Project Hail Mary opens March 20, 2026. Ryan Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a middle-school science teacher who wakes alone on a spacecraft with zero memory of how he got there. The Sun is dying. So are nearby stars. He’s the last shot at fixing it, and the only company he gets is an alien engineer named Rocky, facing the same crisis from the other side of the galaxy.
Project Hail Mary, at a $200 million budget (gross budget was $248M, but Tax credits from the UK and others brought it down to $200M), is Amazon’s largest production bet (via Puck). Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Screenplay by Drew Goddard. The pedigree is serious. So is the material.
Before Project Hail Mary arrives, these ten films tell you everything about how sci-fi got to this moment and why Project Hail Mary could be the one that defines what comes next. Here is a ranking based on our editorial perspective.
10. Life (2017): A Sci-Fi Horror Movie That Earns Its Dread
David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Sho Murakami (Hiroyuki Sanada) in Life | credits: Columbia Pictures
Nobody on this list works harder for the same square footage. Six astronauts. One space station. One organism that keeps getting smarter every time the crew tries to kill it. Director Daniel Espinosa called the film’s opening eight-minute single take “the inverse version of Gravity,” where Gravity used space’s vastness, Life uses its claustrophobia. That instinct was right (via Hollywood Reporter).
Life is about what happens when curiosity meets something that cannot be reasoned with. Project Hail Mary is about what happens when curiosity meets something that reasons back. The cast, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds, doesn’t always get the credit the film deserves.
9. Europa Report (2013): The Found Footage Sci-Fi Movie That Actually Used Science
Daniel Luxembourg (Sharlto Copley) sits in quiet tension aboard the Europa One | Credits: Wayfare Entertainment
Six astronauts, a privately funded mission to Jupiter’s moon, and a creature beneath the ice that nobody expected. Rotten Tomatoes put it at 81% as of March 13, 2026; most audiences never saw it. That’s the injustice.
According to Space, it is called one of the most realistic depictions of space exploration since 2001: A Space Odyssey. The creature design, part octopus, part squid, bioluminescent from the first concept sketch, earns the reveal. So does everything that happens before it.
Europa Report treats discovery as something that costs everything the crew reaches the answer, and the answer takes them with it, while Project Hail Mary treats discovery as the beginning of something, not the end of someone.
8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): The Sci-Fi Movie That Made Contact Feel Inevitable
Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut) stand at the threshold of extraterrestrial visitors |credits: Columbia Pictures
Spielberg didn’t want you afraid of what’s out there. He wanted you heartbroken so that you wouldn’t be there yet. Richard Dreyfuss plays an everyday Indiana lineman who encounters a UFO and spends the rest of the film losing his family, his mind, and eventually his fear.
The film grossed over $300 million worldwide (as of March 13, 2026, via Box Office Mojo).
Roger Ebert said the final 30 minutes were among the most marvelous things he’d ever seen on screen. According to Wikipedia, John Williams wrote over 300 versions of the five-note tonal phrase before Spielberg chose one.
7. The Abyss (1989): James Cameron’s Most Punishing Sci-Fi Movie on Any Screen
Ed Harris in The Abyss | credits: 20th Century Fox
Cameron had a 7.5-million-gallon tank built specifically for The Abyss. Filming lasted 140 days. Ed Harris reportedly broke down sobbing in his car after particularly brutal shooting days. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio walked off set mid-scene. Cameron himself later said he had no idea how hard it would get. (via IMDb)
The result won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The alien water tentacle sequence, six months of work for 75 seconds of footage, still looks better than most effects made three decades later, as reported by Yahoo.
6. Contact (1997): The Sci-Fi Movie That Made Faith and Science Fight It Out
Jodie Foster in Contact |credits: Warner Bros
Carl Sagan conceived Contact in 1979. Jodie Foster plays Dr. Ellie Arroway, a SETI scientist who finds evidence of extraterrestrial life and then spends the rest of the film being disbelieved by everyone around her.
According to Box Office Mojo, as of March 13, the film had grossed $171 million worldwide. SETI.org later called it the most scientifically accurate portrayal of their work in cinematic history.
Contact ends with Ellie alone, holding an experience the world refuses to accept. Project Hail Mary ends with Grace choosing the alien over home, and meaning every bit of it.
5. Arrival (2016): The Sci-Fi Movie With the Most to Say About Language
Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams’ characters in Arrival |credits: Paramount
Eight Academy Award nominations. Denis Villeneuve worked with linguists from McGill University to build the heptapod communication system from a structurally credible starting point outward. Amy Adams carries every scene without demanding you notice.
The film grossed $212.7 million worldwide against a $47 million budget, reported by Box Office Mojo (as of March 13, 2026)
The idea that learning a language changes how you experience time isn’t presented as a metaphor here. Project Hail Mary runs a version of the same bet that two scientists from different species can build a shared language fast enough to save both their worlds. Arrival is the closest thing to a proof of concept.
4. Sunshine (2007): Danny Boyle’s Sci-Fi Movie That Almost Held Together
Mace (Chris Evans), Capa (Cillian Murphy), Trey (Benedict Wong), and Cassie (Rose Byrne) gaze in stunned silence at the star charts | credits: Fox Searchlight
Danny Boyle’s Sunshine follows a crew of eight astronauts aboard the Icarus II, sent on a last-chance mission to reignite a dying Sun by delivering a stellar bomb the size of Manhattan into its core.
The early sections are a masterclass in slow-burn psychological pressure, the crew deteriorating in close quarters, the Sun’s overwhelming presence pulling at their minds, the weight of being humanity’s final option pressing down on every decision.
3. Interstellar (2014): The Sci-Fi Movie That Generated Real Scientific Papers
Mackenzie Foy and Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar |credits: Warner bros
Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, released in 2014, follows Cooper, a former NASA pilot turned farmer, recruited for a last-attempt mission through a wormhole near Saturn to find a habitable world for a dying humanity. He leaves behind his daughter, Murph, with a promise he cannot guarantee.
The crew travels to candidate planets orbiting a supermassive black hole called Gargantua, where relativity turns hours into decades, and what begins as a mission of science becomes something closer to an act of faith in physics and in the possibility that time itself can be bent toward survival.
According to Box Office Mojo, as of March 13, 2026, the film grossed $773.8 million worldwide.
2. The Martian (2015): The Sci-Fi Movie That Shares Project Hail Mary’s Blueprint
Matt Damon in The Martian / Credits: 20th Century Fox
The Martian follows Mark Watney, a botanist and astronaut, who was left for dead on Mars after his crew was forced to evacuate during a storm. He is not dead. What follows is a survival film built almost entirely on the pleasure of watching a highly competent person think.
Watney grows food in a habitat not designed for it, rigs communications from salvaged hardware, and calculates his way through one compounding disaster after another, alone on a planet with no rescue timeline and dwindling resources.
It grossed about $630.6 million worldwide (as of March 13, 2026, via Box Office Mojo). The Martian ends with a crew pulling one man home. Project Hail Mary ends with one man deciding that home is no longer the right direction.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): The Sci-Fi Movie Every Other Film on This List Answers to
A still from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | credits: MGM
2001: A Space Odyssey is the only film ever made that feels less like a story being told and more like an experience being administered.
It moves in four distinct movements: prehistoric apes encounter a black monolith; four million years later, scientists find a second monolith buried on the moon, one that transmits a signal toward Jupiter; aboard the Discovery One, astronauts Bowman and Poole are overseen by the ship’s AI, HAL 9000.
Bowman passes through a corridor of light, ages in moments, and is reborn as something no longer entirely human.
Here is a quick reference summary of all ten films, including where to stream them, how critics rated them, and who is in them, everything you need before you hit play.
RankMovieRelease YearDirectorStarringStreamingIMDb – Out of 10 (Mar 13, 2026)Rotten Tomatoes (Mar 13, 2026)10Life2017Daniel EspinosaJake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan ReynoldsYouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video (Rent)6.667%|55%9Europa Report2013Sebastián CorderoAnamaria Marinca, Sharlto Copley, Michael NyqvistAmazon Prime Video6.481%|57%8Close Encounters of the Third Kind1977Steven SpielbergRichard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda DillonApple Prime Video (Rent)7.691%|85%7The Abyss1989James CameronEd Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael BiehnDisney+7.575%|83%6Contact1997Robert ZemeckisJodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James WoodsRoku Channel, Amazon Prime Video (Rent)7.569%|79%5Arrival2016Denis VilleneuveAmy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest WhitakerKanopy, Hoopla7.994%|83%4Sunshine2007Danny BoyleCillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle YeohAmazon Prime Video (Rent), Apple TV (Rent)7.277%|73%3Interstellar2014Christopher NolanMatthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica ChastainParamount+8.773%|87%2The Martian2015Ridley ScottMatt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel EjioforParamount+8.091%|91%12001: A Space Odyssey1968Stanley KubrickKeir Dullea, Gary LockwoodHBO Max8.390%|88%
Before Project Hail Mary arrives, here are the questions worth settling.
Which sci-fi movie is most similar to Project Hail Mary?
The Martian. Same author, same screenwriter, same instinct for science-as-survival. Sunshine is the second-closest to both centers on a crew sent to a dying Sun as humanity’s last option.
Do I need to watch all 10 before Project Hail Mary?
No. Watch The Martian and 2001: A Space Odyssey at a minimum. The first gives you Weir’s voice. The second gives you the foundation on which everything else was built.
Is Project Hail Mary connected to The Martian?
Not narratively. Different universe. The connection is authorial, same writer, same screenwriter, same problem-solving instinct at the story’s core.
What makes Project Hail Mary different from other first-contact films?
The alien relationship. Rocky is a partner, not a threat or a mystery. That’s closer to Close Encounters than to Life or Europa Report, and further than any of them pushed it.
Every film on this list exists in conversation with what Kubrick built here. Project Hail Mary will too.
Which of these are you watching first before March 20? Drop it in the comments below.
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