This Ryan Gosling Flop With 82% On Rotten Tomatoes Had A Big Impact On The Oscars

If you saw "The Fall Guy" when it came out in 2024, you're unfortunately in the minority. The movie, directed by David Leitch and starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, failed to make a big splash at the box office. What it did do, though, is helped change the Academy Awards.

In April 2025, the Academy made a surprising announcement: A competitive category will be added to future ceremonies that honors stunt coordinators. The Academy Award for Achievement in Stunt Design will officially become part of the Oscars in 2028, and films released in 2027 will be considered for nominations. This is, it should go without saying, a huge deal for film nerds and action movie fans, especially in an era with stunt-heavy movies like "John Wick" that beautifully highlight stunt coordinators, actors, and designers. Unfortunately for "The Fall Guy," which hopefully would have been a contender, it's too late for that movie to win an Oscar, but the hope is that it'll inspire other movies to go all-in on their stunts and vie for the new award. (Also, not for nothing, "The Fall Guy" drew largely positive reviews from critics, including one from /Film's own Jacob Hall.)

Leitch and his wife and producing partner Kelly McCormick spoke to The Hollywood Reporter after the success of the Bob Odenkirk action vehicle "Nobody 2," which their company produced, and discussed the Academy's big change, making it clear that they think "The Fall Guy" helped bring awareness to great stunt workers. "It did change the conversation," Leitch clarified. "It was Kelly's idea to lobby the guilds to change the name from stunt coordinator to stunt designer on the contracts, and now you have the option to do that. It really crystallized in the Academy's mind, this is a craft, not unlike production design or costume design. It's action design. It's stunt design. The advocacy of ['Fall Guy' stars] Emily and Ryan all helped."

Sure, "The Fall Guy" didn't reach any great heights at the box office, but it helped set the stage for a brand new Oscar. And it's the perfect movie to do so, because it's a love letter to the stunt community.

After years of other "below-the-line" production departments like costume designers and make-up artists being recognized by the Academy and stunt coordinators and performers being totally left out, it's pretty great to see a movie like "The Fall Guy" change the conversation. Based on the TV show of the same name that aired during the 1980s, the film centers around Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), a stuntman injured during a shoot who returns to work as a double for entitled actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), only to find himself embroiled in a massive shady conspiracy involving Tom's producer Gail Meyer ("Ted Lasso" standout Hannah Waddingham). Throughout all of this, Colt is desperately trying to win back his ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), who's stuck directing Tom's latest soulless blockbuster, "Metalstorm."

The movie is incredibly fun and features some genuinely amazing stunt work, pretty much all of which was done practically (this doesn't come as a huge surprise, as David Leitch himself is a former stuntman who worked on "The Matrix" years ago). Just to make the connection between "The Fall Guy" and the Academy's new award even better, Leitch has been ringing the bell about including the stunt community being included during cinema's biggest night for a while. Before the film came out, Leitch spoke to Empire Magazine for their 2024 film preview and was quite clear about his feelings.

"I find it disheartening that for my entire career, it feels like the stunt community has been lobbying the Academy to recognize them as a department that's as important to a film as anyone else," Leitch told the magazine. "It's really disheartening when everyone is celebrating on Oscar night."

Leitch's point is well-taken, which is that stunt coordinators work just as hard behind the scenes as anyone else but are then left out of the biggest conversation. "Then you're all in the same meetings [with production designers and costume departments] because you're a department head too," he continued. "It blows my mind that the perception is that [stunt coordinators] are not additive." It's poetic, then, that Leitch's movie helped move this conversation along.

Back in March 2024, both Ryan Gosling and David Leitch appeared at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas to premiere "The Fall Guy" and discuss the movie (via The Hollywood Reporter), and both of them spoke about the importance of stunt coordinators. Gosling, in particular, highlighted the work of his own stunt double Logan Halladay, pointing to a particularly funny moment during filming.

"There is a moment in the film where he buckles me in for a stunt that he is about to do," Gosling told the crowd. "Then I get out of the car and he pats me on the back for a stunt that he just did. How f***ed up is that?" 

Still, Gosling's point stands — and he was thrilled to be part of a movie that serves as an ode to stunt workers. "What I love about this movie is in any other film you would never know that, but in this one you do," he went on. "It's an opportunity to finally acknowledge the stunt performers and the incredible contribution that they already make to movies."

Leitch agreed. "It was a love letter to stunts," he said. "We knew we had to be authentic in that world." Leitch's pedigree alone, between "The Matrix" and his directorial work alongside Chad Stahelski on the first "John Wick" movie, would help "The Fall Guy" pay homage to his beloved stunt community, but thanks to Gosling's obvious passion, you can feel their love of stunts while you're watching the movie itself. "The Fall Guy" was pretty clearly made with a lot of joy and love, and the way it highlights stunts started a big conversation — and is just totally fun to watch.

So what about a sequel? In that first interview with THR, Leitch did hint at a possible sequel for "The Fall Guy," but it's still just a thought for him and Gosling. "Ryan and us had early conversations and some treatments of where this is going," Leitch said. "We had some really fun ideas. So who knows, maybe down the line it becomes one of those IPs that people want to revisit because it has such a following past theatrical. That would be my dream, but if it doesn't, there's a lot of other stories to tell." Maybe if "The Fall Guy 2" does become a reality, it can pick up that new Oscar.

"The Fall Guy" is streaming on Amazon Prime Video now.