Project Hail Ryan Gosling's T-Shirt Collection

One of my most prized possessions in college was a Terminator 2 shirt that had the iconic logo on the front and "He'll Be Back" on the back (clever). I was wearing it in L.A. several years back and someone literally offered me 100 bucks on the spot to buy it from me. I declined his offer because I love this shirt. Also, I didn't feel like walking around with no shirt the rest of the day.

I've always appreciated a graphic tee with a history, and Ryan Gosling's character in Project Hail Mary had a really good collection of them.

Gosling in a Hermanos Gutierrez band t-shirt. Great band, great shirt.

I was thinking during the movie, I bet the t-shirt king Perry Shall would get a kick out of this character's t-shirt collection. Then just now in looking up the t-shirts from the film, I saw on Perry's instagram that Gosling wore one of the tees he designed! A couple years back I reached out to Perry to design two concert tees for our Big Mouth Live at the Greek show and he put together this incredible design.

No one does better hand lettering in the biz than Perry, don't @ me.

I met Perry a decade ago in Philly when I made this video profile of him for Super Deluxe (rip) and we became friendly. I remain so impressed with his skills as both a graphic designer, a musician, and as a t-shirt collector. This video with him is one of my favorite shorts that I've done.

https://vimeo.com/794573104

In the movie, Gosling's shirt collection was a mix between science dork jokes and retro cool. Also, more than one cat related shirt.

Ryan Gosling is the most conventionally attractive person to have ever worn this dork ass shirt, guaranteed.

I thought this cat one was a Sandra Boynton design, but I guess it's Boynton-adjacent ? The 1980's were all about Boynton. Especially coffee mugs and bedsheets.

Gosling wearing this shirt in the most successful box office film of the year is gay rights.

Lynn and Finn posing with the non t-shirt costume design from the film

WARNING: PROJECT HAIL MARY SPOILERS AHEAD

I only have three quibbles with the way the directors used the character's wardrobe in the film.

One is just casting. Someone as conventionally attractive as Ryan Gosling should not be allowed to wear the dorkiest science joke t-shirts in existence. Dork culture is not a costume! But it's Hollywood, of course they're going to cast a movie star to be a brilliant but misunderstood molecular biologist. I'll allow it.

Two is my pet peeve that only losers in movies ride bikes. I thought for a second when he put on his bike helmet that us cyclists might be able to hold up Gosling as a counterweight against the trope, but then he said "I bike to work because I'm a middle school teacher and I can't afford a car. This helmet is the only thing between me and a very expensive hospital bill." On behalf of the biking community, ouch. At least he wore a helmet though.

And finally, three. As I've established in this trenchant PHM, t-shirt related essay, the film version of Ryland Grace loves cats. He wears multiple cat-related shirts. Yet when Stratt tells him why he's being chosen she says "You have no family. You have no spouse, no children. Your parents are dead. You don't even have a dog." Tough, but fair. But this guy definitely had a cat! And a helluva t-shirt collection.