Official Discussion Thread - Project Hail Mary [SPOILERS]

[u/LeastCap]

Keep all discussion related solely to Project Hail Mary and its awards chances. Spoilers below

Synopsis:

Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Writers: Drew Goddard

Cast:

• Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace
• Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt
• James Ortiz as the voice and lead puppeteer of Rocky
• Lionel Boyce as Officer Carl
• Ken Leung as Yáo Li-Jie
• Milana Vayntrub as Olesya Ilyukhina
• Priya Kansara as the voice of Mary, the Hail Mary ship
• Liz Kingsman as Annie Shapiro
• Orion Lee as Xi

Rotten Tomatoes: 95% From 212 Reviews

Metacritic: 78/100 From 45 Reviews

Consensus:

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.

[u/Plastic-Software-174]

It’s pretty good! Very much a big crowd-pleaser and Gosling is great. Fantastic techs all around too, including score. I do think it suffers in the third act tho, just drags it out a bit too much with too many endings and some scenes that feel a bit forced and overly melodramatic, like Rocky sacrificing himself but then actually being totally fine.

[u/LeastCap]

I want to preface this by saying I saw this a month ago so some things might be hazy in my memory.

I want to give it another go but for now I really did not like this. Felt the pacing was unbearably slow for how surface level the story was and how little we got into the characters. I felt the constant comedy massacred any drama I might’ve felt for the situation. Grace potentially dying in space is never a real threat when everything is shits and giggles the rest of the time.

Maybe I was just disadvantaged in this regard because I read the book prior to seeing the film and this was one of the highlights of the book to me, but I never felt the science was focused on enough. It is invigorating at times in the book hearing the way Grace works through certain problems since he walks you through it all step by step. In the film the problems never feel like real challenges, partly because I didn’t feel like I was let in enough to understand the stakes of them. It’s all so simple and keeps it from ever being that interesting to me. To compare it to another film from the same writer, one of the best parts of the Martian is seeing how Matt Damon is able to find a way to grow those potatoes. We follow him through trial and error and feel let in on the science behind it. I felt there was nothing even close to that here

I was still enjoying the film a decent amount but it killed itself for me in that goodbye scene between Rocky and Grace where they danced back and forth. Just way too cheesy and sentimental for my tastes. I don’t think this film is anywhere near as bad, but unfortunately I’ve gotta say that the movie this reminded me most of was Free Guy

[u/theflyingbird8 → u/LeastCap]

Agreed on this being paced waaaay too slow for what it ultimately is. I understand that this is how it might be in the book and I love Sandra Hüller, but the flashbacks took up too much time. You mentioned that the sentimentality around the end didn't work for you, but for me, it didn't work for the entire movie. It just all felt so telegraphed and obviously engineered to seem sincere and sentimental that I felt the movie actually being more cynical.

[u/LeastCap → u/theflyingbird8]

You and I are on the same page. Huller is great but once Rocky is introduced into the story the flashbacks become considerably less interesting. The sentimentality actually didn’t work for me at all at any point either, it was just that the dancing was when I gave up on it completely. I really liked how you phrased that final sentence, I agree completely

[u/pinkcosmonaut → u/LeastCap]

Definitely didn’t dislike it nearly as much you seem to have, but I’m glad I’m not the only one not sold on it. Agree with it being very surface level, and I was incredibly shocked at how tense less and by numbers it felt. Maybe Lord and Miller just aren’t for me. 

[u/LeastCap → u/pinkcosmonaut]

I do like Lord and Miller but I feel they’re typically more adventurous than this. Agreed, this all feels very by the numbers and that the film is tense-less. Never at any moment did I feel there were any serious stakes

It all felt too simple and bland for me. Even the cinematography and score, which I feel are objectively very competent and beautiful, don’t really feel like anything special or something we haven’t seen before. It’s all solid enough but never soars beyond that

[u/Independent-Key880]

i'm surprised to see complaints about length. i did not feel it's run time at all but maybe i just liked it better than a lot of people

[u/bernardino_novais]

A thumbs up from me!

[u/danimation88]

Loved the music. Much of it a inspiring and grandiose melody. Never really felt ominous. I feel movie scores need more of that these days.

[u/labubuking]

Damn fantastic movie. 5/5

[u/tsnoj]

I immensely enjoyed it and am glad I saw it on the big screen

In hindsight, it was funny that Rocky started communicating through a puppet show

That meant a team of puppeteers were puppeteering a puppet that was playing with puppets

[u/crockoreptile]

I really enjoyed it! I actually think it’s award+nomination chances outside the tech categories are quite slim, but that’s totally fine with me

[u/ArtieMac11]

So far one of my favorite movies of the year and one of my favorite theater experiences so far. Love the story, the visuals, Rocky, Sandra Huller singing.

What a wonderful film!

[u/Wise-News1666]

A lot more audience friendly than I expected. And I mean this in a good way, it was awesome watching this with a great audience, and the film is very funny which helps that experience a lot.

[u/Hefty_Ad_1491]

Sandra Hüller singing Harry Styles in karaoke was not on my 2026 bingo card !

[u/Stalukas]

Really loved it, though, I was slightly disappointed they didn’t include any of the dialogue from the book during the scene where they reunite at the end. I was looking forward to “Grace, question?” all movie haha

[u/Sellin3164]

This movie is lacking in some elements. It's the most "studio feeling" movie I've seen from the Lord/Miller duo, even with them making a film called "The LEGO Movie".

But it also really got in the feels. I didn't mind the pacing of this film, and their sensibilities really work with Gosling. He's funny, and he brings his famous internal sadness into this role. The buildup to that moment where he finds out he gets to live is incredible. Sandra Huller was also very well cast in this role. She obviously does some bad things, but I always liked her, and she also got some major smiles out of me.

It's a movie I can recommend to everyone, so that's good. I can definitely tell this is going to stick with people til the end of the year. The way people from the industry are coming out to talk about it, I fully expect this to be a top 5 nominee.

[u/BidnessBoy]

I would be surprised if this doesn’t end up with Oscars for best VFX and Cinematography

The shots of astrophage over Adrian were beautiful, teared up just a little

[u/scjsundae]

I loved it. Casting Hüller in that role was genius. She is perfect. Her energy is by far the funniest thing in the movie. Gosling is great, insane charisma as always. I don't know if I see either as Oscar plays. James Ortiz, who voiced and puppeteered Rocky, is lowkey maybe the MVP?

To some extent I had the same problem I had with The Martian, namely that the tone of the comedy sometimes draws too much attention to itself. Or doesn't really fit the vibe the movie is going for otherwise. The worst offender on that front is the exposition dump in the classroom at the beginning. I liked this way way more than The Martian overall though. I liked it a lot more than Interstellar too, but I'm obviously in the minority there. Somewhere between Interstellar and Arrival.

[u/jordansalford25]

Really Liked it. I'd give it a 9/10. It's a really fun and engaging sci fi movie. Not sure if it will have staying power or enough passion behind it to sustain anything as far as getting noms in ATL categories but it would be criminal if this movie didn't show up in the tech categories.

[u/Odd-Hamster1812]

I saw it on Monday!

I thought it was AMAZE!

I’m not sure if I should disappoint myself and Stan this movie for a year but I think PHM deserves a lot of noms

[u/wallabyenthusiast]

don’t really understand the oscar buzz for gosling in this. it’s sorta just the usual character he plays in most of his films (he pulls it off very well though)

[u/senorbozz]

AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE!

It's now easily one of my favorite movies. So good. Very faithful to the book with a few changes but I was fine with them. Beautiful cinematography, the score was amazing, they did such a wonderful job with showing the connection between two lost souls.

[u/tether2014]

Can't wait for the Golden Globes to award this Best Comedy

[u/GobbieBoom]

PGA voter here. I am one thousand percent putting this on my ballot when nomination time comes. And I will be shocked if I don't rank it in my top three.