Sure, there is big, beautiful spaceshipsglobal stake, and Ryan Gosling cracks wisebut at its heart, Hail Mary Project about something beyond all that. “It’s a movie and a book it’s about collaboration and cooperation and what’s possible when we work together,” director Chris Miller said recently.

The “we” in question are Ryland Grace (Gosling), a middle school teacher turned astronaut sent by Earth into space to, hopefully, save us all, and Rocky, an alien made of stone whose planet is also in danger. The creation is largely restricted to marketing until this week’s Super Bowl trailerwhich shows him in full force, but he is the co-star of the film, and their relationship is the core of the film.

“It’s a hopeful movie, and this relationship, at its core, it’s two beings who couldn’t be more different (but), when they come together, they can do amazing things,” Miller added. “So that’s what drew us to the book in the first place and drew us to the project. Hopefully people will leave the movie with a sense of optimism about what can be done.”

That’s exactly how io9 felt last week in Los Angeles, after attending a special event where directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller screened not just the final trailer of the filmbut about 30 minutes of additional footage. Over the course of nine scenes that basically take us on an episodic journey through most of the movie, it becomes very clear that Hail Mary Projectbased on a novel by Andy Weir, will be very special. And not just because Lord and Miller revealed that the scenes set in space (which are about 3/4 of the runtime) will be released in full, 1.43:1 IMAX, while the flashback scenes set on Earth will be in a more traditional 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Even if that helps.

The opening scenes of the film begin, showing Grace waking up in space after an induced coma and having no idea where or who she is. From there, several scenes take us on the journey on Earth that the character takes from an unassuming middle school teacher to astronaut and potential savior, with the great science score of Andy Weir.

Next, we see several scenes showing the important stages of Grace’s relationship with Rocky, voiced by actor and puppy James Ortiz. Miller said that early in the casting process, he and Lord considered casting a big name to play Rocky, but when they met Ortiz, they knew it was a mistake. “It became very clear from the moment we started shooting—the things we got, the scenes, the acting—that IT is the movie, and he is Rocky. He did a great job,” Miller said.

We got to see the first time Grace and Rocky connected, which literally happened while Rocky’s ship was creating a tunnel to connect the ships and Rocky was talking to Grace with a crude model. A second scene, during their second meeting, then shows Grace describing another model that Rocky made, forcing her to make a big decision. Can he trust this creature from another world in his life?

Finally, we see the scenes only hinted at in the trailer with Rocky, who eventually speaks English thanks to a computer program written by Grace, who enters Grace’s ship in a bubble that allows him to move freely. The scenes are high energy and hilarious as the curiosity of the creatures about all the things of man that he is rolling at the fastest, commenting on everything on the ship. It feels completely different from everything we’ve seen from the film, until this new trailer at least. Another scene shows Grace doing a Granted world-style confessing about how weird it all was, only to have Rocky grill him about it. In the film, Rocky is a mix of on-set puppetry and CGI effects, but all the humor and energy is captured live on set.

“Both men have incredible chemistry, and there’s a spontaneity that happens when they’re together,” Lord said. “Even those scenes where you can’t put James and five other puppeteers in a big plastic ball, so there’s some CGI in the stuff, but James is on set the whole time, doing his dialogue live with an ear rig with Ryan, in a little booth we built off the set, so we could get the dialogue, and everything was something he did during the day.

The last scene shown is from later in the movie, after Grace and Rocky have established a deep friendship. They think they have figured out a way to save their two planets, but it is a very dangerous mission. Hail Mary over Hail Mary. And as the dramatic, action-packed scene unfolds, you can tell that even with the action and comedy spread throughout, Hail Mary Project is the last one that aims to make us cry a lot. “The whole movie was a very emotional experience,” Miller said. “Every time someone (sees it,) they say, ‘I didn’t realize how emotional it was.'”

Which mentions a lot of work by Lord and Miller. From Jump Street and layman movies on Verse of the Spider and cloudy movies, they always seem to explore emotions and relationships that speak to an audience. “One of the things we’ve learned over the years is that the most amazing and engaging thing for an audience is to watch people understand each other,” Lord said. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s playing big. And it’s a shock to me because the first half of my career, everyone was like, ‘Oh, you have to make sure there’s a lot of conflict.’ There are obstacles, and of course, there are differences of opinion… but I think the thing that is important to us is to represent a successful partnership. ” “People doing their job well is a good genre in a movie, even if it is Spotlight or GhostbustersMiller added. “And this falls into that category as well.”

So too Hail Mary Project a “people who make their work good movie?” Is it a sci-fi movie? A joke? A drama? The answer to all of them, and more, is “Yes.”

“It’s genre-defying because it’s exciting, it’s dramatic, it’s emotional, it’s funny, it’s all those things,” Miller said. Mostly, though, we just hope it’s good. And we have a good feeling it will.

Hail Mary Project opens March 20.

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