander named Eva (Sandra Hüller) for an urgent mission named “Project Hail Mary.” Microscopic black particles called astrophage have infected multiple stars, including our sun, triggering what will be a new ice age in 30 years. Unless something is done, there will be hunger and chaos. Only one solar system, Tau Ceti, seems to be fending off the infection. Ryland had been sent with two astronauts, Yáo (Ken Leung) and Olesya (Milana Vayntrub), who have died in their comas, to find out why Tau Ceti is apparently immune. Suddenly a larger ship appears, defined by an exterior that looks like giant needles wedded together. When it docks with Ryland’s ship, he is stunned to meet its sole occupant, a five-limbed spider-shaped sentient rock-like being (voiced by the puppeteer James Ortiz). He dubs the alien “Rocky” and develops a communication system that reveals how Rocky’s world, Erid, is also under the same threat as Earth.

The screenplay by Drew Goddard adapts a novel of the same name by Andy Weir, best known for having provided the source material for Ridley Scott’s “The Martian.” This is also a tale of loneliness cloaked in a lot of intricate scientific jargon. Ryland and Rocky connect despite being different species through shared experience. They can relate to being the sole survivors of their missions, while carrying the weight of saving their worlds. As filmmakers, Lord and Miller truly expand their palette beyond past hits like “21 Jump Street.” With cinematographer Greig Fraser they shoot in the IMAX format, combining CGI and practical effects for some stunning vistas of Ryland’s ship silently gliding through space or other planets with a psychedelic glow. The massive screen format is the best to take in the film as a visual experience, because one truly feels the size and environment of the cosmos and our heroes’ confined interiors. 

The visual scale is cosmic yet the story is enjoyable on a very down to earth level. If the space shots nod at Stanley Kubrick, Nolan’s “Interstellar” or Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity,” the story between Ryland and Rocky recalls countless lovable onscreen friendships. The two start communicating through signals and taps, since Rocky must remain protected because his physiology can’t take our brand of oxygen. With his characteristic subdued humor, Gosling makes it all fun when teaching Rocky how to fist bump, or develops a translation system that hilariously captures the alien’s attempts to repeat what it is being taught (“fist my bump?”). Human and extraterrestrial become roommates as they attempt to figure out a formula to stop the star virus. At first it’s taxing on Ryland, since Rocky insists on keeping watch over him while sleeping. The alien also has astounding hearing abilities, making it awkward for Ryland when he tries to record his video diaries to send back to Earth. The other entity onboard the ship is AI system Mary (voiced by Priya Kansara), who can be rather useless in another bit of great comedy.

Gosling is so good in developing a bond with his alien buddy that the movie can feel overloaded with too many flashbacks to Ryland’s days back on Earth as a lonely science teacher recruited for the mission due to a major paper he wrote and assumed no one read. We really just need a few moments of good exposition, not what feels like a whole other movie fighting for room with the space adventure. Many of these scenes can feel redundant with moment after moment of Eva reminding Ryland that the world’s fate is at risk. We get the gist early on to understand the stakes. As with “The Martian,” there’s more energy in watching Ryland and Rocky dive into laboratory lingo or trying to collect samples from another world, while also learning human slang. You cannot help but be moved by the subtext about finding solidarity across superficial borders. If we make contact with another species across the stars, maybe it will be because of a crisis.

“Project Hail Mary” builds to a genuinely thrilling climax where we get what we would expect from a good sci-fi odyssey where the fate of planets hangs in the balance. Lord and Miller bring it home with enough spectacle and tear-jerker moments where we root for the cosmic friends, and then decide to stretch the movie way beyond where it could already end. Confident in their epic, the filmmakers try to fit in a good four endings, with even more flashbacks. With some trimming “Project Hail Mary” would work so much better, yet it’s still excellent entertainment. Not only is it engrossing as a sensory experience, but the performance by Gosling nearly convinces us to weep for a walking, dancing rock.

“Project Hail Mary” releases March 20 in theaters nationwide.