By Dan Skip Allen

Andy Weir wrote a book called “The Martian” in 2014, which was later turned into a big budget film by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon in the title role. It was adapted by Drew Goddard. Seven years later, in 2021, he wrote another book called “Project Hail Mary” which was adapted by Drew Goddard once again and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the team behind the animated Spider-Man films, Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse and  Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse., among others. They haven’t done many live action films besides the 21 Jumpstreet movies and Solo:A Star Wars Story, which they were fired from in place of Ron Howard. They have made up for that mistake from Lukasfilm by making one of the best films of 2026 and their careers.

Ryland Grace (Ryan Gostling) is a middle school science teacher. His students love him because of his irreverent way of teaching. He’s a pretty smart guy who wants to live a simple life when he’s approached by a woman from a  government agency. She asks him to figure out a problem. What does an alien species have to do with the sun dying? He and others try to work this problem out by doing many different experiments. One thing leads to another, and he is sent on a mission to space with two other astronauts. When he wakes up from a cryogenic sleep, he is confused about what his mission is because he has amnesia. Eventually, he meets another alien species who helps him figure out what to do. They try to get to know each other and team up to learn about what they need to do to save each other’s planets. 

With Lord and Miller as the directors, their sense of humor is on display. They, with the help of Goddard, infuse this story adapted from Weir’s book. Gostling is mainly alone most of the time on the space station he traveled across space in. This situation is a bit funny given the scenario this man has found himself in. There are plenty of moments in the story where things are funny. Many scenes had me laughing because of the awkward nature of them. The alien creature helps give the story an innocence because of the technology used to help create some dialogue between the two. Their fast friendship is where the story thrives and gets better as the movie and story move forward. It’s very heartfelt and emotional.

The movie uses a framing device to help tell its story. The framing device mainly bounces back and forth between the Gostling character in space on the spacestation and him on earth with the other scientists and the woman who recruited him for the job played by Sandra Huler Huller has faith in this man to help save the planet, but she needs to nudge him towards that goal a little at a time. Huler had a breakout year for American audiences a couple of years ago with two films nominated for Academy Awards in the same year. “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest”. This is her first big role since then, and she does a great job here opposite Gostling.  She’s the straight man to Gostling ‘s funny man in the story. The back and forth regarding the framing device gives to film a more stable ground to stand on. The funny stuff is good but is always serious in nature. That’s what the two distinct sides of the story were necessary for the audience. 

When it comes to heartwarming movies, you can name a lot of them. “ET The Extraterrestrial “ comes to mind for me when I think of one of the most heartfelt movies of all time. “Project: Hail Mary falls into that category. When people talk about this film in the future, they will mention it with the latter. It’s that impactful of a story, friendship, and technical achievement. Where as ET the Extraterrestrial had the relationship between Elliott and ET. This film has a relationship between Rocky as he’s dubbed because he is a rock like alien and Gosling’s character. They have a lot of funny banter and many heartfelt moments as well. One moment which I won’t spoil comes in the third act, and it’ll definitely have most people tearing up, I’m sure of it. I won’t soon forget this movie for quite a while, that’s for sure.

Ryan Gostling has become one of the biggest movie stars working today. He’s done it all in his career. So much so that he’s repeating himself now by playing an astronaut. He played Neil Armstrong in Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” a handful of years ago. Since then, he played Ken, which he was nominated for for the Best Supporting Academy Award, and got to sing “I’m Still Ken” for the audience and viewers at home watching the ceremony.  And he played a stuntman in “The Fall Guy” which was a love letter to the stuntman and women community. I personally love him in “Bladerunner 2049” and “La La Land” he proved to be a fan favorite among cinephiles. The role he plays in this movie will be another that critics and filmgoers alike will say is why he is so beloved by everyone who watches movies. He gives an amazing performance as this everyman who happens to be good at science and is thrust into an unbelievable situation. 

“Project Hail Mary” is a massive surprise for me considering the reputation of Lord and Miller. I haven’t been a fan of all of their films in the past. I saw something in this film that I hadn’t seen in the past. A lot of heart. They pulled at the heartstrings with this story adapted from Weir’s novel once again by Goddard. They are a good team. The visuals are incredible to look at throughout the movie. Seeing it in IMAX was definitely the aspect ratio to see this grand spectacle. The performance from Gostling will be one film aficionados and critics will love for years to come. Similar to “ET The Extraterrestrial” I was genuinely moved by what I watched. This is the first big hit of 2026, hopefully of many more to come. I loved everything in this heartwarming film. It’s a must-see!

5 stars