Amaze, amaze, amaze! There are spoilers ahead for “Project Hail Mary.”

“Project Hail Mary” rules, and it might just be one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. It’s funny, heartfelt, features a stellar performance by Ryan Gosling, one of the best movie duos of 2026 so far, and an ending that brings to mind the movie “Life.” 

Remember “Life?” The very real 2017 sci-fi/horror movie about an alien parasite killing a crew of astronauts played by Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, and Rebecca Ferguson? Remember how, for a brief moment, we thought it might legitimately be a prequel to the first “Venom” movie? Well, get ready to believe again, because “Project Hail Mary” also feels like a stealth prequel, specifically to director Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine.”

“Sunshine” is, of course, the 2007 sci-fi thriller film that stars Cillian Murphy and almost (and should have) spawned a trilogy. It takes place in a dystopian future where Earth’s sun is dying, causing a global freeze that threatens to wipe out humanity. Thus, a crew of astronauts head out to literally explode a super-powerful bomb in the Sun and reignite it. 

“Project Hail Mary” ends in a way that feels directly connected to Boyle’s 2007 sci-fi thriller. In the film, an alien microorganism known as “Astrophage” somehow infects the Sun, causing it to dim to the point where it will cool down the Earth to catastrophic levels. In the movie, Gosling’s science teacher turned astronaut Ryland Grace finds an alien life form that can destroy the Astrophage and sends it to Earth. We then see the head of the Hail Mary project receive this cure on a ship navigating what looks like a frozen ocean. The Astrophage problem may have been solved, but the Sun has still diminished. See where I’m going with this?

Early in “Project Hail Mary,” we find out that the Astrophage’s dimming of the Sun will cool the Earth to catastrophic levels within 30 years — that is, around the time “Sunshine” begins in 2057. If the oceans are truly frozen by the end of “Project Hail Mary,” that means that even if the Astrophage predator idea works, the Sun has still dimmed enough to be a threat to humanity. So, it stands to reason that it will take a lot of time and energy to kickstart the Sun.

That’s where “Sunshine” comes in. After all, the scientists in “Project Hail Mary” have already built the technology to send people to an entirely new solar system, so they can easily send people to the Sun. Killing the Sun termites isn’t enough; now we have to rejuvenate the Sun to save the world.

Is this far-fetched? Absolutely! Are “Project Hail Mary” directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller aware that their movie — itself based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name — works as a “Sunshine” prequel? Maybe. Notably, Weir’s book ends with Ryland being informed that the Sun has returned to its original luminance. That line isn’t included in the film (yet another way the ending of the “Project Hail Mary” movie adaptation differs from its source material), but we know the Hail Mary project succeeded. We simply don’t find out if the Sun dimmed further or returned to how it once was.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter. In our hearts, this movie works perfectly as a prologue to one of the best sci-fi films of the 2000s. 

“Project Hail Mary” is now playing in theaters.