Project Hail Mary (film)

Project Hail Mary is a 2026 American science fiction adventure film produced and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and written by Drew Goddard, based on the 2021 novel by Andy Weir. It stars Ryan Gosling (who also produced the film), Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, and Lionel Boyce. The film follows the story of Ryland Grace, a man who awakens on an interstellar spacecraft with no memory of how he came to be there.

Project Hail Mary premiered in London on March 9, 2026, and was released in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios on March 20, 2026. The film received positive reviews from critics, and has grossed $12 million.

Ryland Grace awakens from a coma on a spacecraft. Initially erratic with retrograde amnesia, Grace discovers that he is the sole survivor of three, and that he is light years away from Earth in a distant star system.

Grace slowly remembers that he is a middle school science teacher and former molecular biologist. Scientists observe the Sun dimming, coinciding with the formation of an infrared line from the Sun to Venus called the Petrova line. The dimming, caused by a microorganism known as Astrophage, will result in a catastrophic global cooling of Earth within 30 years. Government agent Eva Stratt approaches Grace and asks him to study Astrophage in the hopes that he can defeat it.

Grace discovers that Astrophage is a cell which is impenetrable to any form of electromagnetic radiation, and that it breeds via carbon dioxide from Venus and energy from the Sun. Other scientists find Astrophage to be an effective, if volatile, fuel source. Grace learns that Astrophage has infected all nearby stars except Tau Ceti. Stratt discloses Project Hail Mary, a plan to send a crew on a suicide mission to Tau Ceti to discover why its star has resisted. Humanity can only produce enough Astrophage as fuel for a one-way trip, but Hail Mary will carry probes to send the crew's findings back to Earth.

In the present, as Grace approaches Tau Ceti, he sees an alien spacecraft. After establishing communication, the spacecraft approaches Grace and docks a tunnel, made of "xenonite" (solid xenon), to Hail Mary. The pilot of the other ship is a rock-like five-legged alien from 40 Eridani, who Grace names "Rocky" after the alien's shape and Rocky Balboa.

After deducing that Rocky's species sees via echolocation, Grace creates a machine translation system for Rocky's music tones-like speech. Rocky explains that he is a mechanic and also the sole survivor of a mission to stop the Astrophage. Neither can survive in the other's atmosphere so Rocky enters Hail Mary in a small, pressurized ball as spacesuit.

In the past, Grace meets the commander, pilot, and scientist for Hail Mary and their backups. However, a mishap while handling Astrophage kills both the scientist and backup. With no time to train a replacement, Stratt requests that Grace take the place of the deceased scientists, but he refuses to go. Unwilling to lose the only chance at saving Earth, Stratt has Grace drugged and forcibly put on Hail Mary.

Following Tau Ceti's Petrova line, Grace and Rocky find that the planet Tau Ceti e—which they name "Adrian" after Rocky's mate and Adrian Pennino—has an organism which preys on Astrophage, preventing it from destroying Tau Ceti. After learning that Grace cannot return home, Rocky offers enough Astrophage to refuel Hail Mary at the cost of increasing the length of his own trip home by six years. While gathering the organism from the upper atmosphere of Adrian, a fuel leak causes an uncontrollable spin which renders Grace unconscious. Rocky breaks out of his spacesuit and saves the ship, but is severely injured. While Rocky recovers in hibernation, Grace finds a way to breed the Astrophage-consuming organism, which he calls "Taumoeba". Rocky revives, and he and Grace part as friends.

During the trip to Earth, Grace discovers that Taumoeba has evolved the ability to pass through their xenonite containers and is eating his fuel. Grace fixes the problem on Hail Mary, but realizes that Rocky’s entire ship is made of xenonite, which will allow the Taumoeba to eat all of his fuel. Left with the choice of saving Rocky and his homeworld or returning to Earth, Grace chooses to save his friend, sending Taumoeba and his research to Earth via the probes.

The probes deliver to humanity what it needs to kill Astrophages. Years later, the Eridanis have created a biodome on Rocky's planet for Grace to live in. Grace is told that its scientists have finished preparing Hail Mary to return to Earth. While contemplating the news, he begins another day of teaching science to children of Rocky's species.

• Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace, an astronaut on a mission to save humanity
• Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt, Ryland's superior and the head of the Hail Mary project
• James Ortiz as the voice and lead puppeteer of Rocky, an alien Ryland encounters on his journey.^[5]
  • Ray Porter and Meryl Streep provide other voices for Rocky^[6]
• Lionel Boyce as Officer Carl, a security guard
• Ken Leung as Yáo Li-Jie, the commander of the Hail Mary
• Milana Vayntrub as Olesya Ilyukhina, the pilot of the Hail Mary
• Priya Kansara as the voice of Mary, the Hail Mary ship^[5]
• Liz Kingsman as Annie Shapiro, a backup scientist of the Hail Mary
• Mia Soteriou as Dr. Browne
• Orion Lee as Dr. Li

In March 2020, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was nearing a deal to acquire the project, an adaptation of the then-upcoming Andy Weir novel Project Hail Mary, with Ryan Gosling set to star in and produce the film.^[7] The rights for the novel were acquired for $3 million.^[8] In May 2020, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were hired to direct and produce the film.^[9] Due to Lord & Miller being unable to work on the screenplay themselves because of commitments to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Drew Goddard (who previously adapted Weir's The Martian into a feature film) was hired to write the screenplay the next month.^[10][11] In April 2024, Amazon MGM Studios, which acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 2022,^[12] announced a possible 2026 release window for the film.^[13] In May 2024, Sandra Hüller joined the cast of the film, with Greig Fraser hired as cinematographer.^[14] In June 2024, Milana Vayntrub joined the cast.^[15]

Principal photography began on June 3, 2024 in the United Kingdom and wrapped on October 26, 2024.^[16][17] Filming occurred at Shepperton Studios.^[18] Location filming took place at the South Parade Pier in Portsmouth,^[19] and the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cambridge.^[20]

The movie was filmed "for IMAX"^[a] by using large-sensor Arri Alexa 65 cameras, which provide 6.5K or 20 MP of resolution, with an aspect ratio of 2.1:1,^[22] of which the whole sensor was used with anamorphic lenses rotated by 90 degrees achieving a 1.43:1 aspect ratio, as needed for IMAX presentations. For regular presentations, the common 2:1 format was derived by cropping the top and bottom of the IMAX image. The film switches between taller and wider aspect ratios. When a scene takes place in the present, a taller aspect ratio is used. 1.43:1 for IMAX 15/70mm or Dual Laser, 1.90:1 for Xenon or Single Laser and 2.00:1 for non-IMAX presentations. For scenes in the past, the most commonly used ratio, the 2.39:1 was achieved with the regular use of anamorphic lenses.^[23]

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Miller mentioned that no greenscreen was used in the movie, with the entire set being shot practically.^[24] Miller previously clarified that there were still VFX and that some of the outer shots were done against varying colors of background.^[25]

The film's visual effects were provided by Framestore (which also collaborated on the film adaptation of The Martian^[26]), Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Sony Pictures Imageworks, BUF and Wylie Co. VFX, with Paul Lambert and Mags Sarnowska serving as visual effects supervisors.^[27] Joel Negron edited the film.^[1]

Phil Lord praised the collaboration between visual and practical effects in the creation of the character Rocky's performance:

Rocky was built and designed by the legendary Neal Scanlan and his creature shop and is performed by puppeteering legend James Ortiz and his team, who were on set with Ryan in every scene. Rocky’s performance is a beautiful collaboration between the James and the other Rockyteers on set and the wonderful animators at Framestore led by the funny soulful [Arslan Elver].^[28]

The digitally produced movie was transferred to film stock and then re-digitized in order to achieve the visual properties ("warmth") of analog film.^[23]

It was announced at San Diego Comic Con that Daniel Pemberton would score the film. Pemberton previously worked with Lord and Miller on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel, which they produced. This is the first film Lord and Miller have directed to not be scored by Mark Mothersbaugh.^[29]

The trailer was released on June 30, 2025.^[30] The studio said that it was the most viewed trailer for any movie (that was not a sequel or remake) in the first week of its release, accumulating 400 million views globally.^[31]

Lego released a model of the Hail Mary spacecraft on March 1, 2026 as part of the Lego Icons series.^[32]

Project Hail Mary was released on March 20, 2026, by Amazon MGM Studios in the United States and Canada, and Sony Pictures Releasing International in all other countries. It was also released in IMAX theaters, with a 1.43:1 aspect ratio.^{[33][34][35][36]}

On February 26, 2026, Deadline Hollywood reported that the film was projected to have a $45 million to $55 million domestic opening weekend.^[37] On March 17, 2026, Variety upped those estimations to a $63 to $65 million domestic opening weekend, while also estimating that the film would need to gross at least $500 million to break-even.^[38]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 273 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A visually dazzling space odyssey that's carried along effortlessly by the gravitational pull of Ryan Gosling at his most winning, Project Hail Mary is a near-miraculous fusion of smarts and heart."^[39] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[40] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Early press reviews of the film were positive.^[41] G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle deemed it "a masterpiece of a family popcorn movie, with eye-popping hand-crafted production design and outstanding creature design and puppetry work."^[42]

Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph concluded in his review, "Does it have many original ideas of its own? Perhaps not. But its greatest hits mixtape of other people's has been compiled with such flair – as well as a sound comprehension of why they worked so well the first time – that it's hard not to be swept up regardless."^[43] Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail shared a similar opinion, writing, "At almost every turn, Project Hail Mary attempts to convince you that it is groundbreaking, innovative filmmaking. But in actuality, the movie lands as a grand act of cinematic recycling – the fusing together of familiar, comforting bits and pieces into something determined to please crowds and warm hearts."^[44]

• Official website
• Project Hail Mary at IMDb
• Project Hail Mary at Rotten Tomatoes