Project Hail Mary - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Project Hail Mary



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
It’s not a secret that over the years I have become rather jaded with movies in general. Well, not really the entire idea of movies, but how modern movies and music have been a weird sort of holding pattern due to creative stagnation. We could argue that this started as far back as 2008 or 2009, but it became so blatantly obvious during the Covid 19 era that it has become a meme at this point. I had stopped going to the theater for the last several years, and unless I was reviewing it here, or watching an old movie, the excitement for the medium had waned more than I would have liked. That being said, 2025 and 2026 have shown signs of righting the ship, with huge creative bursts in the music industry, and films coming out that actually make me want to go to the theaters again. And what better system shock to this partially jaded reviewer was Project Hail Mary. I had initially shrugged the trailer off as just another generic sci-fi thriller, but the word of mouth from the theatrical run was ENORMOUS. By the time Alliance Entertainment (who absorbed Paramount’s physical media distribution) sent us the 4K UHD, I was officially curious and pumped up. But even then, I still wasn’t prepared for how unique and entertaining the movie actually is.

Earth is on the verge of collapse. The sun’s energy has been fading for several years, and it’s been determined that it is being “attacked” by a microscopic substance dubbed “astrophage”. And to make matters worse, this sapping of the sun’s energy isn’t going to end anytime soon. In 30 years,s it has been estimated that the Earth will cool enough for ¼ of the population to die off, and in time cause our extermination. Add on top evidence that our solar system is not the only star/sun suffering from this condition, and you have literal galaxy-wide extermination. BUT, and this is a big but. There is a single planet just a little over 11 light years away from Earth that the astrophage hasn’t invaded. Humanity’s only chance now is for a suicide mission for 3 people to travel 11 light years in a medically induced coma, analyze the planet for a cause, and transmit their findings back to Earth in hopes of devising a weapon to use against this organism before it's too late.

And here’s where our story really starts. With Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a disgraced molecular biologist who is stuck teaching grade school after going scorched earth on a peer’s theories. Given a few samples of the astrophage to study, Grace ends up figuring out how the astrophage propagate, giving him direct access to a super-secret project known as “Project Hail Mary”. And you guessed it, “Hail Mary” is a suicide mission across the universe to HOPEFULLY find a way to defeat them. But things don’t go exactly as planned. Grace wakes up on arrival to their destination only to find that the other two members of the crew were dead in their stasis pods. And to make matters worse, an alien spaceship is seen floating just off his port bow.

And this spaceship and its passenger/pilotares the whole focus of the film. You see, an alien “rock monster” life form has suffered the same fate as the Mary did. He was tasked with watching over his sleeping crew, only for them to die in transit and never wake up. Now he’s stuck in orbit around the planet and looking for help. Help that comes from the sheer loneliness that comes from believing you’re going to die out there alone. A few “lanterns in the night” later, Grace makes first contact with the rock being. After a few hiccups and some ingenious use of mathematics and a computer, the two devise a way to communicate with each other. Now it’s up to the two of them to see if they can come together and figure out how to get the information they came for, and get the information back to their respective planets before the astrophage destroys everything in the galaxy.

While a weird concept, Project Hail Mary actually works. And what makes it all the more intriguing is that the main plot line about gleaning information to save Earth is actually a secondary focus in the tale. Sure, it acts like it's front and center, but the REAL story is the relationship between Ryland Grace and “Rocky” (voiced by actor James Ortiz). This is essentially a buddy movie set in space, with elements of The Martian thrown in (which isn’t exactly shocking considering the same author who wrote “The Martian” wrote “Project Hail Mary” as well). And that’s the real fun of the film. Watching Grace and Rocky grow in their friendship despite strange physical and emotional differences between the two friends. What starts as a cute/weird little rock monster talking to a scientist blossoms into a friendship that dwarfs everything else in the film, survival of Earth included. So much so that you had an entire audience in the theaters bawling their eyes out over a rock alien 2/3rds of the way through the film (according to my wife’s viewing of it in the theater). And while I want to say more, I have to cut myself short, as there are HUGE swathes of plot development that I’d have to spoil in order to go any further. Needless to say, this is a film that balances fun with sci-fi seriousness, and yet manages to elevate above both subgenres and in a way that I genuinely didn’t expect.

Ryan Gosling is full-bore the star of this film for the most part. Especially when you take into account that he was effectively acting opposite a puppet for the ENTIRE film (except for a few flashbacks). And the man was 100% acting his heart out the entire time. Even though Rock was a puppet basically, you could feel their friendship through the screen, something I didn’t think was actually possible considering it’s just him and Rocky most of the 2.5-hour run time. And to bring up the runtime, I was shocked at how fast-paced the film felt for being over 2.5 hours. Usually at the 2-hour mark I’m checking my watch to see how much time we have left, but it wasn’t until the very end that I realized I hadn’t been sitting and watching a 90-minute film, but one over an hour longer. On the flip side, I will fully admit that the HOW of the communication method felt a bit trite. And I can kind of see why too. It was merely a method to get communication flowing, and fairly superfluous for the rest of the film. To put it more simply, the mathematical way he created a universal translator (to borrow some Star Trek terminology) was a means to the end, and it’s easier to just overlook it rather than try to read too much into it.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some thematic material and suggestive references.




4K Video: Video:

Yeah, I’m going to say it. Project Hail Mary is THAT film of the year. You know, the one that comes with perfect 5’s down the board (except for the extras sadly), and the video score is no exception. Shot entirely digitally and then transferred to a 4K DI for the home video release, the 4K UHD looks absolutely stunning. Shot in the bowels of the ship itself, things lend itself towards glossy and “space age” shiny, with dim lighting and various tinges of blue, grays, and golds for Rocky’s technology. Flashbacks to Earth are a bit brighter, with shiny uniforms that really pop, but dimly lit boardrooms that sort of tamp down the highlights a bit. I didn’t notice any major artifacting whatsoever, and fine detail levels are off the charts. You could see everything from Ryan’s light stubble of beard to the intricate patterns on Rocky’s “rocky” shell flexing as he moves and walks. There is no noise or encoding issues that I can see, and with the inclusion of some seriously inky black levels thanks to the Dolby Vision, this is about as perfect as you can get.








Audio:

Uggggnnnnn. I almost bit my lip in excitement just thinking about the Dolby Atmos mix. A good sci-fi film needs a good audio mix, and this Atmos track is to die for. It’s extremely precise and accurate, layering the sound stage with varying alarms, pings, and creaks as Rocky rolls his way over the cramped living quarters. The higher octane bits throughout (such as the ram scoop moment where they collect samples) really shake the room with the LFE, and dialog is above reproach. The more subtle atmospheric aspects of the track really seep in during the quieter moments, and despite this not being a huge action flick, there were so many standout moments that I can’t help but love it.

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Extras:

• Audio Commentary by Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
• "Earth's Favorite Eridian" featurette
• Five Deleted Scenes

Final Score: ​

Project Hail Mary was not what I expected at all from my initial overview from the trailer. It’s part The Martian, part buddy cop banter, all Sci-Fi, and a unique twist on the “lost in space” cliché. Sure, the movie can be a bit more syrupy than you’d expect for a dramatic science fiction film, but this is really a buddy film at heart, just set in a Sci-Fi universe. And frankly, in a world where large budget movies have become nothing but Superhero films and remakes of remakes of classic action films, I’m all for it. This was one of the biggest breaths of fresh air that I’ve had in quite some time, and certainly earns all the praise heaped on it during the theatrical run. Alliance’s 4K UHD disc looks and sounds amazing, though extras are a bit lacking. All in all, great film, great presentation, and certainly one of the biggest demo discs of the year. Highly recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Huller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce
Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Written by: Drew Goddard, Andy Weir
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1/1.78:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French (Canadian), French DTS-HD MA 5.1. French (Canada), Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Alliance Entertainment
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 156 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 11th, 2026

Recommendation: Highly Recommended