Ryan Gosling’s New Action Movie Officially Calls Out The Oscars For Missing Stunt Category

Ryan Gosling’s latest movie The Fall Guy finally addresses one of the most overlooked and underappreciated missing categories at the Oscars. Since 2007, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which just recently streamed on Netflix for the first time ever in February 2024, have honored stunt workers and coordinators with the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture. The Bourne Ultimatum was the first film ever to win the award, which has become the highest honor for stuntwork in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the Academy Awards have yet to follow suit.

Outside of being a hilarious Barbie follow-up for Gosling, The Fall Guy aims to raise awareness of the exceptional and sacrificial work done by stuntmen and stuntwomen throughout the history of the entertainment industry. Stuntmen and stuntwomen by nature are the unsung heroes of film and television who are meant to be inconspicuous by design. Their sole purpose is to do the hard work and dangerous stunts, primarily in action movies, so that the A-list actors and actresses don’t have to, and their contributions are invaluable to the overall production. For this reason, it’s wildly disappointing that stuntwork has yet to be recognized by the Academy.

The Fall Guy Directly Mentions Absurd Missing Stunt Oscar Category

The Fall Guy makes a blunt point about stunt workers and their integral roles

The Fall Guy makes a clear and direct effort to raise awareness for the historic lack of recognition of stuntwork at the Academy Awards. Not only does it achieve this point by including real-life stunt workers in the movie, and featuring Gosling as a resilient, death-defying stuntman in the lead role, but it also mentions the lack of recognition in the movie itself. Director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Bullet Train) was also a former stuntman himself, which makes the message even more resoundingly intentional and felt. Since The Fall Guy is Gosling’s Barbie follow-up, the point is essentially unavoidable.

Before the start of The Fall Guy, Leitch and Gosling take a minute to speak to the audience directly, thanking them for seeing the film as it’s meant to be seen in theaters, but also stressing the invaluable worth of stunt workers and their unacknowledged legacy throughout the history of Hollywood. The history of stuntwork is also seen throughout The Fall Guy, with Leitch optioning to do some stunts, such as a fall from a helicopter later in the film, the old-fashioned way. Many stunts are avoidable or made much easier through the advancement of GCI, but The Fall Guy stays true to the roots of the art form through and through.

The Fall Guy Is Further Proof That The Oscars Need A Best Stunts Category

The Fall Guy has made a loud call for representation at the Academy Awards

With Leitch being a stuntman turned director, he is a shining example of what is arguably the most overlooked department in all of film and television. The Fall Guy brings this message front and center without overdoing it, making Gosling’s stuntman character fun and unserious while still presenting him as a full-bodied, and highly selfless, human being. The Fall Guy has made a louder call for representation at the Academy Awards more than any other blockbuster in recent memory. Seeing the cultural effect of last year’s Barbie, as well as Oppenheimer for the matter which co-star Blunt starred in, The Fall Guy could create real-world effects.

The Academy Awards will add a new category for Best Casting at the 98th Oscars, which will take place in March 2026. The award for Best Casting marks the first time that the Academy Awards have added a new category since 2001 with the addition of Best Animated Film, an award that first went to Shrek at the 74th Oscar ceremony. This proves that the Academy is still willing to add more categories to the Oscars and that The Fall Guy could spark a significant push to get Stunts to be the next major category to be added after Casting.

When The Oscars Could Get A Best Stunts Category

A Best Stunts category was rejected every year between 1991 and 2012

With Best Casting having been just announced to be implemented in 2026, the potential award for Stunts might not follow suit immediately, considering it took 25 years for the Academy to add a new category. What’s even more disappointing is that the Best Stunts category is certainly not a new idea at the Oscars, having been proposed and rejected every consecutive year between 1991 and 2012. The Fall Guy could at least inspire the category to be proposed once again for the 2025 Oscars, but given its track record and history, it may be more complicated than it seems.

The Fall Guy

The Fall Guy is an action thriller from Bullet Train and Deadpool 2 director David Leitch. Ryan Gosling stars as a stuntman who is forced to find a missing movie star, investigate a conspiracy, and repair his relationship with the love of his life. The film was written by Drew Pearce and inspired by the 1980s TV series of the same name.

Director

David Leitch

Release Date

May 3, 2024

Studio(s)

Universal Pictures , Entertainment 360 , 87North Productions

Distributor(s)

Universal Pictures

Writers

Drew Pearce

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