The film is based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, and it follows Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, who wakes up on a spacecraft with no idea who he is or how he ended up millions of miles from Earth. As his memory slowly comes back in pieces, he realizes he’s the one person tasked with figuring out what’s threatening the Sun, and by extension, every living thing on Earth.
It sounds like a straightforward survival story on paper, but the film leans just as hard into the emotional side of things as it does the science. An unlikely friendship along the way ends up changing the whole tone of the film, turning what could have been a lonely, bleak setup into something warmer and more hopeful than you’d expect from a movie about the possible end of the world.