Project Hail Mary Brings Humor and Heart to a High-Stakes Space Story

If you haven’t seen it since it first arrived on the big screen in 2015, you should probably pop on The Martian again. Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon, The Martian was based on Andy Weir’s debut novel of the same name, and, in equal measure, was both a thoroughly enjoyable and surprisingly touching exercise in hard science fiction. The adaptation of Weir’s novel was a critical and commercial success, which helps to explain the excitement felt by many fans of smart science fiction upon learning that Weir’s 2021 novel Project Hail Mary was next on Hollywood’s adaptation agenda.

Amazon MGM Studios has done just that, releasing the first trailer for their adaptation of the book earlier today. From start to finish, the film’s trailer oozes the wit, humor, and hard science that made Weir’s novel such a page-turner. But the trailer also showcases the who and the how behind the film, with an all-star cast and team putting their combined weight behind the film.

As far as who is concerned, Ryan Gosling is the face of the film, and with Drew Goddard on screenplay duties and directorial oversight from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the film has some of the best in the business. It’s also no secret that Amazon MGM Studios first got involved with Project Hail Mary well before Weir’s novel was even published, with the studio optioning the film rights ahead of its publication, and hiring Goddard to take the screenplay adaptation reins. Goddard, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his faithful and astute screenplay adaptation of The Martian, was no doubt an obvious choice when it came to adapting Project Hail Mary for the big screen.

Lord and Miller, meanwhile, may seem like an odd choice for the kind of hard science fiction narrative put forth by Weir’s work. The filmmaking team is best known for their work on films like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The LEGO Movie, as well as the recent Star Wars anthology film, Han Solo: A Star Wars Story. But their handle on both humor and humanity is more or less a given when it comes to the directing duo, and, based on the first glimpse of the film, that ability is certainly going to play a role in Project Hail Mary.

And then, there’s Gosling himself. Playing the lead role of Ryland Grace, Gosling’s character is a mild-mannered middle school science teacher who awakens in the middle of a spaceship without any recollection of how he came to be in said position. The trailer wastes no time getting viewers up to speed with the fast-talking Grace, who is scrambling to find an escape hatch after first learning that he’s thousands of miles from Earth, let alone his apartment. Grace is then treated to a montage of flashbacks that take him from his classroom, complete with his students, to being approached about a new opportunity by an unknown representative.

Needless to say, this isn’t your average new job. As the sun slowly dies out across multiple nearby stars, all but one of which have become inexplicably dimmer, the world’s scientists have one target in mind, and that target just happens to be Grace. A former molecular biologist by trade, he was quickly recruited by the mission and trained to be the sole astronaut, after which he was sent on an extended space flight with his mission being to uncover the secrets of the sun’s mysterious behavior to help humanity.

As best explained by one of his interviewers during one of the film’s flashbacks, there is a cosmic mystery afoot, and it needs to be solved. Said interviewer, played by Sandra Hüller, makes her pitch in no uncertain terms: “If you don’t go, you die with the rest of us. If we do nothing, everything on this planet will go extinct.” Grace, while not exactly jumping at the prospect, relents under the notion of his students (and all of humanity) being at stake, and is put into training.

In what is likely just an extended dream sequence on Grace’s part, he is shown going through rigorous space training exercises, at the end of which, he is suitably suited and ready for his space-bound adventure, from which he is the sole astronaut. After what is presumably a brief nap, Grace is awakened on his ship and, save for the newfound memory loss courtesy of his space medication, finds himself seemingly alone. As is further supported by the cast list, which points to Milana Vayntrub portraying one of Grace’s now-deceased crewmates, Olesya Ilyukhina, one of his other crewmates has also since died, and Grace is now all alone.

All alone, that is, until he makes contact with an entirely different spaceship in the vastness of space. It seems that someone—or something-is—isn’t the only living thing to make it out to where Grace is. In the company of his new, non-humanoid, extraterrestrial friend, who he quickly dubs Rocky, there is an adventure to be had, and, if the trailer is any indication, it’s going to be an intergalactic adventure filled with moments of humor, human—and not so human—connection, as well as all the science, exploration, and space hijinks that fans of Weir and Martian-style stories have come to love.