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Ryan Gosling stars in Project Hail Mary. Amazon MGM Studios
Project Hail Mary is the latest Andy Weir joint to make it to the big screen. The movie, which is based on Weir's 2022 novel of the same name, was written by Drew Goddard (Daredevil, The Martian) and directed by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse's Phil Lord and Chris Miller and is set to hit theaters everywhere on March 20. Ryan Gosling stars as a school teacher who gets thrown into an impossible scenario. He's rocketed into outer space to fix a mysterious anomaly that threatens the future of Earth's existence.
If the concept of having the fate of humanity lie in the hands of an ill-equipped underdog who has to go to outer space to accomplish the impossible feels familiar, it should. You've seen a similar storyline play out in a handful of sci-fi movies, such as Armageddon, Deep Impact and Moonfall.
It's a cinematic trope that I've grown quite tired of. Yet, to my delight, Project Hail Mary pulls it off.
Before I continue, please take heed: There are major story spoilers below.
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Ryan Gosling stars in Project Hail Mary. Amazon MGM Studios
Project Hail Mary is a collection of moving parts that, if poorly balanced, could easily dip into the cheesy space-adventure arena where the above examples reside. It all works, though, and brilliantly so. And the success of this high-stakes, hilarious and heartfelt story relies, in large part, on Ryan Gosling's performance as science teacher Ryland Grace.
Most of the work Gosling does in this movie is on his own, reminiscent of Matt Damon in The Martian and Sam Rockwell in Moon. Gosling carries Project Hail Mary for the simple reason that he's mostly flying solo throughout the movie. That can be a daunting affair for an actor, considering the confines of the set and the lack of a reliable scene partner, but Gosling doesn't falter as Grace.
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