Ryan Gosling’s latest big screen adventure “Project Hail Mary” arrived in theaters on March 20 from Amazon MGM Studios, bringing a story of hope and human resilience to audiences around the world. Based on the bestselling novel by Andy Weir (“The Martian”), the film’s genesis began even before its publication, as Weir courted Gosling as a producer and star.
Gosling was moved by the story’s hopeful tone, a perspective not common in futuristic apocalyptic thrillers.
“It gave me such an overwhelming feeling of hope when I finished it, while I was reading it,” he said. “It felt like what Andy does, and why he’s so special is he’s like offering this opportunity to pivot away from fear and towards curiosity, this idea that the future, we’re so saturated with apocalyptic narratives and sort of just bleak outcomes, rarely given solutions. And I think what he’s done is he’s giving us this opportunity to say, ‘Maybe the future isn’t something to fear, rather just something to figure out,’ and that we’re capable of incredible things as human beings.”
The story of “Project Hail Mary” centers on Dr. Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher whose hypothesis throws him into an inter-galactic crisis to help save the universe. Facing the tragedy affecting every living thing brings religious faith to the surface in Grace’s scientist mentor Eva Stratt.
“God willing,” Stratt says in one scene, prompting Grace’s question, “Believe in God?” She does, adding “Better than the alternative.”
Another supernatural theme is the concept of sacrifice, which Grace has to wrestle with himself through the story. What if it came down to one man who sacrifices himself to save all of humanity? That Messiah-like theme is ripe for spiritually-centered conversations.
Even through the emotional weight, Gosling is also able to lean into humor as he partners with an alien life form who was also sent through space to help solve the crisis. The actor credited Weir’s talent for balancing the dramatic and comedic.
“The beauty of what Andy Weir does is, this is his kind of specialty,” he said. “He’s masterful at it. And I think he understands that the humor helps sort of get through a lot of this sort of dense scientific information. And the movie is definitely trying to be and is grounded and scientific at the same time, but it also has to be entertaining. I think he strikes this perfect blend.”
As he set on his journey even through the Covid shutdown. Gosling recreated producer Amy Pascal who in turn brought in the dynamic directing duo of Chris Miller and Phil Lord, who previously created universes in “The LEGO Movie” and The Spider-Verse series.
“We really love telling stories about people doing a job well, and we’re a team, and our collaboration and the accommodations we make for one another is so foundational to the way we work,” Lord said. “We also really are interested in helping people imagine goodness and possibility, and I think Andy’s story really gave us the opportunity to do that.”
Weir, whose debut book “The Martin” gave him international acclaim, is still humbled by the idea of having “a couple hundred people” working on ideas that “just fell out of my brain.”
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but hey, this is awesome,” he said.
The filmmakers hope that the audiences are inspired by the story of friendship, hope, and optimism, and that perseverance, especially accompanied by love and selflessness, will triumph in the end.
“In times when sometimes it can feel hopeless, it’s good to be reminded that it isn’t hopeless, that humanity can do great things if we can find common ground and work together on something,” Miller said. “That’s what’s so cool about the movie. Yes, it’s epic and grand and this massive spectacle that’s worth seeing on a massive screen, but the story is this very intimate story between these two beings that couldn’t be more different from each other, that find common ground and are able to work together and solve problems that seem impossible.”
“(‘Project Hail Mary’) is about science, yes,” Pascal said. “But it’s also about faith – faith in people, faith in collaboration. We’re living in a time where everyone is scared of each other. No one trusts each other. Nobody wants to listen to each other. Everybody’s in their silos just believing what they believe and reading different newspapers and not opening themselves up to other people. This movie is about having to listen. You have to learn someone else’s language. You have to understand where they’re coming from, or you can’t save the world.”
“Project Hail Mary,” directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and starring Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, and Milana Vayntrub, released March 20 from Amazon MGM Studios.
DeWayne Hamby has covered faith-based music, movies, television, books, and the retail industry for more than 30 years. He is a film member of the Critics Choice Association and the author of the book Gratitude Adjustment. Connect with him at on Facebook, X, YouTube or InstaGram.
