Universal Pictures
He’s a stunt man, and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?
That’s the rather simplified log line for Universal Pictures’ The Fall Guy, based on the 1981-1986 ABC TV series of the same name which starred Lee Majors and Heather Thomas. The plot lines of that show were probably a bit more simplistic, but the show was popular enough to run for five seasons. In the show, Majors’ Colt Seavers was a stunt man who moonlighted as a bounty hunter. For the film, Ryan Gosling’s Seavers as a stunt man who gets drawn into a situation not of his own design.
After being seriously injured in a stunt gone wrong, and then ghosting everyone including his girlfriend Jody (Emily Blunt) during his recovery, Colt gives up the industry and becomes a valet at a local restaurant where he often encounters former colleagues who can’t seem to help but rib him over his new career. A call out of the blue from producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) lures Colt back to a movie set with the suggestion that Jody, whom Gail has given her first directing gig, has personally requested Colt for a specific stunt that only he can pull off.
But Jody didn’t ask for him and is mortified to see him on set, but she takes great joy in making him do several stunts more times than necessary to get some revenge on him. Gail really needed Colt to help her find the movie’s star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who’s been missing for two days and if he doesn’t show up, the studio is going to pull the plug on Jody’s movie. Colt was Ryder’s favored stunt man for a decade so he must know how Ryder’s mind works. But when Colt discovers that Gail lied to him about Jody, and that there’s a lot more to Ryder’s absence than he’s been led to believe, Colt finds himself in some very real danger that no amount of stunt training can get him out of. Or can it?
The Fall Guy has a lot going on, with an at times overly convoluted plot — which we won’t go into detail about so as to avoid spoilers. It’s also a bit overly long, seeming to be coming to an end at least two times yet it still keeps chugging along. That, however, doesn’t mean it isn’t immensely entertaining.
Universal Pictures
Audiences have to be drawn to Colt for this all to work, and casting the extremely likable, athletic, charming and handsome Ryan Gosling was the best choice anyone could have made (and let’s give it up for the guy who is shying away from those darker roles he used to relish simply because he’s got a family now), and following last summer’s Barbie, it looks like Gosling is becoming the go-to guy for tentpole blockbusters. Gosling gives Colt charm and tenacity, brains and brawn, always sharp on his feet and quick to figure out how to get out of some tough situations. He also seems to be doing some of his own stunts, but you can go down a rabbit hole thinking about an actor playing a stunt man who needs stunt men to perform stunts that the actor can’t (for insurance reasons). The film even includes a scene in which Colt’s face is digitally scanned so Ryder’s own face can be composited onto Colt’s body. Could some of that film magic have been used in the actual filming? How ever it was done, Gosling is so physical that the lines are completely blurred as to what is him or what is a stunt person but it all works seamlessly and Gosling barely breaks a sweat.
Emily Blunt is fine as Jody. She gets to play tough with Colt when he reappears on her set, but as the story moves on she becomes more of the worried girlfriend and doesn’t have much to do with the main action, but she does still have to try to keep her film on track. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is only seen briefly at the beginning of the film, and does not reappear until the third act. He does make Ryder the insufferable scumbag, a guy who believes the hype about himself even though he’s not the one doing all the heavy lifting. The casting was spot-on though because at times it’s hard to tell him and Gosling apart when they’re on set. Hannah Waddingham is a hoot as Gail, who really is a little more complicated than she seems. Her only drawback is the cheap Party City wig they’ve given her. You’d think they had the budget for something more realistic and appropriate for a bigwig Hollywood producer. That being said, she steals the show when she’s on screen. There are a few secondary roles with Stephanie Hsu, Winston Duke and Ben Knight that make an impression, especially Duke as Colt’s now stunt coordinator buddy Dan. The two of them have a scene together in Ryder’s apartment that is funny and action-packed.
The screenplay by Drew Pearce is loaded with stunts and scenarios that require some amazing stunt work, and it piles up plot devices almost to the point of confusion but it eventually all makes sense in the end. He even manages to get a nice little dig in about the Academy Awards not having a stunt performer category (they’re adding one for casting directors next year but still no love for the stunt people).
Director David Leitch always keeps the film moving from one situation to the next, but still affords time to the rekindled romance of Colt and Jody. He and his stunt team — stunt coordinator Keir Beck, fight coordinators Jonathan Eusebio and Sunny Sun, head stunt riggers Timothy Frost and Nathan Kannegiesser, stunt designer Chris O’Hara and the hundred of stunt performers — have created some truly remarkable stunts with very little CGI. All of the hard work is on display during the end credits with behind-the-scenes footage showing how it was all done. Also be sure to stick around for a mid-credit scene featuring a couple of ‘surprise’ cameos.
All in all, The Fall Guy is wildly entertaining even if it is a bit too long. The performances are nothing short of perfection, the direction is skillful, the writing is clever, and the stunts are off the chart. The Fall Guy is the perfect Summer escape film.
The Fall Guy has a run time of 2 hours 6 minutes, and is rated PG-13 for action and violence, drug content and some strong language.
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