The Fall Guy is a love letter to the faceless people who risk their lives every day to make movie magic look real and it delivers that message in epic style. Comedy, romance, movie stars and blockbuster stunts, this film has it all. If you need a little bit more information to go off before committing your time to The Fall Guy we’ve got it all here for you, including the release date, cast members, stunt members and a chat with director David Leitch and producer Kelly McCormick.
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The Fall Guy: Release Date
If you’re already hungering to see The Fall Guy, the good news is that it’s available to see in cinemas in Australia as of today. In fact, Australia gets the movie a whole week before the U.S. or U.K., which I choose to think is repayment for closing the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a day.
What is the Fall Guy about?
The Fall Guy is a movie all about making movies, with a particular angle on the unsung heroes of the industry – the stunt people!
It’s also something of a reboot of the original TV series of the same name, which starred Lee Majors as a stuntman who used his training to solve crimes and stop criminals.
The 2024 version has a rom-com at its heart that follows stuntman Colt Seavers as he attempts to get his ex-girlfriend and now budding director, Jody, back after their break up. Colt is willing to anything to get Jody back, even if it means solving the mysterious disappearance of the film’s lead actor in order to save Jody’s film, which evolves into an action packed ride full of blockbuster stunts.
Where was The Fall Guy filmed?
If some of the locations in The Fall Guy look familiar that might be because filming took place in Sydney, Australia. Most Sydney-siders will remember the day that the Sydney Harbour Bridge was closed for many hours as Ryan Gosling was dragged across it on the back of a truck. Other locations include the Sydney Opera House, Martin Place, the IVY night club, the streets of Sydney CBD as well as the beaches of Kurnell.
The Fall Guy movie trailers
The Fall Guy is a movie with style, action, Hollywood movie stars, and even Taylor Swift, which you can see in the trailers below. You’ll get some peeks at those iconic Aussie locations as well.
How The Fall Guy campaigns for a Best Stunts award at the Oscars
If The Fall Guy succeeds at one thing it’s giving stunts the recognition they deserve, something the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has failed to do for almost a century now. However, the movement behind getting a Best Stunt award at the Oscars is building and producer, Kelly McCormick, is confident that it will happen.
“I think that there’s a lot of warmth to the idea from the Academy,” McCormick told Lifehacker during an interview in Sydney. “You know, there’s lot of stunt people who have been going through the steps that are required, for years, decades, even. We’ve joined the fight recently and found that it is a really warm reception.”
“There’s some steps that we have to do that we haven’t done, as of yet and lots of conversations that need to happen, but I think there is a hope amongst the stunt community and there’s a reception that’s quite positive with the Academy. So we hope that we get there,” the producer continued.
Part of that battle has been changing the roles of stunt people on films, which Leitch and McCormick did for Chris O’Hara on The Fall Guy, switching his title from stunt coordinator to stunt designer.
“We changed his title to stunt designer, which is important for us as we lobby the Academy for an award. [We want] to make sure that it’s clear that they’re not just coordinating that there is an artistry to it as well, which is one of the hold backs that we’ve been told and does make a lot of sense. If you’re just coordinating it feels very technical and [the Academy] really want the award to be about artistry as well. So that’s important,” McCormick explained.
Who are the stunt people who worked on The Fall Guy?
While the Academy may still be figuring out how to recognise stunt people, we felt it was worth asking McCormick and Leitch to name just a few of the massive and talented stunt team who worked on The Fall Guy.
Along with Chris O’Hara, Leitch and McCormick shouted out stunt coordinator Keir Beck who helped to rig all the wire stunts on the movie, Logan Holliday, who broke a world record on The Fall Guy with the most canon rolls done in a car while driving, Ben Jenkins, who was Ryan Gosling’s main body double, Justin Eaton who helped choreograph and stood in for Gosling in many of the film’s fight scenes, and Troy Brown, who did the infamous high fall from a helicopter seen in the movie’s trailers.
Of course, naming everyone in a five minute interview was never going to be possible, but these are just some of the names we should be applauding in the stunt community (as well as everyone else who worked on The Fall Guy team).
“That’s one of the challenges with the Academy is who gets the award? How do you actually [decide] when there’s so many people that come together? It’s not unlike any other department though,” McCormick said. ” There’s so many people who come together and then one person gets the awards. But there’s just so many on this movie that it’s really hard to [single] them out.”
Does Ryan Gosling do his own stunts?
The Fall Guy has its share of meta film industry jokes, including one pointed at actors who don’t do their own stunts. So, does that joke apply to The Fall Guy’s lead, Ryan Gosling? According his director, Gosling shares a few similarities with his stuntman character, getting on board for as many of the action scenes as was feasible.
“There were so many stunts in this movie, he could do some too,” Leitch said, adding that Gosling wanted to leave room to spotlight the real stunt men and women in the film, rather than taking over their jobs.
“But he also knew that to portray a stunt performer, as good of an actor as he is, he needed to find some authenticity. So we hung him off of a building and dropped him 125 feet (40m) so he could feel that authenticity firsthand. We dragged him at 35 miles an hour (60km/h) across the Harbour Bridge in the rain. So he did his own stunts.”
Who else is in the cast?
Part of the magic of The Fall Guy is its superstar cast, of which Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are just the tip of the iceberg.
Adding to the ensemble is Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham, Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train), Winston Duke (Black Panther) and Teresa Palmer (The Clearing).
Keep an eye out for some familiar Aussie faces in the ensemble, as well as a few cameos from the stunt team.
The Fall Guy reviews: Is it any good?
The Fall Guy premiered at SXSW in Texas earlier this year and with it came a tirade or positive reviews.
The film sits at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 45 reviews. Critics have said it has “huge laughs, huge stunts”, is “ridiculously entertaining” and is “one of the best times you’ll have in the theatre this year.”
Sounds like a winner to us. If you want to check out The Fall Guy for yourself, it’s release date has arrived so you can do so in cinemas now.
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