Ryan Gosling is having a moment that even Hollywood rarely gets to witness. The Rotten Tomatoes scores for Project Hail Mary are officially in, and the verdict is stunning — a 95% approval rating that not only crowns this sci-fi epic as the year’s most celebrated film but also marks the highest-rated performance of Gosling’s entire career. With its theatrical release set for March 20, 2026, the buzz surrounding this movie has reached a fever pitch, and the numbers are proving the hype was never overblown.
This is the film that audiences have been waiting for — and it is living up to every expectation.
👉 Grab your IMAX tickets now. This is one experience you do not want to watch on a small screen.
What Project Hail Mary Is Actually About
At its core, Project Hail Mary is a story about loneliness, survival, and the unexpected connections that make both worth fighting for. Ryan Gosling plays Dr. Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who wakes up alone aboard a spacecraft with no memory of who he is or how he got there. As his memory slowly returns, he pieces together a devastating truth: he is the sole survivor of a crew sent on a one-way mission to the Tau Ceti system, tasked with solving a mystery that could mean the extinction of all life on Earth.
The sun is dying. A microscopic organism is draining it of energy, and Grace — a reluctant, deeply ordinary man — is somehow humanity’s last hope. What he does not expect to find is company. When he encounters a spider-like alien engineer he names Rocky, the two form an unlikely alliance that becomes the emotional engine of the entire film.
The story is based on the bestselling 2021 novel by Andy Weir, the same author behind The Martian, and it carries that same spirit of passionate, joyful science wrapped inside genuine human warmth.
A Rotten Tomatoes Score That Rewrites Gosling’s Legacy
The 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes is not just impressive — it is historic. It surpasses Drive, which held a 93% rating for 15 years and had long been considered the pinnacle of Gosling’s filmography. It also outperforms the Rotten Tomatoes score for The Martian, making Project Hail Mary the highest-rated film adaptation of any Andy Weir novel to date.
Critics across the board are using words like “masterpiece,” “career-best,” and “one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made.” The consensus is remarkably unified: this film delivers on every level — performance, story, emotion, and spectacle — without sacrificing intelligence for accessibility.
With nearly 60 reviews now counted, the score reflects something rare in modern blockbuster filmmaking. This is not a film that divided critics. It swept them.
Ryan Gosling Gives the Performance of His Career
Much of the film rests entirely on Gosling’s shoulders. Grace spends the majority of the story alone on a spacecraft, and the actor carries every scene with a combination of physical precision, comedic timing, and raw vulnerability that reviewers are calling his finest work.
Gosling has always been a magnetic screen presence, but what makes his work here different is the restraint. Grace is not a hero in the traditional sense. He is scared, frequently wrong, and deeply reluctant to be the person the world needs him to be. Watching him grow into that role — through science, through humor, and ultimately through friendship — gives the film its extraordinary emotional pull.
Andy Weir himself has stated he could not be happier with how Gosling brought Grace to life, noting that the actor revealed dimensions of the character that even he had not fully imagined when writing the book.
Rocky: The Alien Audiences Are Already Falling in Love With
If Gosling is the heart of Project Hail Mary, then Rocky is its soul. The alien character — a stone-skinned, spider-like engineer from a world facing the same extinction threat as Earth — was built and performed entirely through practical puppetry on set. There are no digital stand-ins. Every scene between Gosling and Rocky was filmed with the actual puppet present, and that physicality shows.
James Ortiz, who both puppets and voices Rocky, is being praised by critics as a genuine revelation. Several reviewers have noted that Rocky is the kind of cinematic creation that comes along once in a generation — a fully realized, emotionally complex non-human character that audiences immediately love and believe in completely.
The friendship between Grace and Rocky is the reason this film works as well as it does. It is funny, heartbreaking, and deeply human, even when one of the two participants is decidedly not.
The Creative Team That Made It Happen
Project Hail Mary was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the filmmaking duo behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Lego Movie. Their ability to balance tonal complexity — blending humor with genuine stakes — is exactly what this story demanded, and by all accounts, they have delivered the most ambitious work of their careers.
The screenplay was written by Drew Goddard, who also adapted The Martian for the screen. Cinematography was handled by Greig Fraser, the Oscar-winning director of photography behind Dune and Dune: Part Two. The film was scored by Daniel Pemberton, who previously collaborated with Lord and Miller on the Spider-Verse films.
The production budget exceeded $200 million, nearly double what was spent on The Martian. Rather than relying on digital environments, the filmmakers built physical sets for every spacecraft interior and used visual effects to enhance reality rather than replace it. The result is a film that feels grounded and tactile even as it unfolds across interstellar distances.
Principal photography took place over 102 days at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom, wrapping in October 2024.
Box Office Expectations and the Awards Conversation
Early projections place Project Hail Mary’s opening weekend domestic gross somewhere between $60 million and $70 million — strong numbers for an original sci-fi film not based on existing franchise IP. Word of mouth, already overwhelming, is expected to carry the film well beyond opening weekend.
The awards conversation has already started. Industry observers are pointing to Project Hail Mary as a likely contender for next year’s Academy Awards, potentially following in The Martian’s footsteps, which earned seven nominations in 2016. Gosling’s performance, in particular, is already being discussed in the context of Best Actor consideration.
The film opens in standard theaters and IMAX on March 20, 2026, with select IMAX screenings in limited cities beginning March 13.
Why This Is the Film America Needs Right Now
There is something genuinely special about a film that trusts its audience to care about science, to sit with loneliness, and to find joy in the middle of an apocalypse. Project Hail Mary does all three.
It is a film about curiosity winning out over fear. It is about two beings from completely different worlds finding a way to communicate, cooperate, and ultimately save each other. In a cultural moment that often feels defined by division and noise, there is something quietly powerful about a story that insists connection is possible — even across the universe.
The 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes tells one part of the story. The full picture will become clear when audiences pack theaters across the country starting March 20.
👉 Select your seats today — especially if you want IMAX. Shows are already filling fast.
Whether you have read the book a dozen times or have never heard of Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary is the kind of film that stays with you long after you leave the theater — drop your thoughts in the comments below and let us know if it lived up to the hype.
