It’s out of this world

Endearing, funny and out of this world, Project Hail Mary is the cinematic moment the world has been waiting for. Ryan Gosling delivers a performance of quiet brilliance as Ryland Grace—a humble science teacher who awakens alone aboard an interstellar vessel, adrift light-years from home with nothing but fragments of memory and the weight of humanity’s survival on his shoulders. Based on Andy Weir’s beloved novel, the film unfolds as a breathtaking meditation on courage, friendship, and the extraordinary lengths one soul will go to protect life itself. As Grace pieces together the astonishing truth—that he was chosen to stop a mysterious substance from killing Earth’s Sun—he discovers something even more profound: an unlikely companion whose existence becomes the universe’s most beautiful surprise, and ultimately, the key to saving not one world, but many.

Project Hail Mary is, without question, one of the most significant and soul-stirring films of 2026—a story that reminds us why we look up at the stars in the first place. And if Project Hail Mary has left you hungry for more of cinema’s most imaginative science fiction offerings, consider this your definitive guide: five extraordinary films to seek out next.

Scroll below to see movies like Project Hail Mary. 

The best movies to watch if you liked “Project Hail Mary”:

The Martian

A masterclass in human resilience, The Martian follows astronaut Mark Watney— brilliantly portrayed by Matt Damon—who finds himself stranded alone on Mars after his crew presumes him dead. Armed with nothing but ingenuity, wit and an unshakeable will to survive, Watney must science his way back to Earth. Equal parts thrilling and deeply moving, it is a love letter to the enduring power of the human spirit.

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus is a staggering, emotionally devastating journey through black holes, wormholes, and the boundless depths of a father’s love. When Earth’s future grows dim, a crew of astronauts ventures beyond our galaxy in search of a new home for humanity.

Gravity

Breathtaking and viscerally benovalent, Gravity places Dr Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) in the vast, unforgiving silence of space, where they have to survive following a catastrophic accident—hit by debris while spacewalking.

Arrival

Arrival is a science fiction film following a mysterious alien vessel that appears across the globe. Linguist Louise Banks—played with extraordinary grace by Amy Adams—is then tasked with decoding an otherworldly language that holds the key to humanity’s fate. A film about time, love and the courage to embrace what is inevitable.

Oblivion

Cinematically beautiful and layered with mystery, Oblivion stars Tom Cruise as a solitary technician stationed on a near-abandoned Earth, tasked with maintaining the machines of a world already lost. But as fragments of a forgotten past begin to surface, nothing—and no one is quite what it seems.