It’s a cultural phenomenon. Everyone and their mothers are talking about it. The movie theaters, typically empty, are brought back to life by the crowds now swarming inside, furiously buying tickets.

You’ve probably heard of it or seen it: “Project Hail Mary,” based off of the book by Andy Weir, arrived in theaters on March 20, 2026. 

The movie, with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, follows an unsuspecting science teacher—played by Ryan Gosling!—who wakes up on a spaceship, unsure of how he got there. As his memory slowly comes back, he realizes he must save his planet before the sun dies out. 

“I thought it was the best movie I’ve seen all year,” said student Sophie Delaney. 

Sachi Bhusal, another student, shared the same sentiment. “I think it was amazing,” she said. “I loved it.”

Student Carter Parrish liked it so much that he said he wants to go watch it again. He said that the acting and visual effects stood out to him the most.

“The cinematography was really, really good,” said Delaney, agreeing with Parrish. “Especially the fact that there wasn’t a lot of CGI used in the movie, and the way that they were able to get all the space shots … that was the best part of the movie.”

Bhusal said that she also liked the comedy in the movie. “It felt light-hearted,” she said. “But there are also contrasting scenes where it’s very deep and emotional … and those are the best types of movies.”

Student Aria Nautiyal said that her primary motivation for seeing the movie was Ryan Gosling, since he is her favorite actor.

“[He] does a good job delivering an emotional impact to the audience,” Nautiyal said. “I was thinking a lot about space when I was driving home.”

Delaney said that the movie changed her perspective. “It just made me see that sometimes sacrifice is really noble,” she said.

“It just made me appreciate our world right now, that we’re not going through something like that,” Bhusal said. “It made me think of how vast … the outside world can be, and it just gave me perspective on how important … bonds with people are.”

Parrish, Delaney, and Bhusal all compared the movie to “Interstellar,” another space movie.

“‘Project Hail Mary’ is like a funnier, less serious version [of ‘Interstellar’],” Delaney said. 

Before “Project Hail Mary” was a movie, it was a science fiction novel by author Andy Weir. 

“Compared to the movie, the book was a lot more detailed … like scientifically, it explained a lot of more things,” said Bhusal. “The movie brushed over a lot of things … but I think plot-wise, it was pretty accurate.”

Parrish echoed similar sentiments. “The beginning of the movie was faster-paced than the book,” he said.

Bhusal said that despite this difference, it was 100% a good adaptation of the book.

When asked what they thought the general public thought of the movie, students were confident that the public received it positively. 

“I think everyone thought it was really good,” Nautiyal said. “My brother’s really picky, [but] he liked it a lot.”

“I’ve heard a lot of stuff about it being the movie of the year,” Delaney said.

Despite love for the movie all around, Bhusal just had one criticism of it.

“Some of the plot lines were kind of brushed over,” said Bhusal. “And there were some relationships that … I didn’t like from the book.”

But that is her one and only criticism—otherwise, she, like everyone else, loved the movie as a whole.

Bhusal would recommend it to “anyone—anyone who likes sci-fi movies, anyone who likes any type of comedy movie, anyone who likes Ryan Gosling as an actor … there’s no group of people that I can think of that would hate this movie.”