Movie Review: THE FALL GUY Starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Real quick, think of the last good action movie you watched. Who was in it? Odds are you can tell me the names of the stars, maybe a couple of the secondary characters. But who was on-screen during the action parts? Who performed some of the death-defying stunts? I’m guessing there’s a good chance you won’t have an answer.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Stunt performers are hired for this very reason; they resemble the leads decently enough and they’re trained to perform the bits that the stars aren’t willing to do. It’s a blessing and a curse; audiences fall in love with their abilities, yet they rarely get public recognition.

Well David Leitch wants to change all that. A former stunt performer himself, Leitch began making a name for himself with the first John Wick film, which he produced, co-wrote, and co-directed (though he didn’t get a credit for his directing). In the decade since, he’s been behind the camera for several action films (the likes of which include Atomic Blonde, Hobbs and Shaw, and Bullet Train), but in directing The Fall Guy, he may have made his magnum opus.

While sharing a title and lead character name with the Lee Majors TV show, you’d be hard-pressed to say the movie is really based on the series. The Fall Guy resembles “The Fall Guy” about as much as La Croix tastes like fruit; Drew Pearce may have walked by a TV that had the show playing at one point while he was writing the script. If you are a fan of the old show and are only going to enjoy the movie if it closely adheres to the series, you might as well just bust out the old VHS cassettes and stay home.

Ryan Gosling, coming off his terrific performance as Ken in Barbie, takes on the role of Colt Seaver, the eponymous fall guy for Tom Ryder (Aaron Tyler-Johnson), one of the biggest action stars in the world. While performing a free-fall stunt, he suffers a terrible accident and is forced to retire, eventually becoming a valet for a local restaurant. When he receives a call from movie producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) pleading for his assistance in saving her newest movie, he accepts, only because his ex, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) is directing the film. This sets off a chain of events that culminates in him trying to find Tom, who’s gone missing, so they can finish the film.

So is it an action film? A comedy? A romance? The answer is yes. But really, I’m calling it a love letter. There’s a conversation in the film where Seaver is asked whether stunt performers receive industry awards, to which he replies in the negative, which is kinda true. There are awards such as the Taurus World Stunt Awards, but the Oscars have declined to create a dedicated award category, for fear that the competition to win may put performers at risk by trying to outdo others. There’s reasoning behind it, but it also does a tremendous disservice to the people who literally risk life and limb to make these movies work.

Leitch, for his part, is doing his best to make sure these stunt performers are celebrated, not only by incorporating quite a few elaborate stunts and fight sequences, but by putting a spotlight on the whole production process. As Jody fights to save her movie, Fall Guy gives a very streamlined view behind the cameras, showing a bit of what goes into making films on set, including re-writes, improvisation, and rehearsals/multiple takes. It’s not a pleasant task at times, especially for the stunt performers, who endure being set on fire, falling multiple stories, and being yanked into obstacles. Yet through it all, Fall Guy is consistently exciting, delivering plenty of fantastic practical visuals and stunts. A lot of careful thought and physics calculations are involved when coordinating these stunts, and if anything, you’ll come out of it appreciating the process even more. One of the stunts, a car performing a barrel roll, even set a world record for the most turns recorded on camera.

Beyond the action, the film is laden with enough humor that it could easily be classified as a comedy. From physical humor to witty dialogue to visual gags (I still chuckle thinking about a bit involving a unicorn), my friend Nikki and I found ourselves laughing pretty regularly. This is thanks in no small part to the excellent performances turned in by the cast, especially Gosling and Blunt. Nikki put it well: “(Gosling) intertwined humor, lightheartedness, and improv with a genuineness that made him feel so relatable.” Waddingham and Taylor-Johnson have much less screen time than Ryan and Emily, but they play their parts admirably, and it’s pretty evident that the cast and crew had a blast on this one.

The movie isn’t perfect. It ran a little longer than I think it should have, and it’s fairly evident how the movie will end, even if the film does try to throw in some twists and misdirection. Nikki felt the movie started a bit slow as well, which I can see; the action doesn’t really start until 30-40 minutes in.

In my mind, though, it’s a clear early contender for best action film of 2024. There’s a mid-credits scene that plays after some B-roll footage of some of the stunts that were performed, so I highly recommend you stick around for a bit. Leitch has put together a pretty impressive resume since the original John Wick, and this just may be his best work yet.

The Fall Guy gets an A