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And now, on to Project Hail Mary.

Ryan Gosling has teamed up with the guys behind the Lego movie and Spider-Man into the

Spider-Verse for the new sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary.

The sun is dying and the Earth's population is under threat.

The planet's only hope is to send a team on an interstellar mission from which they'll

almost certainly never return.

If that all sounds incredibly bleak, fear not.

While the world may or may not be doomed, you can expect quirk, charm, and a cutie alien creature to boot. I'm Linda Holmes. And I'm Aisha Harris. Joining us on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is our fellow co-host Stephen Thompson. Hey, Stephen. Hey, buddy. Also with us is Ronald Young Jr. He's the host of the film and television review podcast leaving the theater. Welcome back, Ronald. Hello, Aisha. Great to be here. So lovely to have you here. So Project Hail Mary. It's based on a novel by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian. A movie I haven't seen since it came out, but I definitely was feeling Martian vibes. so I felt vindicated when I learned after seeing this movie that he also wrote that book.

It's built around a doomsday scenario.

A mysterious phenomenon is causing the sun to dim, and Earth is projected to cool significantly within the next few decades.

Many people will be wiped out.

Ryan Gosling plays Ryle and Grace, a molecular

biologist who was chased out of the field after publishing a controversial paper about life on

other planets. These days, Grace, as he goes by, is teaching middle schoolers, but his radical

views have caught the attention of Eva Stratt, who's leading the international force tasked for preventing

the impending ice age. She's played by Sandra Huller. Eva recruits Grace as one of her key experts,

and he winds up on a one-way mission into space. Some time later, Grace awakens from a coma to

find he's the only surviving crew member on the ship. Eventually, he makes contact with an

alien whose own planet is also under threat. Grace dubs him Rocky. He's voiced by James Ortiz and

kind of looks like a giant crab made out of a rock. It's kind of cool. Kind of cute. They bond and

work together to try and fix the solar system. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed Project Hail Mary, which is in theaters now.

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