Amazon MGM Studios

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's "Project Hail Mary" was one of the most acclaimed and beloved sci-fi crowd-pleasers this year. Blending hard science fiction with affectionate character drama while coasting on the affable charm of Ryan Gosling as the leading man, the two directors brought the most out of Andy Weir's 2021 bestselling novel of the same name the film is based on. But of course, not every single page made it to the final cut.

Screenwriter Drew Goddard — who gave audiences such classics as " The Cabin in the Woods ," "Bad Times at El Royale," and "The Martian," another movie adaptation of a lauded Weir book — did his best to keep as much of the source material as possible in the two-and-a-half-hour-long feature, but some cuts were inevitable.…