A fist bumping triumph.

On the surface at least, adapting hard science fiction for the big screen is an incredibly tricky task. Stripping away the big, broad fantasy elements that so many sci-fi films rely on to attract audiences in favour of a strict science-first approach is tough to get right in a way that doesn’t become an impenetrable, unwatchable mess, however, get it right, and you can be richly rewarded.

While the likes of Ad Astra have shown that audiences can be tough customers to please with the genre (even if you plaster Brad Pitt’s face all over it), some of the biggest science fiction hits of the recent past have very much been of the hard variety. As the success of efforts like Arrival and The Martian have proved, audiences are more than willing to embrace this end of the sci-fi genre if the execution is right.

An adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, Project Hail Mary was always likely to have a mountain to climb in bringing the hefty 496-page, science-heavy book to the big screen, yet, with the huge success of The Martian (also an adaptation of an Andy Weir novel) fresh in the memory, hopes were high that this similarly ambitious shoot-for-the-stars story could stick its landing.

Astronaut Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awakens alone in deep space with no memory of his identity or mission. As his memories gradually return, he realizes he’s humanity’s last hope to stop a mysterious microorganism that’s draining energy from the Sun and threatening Earth with extinction. Along the way, he encounters an unexpected alien ally, forming a bond that transcends species. Together, they race to save their worlds, turning a desperate mission into a story of friendship, cooperation, and sacrifice.

Hope. It’s something we really could use a little more of right now, but while hope is a commodity in such short supply in the wider world, you don’t have to dig too deep into Project Hail Mary to tap into a bountiful stream of the stuff.

As Grace and Rocky race against time to save both their planets, the warm glow of optimism and friendship is positively infectious. However, while such an abundance of hopeful energy and endeavour always risks tipping a film into overly sentimental territory, what Project Hail Mary delivers is something altogether more satisfying and spiritually nourishing.

Shooting for the stars with a heady blend of race-against-time space drama, awe-inspiring cosmic visuals, a plucky against-all-odds underdog tale, and an odd couple buddy comedy with tonnes of heart, Project Hail Mary is a lot of things crashing together, but the resultant collision is the kind of wildly enjoyable, soul warming, fist bumping, escapist spectacle that blockbusters were made for.

As a concept, hard science fiction can be a dense, unwieldy sub-genre to navigate, and Project Hail Mary feels like a particularly tricky prospect to translate from page to screen in a way that’s not overwhelming. However, with its heart in the right place, an infectious energy, and an endearing, unapologetically wholesome sense of hope and humanity running through it, it makes for a surprisingly breezy watch, even at a weighty 156-minutes long.

With Phil Lord and Christopher Miller bringing their trademark sense of humour and kinetic energy to proceedings, the pair also showcase a directorial eye and a keen sense of visual gravitas that feels a clear level up from anything in their past. Riffing on Drew Goddard’s excellently constructed script, Greig Fraser’s visually arresting cinematography, and Daniel Pemberton’s beautifully evocative score, Lord and Miller bring together what they’ve picked up from the likes of 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie, and the Spider-Verse films, all while delivering a filmmaking maturity that puts Project Hail Mary on another level entirely.

As the film darts backwards and forwards in time, Lord and Miller show themselves to be masterful storytelling craftsmen with editing and camerawork working together to offer something far more interesting and enthralling than one might initially expect. It’s an exciting and innovative approach that avoids taking the easy route through the story, and together with the call to trim down the book’s rather dense science elements, Lord and Miller ensure Project Hail Mary flows in a way that makes the film’s running time blast by at light speed.

With an eye for visual flare, a lightness of touch, and a keen sense of odd couple friendship taken from their past as writers, directors, and producers, Lord and Miller have succeeded in taking a story with huge, universe-spanning scope and making it into an intimate, heart-warming tale of friendship and collaboration where the film’s cosmic scale and enormous stakes never once overshadow its emotions.

Given the mission to carry so much of this on his own back, Ryan Gosling positively embraces the story’s Silent Running-esque physical and emotional isolation in such a natural way that you often forget that the film is largely him either on his own or acting opposite a rock puppet with no face. In lesser hands, there’s every chance such pressure to carry a film of this scale would be far too much, yet Gosling not only makes the story relatable and his character likeable through his effortless charisma and everyman charm, he also helps to elevate those around him as he goes.

Of the actual human cast around Gosling, the undoubted standout is the delightfully dry Sandra Hüller. Sombre, sober, and formidable, Hüller’s Eva Stratt is a wonderfully realised counterbalance to Gosling’s endearing and jovial Grace as you can practically feel the enormous weight of responsibility for solving the planet’s dire situation bearing down on her, and while their screen time together is relatively restricted, the pair make it count, as they slowly but surely add layer after layer to both the story and their characters.

The character has something of a secondary role in the story, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it, with Eva acting as a crucial cog in the narrative, adding stakes and nuance to Project Hail Mary’s flashback scenes. Though deadpan and cold on the surface, Hüller shows her unrivalled ability to add shade and layers to a character out of nowhere, something that culminates in a karaoke scene that represents one of the film’s most memorable moments.

It’s a moment of levity and emotional resonance that really pushes the story and the characters forward in surprising but satisfying ways, one that helps build an emotional bridge between Project Hail Mary’s two timelines. As Eva belts her way through a rendition of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times”, cracks in the character’s otherwise stoic, pragmatic exterior appear and gradually humanise her while managing to pull her closer to both Grace and us an audience.

It’s a scene that highlights the film’s core theme of finding common ground across a divide and one that draws a direct link with Project Hail Mary’s space-bound half of the story. While the relationship between Eva and Grace is, for many reasons, an entirely different dynamic than the one between Grace and Rocky, the thematic links between the two are clear and feed into the film’s overwhelming sense of collaboration and unity.

And while Sandra Hüller is, in many ways, a scene stealer both in her own right and alongside Ryan Gosling, it would be remiss to ignore the wonder that is Rocky. Brought to life through an ingenious blend of James Ortiz’s masterful puppetry (and voice) and seamless, complementary visual effects, Rocky is a truly wonderful extra-terrestrial creation that somehow, despite being a walking, faceless rock, brings a level of emotion, humour, and pathos that you so rarely get from this brand of non-human sci-fi character.

There are so many ways that Rocky’s translation from page to screen could’ve gone badly wrong, however, like the rest of the film, the spirit, ingenuity, and enthusiasm to do things right, not only by the novel, but by the audience and to the essence of the story feels just about perfect. Endearing, naive, wise, and silly all at once, and all without ever growing irritating, Rocky is the perfect foil for Grace and when they finally click as a pairing, their onscreen chemistry is undeniable.

As with the entire film, Rocky’s sincerity and keen sense of friendship, optimism, will to cooperate, and drive to succeed against the odds could so easily have come off as corny and overly sentimental, yet the execution is at such a level that these factors quickly turn from potential flaws to both the character and Project Hail Mary’s undoubted strengths.

Shooting for the stars with a finely calibrated blend of tense race-against-time space survival drama, awe-inspiring cosmic visuals, and an odd couple buddy comedy packed with heart, Project Hail Mary is a hit of intergalactic proportions. While Lord and Miller’s trademark humour is present and correct, it’s their eye-catching direction and their feel for the human emotion in such an epic story that truly makes their film shine, as they deliver a tale stuffed full of wonder, belief, and a much needed dose of hope.

Project Hail Mary is in cinemas worldwide now.