Ryland Grace

Also, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir was first published in 2021.

Ryland Grace, our main character, is the sole survivor on a desperate last chance mission.

And if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that.

So there's like physical signs of aging in these 16 years.

In the film, like I said, it's unclear how much time has passed, but we don't see that physical aging that happens in the book.

Like Ryland Grace looks exactly the same at the end of the film as he did at the beginning of the film which is why I'm saying I don't we see the Beatles right on earth but that doesn't necessarily mean that in the film Ryland has been on earth has been on air for that long because there's like I said there's like no physical signs of aging there's he's maybe been there a year but I feel like not that much time has passed in the film as in the book but yeah I thought that was interesting that in the book we see like physical aging and he's told like you can go back if you want you're ship has been completely repaired.

And so he's like debating going back.

Earth is under threat.

Astronaut Ryland Grace is sent to save the world, but his crew dies, and boom, he loses his memory.

The amnesia trope again.

Yep.

I call him by his first fucking name and leave me out of it.

Which is odd, because to be honest, Grace Ryland sounds more like a name than Ryland Grace.

It does.

It's because

Yes, so Project Hail Mary just came out this year.

Again, it was directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and it centers around former teacher and biologist Ryland Grace.

When he wakes up from an induced coma, alone, in space, and suffering from amnesia, he doesn't know where he is, he doesn't know how he got there, and he learns that he is the sole surviving member of a crew that was on a mission to the Tau Ceti solar system, because Earth's sun is dying.

Through flashbacks, we begin to learn, um, which is Dr.

and he instead just goes to save Rocky.

He sends his Taumiba along ahead of him in, like, solo pod ship things that are unmanned that will just find their way back to Earth, called the Beatles, and, um, He sends those probes ahead and he goes back to save Rocky.

And Rocky and Dr. Ryland Grace go on to Arid.

And they save Arid.

Yeah

... writing about, you know, s- this, a guy who goes off to, what is it, Ryland Grace or something, goes off to the other planet, like, he's all ...

He's now the, the avatar for all of humanity, and he just happens to be, like, a white American guy-

Yeah

Yeah.

And then he goes and says, but you need him to find his bravery and you need them to form that bond so that Rylan Grace can become brave to save someone he cares for.

And that's what the whole point of it is.

He finds someone that he cares for, and then they save both together.

a school teacher.

If I went out of horror, I'd probably choose Ryan Gosling's Rylan Grace from Project Hail Mary.

I'm not going to take us out of the horror world.

So teacher-wise, it would have to be somebody dynamic, somebody who is interesting.

So it was really neat revisiting the Martian for the first time after seeing project Hail Mary earlier this year and like really loving it because it kind of has like the same DNA as project Hail Mary where you have, um, you get your, your lead guy, Matt Damon and Ryan Gosling in this instance where they're kind of stranded.

Um, Rylan Grace is literally in space where Mark Watney's on Mars, but they're stranded by themselves, and so they kind of have to command this story by themselves.

So you really have to cast a good lead for that role, and Matt Damon fits that role perfectly.

And similar to Project Hail Mary, the characters of Mark Watney and Rylan Grace use a lot of comedic elements to cope with what they're going through.

And I like when movies do that because that is a way that a lot of people cope with hard things.

And I think when those situations get treated with such seriousness, it just doesn't seem as authentic or real because...

Anywho, Neil, can you please read the synopsis for this movie?

Middle school science teacher Ryland Grace, a.k.a. Ryan Gosling.

wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there.

As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission, to solve the riddle of the mysterious substance that is causing the sun to die out.

You

told me he was a school teacher.

Middle school science teacher, Ryland Grace.

All right,