"Project Hail Mary" Is the Most Optimistic Movie of 2026

This post will contain spoilers for Project Hail Mary, so if you’re planning on watching it, maybe do so before continuing.

The sun is dying, and we don’t know why.

Those are the stakes Ryland Grace faces at the start of Project Hail Mary.

Alone in space and missing large swaths of his memory, Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, must figure out what his mission is and how to save the Earth.

The stakes have never been higher, yet Ryland doesn’t let that get to him. Sure, there are moments when things are bleak, but the protagonist keeps working the problem at hand with help from an alien counterpart.

Project Hail Mary demonstrates that optimism is possible, even when facing the end of the world. It also reminds us that optimism is an action, not something that just happens to you.

The Name Says It All

The movie is called Project Hail Mary. The name implies that the effort itself is a longshot. Most Hail Mary attempts tend to fall short.

In American football, the origin of the mission’s name, a Hail Mary is a last-ditch effort where the quarterback hurls the football into the end zone to have a fighting chance at winning the game. Most likely, the team attempting the Hail Mary will lose.

But that’s not always the case.

“So, you really think all this is going to work?"
– Ryland Grace
“God willing.” – Eva Stratt

 Less than two years ago, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels attempted a Hail Mary against the Chicago Bears. The Commanders were down 12-15. As the clock expired, Daniels threw the ball 52 yards for a completion, leading to the Commanders winning the game.

Hail Mary plays aren’t impossible. The attempt itself is a refusal to relent. It’s an assertion that no matter how murky the future looks, there’s a chance to try and improve it.

Project Hail Mary embodies this stance. 

The sun is dying, but humanity isn’t going quietly into the night. People are pooling together resources and knowledge to figure out some way to save the world’s entire population. If that isn’t optimism, I don’t know what is.

The Accidental Optimist

Ryland Grace was never meant to be aboard the Hail Mary. He might not even consider himself an optimist, especially early on. Grace instead stumbles upon this sense of optimism without even knowing it by constantly solving the problem that lies before him.

For most of the early memories that return to Grace, he resists the project’s efforts. At first, he wants absolutely nothing to do with Eva Stratt or astrophage. He’s burned by his experience in the scientific community. 

Over time, he relents. Grace begins running experiments for Stratt and becomes increasingly involved with the program, even leading to critical discoveries that make the project possible.

“I put the ‘not’ in astronaut!” – Ryland Grace

Grace faces yet another crossroad when two astronauts are killed in a lab experiment gone wrong. For reasons outside of his control (which the book goes more deeply into), Grace is the only person on the planet who can step in. 

If he doesn’t go on the Hail Mary, the mission will fail. Humanity will freeze and starve to death.

Yet, Grace still refuses Stratt, who makes the morally dubious decision to drug Grace and send him on the mission anyways.

Despite being in space against his will, Grace goes forward with his research. He lets his natural scientific curiosity drive him forward, eventually leading him to humanity-saving discoveries. 

Grace may have considered himself a skeptic or a coward when he was on Earth, but he proves that he isn’t as he risks his life to discover a solution to the astrophage problem.

The Power of Unexpected Connection

Perhaps the fan favorite part of the movie isn’t Ryland Grace but its other star, Rocky.

Some of the book’s fans were disappointed that a trailer revealed Rocky the alien’s existence. On the New Heights podcast, Gosling himself pushed back against this saying, “it’s like pretending E.T. is about a kid whose parents got divorced.”

Love or hate the premature reveal of Rocky’s existence, the creature is central to the story. The heart of the movie lives in the relationship between Grace and Rocky. 

Grace and Rocky need each other to save their planets. Most of the discoveries made involve information shared between the two. 

Both Rocky and Grace have lost the entirety of their crews. Grace’s two other crew members died at some point before he woke up from his coma; meanwhile, Rocky had dozens of co-adventurers who all passed away from radiation poisoning before encountering the Hail Mary.

Isolation is hard. It certainly doesn’t make saving the world any easier. The pair needs each other to survive this journey emotionally and physically if they have any hope of saving the world.

They also need each other to remain optimistic. 

As much as they are doing this for their own planets, they’re doing it for the other as well.

When things go awry, Rocky breaks out of his life-support system, risking his life, to save Grace because he knows how important his friend is to their shared mission. 

Likewise, Grace saves Rocky. Upon realizing that the Adrian amoebae likely ate all of Rocky’s remaining fuel, Grace returns to Tau Ceti to find Rocky to save the alien and his planet.

“Fist my bump.” – Rocky

At times, hope can feel lost. Even when you’re not up against an extinction event like in Project Hail Mary, it can be hard to persevere.

The movie reminds us that we don’t have to be optimistic alone. We can rely on others, friends, to help us move forward. We don’t have to save the world ourselves.

Optimism Is an Action

If the movie tells us anything, it’s that optimism is an action we must take, not just something we feel.

Grace wakes up on the ship in less-than-ideal conditions. His crewmates are dead, and at first, he has no idea what to do. He lets curiosity guide him as he takes the next best available step. Starting with what he knows, Grace works the problem with the help of Rocky, eventually leading to a life-saving solution.

Rocky risks his own life to save a friend and the fate of their missions. He knows he can’t survive in Grace’s atmosphere but makes the sacrificial play regardless. Because Rocky saves Grace, Grace is able to figure out how to use the amoeba to save the stars. Rocky believes that his friend can save the world.

“Amaze. Amaze. Amaze.”
– Rocky

Optimism requires action. 

We can’t just hope for the best then do nothing to help us get there. At some point, we must be the positivity we look for in the world. There will be problems, but like Grace aboard the Hail Mary, we can take them apart and work on what we know.

That’s something important for me to keep in mind. I can hope for a better tomorrow, but I also have to do the little steps to get there. When I feel low, I can think on Grace and Rocky. Look at the problem in front of me. Maybe the best step I can take is going for a walk or meditating or listening to some upbeat music. 

Even when things look dark, Project Hail Mary reminds us that we can be the creators of our own salvation. We don’t just have to accept things as they are. We can build toward a better tomorrow.