How The Fall Guy turned stunties into heroes

The Fall Guy director David Leitch started his big career move from stunt performer to director while he was still working as Brad Pitt’s stunt double on Fight Club. 

Hollywood sat up and took notice as David co-directed the first John Wick film in partnership with Chad Stahelski (although he did not receive a director’s credit), and he soon added massive blockbusters to his portfolio, including Bullet Train, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde.

So when producer Guymon Casady wanted someone to create a movie inspired by his 80s childhood favourite TV show The Fall Guy, there was really just one name in the hat. “I loved his movies, and I loved him. But it was his background in stunts that made him the perfect guy,” Guymon insists. 

Ryan Gosling plays Colt, the lead in this film who is the stunt double in the movie-within-a-movie called MetalStorm. He says, “Setting an action movie within the world of the people who make action movies felt so authentic because they’re the only people who really know how to achieve those things. One of my first acting jobs was on a kids’ action show called Young Hercules, so I’ve almost always had a stunt double. In my experience with stunt doubles, they’ll come do all the cool stuff, risk everything, then disappear into the shadows, and the actors take credit for what they’ve done. So, it’s exciting to be part of something that shines a spotlight back onto them and highlights all of the incredible things that they do and the risks they take to do it.”  

All the fun and energy in The Fall Guy is deeply rooted in David’s years of on-set experience, and the (at times) absurd contrast between the heroics we see on screen, and the bold and somewhat insane performers who make movie magic happen. “In our version, our protagonist, a stuntman, discovers that his stunt skills are akin to superpowers,” says David. And he notes that the title contains three meanings, all central to the plot of the film. “Our fall guy is not just a stuntman taking falls for the camera; he’s someone unfairly taking the blame for something he didn’t do. He’s also a man who’s fallen deeply in love, willing to risk it all to reclaim the love of his life.”

Stream The Fall Guy now.

The stunts

“My journey in the stunt world began during the transition from this old-school era to the modern era where stunt work began embracing new technologies and practices. For me, it was natural to embrace both sides of stunt performing – the old-school toughness and the evolving world of visual effects. While we incorporate some nods to the role of visual effects, the film maintains a raw and practical element in every stunt. With this film, we aimed to deliver action that was true to the spirit of the stunt community by incorporating techniques that have become somewhat of a lost art,” says David, who worked closely with stunt designer Chris O’Hara to hammer out the practicalities of the movie’s stunning set pieces.

One of their old school nods is a fall from a helicopter, in which stunt performer Troy Brown broke his personal record and fell around 46 metres. He landed on an airbag made by his father, stunt legend Bob Brown, who also coached him for the stunt. The bag, one of very few in the world that was up to specifications for a fall from that height, was last used during the filming of The Flight of The Phoenix in Namibia in 2004. So Bob tracked down the South African stunt performers who bought it from him, and had Universal Pictures transport it all the way to Australia for The Fall Guy.

In the beach scene in which Colt has to roll a car for a stunt, stunt double Logan Holladay (seen in The Fall Guy as the guy strapping Colt into his harness for the stunt) broke the Guinness World Record for cannon rolls in a car with eight and a half rolls, passing the previous record held by stuntman Adam Kirley, who achieved seven cannon rolls during the filming of Casino Royale in 2006. Planning the stunt had to include keeping an eye on the tides, getting the film’s earthworks team to compact the sand beforehand, and selecting the perfect car for the job. In this case, it had to stand up to 900 psi of force from a hidden piston, which would then flip the car. The stunt team selected the Jeep Grand Cherokee because with a height equal to its width, it was practically cylindrical, making it the perfect candidate for a good roll. Logan also executed a +/- 65m car jump that took him up to 24 metres in the air at one point.

The helicopter fall and “cannon roll” were bread and butter stunt work. But one stunt sequence was a little whackier. Think of Ryan Gosling being dragged through the streets of Sydney, Australia, in a rubbish skip, while having a fight with a bad guy. At one point his character “skis” behind the skip on a piece of sparking metal, as it crosses Sydney Harbour Bridge. We can thank the special effects team for a little enhancement, but that really was Ryan, strapped into a discrete wire harness and holding on for dear life, while the rest of the stunt was performed safely in full traffic, thanks to a crew of 50 stunt drivers. It’s just another day on the job.

“My career is built on 20 years of being a stunt performer, taking hits, riding wires, crashing cars, being set on fire and working closely with every department in the industry,” says David. “If you asked me to stop directing movies and go back to being a stunt coordinator, I’d still be thrilled because there’s no place I’d rather be than on a movie set, making art with my friends.” 

Stream The Fall Guy now.

Go deeper, harder and faster!

For a deeper look at the business of being a stunt performer, the six-episode documentary series Action takes us on set and behind the scenes with the 87North Stunt team. In the first 3 episodes, the performers and stunt coordinators reveal what went into filming iconic scenes in a host of Hollywood movies, including The Matrix, while going into forensic detail on the stunts performed in action comedy Violent Night. 

David Leitch takes a hand-on role in training action stars himself in episodes 2 and 3, in which he discusses starting work on The Fall Guy and the thinking behind the helicopter fall stunt and David’s determination to break the cannon roll record. And the film is extensively covered in the series’ remaining episodes. It’s a must-see immediately after you’ve watched The Fall Guy! 

And it’ll make you give the stunt performers a bow as you watch our other epic action films this November – especially with the whole Mission: Impossible franchise coming back to Showmax from Monday, 25 November…on the same day as apocalyptic post-election film Civil War.