In the movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary that this site is counting down (or up) to, the character of Ryland Grace is played by Ryan Gosling.

Here we look at some of the lines spoken in the trailer by Ryan and what they correspond to in the book.

Some of the early spoken lines don’t have correspondences in the book because they are inner thoughts of the narrator.

At 00:12 in the trailer he says “I’m not an astronaut” three times. In 06.015 in the book he says “I’m a lab coat, not an astronaut”.

At 00:34 in the trailer he says “I’m just a teacher at Grover Cleveland Middle” but in the book we never find out the school he teaches at.

At 00:49 in the trailer Grace asks “Why?” after Stratt says there is one star not infected by its neighbor. The same “Why?” appears in the book at 05.278.

At 00:55 in the trailer he says “It’s 11.9 light years away” referring to Tau Ceti. In the book, he says it’s 12 light years away and Ms. Xi responds “Eleven point nine.” 05.271

At 01:13 in the trailer Grace says to Stratt “You’ll find a solution.” In the book, Stratt says “I’ve been tasked with finding a solution.” 03.047 and “We need a solution. It’s my job to find it.” 03.094

At 01:49 in the trailer Grace says ”But my place is in the classroom.” He doesn’t say that line in the book although does say “It’s…you know…the kids. I should stay here for the kids.” 23.107 and “And, um, well, I’m a teacher. I should teach… I should stay here on Earth where I’m needed.” 23.109

At 02:20 in the trailer he says “So, I met an alien” but in the book he says “That’s an alien. I just saw an alien.” 10.046

This is another example where what are inner thoughts conveyed by the narrator in the book are expressed as an apparent recorded video diary in the movie.

At 02:45 in the trailer Grace says “I’m going to call you Rocky”. In the book, he says “Also, until I hear otherwise, his name is Rocky.” 10.048 He first says “Rocky” to Rocky himself in 10.166 when he says ”I like you, Rocky! You’re a genius!”

At 02:47 in the trailer, we get the “Thumbs up. Nope, that’s thumbs down. We do the thumbs up. It’s close enough.” The corresponding part of the book is in 10.043: “I give a thumbs-up...Then it contorts a hand into something resembling a thumbs-up. It’s just two fingers curled into a ball with the third pointed up. At least it’s not the middle one that’s pointed up.”

We’ll look at the trailer more in subsequent posts.