It is shocking how little 2024's The Fall Guy shares with the original TV show of the same name.
Starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, The Fall Guy is Universal Pictures' major summer blockbuster to kick off the season at the box office.
Directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Bullet Train), the new film is loosely adapting the 1980s ABC series The Fall Guy.
However, many viewers may notice that even "loosely" might be generous in terms of how much the new Fall Guy is influenced by the 40-year-old action series.
2024's The Fall Guy Movie Is Nothing Like the Original Show
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for The Fall Guy
There is one notable similarity between 2024's The Fall Guy and the original TV show. Both lead actors (Lee Majors and Ryan Gosling) play a character named Colt Seavers, who's a stunt performer.
Beyond that simple fact, these characters are nothing alike, nor is most of the movie and TV show that share the same name.
Beginning with Gosling's Colt Seavers, while he is a stunt performer, the trouble he gets into (including being a suspect in murder) is entirely incidental. While Gosling's bumbling and innocent performance is wonderful, it strikes few similarities to Majors.
The original Fall Guy series revolves around Majors' Seavers, part stuntman, part bounty hunter, shouldering all the risks to capture escaped criminals, becoming a figurative "fall guy" for the justice system.
The show's premise, inspired by the song "Unknown Stuntman," cleverly intertwines the worlds of Hollywood glamour and gritty crime-fighting.
Outside of the main character, Emily Blunt plays Jody Moreno, an aspiring filmmaker, while Heather Thomas' original Jody Banks was also a stunt performer.
Ironically, the 84-year-old Majors makes a surprise cameo appearance alongside former co-star Thomas during a mid-credits scene of 2024's The Fall Guy.
Funny enough, Gosling's character sharing the same name as the original Fall Guy is one of the only major similarities. The rest of the movie is its own story, filled with new characters.
Why The Fall Guy Created Its Own Story
One of the most unbelievable aspects of The Fall Guy is that Ryan Gosling plays the stuntman for Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character (Tom Ryder), not the other way around.
Like many aspects of this new David Leitch film, this is just another subtle element of humor sprinkled in.
In general, the plot of The Fall Guy ultimately does a wonderful job of honoring generations of stuntmen with some incredible action throughout.
The story picks up when Colt delves into the mystery of Tom Ryder's disappearance, which turns the rejuvenated stuntman into a real-life 007-esque action star.
After being framed for murder (which Tom committed), Colt and Jody use incredible stunts and clever deception to pull a confession out of Tom.
While the plot is rather thin (written by Drew Pearce), the humor by Gosling does a lot of heavy lifting for the film's overall enjoyment and it lives up to the legacy of The Fall Guy with intense action sequences and making stuntwork the superpower of the film.
The Fall Guy is now playing in theaters.
