Project Hail Mary is one of the biggest movies of 2026, and its cultural dominance this year is a reminder of another iconic sci-fi movie that was incredibly underrated when it was first released 12 years ago. The Ryan Gosling film has been making waves since its release in theaters, with it receiving critical acclaim and making $301 million at the box office as of the writing of this article. The movie has drawn comparisons to all kinds of beloved space movies, with one of the films that it is most frequently compared to has one major difference.
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Project Hail Mary is another comedy film from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but it has one difference that makes it stand out from their filmography: it is a space epic. Because of this, Project Hail Mary features parallels with movies like Gravity, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and more. However, the film that it is most often compared to is Interstellar.
Project Hail Mary Is Getting Compared To Interstellar, Despite The Differences In Their Reception
2014’s Interstellar is one of director Christopher Nolan’s most iconic movies, with it being a fan-favorite of many viewers who have seen it in the years since it hit theaters. It has been compared to Project Hail Mary a lot, with many fans citing similarities such as both films featuring a dying Earth, an unlikely astronaut, and beautiful cinematography. Both movies are now considered to be some of the best that sci-fi has to offer, and while that was an immediate reaction for Project Hail Mary, it wasn’t the case for Interstellar.
When it was first released, it was widely considered to be good, but not incredible. The film was criticized mainly for its sound mixing, a problem that many of Nolan’s other movies have faced. On top of that, the fixation on real-life scientific concepts was deemed an issue by some critics, with the film getting a bit too heady for audiences who weren’t already familiar with the topics being discussed. This mixed reception is reflected in Interstellar‘s score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is currently 73%.
In the 12 years since, however, Interstellar has been reappraised as one of Nolan’s best films. It is considered to be one of the greatest space movies of all time, and some of its scientific concepts (such as Interstellar‘s depiction of a black hole) have gone on to be proven true by real science. It is considered to be as great a film as Project Hail Mary nowadays, even if the initial reception of both films was completely different.
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