Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 2026)

It is perhaps just as well that In Our Time recently had episodes on Archaea and the Marian Trench (including discussion of extremophiles), because the suspension of disbelief about beings that eat the stars was a little easier.

Little critters called Astrophages are eating the Sun and there’s thirty years left before the Earth will cool to a point when life is untenable. So some kind of space agency are sending a mission to a Tau Ceti which doesn’t seem to be impacted (at least in the last dozen years). A German (Sandra Hüller) seems to be in charge for some reason. Fortunately a defrocked molecular biologist, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), demoted to high teacher is on hand to make massive discoveries in days and somehow if inevitably be trained up in hours as an astronaut when the plot demands.

This is all flashback – your mileage may vary on its reliability – as he wakes up alone à la whichever Alien film it is or Passengers (2016) somewhere in the vicinity of Tau Ceti. He is not entirely alone – an alien quickly named Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz) is the sole survivor of a mission from another star system. Short circuiting the linguistic games of Arrival (2016), Grace creates a translation program and together they can solve the problem of how to deal with the Astrophagi. And get home before the end of the worlds.

For all the CGI and eye candy (and Gosling is splendid as always), there is a definite old school feel to this. Any problem can be solved by sciencing the shit out of it and Rocky has the charisma of R2D2. I get the feeling that they rewatched 2001 (1968) and 2010 (1984) in preproduction because no one could hear you scream in this space and the soundtrack never quite get Blue Danube. The legacy of early Spielberg is here – not least in the direct nod to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Carl Sagan’s Pioneer plaque is also referenced – perhaps the first unsolicited dick pic in history. There is jeopardy, yes, but you never seriously believe the mission will fail – you never quite believe ET can die — and by the end of the film Rocky and Grace can converse as easily as Han Solo and Jabba. There are no real villains in the film – you can’t even really begrudge Hüller or the security guards and the Astrophagi are just living their best lives.

Screenwriter Drew Goddard cut his teeth on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Cloverfield and The Cabin in the Woods, so he has nearly a quarter of a century operating in pastiche mode. The cutting edge soundtrack of a Beatles song is reinforced by a not to John, with Paul, George and Ringo seconds behind. The dozen years of travel can be torn up when necessary. Each element is where it should be and I don’t think anything here will surprise you.