Project Hail Mary Officially Revives the Best Sci-Fi Movie Trend of the 2010s

Videos by ComicBook.com

One of the best things about Sci-Fi in the 2010s was the influx of what I’d call “Smart” Sci-Fi that also played very well at the box office. We had a run of movies that mixed heady philosophical ideas and ingenious scientific concepts while also delivering a crowd-pleasing time at the movies, resulting in critical and commercial success.

The Rise & Fall Of Smart Sci-Fi – And How Project Hail Mary Brings It Back

Think Inception‘s exploration of dreams and psyche, Looper‘s twist on the time loop, the human resilience of Gravity, Interstellar‘s dissection of hope and love (particularly that of a parent), Arrival‘s beautiful study of communication, and so on. That’s just to name a few: there was Prometheus, The Martian, Ex Machina, the list goes on, most of them released from 2010-2015. All wrestled with fascinating ideas, used scientific ideas to unpack the human condition, and made good money.

Unfortunately, things waned in the second half of the decade. There were a few misfires: Jupiter Ascending, The Cloverfield Paradox, and Serenity, to give just three examples, were a downward trend in terms of quality. There were still great movies being made, though: Blade Runner 2049 and Annihilation are as visually stunning and thought-provoking as anything that came before (and Ad Astra is worthy of a mention here, too), but none of these films performed well at the box office.

Into the 2020s, things have gradually shifted. Tenet was a bit of a mixed bag, with a divisive reception and box office that was solid by most standards, if not those of Christopher Nolan. Everything Everywhere All At Once was a word-of-mouth sensation; then there’s franchise fare like Avatar: The Way of Water and Dune: Part Two that really mixed critical appraisal with big box office returns. It’s actually been easier to see on TV, particularly Apple, with the likes of Silo, Severance, and For All Mankind. But perhaps the movie that, more than any other, says “we are so back” is Project Hail Mary.

Starring Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a science teacher who gets sent on a near-impossible mission to save Earth from disaster, it’s not just that it’s among the best Sci-Fi movies in years. It’s that it feels like a 2010s Sci-Fi. Perhaps that’s because its story and themes blend elements of things like Gravity, Interstellar, and The Martian (it has the same screenwriter in Drew Goddard, and is based on a book by the same author, Andy Weir). Perhaps it’s because the humor is so millennial. But in how it blends its themes of friendship, sacrifice, and survival with hard science, while offering up genuine thrills for audiences and being among the most gorgeous films you’ll see all year, this truly is a reminder of an era of Sci-Fi that had started to fade.

Thankfully, Project Hail Mary‘s box office is also supporting this, which is the other crucial piece. The film has so far proved to be a hit, with $157m at the time of writing after one weekend in theaters. It broke several records and, after Oppenheimer, became only the second non-sequel/franchise movie of the past decade to open with $80 million or more domestically. Hopefully, that will continue to translate into strong legs, more box office, and more movies like this, because it’s so great to see original Sci-Fi succeeding in such a big way.

Project Hail Mary is currently playing in theaters.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!