The Fall Guy is a 2024 action/comedy film about a stuntman named Colt Seavers who breaks his back during a stunt. During Colt's recovery, he recoils from his profession, the people he loves, and himself. The plot covers many heavy topics, including corruption in Hollywood, grief, betrayal, heartbreak, and mental illness, making it an emotional whirlwind of a story. Underneath that, though, The Fall Guy is a love letter to all the Hollywood stuntpeople who make movie magic possible.

Unfortunately, despite glowing reviews, The Fall Guy hasn't done well at the box office. With such a stunt-centric film, the cost of production skyrocketed to a $125 - $150 million budget, and The Fall Guy has been struggling to bring that revenue back. This passion project has so much to offer, so it's a shame that it's struggling to capture moviegoers' attention.

The Fall Guy's Plot, Explained

• The Fall Guy was released on May 3, 2024, and it's still in theaters
• Former stunt performer and coordinator, David Leitch, directed the film
• Ryan Gosling plays the main protagonist, stuntman Colt Seavers

The Fall Guy opens with Colt Seavers performing a dangerous stunt for actor Tom Ryder. Colt has been Ryder's stuntman for years, but Ryder has an issue with him because he convinces himself that Colt is always trying to steal the spotlight. When Colt's shot shows "too much face", Ryder and his manager, Gail Meyer, force Colt to run the scene again. While performing the stunt, something goes wrong with Colt's harness, and he plummets multiple stories without a safety net to fall back on. Colt breaks his spine, and he's rushed to the emergency room. After this horrific accident, the movie jumps forward 18 months. Colt is recovering but refuses to continue his work as a stuntman.

Throughout his recovery, he disappears. He even ghosts his girlfriend, a camera operator named Jody Moreno. Colt admits that Jody tried to be there for him, but his pride wouldn't let him take the sympathy. Sometime during the 18 months Colt vanished, Gail agreed to produce a film called Metalstorm starring Tom Ryder with Jody directing. Jody dreams of making movies, so Metalstorm is her big break. Unfortunately, halfway through filming, Ryder goes missing. Gail contacts Colt and tricks him into agreeing to return to stunt work by telling him Jody asked for him. When Colt arrives on set, he realizes Jody doesn't want to see him. Gail then confesses that Ryder's been caught up with bad people, and gone missing. Gail believes that, because Colt worked for years pretending to be Ryder in the movies, he knows the actor better than anyone else, meaning Colt has the best chance of finding him.

To save Jody's movie and, hopefully, win her back, Colt agrees to find Ryder. While investigating Ryder's disappearance, Colt runs into some truly evil people. Ryder's drug dealer even tries to drug and kidnap Colt, but Colt manages to get away. Colt eventually finds the dead body of Ryder's new stuntman, Henry, and realizes Ryder's situation is much worse than he originally expected. Colt eventually gets his hands on Ryder's phone, where he finds a video of Ryder accidentally killing Henry in a fit of rage. Ryder's men attack Colt to get the phone back and when Ryder believes he's finally won, he confesses that he plans to frame Colt for Henry's murder. He also tells Colt that the accident that broke his back wasn't an accident at all. Ryder sabotaged Colt's rig to teach him a lesson.

Ryder releases a deep fake video that swaps his face with Colt, so it looks like Colt killed Henry. To prove his innocence, Colt teams up with Jody and the rest of Metalstorm's stunt team to force a confession out of Ryder. Colt accomplishes this by locking Ryder into a stunt car and attempting the largest car jump on record. Panicking, Ryder tells Colt exactly what he wants to hear. Since Colt was filming, he already had a mic on him, so Jody could record the entire confession. It didn't qualify as entrapment because Colt was the one wearing the wire. Colt also drags Gail down with him as the woman who orchestrated the entire plan of pinning Henry's death on Colt.

Despite the Incredible Reviews, The Fall Guy Hasn’t Performed Well

• Rotten Tomatoes gives The Fall Guy an 82% Tomatometer and an 87% Audience Score
• The Fall Guy is Certified Fresh
• 92% of Google users who weighed in on the movie claim to like it

The Fall Guy has received some truly incredible reviews. Critics and moviegoers praised the film for being fun, action-packed, and full of incredible stunts. The whole point of the film is to give its audience a fun peek behind the curtain of stunt work and what it's like to be a stuntperson. Despite the stunts being one of the movie's main features, the plot is good. The story is a compelling tale about someone who has a brush with death and loses everything because of it. Colt and Jody's romance is beautiful and authentic. Their struggles feel real, but not impossible to overcome. Even the idea of a corrupt actor going too far and getting away with it because of a Hollywood cover-up feels plausible. Maybe calling The Fall Guy a masterpiece is a step too far, but it's a great movie from start to finish.

Since The Fall Guy was released on May 3rd, it's only grossed about $103 million worldwide. In the first week, it brought in less than $30 million. These numbers might sound massive, but compared to The Fall Guy's budget of $125 - $150 million, Universal Pictures is losing money on it. At this rate, The Fall Guy looks like it will be lucky if it breaks even before the end of its theatrical release. If the film's budget had been lower, these numbers would be outstanding. Sadly, there wasn't much wiggle room to make the film on a smaller budget, at least, not to the quality that it shines at as is.

Ryan Gosling is coming off an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. This nomination was, of course, for his legendary performance as Ken in Barbie (2023). Emily Blunt was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer (2023). Having both A-listers at the height of their careers appear in a film together costs big bucks. Beyond Blunt and Goslings' lead roles, however, is the actual stunt work that went into bringing the film to life. The Fall Guy covered just about every major stunt a stuntperson would need to perform, from small-scale fights to high-speed chases and explosions. To be as authentic as possible, the film had dozens of stunt performers and coordinators on set, which isn't cheap.

How The Fall Guy Pays Respect To Stuntpeople

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• The Fall Guy is based on The Fall Guy; by Glen A. Larson, an action TV series that ran from 1981 - 1986
• In addition to Leitch's background in stunts, he brought Chris O'Hara on board as The Fall Guy's stunt designer
• The Fall Guy features dozens of stunt performers, including Logan Holladay
• Holladay handled most of the driving stunts and set a Guinness World Record for most cannon rolls in a car (8 and a half rolls)

Director David Leitch and lead actor Ryan Gosling describe The Fall Guy as a love letter to Hollywood stunt performers. At the Hollywood premiere, Gosling introduced the film by praising all the hard work stunt performers do for cinema and joked that the entire movie was just one big campaign to have stunts acknowledged at the Oscars. He might have been joking, but Gosling truly seemed to believe what he was saying. He also brought several major stunt performers from the film up on stage and described some of the stunts they did, like being set on fire and rolling cars.

"Obviously, this is a love letter to the stunt community. They are the hardest-working people in show business. The risk more than anyone. This movie is just a giant campaign to get stunts an Oscar. I mean, I don't know what to say. How do you say thank you to someone who got set on fire eight times for you, jumped from a helicopter, rolled a car eight times for you? This is just an example of what they do for us, what they contribute to cinema, what they risk for all of us. So thank you guys so much, it's really been an honor to be a part of something that tells your stories."

Ryan Gosling wasn't just blowing smoke to hype up The Fall Guy, either. The movie speaks for itself from start to finish. Making a movie about a stuntman and other people who work in the entertainment industry is a brilliant way to tell an entertaining story while still giving the audience an insider's scoop into what goes into making a film. The Fall Guy breaks down how much goes into stunt work, from the stunt coordinator to the performer to the rest of the stunt team ready to protect the performer from serious injury. To pull off an incredible stunt, real people are set on fire, engage in complicated choreography, and risk their lives for a compelling shot. Gosling wasn't exaggerating when he said that they risk more and work harder than anyone else on set.

In addition to putting stunt work on full display, The Fall Guy also touches on some other aspects that bring a film to life. Moviegoers get a peek at movie productions from the script writing to the filming to the production. It even has a tidbit about Jody attempting to direct the film when the final act of the script isn't finished, demonstrating how not every production is easy sailing. The true brilliance of this movie is that the movie tells a story on the backbone of making a movie. This allows them to shine a light on everyone who brings a film to life, not just the director and the actors. Let's face it, most people only ever credit the actors and the director, so The Fall Guy shifting focus to everyone else is monumental. It takes thousands of people to make a movie and The Fall Guy is for all of those unsung heroes.

The Fall Guy Calls Hollywood Out

• Emily Blunt plays Colt's love interest, director Jody Moreno
• Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays actor Tom Ryder, one of the film's main antagonists
• Hannah Waddingham plays producer Gail Meyer, one of the film's main antagonists and the mastermind behind the plan to frame Colt

The Fall Guy might be an exciting action/comedy about love, regret, betrayal, and stunts, but it also has a lot to say about Hollywood's underbelly. Everyone knows that Hollywood is a place of controversy. New stories come out all the time about how a producer has abused their power or an actor has been mistreating their colleagues, peers, or fans. While the entertainment industry is an important part of almost everyone's life, there is a dark side that often goes unnoticed. The Fall Guy doesn't shy away from these realities at all. For example, Colt constantly calls Tom Ryder out for acting like he can do whatever he wants without facing any consequences for his actions.

Gail Meyer, Ryder's manager and famous Hollywood producer, proves Ryder right by trying to cover up the fact that he killed Henry. Not only does Gail promise she will make sure Ryder never faces repercussions for killing a man, but she also lures Colt into the fold, so she can frame him for Henry's murder instead. Gail also made a controversial joke about the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard case revolving around domestic violence allegations against both parties. Many moviegoers took offense to her flippant comment, but writer Drew Pearce said that was the point. Gail is a nasty person. She represents everything that's wrong with Hollywood. The audience is not supposed to like her. Nasty people make nasty comments without remorse.

The Fall Guy also touches on topics like how dangerous and unappreciated stunt work is and how few crew members get praise for creating a movie. It also dared to call out some very modern, very real, and very terrifying issues surrounding AI and deep fake content. A major focal point of the plot revolves around Ryder using face-swapping technology to insert Colt's face into the video where he kills Henry. Ryder creates an uncomfortably realistic deep fake that makes it look like Colt is a murderer. This sort of technology exists now. Deep fakes and AI-generated content have become massive concerns, especially over the last few years. The Fall Guy does a brilliant job of showing how dangerous these technologies can be if left unchecked with a realistic scenario.

The Reviews Are Right About The Fall Guy

Despite The Fall Guy underperforming at the box office, Universal Studios created something special. The film features phenomenal performances from Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. It has a compelling underdog story that makes the audience root for Colt at every turn. They want to see him get the girl in the end. They want him to fall in love with stunt work again. They want to see him expose Ryder and Gail's corruption.

Not to mention, all the careful planning that went into the incredible stunts that brought the movie to life. When Gosling and other cast and crew members said this was a love letter to Hollywood stuntpeople, they meant it. Everything about this film is crafted with love and it shows.