According to reports, Andy Weir, the author of the novel Project Hail Mary, did deep research into the science behind the story’s science fiction, in particular the viability of the sun-consuming microbes called astrophage that trigger the titular extraterrestrial mission. Weir’s theory is that these microscopic animals are literally eating the sun, thus leading to certain disaster on earth due to global cooling. A worldwide concerted effort has identified a distant sun as being resistant to astrophage and endeavors to send a crew of scientists there to find out if there’s a solution for our solar system. As it happens, a lowly junior high school science teacher, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), once wrote a paper on the possibility of astrophage and the head of the worldwide endeavor, Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), tries to recruit him for the years-long mission. This part of the plot is spliced into the exposition in tandem with the mission itself after Grace awakens on the spaceship to find that his two colleagues have died during their induced coma and that he is alone millions of kilometers from earth. In a very real way, Weir, along with the directors of the film, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, known mainly for The Lego Movie and the Spiderverse series, make everything as difficult to follow as possible, not just with the technology that has to be carefully explained and completely understood in order for the viewer to really appreciate the story, but with the weird pacing and confusing time shifts between before liftoff and after liftoff. And then they throw in a cute alien counterpart to Grace because, well, this is supposed to be a comedy.

The alien, a blocky, multi-appendaged creature Grace dubs “Rocky” has also been sent from his own dying planet to this faraway sun to find out how it’s resisting the astrophage and has also found itself the only surviving member of its crew, so after Grace rigs a computer with AI to provide the two with a linguistic interface, they set about working on the problem, and then the science gets even wonkier. And while I could easily believe it all as it was being explicated within the workings of the plot, the rapid accumulation of scientific input proved to be too much and I eventually gave up trying to make heads or tales of it after Grace and Rocky devised a means of destroying the astrophage; which is to say that regardless of Weir’s thoroughness in making the science in his science fiction viable, it made no real difference in terms of me buying the overall premise, which, of course, is central to the enjoyment of a good science fiction story—or any fantasy tale, for that matter. The effect on the comedy was thus significant, and while I could fully appreciate the friendship that Grace and Rocky forged through one monumental setback after another, I came away less heartwarmed than depressed. 

Consequently, the parts of the movie I enjoyed the most were those that took place on earth before the liftoff, and for reasons that most viewers will likely take for granted: the interactions between the self-deprecating nerd Grace and the northern European efficiency stiff Stratt. There’s something about their tense, almost combative conversations that felt particularly human and astutely expressive of the catastrophe that Weir’s premise envisions. Rocky is a good E.T. manque, but regardless of how cleverly designed the motion-capture and putatively AI-generated English are, the character couldn’t hold a candle to Hüller’s bone-dry epigrammatic line delivery, which was where the comic elements really came into their own due to how subtle they were. Whenever she was on screen, I could relax and actually enjoy what the movie was trying to accomplish.

The extraterrestrial in the totally earthbound comedy Jules leans more toward the usual pop culture stereotype: humanoid in form with smooth, silvery skin, a bulbous head, and inky black eyes. This creature’s equally stereotypical flying saucer crash lands in the backyard of Milton Robinson (Ben Kingsley), a lonely senior citizen whose main pastime is showing up at town council meetings in his small rural Pennsylvania burg and requesting a traffic light for a particularly tricky pedestrian crossing. Though E.T. is the obvious plot model for Jules (which Robinson names the alien because he “looks like a Jules”), the twist is that the earthlings who help get the alien home are not guileless children but oldsters on the verge of senility, which is the central joke. Whenever Milton or his elderly co-conspirators, Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin), try to get help with their alien “problem” they are thought to be suffering from acute dementia; that is, except for the predictably venal and mostly off-screen Feds, who have pinpointed the UFO’s landing somewhere near Milton’s ranch house and are silently closing in. The fact that no one in town has done the same is the movie’s second big joke.

Another predictable component of the story is how our three senior citizens discover what is missing from their lives by helping the mute and outwardly expressionless Jules. For Milton, it’s acknowledging how cold he was toward his now-adult children when they were growing up, an aspect that’s actually hard for the viewer to accept given how blankly Kingsley plays him. And while his veterinarian daughter Denise (Zoe Winters) rightly worries about the possible onset of Alzheimer’s, despite a few instances of absent-mindedness Milton does not especially present as a doddering old fool. If anything his attention to detail when it comes to Jules’ welfare is humanely clear-eyed, and if the movie had adhered to this line of thought it probably would have been quite affecting, but once the intrigue of authoritarianism is introduced the movie has to follow through with it, and it becomes pretty generic. 

Project Hail Mary now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Marunouchi Piccadilly (050-6875-0075), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Shibuya (050-6868-5002), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024). 

Jules now playing in Tokyo at Cinemart Shinjuku (03-5369-2831), Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (03-6259-8608).

Project Hail Mary home page in Japanese

Jules home page in Japanese

Project Hail Mary photo (c) 2025 CTMG

Jules photo (c) 2022 Apple Slice Productions LLC