Have you found yourself crying over a rock recently?

Have you always wondered if there’s particles slowly killing the sun and dimming it for the next 35 years, killing us in the process, and wondering if you can do anything about it?

If so, you’re not alone; Ryland Grace has also done all of those.

Project Hail Mary, a 2026 film (and a novel published in 2021 by Andy Weir) is the best movie of 2026. The character development, the soundtrack and the story in general are amazing. The way the film team made every visual without a greenscreen just blows it out of this world. My overall opinion on the movie is just a straight 10/10.

Grace (Ryan Gosling) is a middle school teacher stuck in space 11.9 light years away (68.208 trillion miles), sent there against his will by the government along with two other astronauts on a mission called “Hail Mary.” The movie goes through chronological flashbacks as Grace is trying to regain his memory of who he is. Grace has to tap into his science-teacher knowledge to try to save Earth from extinction, while making some friendships along the way.

There’s a lot of amazing, well put together parts of the movie that I love. One part that I really liked is the cinematography; it’s incredible. I really love that the directors (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller) wanted a feeling in the movie that was realistic and not faked. The way that they did that is to lean into CGI software to create physical and practical effects, leaving out the green screens. They built all rooms and props on set, making it feel more human and lifelike. There was a scene when Grace was trying to choose a voice for the little rocky alien named “Rocky” (voiced by James Ortiz) because Grace didn’t want to keep reading what he said. He went through a lot of text to speech voices, while doing that there was a voice that was recognizable, one of which was the voice from Oscar award winning actress Meryl Strep, which Grace responds with “she can really do anything.” There were also voices from the movies stunt coordinator which wasn’t in the script, so it made Ryan Gosling laugh out loud and Rocky responds with “what’s so funny?” Gosling’s kids were also on set doing voices.

The best thing in the movie that I really liked is the cinematic soundtrack. The producer of the cinematic soundtrack for “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” Daniel Pemberton did a phenomenal job on the mood for each song. The songs “Amaze Amaze Amaze (Fist My Bump)” and “Amaze Amaze Amaze (Life On Erid)” did amazing jobs of portraying happiness and success. Daniel Pemberton recorded people clapping and stomping to make it feel more “human” even recording it in the Abbey Road Studios in London. Also having choir members record vocals for each as well. The song “Extensive Centrifugal Force” portrays fear and anxiety. The movie soundtrack was also super good with songs featuring The Beatles, Dennis Wilson and Neil Diamond, representing the sound of Ryland Grace’s story.

This movie is amazing but there are some flaws, including the fact they simplified the movie for the audience and left out a lot of science. Writer Andy Weir loves the science part of the book; some parts of the movie take a few minutes to pass unlike the book it takes multiple chapters just to get through one scene. Another thing I didn’t like is that they rushed the movie a little bit. While also being two and a half hours long, the director said that they cut the movie a lot and it was supposed to be four hours long.

Should you watch the movie?

The short answer is yes.

If you enjoy sci-fi and space exploration, you’ll love it. If you like actors like Ryan Gosling who plays Ryland Grace who is also in “La La Land” (2016) and Sandra Hüller who plays Eva Stratt who is also in “Toni Erdmann” (2016), you should really watch “Project Hail Mary.”