Project Hail Mary Is the Comfort Film We Need Right Now
I love comfort films. Most of us do, don’t we? The movies we revisit over and over again because they make us feel warm and stable. We know how they’ll change our outlook. We know how they end. We go back for affection and stability.
Project Hail Mary is a hard sci-fi movie with a soft heart. There are no villains in this movie, just obstacles to overcome. Everybody is trying to do the right thing. I found it so more-ish that my first thought as I left the cinema was to go back for more. So a couple of days later I did just that. No regrets.
Fair warning: light spoilers ahead
Rocky in the room
This is a space film with a difference. There is no green screen used in its production. Everything you see on the screen is in the room. There are plenty of VFX, of course. It’s not actual magic. The sets were built. Rocky was there. Ryan Gosling was there (Unlike Pedro Pascal in The Mandalorian). ILM took care of the exteriors.
As we join the story Gosling’s character, Grace, is alone in space - I thought it was the best Space Hippy role on screen since the early ‘80s. It doesn’t take us long to meet Rocky, an alien that looks like a pile of rocks. He’s a puppet, filmed alongside Gosling on set. “Amaze, amaze, amaze!”
Wait…Rocky is a puppet? That's so cool!
— Chris Sansbury (@notnixon.com) 21 March 2026 at 13:48
This is one of the best choices that Lord and Miller made for Project Hail Mary. It gives the production much more warmth than if he’d been a VFX character added in later. It also allows the production team to catch those small moments between them that just wouldn’t be possible if Rocky had been painted in after the fact.
Practical effects are what make Project Hail Mary special. What makes it feel magical. Ryan Gosling puts on a hell of a performance in this. He’s got real comedy chops as well as drawing emotion from a scene. His willingness to let Rocky be the star somehow makes his own star shine brighter.
One detail that struck me was the way the Hail Mary ship and Rocky’s ship moved in space. I’ve never seen it look like that before. It was fun to watch. Even getting a big laugh. Great work by ILM.
When I saw the trailer I was concerned about the appearance of Rocky. In the book, this would have been a major spoiler, but in the film we get there quickly. It’s a good choice. Although the sad lonely space hippy is funny, it’s likely an extended sequence would have fallen flat on screen. As a first act, that could have felt cold.
The two timelines
Flashbacks are a major part of this film. We learn Grace’s mission is to save the world from a fading sun. The flashbacks build Grace into someone worth caring about. Without them he's a clever bloke solving problems in space. With them you understand what he's given up to be there. When he meets Rocky they discover that their mission goals are aligned, and set off working together.
We jump back and forth between the timelines throughout the movie. The jump is smoothed out by either a sound or a visual cue between the scenes. It’s so smooth that sometimes you have to rely on a change in aspect ratio to know you have made the transition.
In the book, the flashbacks aren't really flashbacks. They're Grace recovering his memories in real time. Each one arrives because something on the ship triggers it. The film keeps the structure but loses that mechanism, and I'm not sure a first-time viewer would pick up on the distinction. It still works as storytelling, but there's a layer of disorientation in the novel that the film trades for something smoother.
There is some great story in the flashbacks. The brilliant Eva Stratt is chief scientist on the project. Sandra Hüller plays her exactly as I imagined her in the book. Cool and efficient but with a warm centre that’s occasionally exposed. The progression of her relationship with Grace is a lovely part of the story. I’m not sure it would pass the Bechdel test, but she is the most powerful character in the movie. One of my favourite scenes was when Stratt jumps in to sing a karaoke song in front of the Hail Mary Team. It’s a sweet moment letting Hüller shine, and Gosling look on with movie star eyes.
A little long?
Okay this film isn’t perfect. It's about fifteen minutes too long. There's an ending after the ending that the book earns and the film doesn't quite. Maybe the controlled pacing of a movie doesn’t afford it the freedom that a book does. But I'll be honest, I didn't care much. I was already planning my next viewing.
But there’s always more space in my heart for another scene between Rocky and Grace. Another moment for them to hug. Another tap on the glass. Project Hail Mary isn’t perfect, but it’s exactly what we need it to be. I predict we’ll all get to know this film very well over the next few years.
