5 Best Ryan Gosling Movies To Watch After Project Hail Mary

Given how profoundly "Project Hail Mary" blew everyone away at the box office, that movie's leading man, Ryan Gosling, has been everywhere. Working so well under directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in a role that sends him plunging into the deepest corners of outer space has served as a vivid reminder of just how talented this guy is. Anyone who has seen his most uncompromising indie movie turns in titles like "Lars and the Real Girl" and "Blue Valentine" knows firsthand that Gosling's always been a superbly gifted artist. However, titles like "Project Hail Mary" have helped catapult those chops to new levels of prominence.

One problem, though, is that the denseness of Gosling's three decades of film performances may give one pause over what to watch next after "Project Hail Mary." Out of his many productions, which Ryan Gosling movies are ideal follow-ups to his exquisite "Hail Mary" work? That's what this piece will hope to clarify. The five best Ryan Gosling movies to watch after "Project Hail Mary" are perfect companion pieces to this 2026 hit on countless levels. Some of them are perfect because they're also sic-fi titles, while others are divine because they're the total opposite of "Project Hail Mary" aesthetically, thus epitomizing Gosling's endless range as a performer.

Whatever it is that makes these five movies ideal films to pair up with "Project Hail Mary," they're all "amaze, amaze, amaze" displays of Ryan Gosling's acting skill.

When it first hit theaters, "First Man" bombing at the box office and idiotic pre-release discourse over the absence of astronaut Neil Armstrong planting an American flag on the moon overshadowed its actual artistry. With time, though, director Damien Chazelle's "First Man" has rightfully cultivated a reputation as one of the underappreciated movies you missed in 2018. For this project, Chazelle frames Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and other NASA figures struggling to launch a mission that will actually put a man on the moon. As they keep trying to make history, the externally subdued Armstrong grapples with his own personal turmoil, including lingering sorrow over his daughter's passing.

Cinematographer Linus Sandgren has constantly demonstrated that he's one of modern cinema's most valuable visualists. His outstanding images for "First Man" just cement this movie as a masterful exercise that also displays Gosling's acting chops. This performer, often so glorious with outsized comedy, also excels when realizing quiet torment. His gift for conveying a tremendously haunted demeanor in understated terms is mesmerizing, especially since it isn't the typical route one would imagine an actor embracing when portraying Neil Armstrong.

After their luscious, intoxicatingly romantic work on "La La Land," Chazelle and Gosling reaffirm their status as a gifted director and actor duo with the radically different "First Man" aesthetic. Best of all, Gosling spends much of "First Man" playing off an excellent Claire Foy performance. Just the way she deliciously delivers the line "you're just a bunch of boys" to NASA personnel is enough to solidify "First Man" as a classic.

Long before "Project Hail Mary," Ryan Gosling previously went into outer space with "First Man." Similarly, eons prior to that Phil Lord and Chris Miller directorial effort, Gosling went into the sci-fi cinema world with the legacy sequel "Blade Runner 2049." This Denis Villeneuve film follows Officer K (Gosling), a Replicant who stumbles onto a conspiracy threatening to upend reality as he knows it. He'll have to scour the planet and track down "Blade Runner" lead Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) to get the closure he hungers for.

In the 2010s, titles like "Drive" established one of Gosling's default screen personas as a largely silent, understated man capable of killing people without sweating. Do not get into an elevator with or cross these Gosling characters, or they will destroy you. The opening "2049" scene establishes the lethal proficiency of Officer K, who spends nearly the whole movie embodying this kind of subdued demeanor. However, Villeneuve's "2049" vision adds a new wrinkle to this archetype. This sci-fi movie keeps placing this silent Gosling killer in a gigantic world constantly dwarfing Officer K. This character's skilled, sure, but he's still so much smaller than the wider domain he was built in.

This juxtaposition and the most pause-worthy moments in "Blade Runner 2049" have ensured that the title has cultivated a tremendous cult following since its 2017 debut. Though radically different in tone, "Blade Runner 2049" is, conceptually, another quality sci-fi Gosling adventure like "Project Hail Mary."

As he was looking to expand beyond his "Mickey Mouse Club" days, Ryan Gosling was seeking out more challenging acting roles that could upend people's go-to perception of his personality. Thus, Gosling's first leading role in "The Believer" sees this future heartthrob playing Daniel Balint, a neo-Nazi who rubs his horrific views, antisemitism, and racism in the faces of everyone he encounters. The twist? Daniel is actually Jewish, a reality he keeps secret from his skinhead comrades. As Daniel goes deeper into Nazism, his past threatens to keep materializing, including through his response to his friends desecrating a synagogue.

Gosling's work as Daniel is unflinching in portraying the character's most hideous actions. The naturalism imbued into Daniel's most appalling lines goes a long way towards making this character believable as a real human being. Gosling is similarly adept at realizing the various flickers of hesitancy that begin brewing in Daniel as a plan to bomb a synagogue begins unfolding. This "Believer" character could've easily come off as a gimmicky attempt at "shock value" to startle folks only exposed to Gosling's Disney Channel work. In execution, he ensures the performance more than excels on its own terms.

With "Project Hail Mary" taking Gosling to new levels of box office success and critical acclaim, his first star vehicle, "The Believer," is more fascinating than ever. Gosling has come far from these days of microbudget indies, yet the craftsmanship he displayed in these early turns has endured decades later.

After Ryan Gosling's stunning space adventure "Project Hail Mary" fills you with hope, you might be craving further crowdpleaser movies anchored by this actor. Better yet, given how much of the joys of "Hail Mary" build off of Gosling's terrific chemistry with James Ortiz's alien character Rocky, you'll be happy to know that there is another entertaining Gosling movie where the actor shares a tremendously funny rapport with another performer. One of Gosling's most enjoyable 2010s outings paired him up with Russell Crowe and a sharp Shane Black script. That production is 2016's "The Nice Guys."

Here, Gosling plays Holland March, a schmuck private eye forced to team up with the gnarly enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) to solve a case. Sending these two out on an odyssey across 1977 Los Angeles proves a recipe for delightful laughs, especially since Black loves putting Gosling through the wringer in this feature. Whether he's struggling to intimidate Healy (or hold onto his bullets) while sitting on a toilet or emitting the most hysterical high-pitched screeches, Gosling is sublime manifesting the pervasive pathetic nature of his "Nice Guys" character. Plus, watching him and Crowe trade Black-penned witticisms is absolute magic.

It would've been awesome to see these two headline countless "Nice Guys" sequels, but as a one-and-done, this film still flourishes. If you're looking for more quality two-hander movies starring Ryan Gosling, "The Nice Guys" is a more than nice choice.

In the 2020s, Ryan Gosling has gotten to headline bigger movies than ever before in his career. If "Project Hail Mary" gave you the desire for more high-profile and profoundly entertaining Gosling works, then look no further than the only other movie in his career even more lucrative than "Hail Mary:" "Barbie." This title sees Gosling play one of the many Kens in Barbieland. He pines for Margot Robbie's Barbie, though she doesn't reciprocate his affections. Once the duo end up in the real world, this Ken is exposed to the patriarchy and gets wild ideas in his head about men being innately and exclusively destined for leadership roles.

In Gosling's "Barbie" journey, he plays a himbo who becomes a patriarchy- and horse-fixated dictator. It's a role allowing Gosling to throw out every talent in his bag of tricks. He gets to handle absurdist comedy (like his Ken describing what on Earth his "beach" job consists of) with such grace. Ryan Gosling even got to improvise his funniest "Barbie" line in these creatively freeing confines. His physical comedy chops are absolutely perfect, and some of his tiniest touches of body language throughout the film are some of the funniest "Barbie" moments. Then there's the fact that he got to sing his heart out in the unforgettable "I'm Just Ken" musical number.

Gosling got to do anything and everything in his richly entertaining "Barbie" turn. It's the perfect tour de force performance, especially for those craving more Gosling goodness after "Project Hail Mary."