The stars of Barbie and Oppenheimer come together in the new action comedy from the director of Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, and Bullet Train.
Akhil Arora, a member of the Film Critics Guild and a Rotten Tomatoes-certified film critic with over eight years of experience
Ken and Kitty—the stars of Barbie and Oppenheimer—are now in the same movie. Can we call it a crossover? Jokes aside, The Fall Guy is a “love letter” to stunts, with the film following a stuntman (played by Ryan Gosling) who jumps back into action with a big studio movie and finds himself embroiled in a sinister plot. The movie—made by stuntman turned director David Leitch, known for Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, and Bullet Train—is naturally pushing the limits of action. Logan Holladay, the real-life stuntman who doubles for Gosling, broke the Guinness World Record for cannon rolls. Adam Kirley, who drove the Aston Martin DBS in the 2006 Bond film Casino Royale, did seven. Holladay did eight and a half rolls on a Sydney beach in a Jeep Grand Cherokee for The Fall Guy.
Stunts were so crucial that Leitch had stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara—he’s worked on John Wick, Baby Driver, and Jurassic World among dozens of titles—start preparing the action sequences even before writer Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw) was done with The Fall Guy script. This is standard for Leitch’s films, where stunts are given more importance over dialogue. “To be honest, the script is the least important thing,” Leitch told The Hollywood Reporter.
Leitch and Kelly McCormick—his wife and partner at their production company, 87North—want audiences to appreciate the artists and the work they put into it. He added: “It’s not just that we risk things. We design these sequences. The amount of technical knowledge, skill, experience, ingenuity and creativity that went into pulling off that stunt—it is just time to have the conversation that stuntpeople are integral to cinema.”
That’s why they pushed to create a new movie credit—stunt designer—and are hoping it could one day lead to recognition at the Oscars. “People inside the Academy don’t understand the word ‘coordinator’ to mean artist,” McCormick said. “It helps with that nomenclature. Production designer, hair designer. We’re making clear that there is artistry in this.” After years of being a stunt coordinator, O’Hara is credited as a “stunt designer” on The Fall Guy.
With that, here’s everything you need to know about The Fall Guy—when it’s out, who’s in it, what it’s based on, what the reviews are saying, and when you can expect it on streaming.
The Fall Guy release date
The new Gosling movie premiered to the public in Australia, Belgium, Estonia, and Peru on Wednesday, April 24. The Fall Guy opened Thursday, April 25 in Ecuador, Israel, Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand, and Ukraine. It was released on Friday, April 26 in Finland, Malaysia, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, and Turkey.
The film is out Tuesday, April 30 in China and Germany; Wednesday, May 1 in Denmark, France, Italy, Mexico, and South Korea; and Thursday, May 2 in the UK, Argentina, Hungary, Ireland, the Philippines, and Slovakia. On Friday, May 3, The Fall Guy releases in the US, Brazil, Canada, Iceland, India, Poland, and Spain.
Japan will be the last to see the new Gosling movie on August 16.
What is The Fall Guy based on?
The movie is a loose adaptation of the 1980s series that ran for five seasons on ABC and followed a Hollywood stuntman who moonlighted as a bounty hunter. The series was created by the prolific Glen A. Larson. He’s also the creator of the iconic Knight Rider (the one with the fancy AI car called KITT), the funny, sexy, and Hawaii-set Magnum P.I., and the original short-lived Battlestar Galactica.
The feature film reimaging of The Fall Guy had been in the works since the 2000s. It spent years at Warner Bros. to no avail. Then, DreamWorks Pictures took it over around 2010—eyeing Nicolas Cage in the lead and Casino Royale director Martin Campbell at the helm. By 2013, Dwayne Johnson and McG (Charlie’s Angels) were apparently in talks to star and direct, respectively.
Ultimately, that went nowhere and the project disappeared out of sight. In late 2020, Leitch signed Gosling on for his new movie about a stuntman, which was revealed to be an adaptation of The Fall Guy in mid-2022. So, after nearly two decades of development hell, it’s finally here.
Who is in the cast?
Ryan Gosling leads the cast of The Fall Guy as Colt Seavers, an ageing action stuntman who returns to work after an on-set accident nearly ended his career for good. Gosling needs no introduction—he’s had a terrific year since Barbie last year, earning an Oscar nomination (his third) and adding to his fanbase (as if that was possible).
Emily Blunt stars opposite Gosling as Colt’s ex-girlfriend and first-time director Jody Moreno. Blunt—who was part of the terrific Oppenheimer ensemble—is coming off Netflix’s Pain Hustlers which was lambasted by most critics. Blunt contributed to her Fall Guy character: “We all kind of built her together, because I think, maybe in the original script, she was quite severe, and that sort of tough director. But I think, for me, it’s always more interesting to play someone who’s in a situation where they’re way over their head.”
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays famous (fictional) action film star Tom Ryder whom Colt doubles for. The plot of The Fall Guy kicks in after Tom goes missing. Taylor-Johnson was last seen in the 2022 action comedy Bullet Train (from the same director in Leitch).
Winston Duke has been cast as Colt’s best friend and stunt coordinator Dan Tucker. Duke is best known for playing M’Baku—the leader of Wakanda’s mountain tribe—in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That was also his most recent role in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Hannah Waddingham and Stephanie Hsu round out the cast of The Fall Guy as Jody’s executive producer Gail Meyer and Tom’s personal assistant Alma Milan.
Waddingham is best known to audiences as football club Richmond’s owner Rebecca in the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso. Hsu’s most famous role was aggrieved millennial daughter Joy Wang / multiversal villain Jobu Tupaki in the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Lastly, Lee Majors—the star of the ‘80s series that the film is loosely based on—has a small role in The Fall Guy as well.
Who is the dog in The Fall Guy?
While I’ve covered all the major human stars of The Fall Guy, I haven’t touched upon Jean Claude. That’s the name of the Australian Kelpie dog who serves as Colt’s companion in the movie.
Interestingly, Jean Claude only responds to French commands—a tribute to a dog once owned by Gosling’s wife Eva Mendes.
“Eva used to have a dog named Hugo, who was a Belgian Malinois and an attack dog. And he only spoke French,” Gosling added. “He’s passed now, so this is my homage to him. I miss that dude.”
The Fall Guy trailer
Universal Pictures released the first trailer for The Fall Guy back in November, giving us an idea of what to expect in terms of tone and action. Alongside, the studio provided a lengthy synopsis:
“He’s a stuntman, 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?
“David Leitch’s … most personal film yet [is a] hilarious, hard-driving, all-star apex-action thriller and [a] love letter to action movies and the hard-working and under-appreciated crew of people who make them. … Ryan Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a battle-scarred stuntman who, having left the business a year earlier to focus on both his physical and mental health, is drafted back into service when the star of a mega-budget studio movie—being directed by his ex, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt)—goes missing.
“While the film’s ruthless producer (Hannah Waddingham) manoeuvres to keep the disappearance of star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) a secret from the studio and the media, Colt performs the film’s most outrageous stunts while trying (with limited success) to charm his way back into Jody’s good graces. But as the mystery around the missing star deepens, Colt will find himself ensnared in a sinister, criminal plot that will push him to the edge of a fall more dangerous than any stunt.”
In March, we got the second and final trailer for The Fall Guy, which you can watch above.
The Fall Guy reviews
On reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, at the time of writing, The Fall Guy holds an 89 per cent “fresh” rating based on 55 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes operates with a binary rating system—either fresh or rotten—which means 11 per cent of the 55 critics did not enjoy the film.
The Rotten Tomatoes critics’ consensus reads: “With action, comedy, romance, and a pair of marvellously matched stars, The Fall Guy might be the rare mainstream movie with something to entertain everyone.”
On fellow reviews aggregator Metacritic, The Fall Guy holds a “generally favourable” 78/100 score based on 18 critic reviews. Unlike Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic assigns a score—between 0 and 100—to each review and then averages it out to determine the final rating.
How to stream The Fall Guy
At the time of writing, Universal Pictures has not made any announcements regarding the digital and streaming release of The Fall Guy. But we can make an educated guess thanks to past releases from the studio. I’ve put together an extensive guide that breaks it down. If you live in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, or India, be sure to check that out.
How to stream The Fall Guy
Here’s where and when The Fall Guy will be available at home in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, and New Zealand.
- Every Indian Netflix original movie, ranked – October 25, 2024
- The opening night of the 2024 MAMI Mumbai Film Festival was a joke – October 19, 2024
- Agatha All Along episode 5: what time is it out? – October 9, 2024
What do you think?