5 Movies to Watch After Seeing 'Project Hail Mary'

A curated list for fans of space, survival, and Ryan Gosling

I just saw Project Hail Mary earlier today and had a blast: I already have tickets to see it again (this time in 70MM IMAX) next weekend. If you haven’t already, check out my friend Alejandro’s review we put out last week!

If you, like me, enjoyed the film, here’s a list of five movies that you’ll probably also like! (Note: I didn’t include Interstellar and Arrival because it feels like we have written about those movies ad nauseam and clearly many of you have watched them considering how high they ranked on our list of the best movies of the 21st century. But you should definitely watch those if you haven’t!)

Gravity (2013)

Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón

Starring: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney

This one feels like a no-brainer: it’s a survival-in-space movie. Still, despite Project Hail Mary’s astounding effects and cinematography, I don’t think any movie has captured the overwhelming, terrifying vastness of space more than this film. It’s truly a miracle of a movie that was actually the first movie I ever saw in IMAX, and would love to be able to see in theaters again someday. The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is- as always- astounding, and the VFX work is second-to-none. Bullock is a powerhouse in this. (It’s also #19 on our list!)

First Man (2018)

Directed by: Damien Chazelle

Starring: Ryan Gosling

The other movie that sends Ryan Gosling into space. This one is a lot sadder, but still a fantastic watch nonetheless. Gosling plays the one and only Neil Armstrong, detailing the lead-up to the Apollo 11 mission and exploring the psychology of the first man to step foot on the Moon. Justin Hurwitz’s haunting, contemplative score is perfect, especially for the jaw-dropping space scenes. Like Project Hail Mary, this movie eschewed greenscreen for onset LED screens, adding to the film’s immersive quality and it actually won that year’s Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

Directed by: Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan

It’s likely that Project Hail Mary wasn’t your first Lord and Miller film. They directed The Lego Movie, 21 and 22 Jump Street (and part of Solo), and produced the Spider-Verse films. But if you want to see their first film, check out this zany animated film they made with Sony back in 2009. Loosely based on the children’s book of the same name, the movie follows Flint Lockwood (Hader) as he tries to save his island town of Chewandswallow from a diet of only sardines by creating a device that turns water into food: resulting in hamburgers, pizza, spaghetti and more falling from the sky. It’s a great example of Lord and Miller’s creativity and humor: a lot of the jokes in Project Hail Mary involving translation errors abound in this film with Flint and his pet Monkey, Steve. I can quote this one from front to back.

Life of Pi (2013)

Directed by: Ang Lee

Starring: Suraj Sharma

Like First Man and Gravity, this one was also a winner of the Best Visual Effects Oscar. Where the comparison to Project Hail Mary comes in is that a large part of this visually breathtaking film is in a confined space with a creature who can’t speak (in this case, a tiger), where the protagonist must survive. This one’s got a pretty crazy twist ending as well.

The Martian (2015)

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Written by: Drew Goddard

Starring: Matt Damon

There’s no Project Hail Mary without The Martian. Based on Andy Weir’s first book, this one is one of my all-time favorite science-fiction movies. Directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner) and written by Drew Goddard (who wrote Project Hail Mary), this one is a blast of an ensemble piece with a cast including Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Donald Glover and more. But the real star of the show is Damon, who performs the majority of the scenes by himself (no alien counterpart in this one) as he uses every trick in the book to survive on Mars while waiting for rescue. If there’s one movie on this list that I will absolutely guarantee you’ll like on this list if you liked Project Hail Mary, it’s this one! (But I think you’ll like them all).