The Fall Guy (2024 film)

The Fall Guy is a 2024 American action comedy film directed by David Leitch and written by Drew Pearce, loosely based on the 1980s TV series. The plot follows a stuntman (Ryan Gosling) working on his ex-girlfriend's (Emily Blunt) directorial debut action film, only to find himself involved in a conspiracy surrounding the film's lead actor (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The cast also features Hannah Waddingham, Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, and Winston Duke.

The Fall Guy premiered at SXSW on March 12, 2024, and was released in the United States on May 3 by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, but underperformed at the box office, grossing $177 million worldwide against a $125–150 million production budget.

Plot
Working as the stunt double for action star Tom Ryder, Hollywood stunt performer Colt Seavers breaks his back during a stunt gone wrong and abandons his career and his girlfriend, camerawoman Jody Moreno.

Eighteen months later, Colt, now a valet for a small Mexican restaurant, is contacted by Gail Meyer, Tom's film producer. She tells him that Jody is directing her first film, a space opera film titled Metalstorm starring Tom, and wants Colt to join the production in Sydney. After arriving on set, Colt learns that Jody never asked for him and is still angry about their breakup, with the film being a less-than-subtle attempt at airing her grievances at Colt.

Gail reveals that Tom has disappeared after getting into trouble with "very bad people", and she wants Colt to find him before his absence causes the already overbudget film's cancelation. Not wanting Jody's directorial debut ruined, Colt starts to track down Tom. He first goes to Tom's apartment where he meets Tom's girlfriend and co-star Iggy. She gives Colt a lead, so he visits a nightclub, where he meets drug dealer Doone, who tricks Colt into drinking a cocktail laced with hallucinogenic drugs. After getting into a fight with Doone's henchmen, Colt visits Tom's hotel room where he finds a dead body in a bathtub full of ice. When Colt returns with the police, the body has disappeared.

As the production of Metalstorm continues, Colt and Jody begin to rekindle their relationship until Gail abruptly informs him that he must return to the United States. Instead, he continues looking for Tom by tracking down his personal assistant Alma Milan. She hands him Tom’s phone that Tom and Gail had been searching for, before they are both attacked by Tom's head of security, Dressler, and his team who are looking for the phone. Colt and Alma defeat them after an extended chase through Sydney involving a rubbish truck. He and his long-time friend Dan Tucker, the stunt coordinator on Metalstorm, unlock the phone and discover a video of an intoxicated Tom killing his most-recent stunt double Henry Herrera (the man in the bathtub) while sparring at a party. The henchmen attack Colt and Dan, destroying the phone with shotgun pellets.

Dan escapes, but Colt is captured and brought face-to-face with Tom, who has been hiding out on a yacht on Gail's instructions. He reveals that Gail is framing Colt for the crime using deepfake technology to replace Tom's face with Colt's on the incriminating video and that he orchestrated Colt's accident because he felt that Colt was stealing the spotlight from him. Henry's body is discovered and the doctored video is released on news media, while Gail tries to convince Jody that Colt is guilty. Colt escapes and is presumed dead after a boat chase, though he swims to safety.

The next day, Tom arrives at the Metalstorm set and production continues. Colt secretly returns to the set and convinces Jody of his innocence. Together, they trick Tom into participating in a stunt sequence and confessing while he is wired with a lav mike. The rest of the crew, led by Dan, hold off his goons. Gail steals the recording at gunpoint and tries to escape in a helicopter with Tom, but Jody helps Colt leap onto the helicopter in mid-air. He retrieves the recording and falls onto a crash mat prepared by Dan, while the helicopter crashes with Gail and Tom in it.

Metalstorm trailer premieres at San Diego Comic-Con, with Jason Momoa being made the new lead and Alma the film’s new producer; the film eventually becomes a box-office hit. Colt gets exonerated, and he and Jody get back together.

The credits play over a montage of behind-the-scenes footage of the real stunt work involved in making the film, followed by a mid-credits scene in which Tom and Gail are shown surviving the helicopter crash but are apprehended by undercover bounty hunters (two of them played by Lee Majors and Heather Thomas). In trying to escape, Tom accidentally triggers the pyrotechnics and blows himself up; Alma immediately calls Jason Momoa's agent.

Cast

 * Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, a seasoned action stuntman
 * Emily Blunt as Jody Moreno, Colt's ex-girlfriend and a first-time director
 * Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Tom Ryder, a famous action film star
 * Hannah Waddingham as Gail Meyer, the producer of Jody's film
 * Teresa Palmer as Iggy Starr, Tom's girlfriend and co-star
 * Stephanie Hsu as Alma Milan, Tom's personal assistant
 * Winston Duke as Dan Tucker, Colt's long-time friend and stunt coordinator
 * Ben Knight as Dressler, Tom's bodyguard

Additionally, Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, who starred as Colt Seavers and Jody Banks respectively in the original television series, reprise their roles in a mid-credits scene with Majors credited as "The Fall Guy", while Jason Momoa has an uncredited appearance as himself.

Development
In July 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that a film based on the 1980s series The Fall Guy was in development. DreamWorks Pictures had teamed up with producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald on the project, and Martin Campbell was in talks to direct the film. DreamWorks, through the Walt Disney Studios' Touchstone Pictures distribution label, was to release the film in North America, Latin America, Russia, Australia, and Asia, while Mister Smith Entertainment would have handled sales in the remaining territories. In September 2013, Dwayne Johnson was in negotiations to play the title role and McG was in talks to direct.

In September 2020, Ryan Gosling, director David Leitch, and writer Drew Pearce were said to be working on an "unnamed stuntman film" that had been picked up by Universal Pictures. In May 2022, it was confirmed this project was a film adaptation of The Fall Guy. Loosely based on the TV series, the film is produced by Universal with Leitch's 87North Productions and Gosling's Entertainment 360, with Leitch and Kelly McCormick producing alongside Gosling and Guymon Casady. Pearce is also an executive producer, as is Geoff Shaevitz. Variety reported that the Australian Government and the New South Wales state authorities added funds to the production up to A$30 million and A$14.5 million respectively, with Paul Fletcher, Australia's Federal Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, estimating a boom to the local economy, over 1,000 Australian cast and crew, and more than 3,015 Australian film extras.

Emily Blunt was cast in August 2022. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Stephanie Hsu joined in October, and Winston Duke, Hannah Waddingham and Teresa Palmer were cast the following month.

Gosling and Blunt said that they took inspiration from Leitch and his producer wife, Kelly McCormick, for the romantic relationship between their characters. Blunt's role was originally a makeup artist, but it was rewritten to be a first-time director before she received a draft of the script. Blunt had some input on the character, stating that "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"; she thought it was more interesting to see someone who is "in a situation where they're way over their head". For the character, Blunt took some inspiration from director Greta Gerwig and several other people she had met.

Filming
Principal photography began in October 2022 in Sydney, Australia, at the Disney Studios Australia in Moore Park, Sydney. Filming also took place at Sydney Harbour, Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge; which was closed for several daytime hours for filming scenes involving Gosling in January 2023. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter reported that the film had a production budget of $130 million. Deadline Hollywood also stated its $130 million production cost after Australian tax credits, though added that "some have heard the production cost was even higher at $150 [million]".

The film used practical stunts, with highly choreographed action sequences. Leitch stated, "It was a love letter to stunts. We knew we had to be authentic in that world." It broke a Guinness World Record for the most cannon rolls in a car, with eight and a half rolls performed by stunt driver Logan Holladay. Cannon rolls are performed by firing a cannon-like device into the ground from a moving vehicle.

Music
The Fall Guy score was composed by Dominic Lewis. The film incorporates songs by AC/DC, Taylor Swift, Kiss, the Darkness, Phil Collins, and Blake Shelton's cover of "Unknown Stuntman", the theme song of the series originally performed by Lee Majors. Yungblud covered the Kiss song I Was Made for Lovin' You.

Post-production
Editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir was on set during production, returning to Los Angeles for post-production. The sound was conducted by Frankie Montano, Jon Taylor, and the team at Universal StudioPost. Visual effects studios Rising Sun Pictures, Framestore, Cinesite, Crafty Apes, Opsis and Day for Nite were involved. The bulk of VFX work was in the creation of Metalstorm, wire, and safety removal and cleanup. The digital intermediate process was led by colorist Dave Hussey at Company 3.

Theatrical
The Fall Guy had its world premiere at SXSW on March 12, 2024. It was released in Australia and New Zealand on April 24, in the United Kingdom on May 2, and in the United States the following day. Universal screened The Fall Guy at its CinemaCon panel on April 8.

Home media
The film was released digitally on May 21, alongside an extended cut version with 20 minutes of additional footage.

Box office
, The Fall Guy has grossed $92.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $85 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $177.9 million. Variety estimated the film would need to gross $275–300 million in order to break even, and reported it would end up losing the studio $50–60 million.

In the United States and Canada, The Fall Guy was released alongside Tarot, and was projected to gross $30–35 million from 4,002 theaters in its opening weekend, with some rival studios estimating it could reach $40 million. The film made $10.5 million on its first day, including $3.15 million from preview screenings. It went on to underperform, but top the box office, debuting at $27.7 million. In its second weekend the film made $13.7 million (a drop of 51%), finishing second behind newcomer Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Vulture reported: "The Fall Guy posted an admirable box-office hold. It dropped 50 percent in its second weekend, which is pretty great in our current, opening-weekend-focused era, especially considering that the film lost almost all its pricier premium screens to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." It then made $8.9 million in its third weekend, finishing in fourth.

Critical response
The Fall Guy received generally positive reviews after its SXSW premiere. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled at PostTrak gave it a 90% overall positive score.

Writing for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico said that The Fall Guy "feels like a pushback against all the CGI-heavy, character-less, humorless blockbusters that have been coming off the content production line" and provides audiences "with what too often feels like a secondary concern in big movies lately: fun". IGN called the film a "self-reflexive love letter to Hollywood stunt work", and praised Gosling and Blunt's performances and chemistry. In the Observer, Oliver Jones opined that "rather than indict Hollywood's worst instincts, the film instead echoes them ... If The Fall Guy reflects how Hollywood views women directors, it's little surprise there are so few of them."