The Fall Guy (2024) | REVIEW

Directed by David Leitch — Screenplay by Drew Pearce.

Apparently relatively loosely based on an ‘80s action-adventure TV series of the same name starring Lee Majors, David Leitch’s The Fall Guy follows a Hollywood stunt performer named Colt Seavers (played by Ryan Gosling), who, after suffering an injury during a high-profile stunt, has left the industry, as well as his camerawoman girlfriend Jody Moreno (played by Emily Blunt), behind. However, when a film producer from his past, Gail (played by Hannah Waddingham), contacts him and tells him that Jody needs him on her feature directorial debut, he rushes back to a movie set in the hopes of rekindling his romance with Jody. When he arrives in Sydney, Australia for production, he finds out that Jody didn’t actually ask for him, but he also learns that Gail needs him to find actor Tom Ryder (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) — i.e. a movie star that Colt is a stunt double for — who has gone missing and whose absence may cause Jody’s first film as a director to be canceled, thus harming Jody’s chances of having a career as a director in the industry. To investigate things and ensure Jody’s film remains in production, Colt will have to put his skills as a stunt performer to good use.

The Fall Guy arrives at a moment in time, following the success of Barbenheimer (the portmanteau word that describes the critical and box office success of the simultaneous theatrical release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer last year), when its stars — Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt — have probably never been as popular as they are now. At the same time, this film, i.e. essentially a film about the brilliance of dedicated stunt work, arrives at a moment in time when the film industry, its professionals, and those invested in it are growing more and more impatient with the lack of a category for stunt work at the Oscars. Heck, Gosling and Blunt even appeared at the most recent Oscars ceremony to poke fun at each other’s Barbenheimer films, introduce a video all about stunt work through cinematic history, and, yes, promote this film. With David Leitch — a stunt performer who became a massive Hollywood director — as the film’s director, it all feels like a perfect storm for this film. Time will tell if it becomes a profitable box office success, but I can say that this film puts all of the things it has going for it to good use. 

The Fall Guy is chock-full of great set pieces or sequences highlighting what goes into being a stunt performer on a movie set. We see performers having to redo the same stunt over and over again, we see stunt driving go wrong, stunt driving go right (in a set-piece that apparently set a Guinness World Record for cannon rolls), and then we get several instances over the course of the film when, off-set, our main character puts his stunt performer knowhow to good use to essentially be a real-life action star (e.g., knowing how to set up and execute a fall). Like others have said, The Fall Guy, which features good, effective, and inventive action, succeeds as a winning tribute to stunt work. 

On top of this, The Fall Guy benefits from Blunt and Gosling’s effective chemistry. Admittedly, Emily Blunt doesn’t have as much to do as I had expected, but she gets the most out of her screen time and you believe her and Gosling’s characters’ connection in the film. Although parts of the mystery of what happened with Tom Ryder may be slightly convoluted or not particularly involving, you become invested because you feel how Colt is desperate to not just get another chance with Jody but also make sure that she has a fair chance in the industry. The film is relatively reliant on its central actors’ popularity and capabilities, and Ryan Gosling, arguably at the height of his movie stardom, does a phenomenal job of carrying so much of the film on his back. Gosling’s excellent comedic timing and energy, as seen in films like The Nice Guys, is on show here once more. Furthermore, the hopeless romantic aspect of his character is performed in a really charming way without it ever getting in the way of making him seem cool in the action sequences that he and his stunt double(s) nail. 

Now, admittedly, there definitely is a chance that parts of this film are a little bit too ‘inside baseball’ or esoteric to win over wide audiences, but the winning lead performances and the effective comedy and stunt work should be more than enough to prevent that, despite it containing a fair bit of industry-specific or meta-dialogue. However, the biggest issue with David Leitch’s The Fall Guy is that it is too long to feel as breezy as this summer action comedy should ideally feel. That said, it isn’t as big of an issue as it could’ve been, largely thanks to Gosling and Blunt’s charming work. Ultimately, The Fall Guy, of course, works as a tribute to stunt work. But the film also works wonderfully as an engaging and likable action-comedy romance by allowing its stars to do what they do best. It also happens to be arguably David Leitch’s best work as a solo film director.

7.7 out of 10

– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.