The Fall Guy (2024)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Treasure Stunt

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

It's unclear just who of the viewing audience of David Leitch's The Fall Guy is going to remember the TV show the movie is based on, which aired from 1981 to 1986 and starred Lee Majors and Heather Thomas. But it doesn't really matter. Fans will recognize that Ryan Gosling's character has the same name as Majors's character on the show, Colt Seavers, a pretty great name, all told. From there, we're in new territory.

Colt is a master stunt man for the movies, regularly paired with big-time movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). He's in love with cameraperson Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), and things are good. That is, until he has a terrible accident and breaks his back on set. He disappears for 18 months, shutting everyone out of his life, including Jody, and takes a job parking cars for a restaurant. He receives a call from big-time producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), saying that Jody has requested his services on her first big movie as director.

He arrives to the set in Australia and reconnects with his old pal, stunt director Dan Tucker (Winston Duke). With a little trepidation, he pulls off a spectacular stunt, only to find out that Jody has no idea what he's doing there, and never requested his services. We learn that she's angry at him for disappearing on her for all those months. Meanwhile, Gail informs Colt that Tom has not been showing up to set and that she has actually hired the stunt man to find the star.

This leads to a kind of mystery story, and a double-cross, and lots of action scenes, and, of course, spectacular stunts. Director Leitch is himself a former stunt man and stunt coordinator and uses this opportunity to send a love letter to stunt people everywhere. (There's even a line of dialogue about how the Academy Awards do not, and never has had, an award for stunt performances.) The best one is an extended chase/fight sequence with Colt in the bed of a garbage truck.

Perhaps the most pleasant result of this approach is that the action in The Fall Guy never gets exhausting. It's so joyous that it's a pure pleasure throughout. (By contrast, a cleverer meta-movie like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent does grow exhausting after awhile.) And it's funny. Its movie in-joke humor works well, as does its sillier humor, and that's perhaps thanks to Gosling and Blunt's exceptional comic timing. (Remember Blunt stealing the whole of The Devil Wears Prada?)

But the real secret to the movie's success is the remarkable chemistry between Gosling and Blunt. (Astonishingly, no one has ever thought to cast them together before.) They are on equal footing, and their scenes together really sing, especially the brilliant ones like a conversation carried out via megaphones, or a masterfully-edited split-screen sequence. I can't even remember the last time I so full-heartedly rooted for an onscreen couple to find their romantic spark.

I can't say The Fall Guy is the most streamlined movie I've ever seen. Like Leitch's earlier movies (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw, Bullet Train, etc.), it's quite untidy and with a certain amount of clutter. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a little too much as an egomaniac movie star (I kept thinking, 'this is our new James Bond?') and Oscar-nominee Stephanie Hsu is a little too little in a role as an assistant, although at least she gets to participate in a great car chase/fight. But on the whole, I left the movie smiling and feeling recharged; you could even say I fell for it.