Scientist debunks 'mismatched' key plot point in new Ryan Gosling sci-fi film Project Hail Mary

Jess Battison
2026-03-23T14:07:59.221Z
Entertainment

The sci-fi film has had a hugely successful opening weekend with a historic premiere

I never thought one of the highest grossing films of the year would be Ryan Gosling becoming best mates with a rock-like alien, but here we are.

The new sci-fi has blasted off with a whopping £141 million global opening and has been widely praised for its blend of science and funny.

Based on Andy Weir's novel of the same name, Project Hail Mary stars Gosling as failed biologist and teacher Ryland Grace, who wakes up on an interstellar spacecraft with no memory of how he got there.

It’s made history in science in real life too, with IMAX having a world-first ‘out-of-this-world premiere' as the film was propelled into the stratosphere.

But while there is great appreciation for its accurateness, there’s a ‘mismatched’ key plot point which a scientist has debunked.

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Waking up from his coma, Grace learns he is the only survivor of three who died from exposure of radiation and is light years away from Earth.

The Sun is dimming, caused by a microorganism known as Astrophage and the teacher, along with the little alien, Rocky, he becomes besties with are central to saving the world.

"It's basically just mold that lives on stars," Weir explained to Space.com

However, observational cosmologist at Northeastern University, Dr Jacqueline McCleary, has said there’s a bit of a problem with this part of the plot.

She told Daily Mail that it’s a ‘stretch’ that this Astrophage could absorb sunlight or even survive the Sun’s atmosphere.

This is obviously pretty central to the plot, but Dr McCleary says there’s a big ‘mismatch’.

“There's orders of magnitude mismatch between what a microbe could store… and what the Sun actually puts out in terms of energy,” she explained.

The sun puts out so much energy in every second alone, it doesn’t seem so likely this microorganism-like thing could really be absorbing it all to such a detrimental effect.

Plus, it would need to survive in the Sun’s extremely hot atmosphere.

Project Hail Mary has been widely praised, and hey, doesn't this look cool? (Amazon MGM Studios)

But, while she also takes issue with the idea Grace would survive the multi-year induced coma without severe brain damage, you’ve got to remember that element of movie magic.

Dr McCleary did praise the depiction of Rocky as well as the spacecraft’s design.

And the majority of viewers are absolutely loving Project Hail Mary.

With an impressive 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes currently, users say it’s the ‘best movie’ they’ve seen in a long time with ‘nonstop laughter, tears and suspense’.

“Great adaptation of a great book. Visually stunning, great soundtrack, funny and heartfelt. Gosling is amazing,” one wrote.

And while others said it was ‘dumb’ and ‘boring’, another called it ‘genuinely a masterpiece’.

Project Hail Mary is now in cinemas.