For the love of stunt work

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, May 3rd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: we take a look at what’s on at the movies.

Usually moviegoers get a superhero film to start off the summer blockbuster season, but not this year. Labor strikes and lack of audience interest have sidelined the comic book franchises, so this season kicks off with a different kind of bang. A movie about stuntmen.

EICHER: Here’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino with a review of The Fall Guy.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt might have played second fiddle in last summer’s blockbusters Barbie and Oppenheimer, but this weekend, they get their time in the spotlight in the new romantic action-comedy The Fall Guy.

Gosling plays Colt Seavers, a down on his luck stuntman who gets a shot at redemption when he’s given the chance to work on a major blockbuster action movie. And Blunt plays Jody Moreno, the neophyte director of said blockbuster action movie. The two have a past, and Colt’s hoping Jody’s willing to give romance another try.

JODY: Why are you here?

COLT: I think there’s been a misunderstanding.

JODY: Clearly.

COLT: Because I was under the impression that you did want me here.

JODY: That’s a delusional thought. We haven’t spoken in a year.

While Colt’s just trying to impress Jody, Jody’s worried about directing the biggest action star on the planet, Tom Ryder, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. She’s already over budget. And then things go really wrong.

GAIL: Ryder’s missing. He has fallen in with some shady people.

If Jody’s going to finish her movie before the studio pulls the plug, someone needs to find the wayward star. It falls to Colt to track him down.

GAIL: No one’s going to notice whether you’re here or not. No offense.

COLT: I mean… some taken.

The Fall Guy is rated PG-13 for action and violence and some coarse language that’s about on par with what you might expect in a PG-13 movie. One scene in which Colt tracks the missing Ryder to a night club includes some suggestive dancing in the background, but the movie has less innuendo than most romantic comedies.

COLT: Is that Jody?

DAN: Yes, it’s Jody.

COLT: She say something about me?

DAN: Stop with… your face. Stop it.

The Fall Guy gets its inspiration from The Fall Guy TV series from the 1980s that starred Lee Majors as the original Colt Seavers. But the movie and the TV series don’t actually have much in common other than action, stunts, and a dose of comedy.

David Leitch directed The Fall Guy. He himself is a veteran stuntman, with a storied career in stunt performance and coordination. With this movie Leitch pays tribute to the community that gave him his start in Hollywood. Watching Jody make her film, which seems to be an awful sci-fi mashup of Mad Max and Dune, we get to see the behind the scenes and the tricks of the trade of stunt work. We even get to see the stunt team break a world record when they manage eight and a half cannon rolls in a car.

DAN: You got this. You’re the one.

COLT: Why you gotta say that? Why you gotta say that?

DAN: You’ve done this a million times.

COLT: And so have you. Now you just jinxed it. You just jinxed it!

Filming a movie within a movie and having actors play actors gives the film an amusing meta quality. There’s some sly commentary on the overall movie business here. Parts of the movie-making process don’t seem to make any sense, but I think Leitch is trying to say, “That’s Hollywood for ya’.” But don’t go into this movie expecting too much realism. Colt Seavers might seem like a bit of a goof, but he turns out to be omnicompetent, doing the work of five stuntmen.

COLT: Sound like a plan?

JODY: It’s a better plan than this. Please, please be careful!

But really, the best thing about this movie isn’t the incredible stunt work or the glimpse behind the curtain to see how they pull it off. Despite all the gunfire and explosions, The Fall Guy is an old-fashioned romantic comedy. And the stars’ chemistry carries the film. Gosling and Blunt are two of the most likable actors in Hollywood, and in this movie they give adorable performances. From the first scene to the last, the audience is pulling for them to straighten out this mess and live their happily ever after.

MUSIC: [All Too Well by Taylor Swift]

JODY: What are you doing?

COLT: Just chilling down.

JODY: Have you been crying to Taylor Swift?

COLT: Doesn’t everyone?

I’m Collin Garbarino.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.