Kaitlyn Murphy is an undergraduate student at Pennsylvania State University studying journalism. Her passion is covering the entertainment industry, especially the latest film and television releases. Kaitlyn’s values align with The Hollywood Insider because she believes in providing in-depth coverage of the entertainment world instead of relying on gossip. Her dream is to one day report live from the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, but for now she can usually be found watching a Disney movie or a cozy romantic comedy.
Jun 3, 2024
Table of Contents
If the past decade of his career has proven anything, it’s that Ryan Gosling was born to play a silly, relatable guy. His performances as the penniless pianist Sebastian in ‘La La Land’ and the lovesick plastic doll Ken in ‘Barbie’ both rightfully earned him Oscar nominations. Both roles required a sense of boyish charm, which Gosling’s completely mastered over the years. His mass appeal has been heightened by the social media trend of male fans claiming Gosling is “literally them,” and adjusting their personalities to match his latest character.
‘The Fall Guy’ is no exception — Gosling whips out his impeccable comedic delivery skills to play stuntman Colt Seavers, who falls (no pun intended) victim to a career-altering injury on the set of a new action film. Not only does he quit his job, but he also breaks things off with his girlfriend, camerawoman Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). An 18-month time jump ensues and shows Colt incredibly down on his luck, with grown out hair and a crappy job as a valet. His opportunity for escape comes when producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) calls him and asks him to rejoin the stunt world for ‘Metalstorm,’ a science fiction film that Jody’s directing. She emphasizes that Jody wants to work with him again, even though it’s a total lie. It doesn’t take much for Colt to fly to Sydney to get back in the game, and perhaps get his girl back in the process.
Once Colt arrives in Sydney, he’s immediately thrown onto the desert ‘Metalstorm’ set, with cameras, stunt cars and hundreds of people scattered around. Modern audiences seem to crave glimpses into the filmmaker’s world — with ‘Babylon,’ ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ and ‘The Fablemans’ being recent examples of moviescentered around the grueling and all-consuming process of creating a motion picture. ‘The Fall Guy’ offers a lighter and more comedic approach being from the perspective of a stuntman instead of an actor or director, which made David Leitch the ideal choice to direct. During his career, Leitch has served as a stunt performer and coordinator on over 80 films and television shows, including ‘Fight Club,’ ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum.’ This films seems to be his “love letter” to the stunt community, however, it quickly becomes an outrageously unbelievable action-fest that might dampen that message a bit.
While onset, Gail tells Colt that the eccentric star of ‘Metalstorm’ Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Jonhson) has gone missing, and she needs him to track him down so Jody’s directorial debut doesn’t go haywire. In true Leitch fashion, a complicated and bullet-ridden plot starts rolling, where Colt is framed for a murder he didn’t commit. Stunt after stunt hits the audience as Gosling leaps from buildings, races through the streets in a car chase and fights off an impressive number of goons. Gosling’s charisma never falters during these stunt-heavy scenes, but the sheer amount of them almost takes away from the focus on Colt as a film stuntman — since apparently he can just do all of it in his real life, too. The scene that was most compelling on the stunt side was on the ‘Metalstorm’ set, where Colt is repeatedly set on fire and thrown into a wall. Jody makes him repeat the stunt for a comedic gag since he clearly broke her heart, but it’s a true glimpse into the backbreaking work stunt performers put into every film they work on. It’s also often thankless work, where the people like Colt give a simple thumbs up after doing death-defying car flips and then are expected to get right back up and keep going.
While ‘The Fall Guy’ packs a punch with its action, it also relies heavily on the romantic subplot between Colt and Jody. Soundtracked to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version),” Colt has an emotional moment reminiscing in the car about his lost relationship with Jody. Jody ends up walking up to the car and calling him out for listening to Taylor Swift in a hilariously relatable moment, perhaps one of the best usages of the superstar’s music in a recent film. Even though they’re no longer dating, the tension between Colt and Jody is still palpable in their shared moments — mostly due to Gosling and Blunt’s electric chemistry. It’s impossible to root against Colt’s pining and planning to win Jody back.
Colt and Jody make a great team both onset and offset, in moments when Colt helps her with writers’ block for the final act of her film and she returns the favor by helping with his sticky blackmail situation. In arguably the funniest scene in the film, Colt dresses in alien garb to sneak into Jody’s trailer while he’s on the run. Jody attacks him and stabs him with a pen, and only recognizes it’s Colt after he gives her a thumbs up like he did earlier in the film. The tender interactions between Colt and Jodie sprinkled throughout ‘The Fall Guy’ give it a beating heart behind all the muscle.
While ‘The Fall Guy’ is a fast-paced ride perfect for a family movie night, it majorly underperformed at the box office. It was on track to be the first true summer box office blockbuster, but only racked up $28 million domestically opening weekend. To put that in perspective, last summer ‘Barbie’ opened with $155 million and ‘Oppenheimer’ with $82 million. Now, those films also had incredible internet hype surrounding them and superb marketing campaigns that ‘The Fall Guy’ couldn’t live up to — even though both its stars were in ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ last summer and used it as a promotional gag at the Oscars. Even with its underperformance at the box office, ‘The Fall Guy’ provides a truly enjoyable moviegoing experience that opens up a space for the stunt community to shine. Plus, it reintroduced the world to Kiss’s 1979 hit “I Was Made For Lovin’ You,” and served up an ultra-dramatic cover of the song by YUNGBLUD, perfect for Gosling’s slow motion walk away from a fiery explosion.
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Cinematography: Jonathan Sela | Editor: Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
Director: David Leitch | Writer: Glen A. Larson and Drew Pearce | Producers: Paul Barry, Ryan Gosling, David Leitch
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Kaitlyn Murphy is an undergraduate student at Pennsylvania State University studying journalism. Her passion is covering the entertainment industry, especially the latest film and television releases. Kaitlyn's values align with The Hollywood Insider because she believes in providing in-depth coverage of the entertainment world instead of relying on gossip. Her dream is to one day report live from the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, but for now she can usually be found watching a Disney movie or a cozy romantic comedy.
Kaitlyn Murphy is an undergraduate student at Pennsylvania State University studying journalism. Her passion is covering the entertainment industry, especially the latest film and television releases. Kaitlyn’s values align with The Hollywood Insider because she believes in providing in-depth coverage of the entertainment world instead of relying on gossip. Her dream is to one day report live from the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, but for now she can usually be found watching a Disney movie or a cozy romantic comedy.
Kaitlyn Murphy is an undergraduate student at Pennsylvania State University studying journalism. Her passion is covering the entertainment industry, especially the latest film and television releases. Kaitlyn’s values align with The Hollywood Insider because she believes in providing in-depth coverage of the entertainment world instead of relying on gossip. Her dream is to one day report live from the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, but for now she can usually be found watching a Disney movie or a cozy romantic comedy.
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