Project Hail Mary sees Ryan Gosling waking up on the titular spaceship as the sole survivor of a small crew, so with the pilot and engineer deceased, it’s up to him to save the day… Well, some would say it’s his own fault for the Barbie movie.
However, as Dr Ryland Grace (NOT Rylan), your first thought would be to ‘phone home’, but given the distance, it’s going to take 12 years for his message to even reach Earth, and even if he had enough fuel for the trip home – which he doesn’t, as there’s not enough room on board the craft (and the same would be the case for going to Mars) – the duration of the trip would be longer than the term of his natural life.
So, he’s up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
However, the sun is being dimmed by a microorganism called Astrophage, which will lead to Earth being so cooled down in 30 years, that we won’t be able to live on it… yes, cooled. Put THAT in your fucking pipe, Greta Thunberg, and smoke it, you scam artist!
In one of many flashbacks back to life on Earth, head of the Hail Mary project, Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller – The Zone Of Interest), wants science teacher Grace to figure out the solution, head up into the stars to put the plan into motion, then go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over….
On the plus side, the spacecraft has probes known as ‘beetles’, which will takes all of his findings back to Earth, so if he can figure it out then that’s good for everyone at home, but alas, it’s way too tiny to allow him to travel inside one.
That said, Astrophage is also a very effective fuel source that can get the spacecraft out amongst the stars, but it’s a volatile one, so not necessarily the greatest thing, but it might just be all they have for now.
When all seems lost, he discovers another spacecraft approaching, controlled by a small alien creature he dubs “Rocky”, given its rock-like appearance. Can they somehow find a way to communicate and solve this? Well, if you’ve seen the trailer – and I’ll assume you have – you know it leads to Rocky’s audio being translated into text on Grace’s screen, with the hope, “Grace Rocky save stars“, which in the trailer, Grace repeats back to himself, even though that line of Gosling’s is strangely cut from the final film.
One thing I didn’t realise until watching Project Hail Mary is that the film starts up in space, with the Earth scenes being flashbacks. The trailer just gave a mix of both, but when you see the film, you realise it’s better-delivered in the finished version, as it drip-feeds the Earth scenes into the plot as and when required, so that’s a nice plus.
However, this does lead to a lot of unnecessary fucking about with widescreen aspect ratios.
Before I get to that, thought, the film is more sciency-technical than the trailer made out – and with some nice some 2001-style visuals – but from what we were previously shown, the film looked more like a knockabout comedy.
And just one slight niggle early on… early walkie-talkie scene is muffled and could’ve used subtitles, as the dialogue clearly refers to something scientific that’s important but I couldn’t make out what was said, which is annoying.
But, on to those aspect ratios, and bear with my if I get a bit technical… well, a LOT technical. Most cinema screens in the UK are a wide 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Generally, if the film is a regular 1.85:1 ratio or narrower, it’ll be placed within a 1.85:1 container and will reach the full height of the screen and look normal, even if you do get black bars at the sides (aka pillarboxing), generally because the cinema never bothers to make the screen draw the curtains from the sides.
If the film is in 2.39:1, it’s sent out to cinemas with an instruction to use their ‘zoom’ transition, so that after the ads and trailers have finished… as well as the 100 times I have to sit through an extra advert for Theo James supposedly driving a car, while winking at CGI llamas and going over a CGI chess board… there’s a brief pause while the projector zooms in to fill the screen, so the film also fills the screen, accordingly.
The problem comes when a film is in an aspect ratio somewhere between 1.85:1 and 2.39:1, as most cinemas don’t have anything programmed in to do the zoom, so that the film can retain the full height of the screen. Hence, films like Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 (at 2.00:1) – as well as the first one, Never Let Go (a rare 2.11:1), Mercy (2.20:1 on a non-IMAX screen), and the forthcoming They Will Kill You (also 2.20:1), will just be treated like a typical 1.85:1 film, and it will have black bars all around the sides, i.e. windowboxing.
So, I put this out on Twitter/X and surprislngly, I did get a response from both directors. First, from Phil Lord. Since i said it would look terrible on 2.39:1 screens, he replied:
It looks and sounds great everywhere! we spent weeks and weeks in DI / mix making bespoke versions for each format! Trust me! ?? no wrong format ! I personally love different things about each one!
— Phil Lord (@philiplord) March 16, 2026
I replied further:
Ok, I'm glad someone's responded, but since it's a mix of 2:1 and 2.39:1, it's sent out as a 'flat' 1.85:1 print,so on a 2.39:1 screen, those scenes will be horrendously windowboxed. A bit like this all the way round, but with more black top & bottom. Do you see? #ProjectHailMary pic.twitter.com/XbUQ1DCCkx
— DVDfever.co.uk ?? (@DVDfever) March 16, 2026
Christopher Miller added:
We have sent a letter to projectionists saying if the screen is 2.39 to blow up the projection so the 2.0 portion reaches the top and bottom of the screen. There should never be postage stamping
— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) March 16, 2026
Across two tweets, I added:
“Thanks for that info, but for example, neither Odeon, nor Cineworld, have anything other than a 2.39:1 transition plugged in. Plus, while I saw Project Hail Mary is mostly space, even if they act on your letter, the Earth scenes will be postage stamp.
(and taking a mention of Dolby into account along the way) Similarly, Odeon’s FNAF2 (2.00:1) in Dolby was awful. Just hanging in the middle of the screen. Additionally, I specifically chose a 1.85:1 screen for Project Hail Mary, so got the best out of a regular screen, but I am planning 1.43:1 IMAX at Vue Printworks.”
I haven’t had a further response, but I know the film will look bad on these screens. At least when I saw the film at Odeon at the weekend, it was on a 1.85:1 screen, so is a mix of 2.00:1 (for space scenes) and 2.39:1 (for Earth scenes), and thus, no windowboxing. However, originally, the space scenes were meant to be 2.20:1, as per the initial trailer, which was first released last year, when the film was originally due out, so on a 2.39:1 screen, there’d be even more windowboxing for those scenes.
However, more of the space scenes could’ve been shown in its released form, since the space scenes open up to 1.43:1, which can be seen on a handful of IMAX screens in the UK, whereas the more common digital IMAX screens will open up to 1.90:1. Clearly, Lord and Miller want some element of exclusivity for IMAX, as opposed to giving us 1.85:1 on non-IMAX viewing, so such screens have to suffer. I will catch it in 1.43:1 soon, though. And as per the Dolby screens, 4DX 2.39:1 screens will also be similarly affected.
For more info, check out the images created by Divyansh on Twitter. The ‘Earth Scenes: Scope’ and ‘Space Scenes: Scope’ images get across the windowboxing problem.
There's also a very slight chance that IMAX 1.90 (Basically all IMAXs in India) may have a 1.85 container resulting in tiny bars on the sides.
This possibility was described in the director's format video on youtube, hence adding it in case this happens. pic.twitter.com/Jgwc7kdZfC
— Divyansh (@Speaks_Div) March 16, 2026
UPDATE Friday March 27th: I went to see this in 1.43:1 IMAX and while the visuals are phenomenal, and some of the science gelled more this time round, for that aspect of it, I do feel like there’s some gaps missing, such as how quickly Grace sets up the translation system so he can see Rocky’s thoughts spelled out in text, and then soon after, in vocal form.
But oh… the audience. From what I could see, the majority of the people at Vue Printworks IMAX behaved perfectly fine, but as I always like to sit on the back row and in the middle, for the first time, I came up against TWO people using their mobile phones during the film with gay abandon. Come on, now – you’ve paid £17.99 for your ticket and STILL can’t concentrate!
To my left, on the other side of my friend, was a guy who randomly kept picking up his phone to do God knows what, and I tried the tack of getting his attention and subtly saying, “Can you turn your phone…” (and motioned ‘away from me’), as that often gets people to realise they’re being a dick, and they stop.
To my right, before this though, was a decent couple, but the problem lay to their right, and a young Korean couple in their 20s (bloke closest to me, then her). Inbetween them, a large Coke in the cupholder. When not using his phone, the bloke just rested it up against the cup. FULL GLARE ON!
After about 10 minutes of this, I had to step in, briefly apologised to the couple next to me, and pointed to the problematic couple, trying to indicate that their phone was the problem. Clearly, a communication treacle between us, but after a bit of gesticulating, it worked… mostly. The bloke just put the brightness of the phone down to near-zero.
Hence, on occasion after one of them still used it, it still grated at times, unless the couple next to me moved about and blocked the line of sight.
And I know the film is quite complex, as well as long – even though I do feel some elements would be better explained by the original near-four-hour cut – but for almost the entire last 30 minutes, the woman used the phone constantly, albeit with white text on a black screen (but still in my line of sight) and with her feet tucked up under her and turned to her right, so if I had 20/20 vision, I could see what she was typing.
Why in the world of fuck don’t staff at Vue ever come in? Even if they just walked along the back of the IMAX periodically, they could see what was going on and tell people to stop! It’s no use just having a silent “Please don’t use your phone” message before the film, when some people are jerks and behave like this.
Why does no-one else call them out on this shit?
Plus, Project Hail Mary rated 12A by the BBFC for the following reasons, and I’ll put them behind a spoiler banner just in case:
Project Hail Mary is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
However, for now, you can buy the novel here.
NOTE: There is something at the end of the credits. If you missed it, check out the video below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 156 minutes
Release date: March 14th 2026 (previews); March 19th 2026 (general release)
Studio: Amazon MGM Studios
Aspect ratio: 1.43:1 (IMAX 70mm & Dual Laser, space scenes); 1.90:1 (IMAX Xenon & Single Laser, space scenes); 2.00:1 (space scenes); 2.39:1 (earth scenes)
Rating: 8.5/10 (first viewing 7/10)
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Producers: Ryan Gosling, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Rachel O’Connor, Amy Pascal, Aditya Sood, Andy Weir
Screenplay: Drew Goddard
Novel: Andy Weir
Music: Daniel Pemberton
Cast:
Dr Ryland Grace: Ryan Gosling
Olesya Ilyukhina: Milana Vayntrub
Eva Stratt: Sandra Hüller
Yáo Li-Jie: Ken Leung
Rocky (voice): James Ortiz
Shapiro: Liz Kingsman
Carl: Lionel Boyce
Narender: Aaron Neil
Xi: Orion Lee
Olivia: Annelle Olaleye
Home Depot Cashier: Alice Brittain
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.