No Surrender Cinema: The Fall Guy (2024)
Lights! Camera! A whole lot of action! Hollywood has decided to revitalize a property that’s been near and dear to my heart since childhood, and they’re counting on golden boy Ryan Gosling to put it at the top of the box office. I’ve just returned from a father-son outing to the Friday night premiere of The Fall Guy, so let’s fill a little page space with a new No Surrender Cinema that talks about it!
(SPOILER WARNING: I don’t like to play fast and loose with spoilers when it comes to new films, but there will still be some minor spoilers sprinkled throughout the article. Fair warning for anyone who wants to keep away from that info until you’ve seen the movie!)
I’ve got to admit, when I first started seeing previews for The Fall Guy, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Growing up, I loved watching The Fall Guy TV series, because since it was a show about a stuntman and his friends earning some extra dough as bounty hunters, it guaranteed an hour of action for a kid that couldn’t get enough of it. It ranked right up there with my (repeated) viewings of shows like The A-Team and The Incredible Hulk, and it made for a good, family friendly way to get my action fix if I wasn’t in the position to pop on Revenge of the Ninja or one of the countless other films that weren’t intended for a pre-pubescent child’s eyes, but still found there way into my VCR nonetheless. The Fall Guy wasn’t particularly captivating, but it didn’t have to be; when you had Colt Seavers (portrayed in the show by Lee Majors) punching out bad guys and falling off of buildings, that was more than enough to keep my eyes glued to the TV screen. In a world where Hollywood’s action output has been dominated by what feels like an infinite onslaught of comic book properties and Fast and Furious films, transitioning The Fall Guy from the small screen to the big screen, at the onset of summer blockbuster season, felt like a huge gamble, Gosling or not. My interest still outweight my doubts, and for once I’m glad that I didn’t let my hesistance win, because The Fall Guy film was immensely fun, even more so than I expected it to be!
Gosling doesn’t play Colt Seavers as a gruff good ol’ boy like Lee Majors did; he’s turning his boyish charm up to 11 (mainly due to the romance portion of the plot), but as a draw to the male audience, he makes for a good lead. His version of Colt plays like a California “dude”, laid back and unflinching even when he’s asked to perform the most dangerous of stunts. Unfortunately, one of those stunts injures Colt on the set of his latest film, where he’s doubling for A-list superstar Tom Ryder. It also happens just as he and camera operator Jody Moreno are about to take their relationship to the next level, and the emotional double whammy finds Colt purposely isolating himself from the industry and his friends, including Jody.
When the opportunity arises to join Jody (now a director) as a stuntman on the set of her futuristic epic Metalstorm (starring Ryder), Colt sees it as a chance to reconnect and rekindle their relationship, which does not go as easy as he’d hoped. Compounding those efforts is a mystery surrounding Ryder, who has now disappeared, and Colt is nominated to track him down and bring him back, lest he be in any trouble. The more Colt looks for Ryder, the wider the scope of the mystery, but for those of us in the audience watching, it means a whole lot of action. It tends to feel very meta when you’re watching the character of a stuntman involved in a fight scene where he’s dodging a samurai sword for several minutes, only to realize it’s a rubber prop. It’s also very exciting when each action sequence not only feels like it needs to top the previous one (to those of us watching), but to see how Seavers utilizes the things he’s learned over the years to survive the situations he ends up stuck in. From surfing the streets of Australia while hooked to a garbage truck to showing us that it’s not always back to accidentally swallow gasoline, the way the film sets up Seavers to get in over his head, but instinctively fall back (The Fall Back Guy?) on his stunt training adds another layer to his character. You want to see him get out of trouble, but you also want him to get in another stick situation just to see how he’ll get out of it.
The supporting cast are fine, with Winston Duke (M’Baku from the Black Panther franchise/MCU) as Colt’s best buddy and stunt coordinator Dan being the standout. Emily Blunt as Jody the love interest spends a lot of time resenting Colt’s disappearing act, and juggling with her feelings when he shows up on the set of Metalstorm. The villains of the film have shockingly little screen time until the third act, but the lead up to the big twist is still littered with a variety of awesome fight scenes, including one that takes place in a club after Colt has been drugged. The whole thing plays out in a blurry, animated fashion that makes you think that Colt could be hallucinating the whole thing, until the scene ends and you realize that he did indeed just kick all of these drug dealer’s asses. We’ve also got car chases, boat chases, jumps off of buildings onto other things, explosions, and a final fight that ends up involving pretty much everybody on the set of Metalstorm, again falling a bit over onto the meta side of things when the stunt people on set within the movie start doing the things they’d have to do to prepare for a movie stunt to aid them in a real situation.
For those like me who love the original show (and you’d be surprised how many people I spoke to this week who do not remember The Fall Guy, despite its five season run on network television; hopefully the success of the film leads to it popping up on one of the many streamers or we get a complete series DVD set), there are a couple of Easter eggs thrown in, which I chuckled at. There are also several reasons to stay through the credits; one is footage that pays tribute to all of the stunt people who worked on this film, and the other reason is a mid-credits scene that delivers two surprise cameos and gives a little added closure to two of the main players.
After originally being a bit “meh” on the fact that this film was being done, I officially take it all back, because this film was great fun. My son and I reacted to all of the action sequences, I laughed at the inside references, and the cast were all perfect in their respective roles. In fact, I honestly can’t think of one negative thing to say about it. The two hour runtime flies by, and at no point does the film drag. If Seavers isn’t involved in some type of fight or flight scenario, he’s making you laugh at his frat boy behavior.
My son said to me in the car “we definitely need this movie in our collection”, and he’s absolutely right; this is a film that has a spot on our movie shelf waiting for it once the 4K/Blu-Ray comes out. Since that’s still at least a few months away, all I can say is if you want to have a fun night out at the theater, The Fall Guy has everything you need to have a good time.
The Fall Guy is currently in theaters. You can also view select episodes of the original The Fall Guy TV series on YouTube!
