By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
“If Grace Rocky save stars, we can go home.” — Rocky the Eridian in Project Hail Mary.
A human, a regular, everyday person, wakes up to a reality in which Earth is facing impending doom. He would rather not face it himself, but he has been forced into a position where inaction is not an option. If he doesn’t do something, there will soon be no reality for anyone. (Please be warned: there are spoilers ahead.)
This is the premise of the newly released hard science-fiction film Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, an American filmmaking duo best known for their Spider-Verse movies. The film premiered on Friday, March 20, 2026, at all Canadian theatres, and Burlington’s Famous Players, located on Brant Street, was jam-packed on opening day with fans of Andy Weir’s original novel, published by Ballantine Books back in 2021.
This film holds special interest to the people of Burlington, in particular, because it stars Canadian actor Ryan Gosling, who grew up in our city and then took over Hollywood. Burlington is very proud of him and his wide acting range. He’s gone from playing Barbie’s dimwitted, horse-obsessed boyfriend to a specialized scientist on whom all of humanity depends for salvation.
Gosling’s character in Project Hail Mary is Dr. Ryland Grace, a quirky middle school science teacher who enjoys instructing his classroom full of bright students. However, he is reluctant to address their worried questions about what they’ve been hearing on the news about the sun rapidly dimming and the Earth’s temperatures dropping to a dangerous degree. He not only wants to preserve their innocence, but also his own complacency. He, in a very relatable fashion, would rather pretend that everything is fine and just go on with the day.
Eva Stratt, played by Sandra Hüller of Anatomy of a Fall fame, plays a government official who has been granted infinite legal immunity to do whatever is necessary to save the planet from this disaster. Stratt drags Dr. Grace out of his simple, small-town life into an interstellar mission that requires him to fully utilize his repressed talents as a molecular biologist. A series of events leads to Dr. Grace awakening on the Hail Mary spaceship after a long coma, with foggy memories and no companions, as he is the perilous mission’s sole survivor.
He’s all alone in space, surviving on limited food rations and only enough fuel to take him to the Tau Ceti star, which he must investigate to find out why it’s not dimming like his planet’s sun and all the other fading stars, which are infected by some mysterious virus. The stakes are overwhelmingly high, and he finds himself wondering if any of this effort is worth it. He has nothing to fight for, after all. Stratt told him herself, when he was protesting his participation in the world-saving project, “You have no family. You don’t even have a dog.”
But then Dr. Grace has a chance encounter with another spaceship floating in the abyss. The other vessel’s single inhabitant initiates contact, and the lonely scientist finds himself finally interacting with another living creature for the first time in years: a spider-like, rock-based alien whom he names Rocky. As it turns out, Rocky has also been dispatched from his own planet, 40 Eridani, to find out what’s been making all the stars die out. The two form an unlikely friendship based on their shared objective, and Dr. Grace’s ingenious translation machine, which detects Rocky’s echolocation speaking style, allows them to communicate with one another.
The powerful, heartwarming bond that forms between Dr. Grace and Rocky is the film’s greatest storytelling strength. The story makes a narrative shift away from Earth’s demise to explore this new dynamic, reflective of the very universal experience of discovering a support system after heartbreak and trauma.
With Rocky, an alien, Dr. Grace finds the interpersonal connection that he was missing on Earth. He didn’t manage to form any meaningful, lasting relationships with other humans, who only valued him for his high intelligence and exploitable skills, but he forms one with Rocky, his true kindred spirit. Dr. Grace can talk to Rocky about his failed marriage, Earth pop culture, and how much he misses walking on the beach. Dr. Grace also finds the motivation to succeed at the mission, which was sorely lacking before.
With Dr. Grace, Rocky finds the means to recover from the grief of losing his whole crew to radiation poisoning and come to terms with his survivor’s guilt. Along with providing Rocky’s voice, James Ortiz is also his puppeteer, leading a team of five to make Rocky move like an energetic tarantula in a hamster ball spacesuit that protects him from being singed by the air on Grace’s ship. Rocky’s very concept, as executed in this film, brings viewers back to the kind of old-fashioned, nostalgic, practical puppet maneuvering that made the effects in films like Little Shop of Horrors so memorable. His design also includes details that give him a personality and a backstory, such as his tattoo of his beloved mate, whom he left behind on 40 Eridani.
The pair come together to save both Earth and 40 Eridani in the way that real-life teams come together to manage a crisis. Dr. Grace and Rocky’s mature cooperation and resourcefulness is the same kind of heroism we often see during a pandemic, a natural disaster, or a war. But they also realistically get on each other’s nerves, just like any other set of roommates. Rocky complains that “Grace” is too messy. Dr. Grace laments to his video log that Rocky’s abnormally strong hearing allows him no privacy on the ship.
Project Hail Mary’s central theme of taking responsibility for caring for ourselves and other people’s homes, even when the task is neither desirable nor convenient, is represented in a manner viewers will be able to recognize in themselves. Dr. Grace ultimately chooses to continue on with his mission because he understands that Earth’s natural beauty, for which he is homesick, cannot be lost. And because he grows to care so deeply about Rocky, he grows to care, by extension, about Rocky’s people and planet as well. Throughout the movie, he develops a deep love for the entirety of the universe that overrides his cowardice, his apathy, and his individualism. It’s an incredible character arc.
The film is still playing at Famous Players.
