The Fall Guy opened in theaters on May 2 and landed in the number one spot at the box office that weekend, grossing $66.4 MM globally, to date, less than half of its $130MM production budget. The Fall Guy takes its name from a 1980’s series and stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt who are both still riding the wave of their respective summer blockbusters Barbie and Oppenheimer.
The movie strikes a chord with viewers because it has a traditional good versus evil foundation.
Directed by David Leitch (Atomic Blonde), a former stuntman for Brad Pitt and Matt Damon among others, The Fall Guy has been described as a “love letter to stunt people,” the folks who rarely receive the recognition they deserve for routinely putting their lives at risk to add a realistic dimension to the dangerous action sequences populating movie screens since the industry’s inception. (READ MORE from Leonora Cravotta: Netflix Takes Liberties With Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full)
The plot concerns Colt Seavers (Gosling), a former stuntman who was injured during a film and gets called out of retirement by Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) to work on a science fiction film titled Metalstorm which represents the directorial debut of Colt’s former girlfriend camera operator Jody Moreno (Blunt). This reunion is complicated by the fact that following his accident eighteen months ago, Colt ghosted Jody without explanation. In addition, we soon learn that Gail has requested that Colt join the film because the star that he would be doubling, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is missing. Gail asserts that since Colt has worked with Tom before and knows him well, he should be able to find him, and since Colt is “just a stuntman” no one will notice if he is missing. Nothing is, of course, as it seems and we soon learn that Gail has an ulterior motive and is endeavoring to set Colt up to be the “fall guy” for a murder.
The Barbenheimer factor aside, Gosling and Blunt have amazing chemistry, demonstrated off-screen during their joint award presentation at the Oscars last March, as well as in an April appearance on Saturday Night Live. The Fall Guy is enjoying success at the box office in part because it features two incredibly talented actors who have demonstrated that they can play just about any role in just about every type of film from action to drama to romantic comedy to musical comedy. And since Leitch’s smart film is a mélange of genres, Gosling and Blunt have an opportunity to demonstrate the full spectrum of their talents, including their abilities to deliver realistic-looking kicks and punches. Blunt, who also exhibited her singing ability in the titular role in Mary Poppins Returns (2018) is not afraid to downplay her competency by deliberately imbuing Jody with an amateurish singing voice in The Fall Guy’s karaoke bar scene. The supporting players, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Hannah Waddingham of Ted Lasso, are also fun to watch.
The Fall Guy resonates with audiences because it delivers upon its promise to illustrate the risks that stunt people undertake and achieves this objective by peppering the screen with exquisitely choreographed stunts and special effects both in the film and in “the film within the film.” There is currently no Academy Award for stunt work, although efforts to institute such an award have been underway for over thirty years. While Gosling, age 43, did some of his stunts in the film he sees the professional stunt people as the film’s true stars and along with Leitch and Blunt is using the film’s promotional junket as an opportunity to advocate for an Oscar for excellence in stunt performance. (READ MORE: ‘Who You Gonna Call?’: Ghostbusters Reboot Reaffirms Traditional Values)
The movie strikes a chord with viewers because it has a traditional good versus evil foundation. Like Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which I recently reviewed for these pages, the heroes are rewarded and the evildoers receive retribution for their actions. The movie has a nostalgic element which includes vintage music and cameo performances from Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, the stars of the 1980’s series.
More importantly, as with the Ghostbusters reboot which was also a commercial success, Leitch’s movie avoids wokeness. I attended the movie with my husband at a theater that offers half-price tickets on Tuesday nights, The room was packed with people enjoying an action-packed visually stimulating film that also celebrates traditional values including honesty and old-fashioned romance as in between a man and woman.
I highly recommend The Fall Guy as a highly entertaining movie that pays tribute to the stunt profession but also offers a hopeful vision of the world where the good guys and gals finish first.