Question: what’s the last movie you saw where someone got hit by a car, fell down a hill or got set on fire? Chances are, you can conjure the names of the actors who played the characters in these predicaments—but with a blanks-loaded gun to your head, could you name their stunt actors? David Leitch knows that most people can only name two (and that’s including him), but his new movie, The Fall Guy, is here to remind you that living, breathing human beings are the ones actually getting set on fire or cannon-rolling a truck for your cinematic amusement in the hopes that you’ll finally remember their names.
Movies about movies are like cilantro: you either love them, or you don’t. They’re not all winners—not every movie can be Get Shorty, Adaptation. or Hugo, after all. Sometimes, they’re Babylon: grand spectacles of sound and fury that signify nothing. The Fall Guy takes a different approach. Not only is it a love letter to the art of making movies, it’s also a love letter to the people who put their fragile, mortal bodies on the line to make films like The Fall Guy even possible. If you’ve ever seen a movie with a car crash, shootout, high-speed pursuit or explosion, you’ve benefitted from stunt people. Leitch, a former stuntman himself, knows this better than anyone this side of Keanu Reeves’ stuntman-turned-John Wick director Chad Stahelski (who co-directed the first Wick film with Leitch). Stuntman Mike of Death Proof and Cliff Booth of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are our most prominent modern glimpses into the rigors of stunt work. With The Fall Guy, Leitch attempts to tip the scales in the hopes that audiences start recognizing these performers’ hard work.
Leitch doesn’t fuck around, choosing to cast Ryan Gosling as stunt-master Colt Seavers. This choice elevates the role, which is already written with a certain level of reserved coolness, to levels of affability achievable only by the likes of Gosling, Jon Hamm or George Clooney. We fall in love with Colt immediately. His voiceover takes us through his life and romance with stunt director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), all leading up to the catastrophic accident that left him with a broken back, a ruined relationship and a serious identity crisis. Blunt, as well as the rest of the film’s cast of weirdos—like unhinged producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) or action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who Colt worked with for years before his accident—are memorable scene-stealers in their own rights, but Gosling is the star of the show. He has become a go-to for playing characters grappling with finding an identity outside of the limiting inner lives they’ve led. Colt isn’t at all similar to Barbie’s Ken or Drive’s nameless Driver, but the three are unified in their struggle to find self-worth outside of their skill sets. Fall Guy doesn’t force Colt to go through all of those feelings with us, but he’s not really that kind of guy. He’s the type of dude to get hit a little too hard only to flash a rockin’ thumbs-up after, concealing his pain.
This might make The Fall Guy sound a little like a bummer, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. What Leitch’s flashy Bullet Train was lacking in storytelling chops and editing (which, in fairness, could be said about Fall Guy, though it’s a better film), it made up for by being a slick and stylish action picture full of blood and swords and solid combat. Fall Guy is no different, but it’s covered in sweat and bruises to remind you of all the gnarly hits that our hero takes over the course of his long Australian saga. Much like John Wick—and, really, like every film that Leitch and longtime cinematographer Jonathan Sela have created together—this movie revels in the thrill of filming people rolling cars and being thrown off balconies, a testament to just how huge the gulf between filmmaker and stuntperson really can be. You can almost hear Leitch, behind the scenes, giddy at being able to make a movie where the pulleys and squibbs are highlighted more often than they’re hidden. Fall Guy is a rock-solid film, but even though it isn’t exactly revelatory, it feels like it’ll be remembered not just for how well it captures the physicality of stunt work but for how much fun it makes it all look.
The downside, though, is that it does feel like it needed its twists and turns sharpened and clarified just a little bit more to elevate the action even further. A good action film can succeed with the strength of its action alone, but Fall Guy wants us to remember that there’s more to guys like Colt than their ability to take a hit. It doesn’t want to be just an action flick; it wants to be an action rom-com, which is a tightrope not everyone is up for walking. Some people do it and get Romancing the Stone or Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World—others end up with forgettable bores like This Means War or Date Night. Fall Guy is far better than either of those, but even at its most jaw-dropping and fun, it still suffers from the same “Wait, it isn’t over yet?” problems that Bullet Train suffered from. Even the film’s trailers make it seem clear that there’s simply no way Colt and Jody won’t rekindle their romance, so the fact that it still fusses with the many story beats associated with this kind of story might leave some feeling like they’d be better off if they hadn’t heard Blunt nailing “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now).”
If you can handle a movie that’s just a little too much and a little too rough (and maybe falls for the modern blockbuster pitfall of using about four too many highly recognizable hit songs, even though it nails the inclusion of “All Too Well”), though, you’re in for a real treat. The Fall Guy is a little messy, but its charms and heights make it very easy to imagine this film being the kind of smash hit that makes the early-film joke about stunt people not getting Oscars a thing of the past.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
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