In filmmaking, there are original stories and there’re adaptations. While audiences clamor for original stories, the system *needs* adaptations to help fund the originals. Sure, it’s getting hard for some audiences to get excited for Super Cape 58 (not me, Super Cape 57 was superb), but those box office successes help pave the way for all the films that don’t yet have a built-in audience to get made. One such adaptation is director David Leitch’s romantic action-comedy The Fall Guy¸ written by Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3; Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw) and based on the television series created by Glen A. Larson (Knight Rider; Magnum, P.I.; Battlestar Galactica), which found the multitalented Ryan Gosling (Barbie) slipping into the harness of stuntman Colt Seavers as he undergoes the beginning of a new career as a bounty hunter. Filled with laughs, explosions, and heart in equal measure, The Fall Guy is a love-letter to cinema and cinema aficionados and its physical home release edition includes two viewing options and roughly 69-minutes of bonus features to go behind the scenes on the story and the crew that make it happen.
Head over to EoM Contributor Gabe Lapalombella’s initial release reviews if you’re interested in learning about either the theatrical edition spoiler-free or the extended cut.
After an accident on set that leaves him severely injured, stuntman Colt Seavers spends the next 18 months hiding out, leaving behind a great career and the start of a relationship with camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). All of that ends when producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) calls to tell him that there’s trouble on the set of Jody’s directorial debut, the sci-fi epic Metalstorm, and Jody needs his help to wrap the shoot in Sydney, Australia. Feeling hope, he hops a plane, gets on set, and nearly immediately realizes that things aren’t as they seem when Jody has no awareness of his being there. But the penny drops when Gail privately tells Cole that Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the actor Colt used to double for, is missing and Gail needs him to find Tom ASAP in order to save the film. With Jody’s future on the line, this unsung hero with a nameless face will take hits on set during the day and plenty more at night as he searches Sydney for Tom, only to get pulled into a wild mystery involving murder that may have Colt redefine the term “fall guy.”
When a film is described as “for cinephiles,” that’s usually because a film either drops countless overt references to other films or uses the language of movie-making. The Fall Guy not only does this overtly, it does so covertly, resulting in an experience that’s enjoyable whether you understand the references or not, a key component to whether audiences will want to revisit the film. The overt things are items like a movie montage at the front of the film comprised of various Universal Pictures projects (the studio and distributor for The Fall Guy), the language that the characters uses to describe the experience of stunt work and movie making, and the way in which the characters shorthand conversations by identifying or quoting from other films. That’s fun in and of itself, especially in illustrating the relationship between Colt and friend/lead stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke) as they quote Rocky (1976) and more at each other to hype the other up. But then there’s the slyly positioned 87N logo on Dan’s work uniform in the climax (representative of Leitch and producer Kelly McCormick’s (The Fall Guy) production studio 87North, which works in-partnership with 87eleven (co-owned by Leitch and Chad Stahelski (John Wick series)); the split-screen sequence between Colt and Jody that’s inspired by the 1959 rom-com Pillow Talk (confirmed via the theatrical commentary track); or Colt’s inability to drink coffee which gives off Hudson Hawk (1991) energy. It’s the diegetic and non-diegetic needle drops from Phil Collins to Jan Hammer that’ll have you sobbing in your seat or fist punching the air, and it’s the meta references sharp-eyed viewers will identify as Gosling’s stunt doubles play members of the stunt team or supporting cast. In the conversation with Gail when she tells Colt of the situation, she refers to him as someone no one will miss as a stunt person, a phrase that hurts him having been personally called to come to the set, but it also speaks to a wider perspective on stunt people and how audiences love their work, but rarely, if ever, attribute or connect that affection to the stunt person in favor of the actor. That Leitch, a former stuntperson himself, makes a point to incorporate every one of Gosling’s doubles — Logan Holladay (Need for Speed), Ben Jenkin (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Troy Lindsay Brown (Sky High; Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire), Justin Eaton (The Killer) — and even The Fall Guy stunt designer Chris O’Hara (Baby Driver), makes the action core of The Fall Guy walk the walk that the narrative talks. All of the above is just a smattering of what will tickle cinephiles and cause them to want to rewatch the film as soon as its over. Thankfully, as a home release, you can do exactly that.
So, let’s talk about the home release edition, specifically the 4K UHD edition.
The 4K UHD home release is a three-disc set with two 4K UHD discs and one Blu-ray. The 4Ks are dedicated edition discs, meaning that you have to physically choose which version you want to watch (theatrical or extended cut) before putting in the disc. This feature demonstrates how, on some level, the people behind The Fall Guy get that the best version of a film is one which has the most space for the data. Cramming more than one version of a film onto a single 4K disc is only going to require more compression to get the job done, resulting in a lesser quality presentation. For this review, only the 4K UHD theatrical presentation was checked and it oscillates between the low 60 Mbps to the mid 80 Mbps, thereby maintaining a strong visual presentation throughout the film. Treated with HDR to give the scenes greater depth of color, this is most noticeable in both bar sequences (one fight; one karaoke) and any of the Metalstorm sequences as the respective set pieces involve exaggerated color such as neons, deep reds from lights, or just the hyper-stylized world of the sci-fi feature. Generally, though, the main film is shot to look as grounded as possible in order to differentiate between Metalstorm’s hyperreality and the reality in which the characters of The Fall Guy exist. This translates to a viewing experience in which much of the film doesn’t so much have a “look” or style as it, instead, presents the world without a typical filter. There’re certainly tones, like the cool blues of the alley after Colt finds a dead body or the orange and gold of the beach of the cannon roll sequence, but the HDR doesn’t blow them out or enhance them so much as keep them crisp and clear so that the details shine. As the EoM screening room is not wired for Dolby Atmos, we can’t speak to that specifically, but when played through the 5.1 Yamaha surround sound system we use, the dialogue is clear, there’s good balance between ambience and scoring, and there’s no missing any of the audio cues or dynamism of the action.
What are really great about The Fall Guy are the bonus features. There are six individual featurettes, one five-part breakdown of the major stunts, two different audio commentary tracks, a gag reel, and a brief offering of alternate takes. There’s a tiny bit of repetition across a few clips in what Gosling is shown stating regarding stunt work (perhaps just a reuse of the same portion), but, otherwise, there’s a lot of fresh and exciting information packed throughout, most focusing on the behind-the-scenes processes of the stunts and why that works matters. For instance, in “How to Break a World Record,” audiences are invited to not only watch Holladay break the world record for cannon rolls, but we get to see inside the car when he does it. This and most of the other featurettes aren’t as interested in walking audiences through the major steps, lingo, or processes of pulling off the stunts as they are designed for people with some understanding of the movie-making process, but this isn’t a downside as each one is equally inviting and thrilling. In “Nightclub Mayhem,” we learn a little bit about how time and location accessibility can influence what’s actually attempted on set and how shoots often have to pivot under new conditions. Three of the featurettes highlight at least one of the central stunt people working on the project, using them as a way to not only showcase their contributions to the project but inform how the stunts get done. If it looks easy, it’s because they know what they’re doing. One fun tidbit from the theatrical commentary track between Leitch and McCormick is that Gosling loves to improv and his bits about the sand to Dan are from a conversation he had with Holladay previously about attempting the cannon roll. It not only serves Colt’s arc about getting back into stunt work and offers a little hilarity at his coming up with excuses to avoid it, but knowing that it came from Holladay originally speaks to how much The Fall Guy only works because of the close relationship between cast and crew — an idea that really extends to all productions (see: the dual strikes of 2023).
If The Fall Guy had ended with a shot of Colt getting a cup of coffee (something he keeps getting interrupted from doing throughout) and throwing it over his shoulder, this film would automatically be my number 1 film of 2024 for having the gumption to reference Hudson Hawk, one of this reviewer’s favorite films, all the way to the end, but it doesn’t and that’s not something I’ll ding it for, especially when the film surprises on near every level. The romance angle is as integral a motivation for Colt as the action is to the spectacle of both this film and the production Jody’s trying to finish. Not only is it integral, but it’s believable and grounded, which is important as the film gets weirder and weirder. By not losing its core emotion, The Fall Guy is able to fall from great heights, survive massive explosions, and utilize a gun gag nearly better than any John Wick series stunt and we just buy right in. As someone who has been excited to see The Fall Guy since well before its 2024 SXSW premiere, it’s fantastic that the film not only lives up to the hype, it exceeds it. With luck, this prequel-like tale is only the first of a few cinematic iterations, because this cast rules and the possibilities of where they can go with this are endless.
The Fall Guy Special Features:
- Extended Cut – An extended cut of the film with 20 minutes of additional footage featuring more action, more laughs and more stunts. (2:26:26)
- Gag Reel (4:37)
- Alternate Takes (5:54)
- Stunts on Stunts: Breaking Down the Action – Five breathtaking breakdowns detail the meticulous designs, careful preparation, and astonishing execution that goes into pulling off the film’s death-defying stunts. (19:08)
- Making a Meta Masterpiece – The Fall Guy‘s filmmaking team and all-star cast take you behind the scenes in Australia for an insider’s look into the creativity and camaraderie that turns the original TV series into a thrilling new movie. (16:05)
- How to Break a World Record – Cheer along with the crew as driving double Logan Holladay and the stunt team craft a cannon roll crash that breaks a Guinness World Record. (6:06)
- Nightclub Mayhem – Fight coordinator Sunny Sun and stunt double Justin Eaton venture behind the camera to choreograph a bottle-breaking battle between Colt Seavers and Doone’s goons. (3:31)
- The Art of Doubling – Meet stunt double Ben Jenkin, a man willing to be set on fire, hit by a car, and take risks with Ryan Gosling to collectively make a single character look cool. (4:24)
- Making Metalstorm – Cowboys collide with aliens in this look at the creation of Metalstorm, The Fall Guy‘s film within the film. (4:33)
- Falling for The Fall Guy with Bob Reese – Professional parkour athlete and influencer Bob Reese recreates stunts from the movie, including a scissor-lift dive, Kong vault, and heart-stopping high fall. (4:25)
- Feature Commentary with Director/Producer David Leitch and Producer Kelly McCormick (2:06:24) Feature Commentary with Director/Producer David Leitch and Producer Kelly McCormick (2:26:26)
Available on digital May 21st, 2024.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD July 23rd, 2024.
For more information, head to the official The Fall Guy website.
Final Score: 4.5 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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