Ryan Gosling redeems himself as one of 2024’s best blockbusters that failed to bust the block falls upward on streaming

In the year 1975, Steven Spielberg — in what we now understand to be very typical Spielberg fashion — let Jaws loose upon the world, and the cinematic landscape changed forever.

Hollywood had full-sent the tentpole psychology that would drive the success of Jaws and countless other films that came after it. 124 minutes and a timeless John Williams score later, the blockbuster was born. Of course, blockbusters, as we understand them, are mostly defined by their glitzy prominence in both star power and scope, and the promise of a hefty box office haul. It must be understood, however, that a film can radiate blockbuster energy without actually ticking all of these blockbuster boxes.

The Fall Guy, an action comedy that swam in this year’s sea of blockbuster films, was one such movie. Despite Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt shoring up the leading roles, a $180 million haul against a roughly $130 million budget meant it was no financial darling in the eyes of Universal Pictures. But that doesn’t mean its event-worthy swagger went unnoticed.

Per FlixPatrol, Oct. 8 saw The Fall Guy nestle itself neatly in the #2 spot of Prime Video’s most-watched films in Canada — Gosling’s country of origin. And while its Oscar-nominated leads make The Fall Guy an easy film to press play on, it’s the carbs — not the glucose — that cause people to stick around for its 126-minute runtime.

Indeed, the joy and sincerity that The Fall Guy carries itself with is the undrainable battery that powers its emotional core, humor, and unabashed creativity with which it celebrates the true heroes of the film industry. Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a stunt man who’s forced to leave his job behind when an accident results in him breaking his back. He resurfaces later on when Tom Ryder, a movie star portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who’s meant to star in the directorial debut of Colt’s ex-girlfriend Jody Moreno, played by Blunt) goes missing, and he becomes tasked with finding him. Driven by his desire to make sure Jody — the love of his life whose heart he broke — gets to finish her movie, Colt goes on a rollicking adventure that eventually unfolds into a grisly conspiracy.

Beyond the fact that Gosling hits fly ball after fly ball with his comedic timing — to say nothing of the film’s deeply funny dialogue just as it’s written — The Fall Guy‘s watchability is rooted in how it never allows the things it loves to come secondary to the things it takes aim at. The antagonists are written to be creatively bankrupt, but the focus is never on how creatively bankrupt they are. Instead, The Fall Guy focuses on painting itself with endearing emotion, laugh-out-loud dynamics, and none-too-subtle applause for the plight of the stunt performer, who risks life and limb every single day to bring us the blockbuster movies that have wowed us for generations.

The Fall Guy understands that tearing down others — regardless of how much they deserve to be torn down — does not bolster its own worth, and that every story worth telling is born from the heart. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the sexy bacon that Hollywood would be wise to heed with all its might going forward.