★★★★★

156 min | PG-13 | March 20, 2026 | Amazon MGM Studios

The best sci-fi film in a decade earns every minute of its runtime.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller do something genuinely rare here. They take a man with no family, no children, not even a dog, and make you care about him completely. Ryland Grace is a middle school science teacher turned reluctant astronaut, and the film never once reaches for a cheap trick to manufacture stakes around his isolation. Ryan Gosling plays Grace with a warmth and curiosity that makes loneliness feel like texture rather than tragedy. The film respects its audience enough to let a man matter on his own terms.

Drew Goddard’s screenplay preserves the mechanical satisfaction of Andy Weir’s problem-solving while finding an emotional throughline that the novel only hinted at. The relationship between Grace and Rocky, brought to life through James Ortiz’s extraordinary puppetry work, is the beating heart of the film. Lord and Miller understand something fundamental about connection. It does not require shared language, shared biology, or shared anything except mutual respect and a willingness to show up. The script earns every emotional beat without ever signaling that one is coming.

Greig Fraser’s cinematography shifts between the claustrophobic interior of the Hail Mary and the vast emptiness of interstellar space with a confidence that borders on effortless. The production design by Charles Wood grounds the science fiction in tactile, lived-in reality. Daniel Pemberton’s score knows when to swell and when to disappear. The needle drops land with precision rather than nostalgia. Every department on this film operates at peak capacity, and it shows.

This is the best science fiction film since Interstellar. Maybe since Contact. The kind of movie that reminds you why theaters exist and why stories about impossible odds against an indifferent universe still matter. Lord and Miller have made something that stands alongside the genre’s best, and they did it by trusting that intelligence and heart are not opposing forces.