The Fall Guy Movie Review

A Love Letter to Filmmaking

By Giselle Eisenberg, Staff Writer

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The Fall Guy is a compelling movie that shares the filmmaking process with the audience, while also giving us an instant-classic love story, and a lot of exciting action-packed scenes. 

Director David Leitch, who began his career as a stuntman, talks about wanting to lean into the “movie-about-a-movie” idea by using the tools they use to make action scenes in the action scenes. This is where the idea came from for the climactic scene where Ryan Gosling’s character Colt Seavers throws himself into a fight by riding on an ultimate arm (a structure that mounts a camera onto a moving car). 

All great action [scenes] need to be related to your characters and your story” Leitch says. 

The use of special effects was very limited so that the practical filmmaking would really shine through and to allow the actors’ performances to be as real and in-the-moment as possible. 

Leitch also talks about wanting Ryan Gosling to be able to do most of the stunts so that he could really connect with the character and his experiences. He calls stunt performing an apprenticeship business, because you have to learn most of it along the way. Having the opportunity to really get in the head of a stunt performer clearly informed the character beautifully, as Gosling delivers an extremely compelling performance.

Of course, The production used plenty of stunt performers as well. Leitch describes the movie as “a celebration of the stunt community”, and his love for his roots is very apparent in the movie. Stunts often go underappreciated in film, because the performers essentially have to hide in order to not shatter the illusion. As Colt says in the film, “that’s the job”. 

The movie also has amazing cinematography, done by Matthew Libatique. There are several continuous aerial shots of the sets, showing off the sheer magnitude of what goes into making these movies. There are a lot of self-referential jokes throughout, such as a split-screen scene depicting a phone call between love interests Colt and Jody, during which Jody mentions the audience wanting to see the lines blur between two characters while the background of their individual shots slowly gets more and more similar. 

Aside from the fantastic stunts and performances, the movie is just extremely fun. It excites the audience with action and romance, while letting them in on the joke. “I Was Made for Loving You” by KISS serves as the theme of the movie, playing several times for the exciting scenes that have you on the edge of your seat, emphasizing Colt’s triumphs, and even adding more emotion to a painful scene with a cover by YUNGBLUD that is done in a more solemn style. Ryan Gosling is hilarious to watch as the ever-exasperated Colt Seavers, and his chemistry with Emily Blunt is undeniable. Their characters underscore the awkwardness of reconnecting with someone from your past, creating a very real relationship to root for. 

There is a lot to love about this movie. The clear passion that everyone involved has for their work makes it far more enjoyable to watch, and it gets better with every detail you notice. It’s an original story that deserves recognition, and while it may seem dramatic to call it a masterpiece, it’s the only word that seems to fit.

In Case You Haven’t Seen it… (spoiler warning!)

The Fall Guy opens on the lead, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), a successful Hollywood stuntman for celebrity Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). He is in love with Jody (Emily Blunt), a camera operator with a dream of becoming a director. Colt’s job is to take the hits, and hide his face. As he says, “we get paid to do the cool stuff.” After being clipped in for another routine stunt, Colt falls several stories due to a malfunction with the rigging and sustains a severe back injury. 

Months later, Colt is working as a valet at a restaurant when he gets a call from Tom Ryder’s manager and producer, Gail (Hannah Waddingham), who says that they’ve lost their stuntman on an important project and begs him to come to Australia to bail them out. He declines, until he finds out that Jody, whom he hasn’t spoken to since the accident, is the director and has asked for him personally. He rushes to the set of Jody’s film, “Metalstorm”, and stunt coordinator Dan (Winston Duke) immediately throws him into a major stunt which has him doubting himself, but he takes it on successfully. The high is short lived, however, as he discovers that Jody didn’t actually ask for him, and in fact doesn’t want to see him at all. The two argue about Colt showing up at the set after dropping off the face of the earth for a year, and Jody calls for multiple retakes of painful stunts to get back at Colt for not calling her for so long. 

Colt is called in to talk to Gail after his first day, and she tells him that Tom got himself mixed up with some shady people, and is now missing. She demands that Colt go find him, saying that if Tom doesn’t return soon, the studio will pull the plug on Jody’s movie. Colt reluctantly goes to Tom’s house where he meets Iggy (Teresa Palmer), Tom’s girlfriend. She tells him to go to a club to talk to Tom’s drug dealer, Doone (Matuse), who might know where to find Tom. While there, Colt is tricked into drinking a cocktail laced with drugs as Doone tries to get away, but Colt throws himself onto the car he’s in to stop him. Doone finally tells him what hotel Tom was staying in and how to get into his room. While investigating the room, Colt finds a dead body on ice and runs out to call Gail and the police, but the body is gone when the police finally arrive. 

Colt and Dan manage to break into Tom’s phone, where they find a video of Tom fighting with his other stuntman, Henry. The video documents Tom kicking Henry in the chest causing him to break his neck, and die. Immediately following the discovery of this video, a news report accuses Colt of the murder, and he and Dan are ambushed by Dressler and his crew. Dan gets away, but Colt is captured and taken to a yacht, where he finally finds Tom. Here he discovers that Gail is planning to replace Tom’s face in the video with Colt’s using deepfake technology in order to protect Tom. Tom also admits to Colt that he messed with the stunt rigging on purpose to cause the accident at the beginning of the movie, because he felt like Colt was stealing his spotlight. Colt attempts to get away by hopping onto a nearby speedboat, but he crashes into a fuel barge and causes a huge explosion, leading to him being presumed dead. 

The next day, Tom finally returns to the Metalstorm set. Colt, who faked his death to get Tom out of his foxhole, secretly returns to Jody to tell her everything he’s discovered, and they devise a plan. They mic Tom, and throw him into a real stunt which he had always refused to do. Colt drives the car with both of them in it over a 250 foot jump, prompting Tom to forget about his mic and confess to framing Colt. Gail attempts to steal the audio recording and leave on Tom’s helicopter as a massive fight breaks out between the metalstorm crew and Tom and Gail’s security. Colt fights Gail for the recording in the air, eventually falling out of the helicopter onto an airbag. In the end, Tom is replaced on Metalstorm with Jason Momoa, and the movie is a huge success. Jody and Colt finally end up together.