“Faces are overrated.”

Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), the protagonist of Project Hail Mary, encounters an alien being named Rocky in a far-flung corner of the cosmos. Rather than recoiling in fear at a creature consisting (in human terms) of five legs and little else, Grace maintains his composure. His first step is to communicate, through body language, that he means no harm. Then he records Rocky’s vocalizations and logs them, gradually building a vocabulary. It’s a rudimentary dictionary designed for interspecies communication. Thus, as a modern Hollywood sci-fi hero, Grace’s greatest strength is neither combat prowess nor an overriding sense of courage. Rather, it’s his openness, patience and ability to communicate that define him. The idea of heroism and relational problem-solving presented by co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller is relevant to many of our abiding concerns in 2026.

Project Hail Mary opens with Grace awakening from a coma aboard a spacecraft. As he tends to the bodies of the deceased captain and crew member, fragments of memory return. A middle-school science teacher, he has been recruited into a global project to solve a crisis: the Sun is dimming. The project’s mission is to identify and ship back a predator to contain Astrophage, a single-celled organism that feeds on solar energy. The catch is that the spacecraft has a limited supply of fuel, so even if the mission succeeds, the crew can never make the return journey. When Grace refuses the assignment, unflappable project director Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) bluntly remarks, “You have no immediate family — you don’t even have a dog.”

The film never shows Grace with family, a romantic partner or even a close friend. Importantly, he doesn’t seem particularly bothered by that kind of life. A molecular biologist by training, he is ostracized by the scientific community after publishing a paper arguing that life could evolve without water. With few career prospects, he becomes a middle-school science teacher and finds contentment in the job. His days are spent teaching the solar system and cycling to work. He’s genuinely concerned about his students’ future but not brave enough to sacrifice his life to save humanity. Courage often comes from the urge to defend someone held dear, yet Grace has no such motivations. Rocky, an alien engineer from the planet Erid, becomes the first true “other” that Grace learns to coexist with and comes to care for.

The two castaways — scientist and engineer, each stranded far from home — work together to design equipment allowing them to survive in each other’s atmospheres: tech for literal coexistence. Their bond is not simply given at the outset but builds through painstaking effort. In their filmmaking career, Phil Lord and Chris Miller have often revisited the theme of solving problems through friendship and cooperation. 21 Jump Street is a buddy movie in which the partners offset each other’s weaknesses, and The Lego Movie is an adventure fueled by collective creativity. In Project Hail Mary, that idea is finally expanded to a solution for the human species as a whole.

With perilous spacewalks to collect the Astrophage predator, life-or-death episodes and acts of noble sacrifice, the film offers no shortage of stirring moments. Yet the most memorable scene is when Grace takes off his oxygen helmet, putting trust in Rocky’s work. With a teacher’s patience, he introduces Rocky to the customs and culture of Earth, while Rocky shares the culture of his home planet, Erid. Since the two have forged a genuine friendship through learning about each other, removing the helmet is not merely an act of courage, but an expression of trust. This choice, made in the depths of space, embraces the aspirations of a generation that believes a meaningful life can be built outside conventional norms of family ties, nationality and romantic attachment. The film presents a vision of heroism worthy of that ideal.

To be sure, Project Hail Mary is a commercial blockbuster that hews close to the conventions of its genre. Yet its success also seems rooted in a genuine effort to engage with changing social mores, especially through its realistic depiction of heroism. For decades, Hollywood disaster movies have spooled out plots where characters are forced into one foolish decision after another. Whether presidents or chemists, the protagonists routinely shed their professional identities and transform into unlikely action heroes the moment disaster strikes. But that formula is turned on its head by this 21st-century space adventure (adapted from the novel by Andy Weir). Its upbeat protagonist relies on his expertise instead of ignoring it, moving forward step by step, through trial and error, toward solving the crisis threatening human and Eridian civilization. The universe he faces is neither the home world for deadly extra terrestrial creatures as in the Alien series nor the battleground between competing political systems of the Star Wars series.

Having long celebrated the power of friendship in their previous work, the co-directors visualize the themes of coexistence and cooperation embedded in Weir’s novel. At the film’s conclusion, they question assumptions long taken for granted: that Earth is our only home, and humanity our only kin. For a species forced to endure one crisis after another, perhaps salvation lies in our capacity to work with strangers from a strange land and, in the end, achieve mutual understanding.

21 Jump Street (2012)

A big screen adaptation of the 1980s television series, 21 Jump Street is an undercovercop comedy that doubles as a send-up of ‘80s buddy cop movies such as Lethal Weapon. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as police partners posing as high school students as they try to bust a drug trafficking ring. The film leans into the genre’s clichés, resulting in a hit that spawned the sequel 22 Jump Street.

The Lego Movie (2014)

Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have built a career out of rebooting seemingly defunct pop culture properties. Everybody’s favorite toy blocks are the material of The Lego Movie, which was animated to imitate stop-motion style. In a cookiecutter Lego world, go-with-theflow construction worker Emmet discovers his creative potential in comic adventure. If you can keep a straight face while watching this film, you just may be a Lego figure yourself.

Arrival (2016)

A definitive cinematic depiction of humanity’s painstaking effort to understand an alien language, this film is based on a novella by Ted Chiang. Arrival presents a compelling vision of the possibility of communicating with an alien species. Director Denis Villeneuve’s film is a masterclass in adaptation for the silver screen, memorably visualizing the aliens’ language while giving cinematic expression to a nonlinear understanding of time.

Toni Erdmann (2016)

This is the film that introduced Sandra Hüller (who plays Eva Stratt in Project Hail Mary) to international audiences before she became one of the most sought-after actors in both European arthouse cinema and Hollywood. An idealistic baby boomer frets over the corporate lifestyle of his daughter, who is trying to navigate today’s competitive business environment. The titular Toni Erdmann is the alter ego the father invents to reconnect with his emotionally distant daughter.

Interstellar

Everyone has a time to return to. Former NASA pilot Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) travels through a wormhole in search of a new planet for humanity to inhabit after Earth is ravaged by a catastrophic blight and famine. This sci-fi epic packs the vastness of space, the theory of relativity, and family ties into a story that spans infinite expanses of time.

The Martian

If you were left alone on Mars, what’s the first thing you would do? That’s the conundrum confronting astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) when a mission to Mars goes horribly wrong. Despite the odds, Watney uses his botanical expertise to grow potatoes on the Red Planet. This space-age take on Robinson Crusoe celebrates the power of science and the indomitable human spirit.

The Life of Chuck

As the end of the world draws near, people begin to witness something bizarre: images of an unremarkable accountant named Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) start appearing everywhere. Split into three acts, the film begins with Chuck’s death at 39 and moves backward to his childhood, revealing how the memories, loves and losses bound up in one ordinary life make up a universe of blinding brilliance.

The Creator

In a future where humanity is at war with AI, former special forces agent Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) is given the mission of eliminating a mysterious weapon. But he balks when his target turns out to be an AI in the form of a young girl. This science-fiction blockbuster explores the dilemmas facing humanity in the era of artificial intelligence.

Michael

His voice and dance moves captivated the world and crowned him the King of Pop. Following the life of Michael Jackson — from his Jackson 5 days to his Bad World Tour in the late 1980s — this biopic spotlights the contrast between the legend on stage and the man off stage. With some of Jackson’s most iconic performances, the film is a concert-like chronicle showcasing his musical passion.

Sirāt

Techno beats reverberate across the vast desert landscape. Searching for his missing daughter, Luis (Sergi López) travels with his son to a remote rave, where they find themselves on a perilous journey across the desert with a group of strangers. The music playing throughout the film is more than an acoustic background — it’s a narrative in its own right straddling the boundary between life and death.

Song Sung Blue

This film is based on the true story of two struggling singers united by their love of music. Mike (Hugh Jackman) is a recovering alcoholic and Vietnam War veteran, and Claire (Kate Hudson) is a single mother. Drawn to each other’s voices, they form a tribute band. Their renditions of Neil Diamond’s songs demonstrate the healing power of music.

I Can Only Imagine 2

Success does not always heal wounds of the past. Despite a thriving career as the lead singer of Christian rock band MercyMe, Bart Millard (John Michael Finley) still struggles with his childhood scars as well as his limitations as a father. After years of sharing his faith through song, he at last begins to face the truth buried inside.

The Count of Monte Cristo

Falsely accused of treason, young sailor Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney) loses everything overnight. After long years behind bars, he escapes and assumes the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, intent on getting revenge. Based on the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas, this period drama portrays betrayal, ambition and revenge.

Wuthering Heights

Loosely adapted from the immortal novel by Emily Brontë, this is the stormy love story of Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), a boy of obscure origins, and Cathy (Margot Robbie), daughter of a fading land-owning gentry. The film’s portrayal of two lovers driving each other mad propels this dark yet lyrical tale of love and revenge fraught with class tensions.

The Shawshank Redemption

A wrong conviction for a double murder lands banker Andy (Tim Robbins) in Shawshank State Prison. Despite the brutality of prison life, he holds on to hope and gradually forms a special bond with fellow inmate Red (Morgan Freeman). Based on a novella by Stephen King, this film is a dramatic portrayal of humanity enduring in the face of hardship.

Life of Pi

A shipwrecked young man and tiger find themselves alone on the open sea. Pi (Suraj Sharma) drifts on a small lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Based on the novel by Yann Martel, the film spins a gripping tale about survival, while pondering weighty questions about existence and nature, faith and imagination.

Ticket to Paradise

Divorced couple David (George Clooney) and Georgia(Julia Roberts) reunite in Bali to dissuade their daughter from rushing into marriage. Set in a tropical holiday destination, this playful romantic comedy reignites the spark in a relationship long assumed to be over. Can love be rekindled after the fire has died?

5 Centimeters Per Second

Inseparable in their early years, a young couple drifts apart with the passage of time. From a vow made on a snowy night to unvoiced feelings and seasons that slip away, the unforgettable experience of young love is depicted with quiet beauty in this film.

You’ve Got Mail

Anonymous email correspondents Joe (Tom Hanks) and Kathleen (Meg Ryan) have no idea that, in real life, they run rival bookstores. Set in New York City in the ‘90s — at the dawn of the modern Internet age — this rom-com captures the enduring warmth of offline connections.

Once We Were Us

Bound for his hometown, Eunho (Koo Kyohwan) crosses paths with Jeongwon (Moon Gayoung). They fall for one another but ultimately choose different paths. Years later, they’re reunited in this tender reflection on the fading traces of youthful love.

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