The tagline for the latest Ryan Gosling vehicle is simply "the stuntman becomes the real hero." In Hollywood, stuntmen are hardly ever the sung heroes because leading men hog the spotlight, but here's The Gos doing just that – with some help from director David Leitch and Universal Pictures.
The Fall Guy could be described as an action comedy with heavy notes of rom-com, but what it is in reality is a love letter to the people who make the action genre such a thrilling, worth-watching one: the stunt workers, from technicians to the stuntmen who risk their lives for a single mention of their name in the credits.
Loosely based on the cult '80s series of the same name, The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt as the leading pair, with The Gos playing a retired stuntman forced back to work – and into a situation where he must bring his onscreen skills to real life to save his ex-girlfriend's movie. And maybe even win her back, if he's lucky enough to survive the mission.
The Fall Guy places a lot of emphasis on stuntwork, including how it's never credited in the media or duly acknowledged by mainstream award shows. So, it feels natural for Universal Pictures to take the same approach for the marketing of the film.
Photo: YouTube/Universal Pictures
The latest ad is a highlight of the three stuntmen who stood in for Gosling during the production: Logan Holladay, Ben Jenkin, and Troy Brown. Holladay actually set a new world record for the most barrel rolls in a single stunt shoot during the production, and it's good to see him getting more attention.
The ad starts with The Gos driving around in a lime-green Nissan GT-R, picking up his stuntmen for an edition of Carpool – sort of like James Corden's now-defunct but very popular Carpool Karaoke, but without the singing. The ad is very meta, both in the way in which it shines the spotlight on the stuntmen and their skills and the way in which it references other productions, including the Corden segment and Gosling's previous Oscar-worthy role in Barbie.
It's also a great way of seeing how some movie magic happens, where the Universal backlot stands for as a residential neighborhood where the GT-R does burnouts, where people jump off buildings because elevators are too claustrophobic, and where cars can be driven from the roof.
But more importantly, it's a way of offering a teaser of the kind of stuntwork that is required by even a few minutes-long production, set against the foursome working on their karaoke skills on Any Way You Want It.
The Fall Guy opens in theaters wide on May 3 and is directed by David Leitch (Bullet Train, Deadpool 2, and Hobbs & Shaw), who is a former stuntman himself. Everything about this movie is meta – and awesome, too!
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News