Watching Bruce Willis fall down the side of a building in “Die Hard” or seeing Harrison Ford outrun yet another deadly trap in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” captures movie-goers’ attention in a unique way. These scenes are the reasons we watch action movies: to see crazy, superhuman behavior from our favorite movie stars.
Bruce Willis never actually used a hose to scale a building – he had a harness. Harrison Ford wasn’t actually chased by a giant boulder – it was fake. Movie magic, otherwise known as special effects, is used to make these moments feel real and intense. The people behind these stunts, however, rarely get recognition for their work. That’s what David Leitch’s 2024 film “The Fall Guy” aims to rectify.
In the film, Ryan Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a stuntman who had an accident that left him injured and out of the stuntman career. Seaver’s ex-girlfriend Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) is directing her first blockbuster movie and her star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has gone missing. Producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) contacts Seavers to hire him as a stuntman for the first time since his accident. However, Meyer has ulterior motives: she wants Seavers to find Ryder and save Moreno’s movie.
The film is a love letter to stunt work. It’s a movie full of intricate fight scenes and insane technical stunts that take a lot of skill. The fight scenes are choreographed and effects were used, but that seems to be the point. There’s a segment in the movie where Seavers is doing stunt work, and we get to see how it works. All of the danger and intricacies of being a stuntman and all the skill it actually takes to make those scenes on the big screen look so epic.
The movie isn’t the only thing that stands out: the soundtrack is amazing too. The film features KISS, Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera, AC/DC, The Darkness and other talented artists. Music supervisor Rachel Levy, along with help from other people working on the film, seemed to always know what song to use at each moment: it’s impressive.
“I Was Made For Lovin’ You” by KISS is repeated throughout the movie, and the different ways the directors and producers use it, add to the feeling of a scene. In the film, a slower cover of the song by Yungblud is played, mimicking the way popular songs are slowed down and dramatized in trailers these days.
The humor and jokes in the movies are great. The film writers are basically poking fun at the movie in some ways, like the aforementioned dramatic version of “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” by Yungblud. There’s something humorous about a normally fast-paced song being slowed down for an action scene that is critical to the plot.
“The Fall Guy” writers are self-aware. They know that the movie’s stunts are extreme, but the writers lean into that. It’s an action movie about a stuntman — extreme stunts are the point! Despite how many stunts and action scenes there are, they aren’t repetitive. All of the punches, jumps and car rolls are fun to watch.
What’s so charming about this movie is that you can tell the people who made it really appreciate stunt workers. Ryan Gosling’s stuntmen even attended the premier for the movie and showed off some of their skills.
Stunt workers put a lot of hard work into making those exciting scenes in the movies, but they usually aren’t acknowledged by the big movie events like the Oscars. It’s really cool to see some of the most important people in making your favorite action movies finally get some recognition for the work they do.
