The Fall Guy(2024)

Submitted by Julio M

Short pooper:
Tom (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Gail (Hannah Waddingham) are in cahoots and behind the murder of Jody’s (Emily Blunt) film stuntman, Henry. Colt (Ryan Gosling) figures it out and, after surviving many close calls, fights with henchmen and vehicle chases, teams up with Jody to dupe Tom into confessing, while the other bad guys are arrested; when Tom tries to fend this off, he is killed, out of his own misfortune, by prop fireworks. Jody successfully finishes her movie and she and Colt get back together.

Longer version:
In his quest to figure out the whereabouts of Tom -the current star of his ex-girlfriend Jody’s debut film, “Metalstorm”-, former stuntman Colt finds himself inexplicably fending off thugs that come his way; discovering the corpse of the film’s current stuntman Henry -only for it to mysteriously disappear later when he tries to bring the police around-; battling the film’s producer Gail, who insists on forcing him away from the set; and engaging in one destructive chase after another, throughout Sydney.

With the help of Alma (Stephanie Hsu), Tom’s PA, Colt comes across a phone he manages to unlock, assisted by his friend/stunt coordinator Dan (Winston Duke), and finds in it an incriminating video showing that a drunken Tom was responsible for Henry’s accidental death. Suddenly, more goons come around and attack them. The phone is destroyed, Dan escapes and Colt is captured and taken to a yacht.

It is here revealed that Tom had been hiding in that yacht, all along, and Gail was secretly working with him to frame Colt for the whole incident by means of doctoring the video images with AI technology -to make it seem like Colt did it-; moreover, Tom admits to deliberately trying to kill Colt out of jealousy -one of these attempts having resulted in Henry’s death-. The video is successfully manipulated and released to the media, at the same time that Henry’s body is found by the authorities, all of it succeeding in making Colt look like the killer. Colt escapes and engages in a boat chase that ends in a crash and explosion, thus everyone believing he has died.

In the clear, Tom returns to the set of “Metalstorm” to resume duties, accompanied by his henchmen. At the same time, Colt also manages to sneak back into the set and gets a hold of Jody -who now believes he is guilty, thanks to Gail- and convinces her of his innocence. They decide to work together to trick Tom into confession. For this effect, they get him to take part in a stunt sequence by himself and, while wired for sound, he ends up scarily admitting what he did, while the henchmen are held back by Dan and the other crew members. Gail gets the upper hand, steals the incriminating audio recording at gunpoint and tries to flee in a helicopter.

Jody helps Colt jump onto the helicopter, so he can recover the recording and fall safely on a crash mat. As Gail tries to follow suit, she and Tom are arrested by a contingent of police on the ground; Tom, however, eludes this and tries to call his agents through his cellphone, but, while doing this, he stands on a pile of pyrotechnics used for explosions and sets them off, getting killed.

Colt clears his name and rekindles his relationship with Jody. “Metalstorm” gets to be completed, now starring Jason Momoa, and becomes a massive hit, attended, among others, by the couple. The movie ends and the credits show behind-the-scenes footage of all the outrageous stunt work undertaken as part of the real-life film, which has gone on to set up a new Guinness record for most “cannon rolls” by a vehicle.

Look for cameos by Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, stars of the original 80s TV series in which the movie is based, as police officers in the arrest scene!!