‘Project Hail Mary’ Composer Wants to Bring You to Tears: ‘I Spend So Long Trying to Make People Cry’

In “Project Hail Mary,” music bridges gaps in communication. Ryan Gosling’s Ryland Grace makes friends with an alien, Rocky, who speaks through song. Before Grace goes off on his mission, Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) performs Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” to him, an acknowledgement of everything left unsaid between the two.

“Communication is a really big part of this story and this score,” Daniel Pemberton, the film’s composer, told TheWrap. “That communication between Rocky and Grace...