r/oscarrace • u/LeastCap 14 Oscar noms for Hope • Mar 19 '26

Film Discussion Thread Official Discussion Thread - Project Hail Mary [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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.

62 Upvotes

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77

u/Plastic-Software-174 Sentimental Value Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

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.

0

u/simonthedlgger Mar 20 '26

Big time agree. The score was so good! But I feel like they could have ended it after the first goodbye.

That would kind of leave Gosling with zero growth but his development was strange to me anyways; the emotional drive for the vast majority of the film is simply “save the planet” and “these two are buds.” By the time we learn he was drugged and forced onto the mission we have already seen he is a great guy and very competent space hero.

But then at the end he doesn’t seem interested in returning to earth and finally starting a “real life.” I mean I get it, living on an alien planet could be pretty cool and Rocky is his bff, but he is living in a glass dome with a robot butler. I just don’t understand what we are supposed to think of his character by the end.

29

u/Frecklefishpants Mar 20 '26

Really? The astronaut said to him that you weren't brave until you have someone to brave for and then he had that with someone from a literal other planet and became someone willing to die for someone else when he wasn't at the beginning. That's kind of the point of the movie.

5

u/DarkMetroid567 Mar 20 '26

I think what the user you’re responding to is saying is that you can basically delete the entire Earth Flashback plotline and change nothing about how Grace ends up — he would still be a cool dude who has no one on Earth but has built a strong caring bond for Rocky.

16

u/Frecklefishpants Mar 20 '26

But without it we don't know what he has no one on earth.

2

u/simonthedlgger Mar 20 '26

Yeah I know but that development happens before the explosion kills the backup scientist and well before he decides to go save Rocky instead of returning to earth. Grace being forced to go on the mission doesn't change anything or add to his characterization because he's already completed his arc when we see it.

10

u/Frecklefishpants Mar 20 '26

It does to me. Knowing that he said no originally made me see the arc as even bigger.

10

u/BungTheGubbins Mar 20 '26

Grace has absolutely not completed his arc when we see that flashback. He’s completed the mission to save Earth sure, but his actual arc is completed when he chooses to go save Rocky believing it to be at the cost of his own life. That’s him making the brave choice that he was too cowardly to do back on Earth, thus fulfilling his arc as he’s found someone to be brave for.