If You Loved Project Hail Mary, These MGM+ Sci-Fi Movies Are Your Next Must-Watch
Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary has taken the world by storm — first as a bestselling novel celebrated for its relentless optimism, hard science, and a friendship that transcends the boundaries of biology itself, and now as one of the most anticipated science fiction films in recent memory. If you've already devoured the story of Ryland Grace waking up alone on a spacecraft with no memory and a dying star to save, you know the particular thrill that comes from truly great hard sci-fi: the awe, the ingenuity, the emotional gut-punch wrapped inside an equation.
The good news? MGM+ has a curated library that scratches exactly that itch. Whether you're craving isolated-astronaut tension, first-contact wonder, or survival stories driven by sheer human brilliance, these three picks belong at the top of your watch queue. Here's why each one earns its place — and why fans of Project Hail Mary will find something deeply familiar in each of them.
1. The Martian (2015)
The Most Direct Spiritual Sibling
If Project Hail Mary feels tailor-made for you, there's a very simple reason: The Martian was written by the same author, Andy Weir. Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon as botanist-astronaut Mark Watney, this is the film that put Weir on the map and established his signature formula — a brilliant, resourceful protagonist stranded in an impossibly hostile environment, solving problems one duct-taped solution at a time.
Mark Watney is accidentally left behind on Mars after a catastrophic storm forces his crew to evacuate. Presumed dead, he must survive alone on a planet with limited food, no communications, and a rescue timeline measured in years, not weeks. Sound familiar? The emotional DNA of The Martian runs directly through Project Hail Mary, and watching Damon's charismatic, joke-cracking performance gives you a vivid sense of the headspace Weir was inhabiting when he later created Ryland Grace.
What makes The Martian such a satisfying companion piece is its unwavering commitment to science as the hero. There are no convenient miracles here — every breakthrough is earned through math, botany, and orbital mechanics. The film also captures something Weir does better than almost anyone: making the audience genuinely excited about problem-solving. If your favorite moments in Project Hail Mary were the scenes where Grace figures something extraordinary out, The Martian is essentially two hours of exactly that feeling.
2. Arrival (2016)
First Contact, Reimagined With Emotional Depth
Denis Villeneuve's Arrival is one of the finest science fiction films of the 21st century, and for fans of Project Hail Mary, it offers a beautifully complementary take on the theme that sits at the very heart of Weir's novel: what happens when humanity makes genuine contact with a non-human intelligence?
Starring Amy Adams as linguist Dr. Louise Banks, Arrival follows humanity's first encounter with alien spacecraft that have appeared at twelve locations across the globe. Rather than framing the story as an action-thriller — there are no laser battles here — Villeneuve treats first contact as a deeply intellectual and emotional puzzle. Louise must learn to communicate with beings whose perception of time is fundamentally different from our own, and the film slowly reveals that language shapes not just how we speak, but how we experience reality itself.
The parallels with Project Hail Mary are striking. Both stories center on a scientist who must communicate with a radically alien intelligence using patience, creativity, and empathy rather than force. Both reward audiences who lean into the science and the wonder rather than waiting for an explosion. And both deliver emotional payoffs that feel genuinely earned — the kind that stay with you long after the credits roll. Arrival is proof that science fiction at its best is always really about what it means to be human.
3. Interstellar (2014)
Grand Scale, Deep Heart
Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is the most ambitious entry on this list, and arguably the most emotionally complex. Starring Matthew McConaughey as pilot-turned-explorer Cooper, the film follows a desperate mission to travel through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new home for a dying humanity. It is a film of staggering scale — black holes, time dilation, fifth-dimensional libraries — told through the lens of a father who left his daughter behind to save the species.
- Hard science credentials: Theoretical physicist Kip Thorne served as executive producer and scientific consultant, and the film's depictions of black holes and gravitational time dilation remain among the most scientifically rigorous ever committed to film.
- Emotional resonance: Like Project Hail Mary, the science never crowds out the human story. Cooper's relationship with his daughter Murph is the beating heart of the entire three-hour runtime.
- Sense of cosmic awe: Few films in modern cinema have captured the sheer scale and loneliness of space travel as viscerally as Interstellar does.
- Optimism under pressure: At its core, the film shares Weir's fundamental belief that human ingenuity and love are forces capable of defying the universe itself.
Where Project Hail Mary gives you warmth and wit, Interstellar gives you grandeur and grief — but the underlying spirit is strikingly similar. Both stories ask what a person is willing to sacrifice for something larger than themselves, and both argue, in their own way, that connection — even across incomprehensible distance — is worth everything.
Why These Three Films Belong Together
Great science fiction does two things simultaneously: it makes you think and it makes you feel. The Martian, Arrival, and Interstellar each achieve that balance in distinct ways, but they share the same fundamental DNA as Project Hail Mary — a reverence for science, a deep investment in character, and a conviction that the universe, for all its indifference, is a place worth exploring.
MGM+ has assembled a remarkable catalog for sci-fi fans, and these three titles represent some of the best the genre has to offer. So once you've finished processing the journey of Ryland Grace and Rocky, pull up any one of these films. The sense of wonder is waiting for you.