The film's stunt team performed eight-and-a-half car rolls — known as the cannon roll — and on their second attempt they broke the Guinness World Record for the most car rolls, a fact Gail explicitly mentions in the dialogue.
Ryan Gosling had a chance meeting with Steven Spielberg, who told him he loved the film. Gosling said, 'As far as I'm concerned, nothing else matters now — Steven Spielberg liked it. That was an all-time moment for me. I'm really excited for people to see it; I think it's a really special film.'
Ryan Gosling is actually afraid of heights, yet he still performed the 150-foot fall at the start of the film.
Colt is asked whether there is an Oscar® for stunt work in films, and he replies that there isn't. That absence is a genuine source of frustration for stunt performers, especially given that almost every other technical category receives its own recognition at the Oscars®, and bodies such as the Emmys and the SAG Awards do, in fact, hand out honours for stunt work. Director David Leitch, who previously worked as a stunt performer, has described making The Fall Guy (2024) as a "love letter" to the stunt community, intended to give them the recognition they deserve. Filmmakers, including Leitch, have campaigned for years for an Oscar® for Best Stunts, but the Academy has cited the length of the ceremony and concerns that a Best Stunts Oscar® might incentivise stunt teams to attempt ever more extreme—and potentially unsafe—feats purely to win, as reasons for not introducing the category. However, in April 2025 the Academy announced that a Best Stunt Design award will be presented for the first time in 2028.
Ryan Gosling employed eight stunt doubles.
Chris O'Hara was credited in the crew as 'stunt designer,' a credit thought to be the first of its kind. The Stunt Designer credit is intended to acknowledge the high-level artistic contribution typically associated with the stunt coordinator role, and to recognise creative leadership within the stunts industry.
The film is loosely based on The Fall Guy (1981). In that series Lee Majors portrayed Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman who also worked as a bounty hunter when film jobs were scarce. Majors himself and the show's iconic vehicle, the 1981 GMC K-2500 Wideside, make cameo appearances in the film, as does his co-star Heather Thomas, who played Jody Banks in the series.
The film had been in development since 2010. Over time, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Nicolas Cage, Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson were all tipped to take on the role of Colt Seavers.
At one point in the film, Tom Ryder delivers a rather poor impression of Matthew McConaughey, saying, "I've been killing aliens long before anybody paid me to." It’s a nod to the notorious Lincoln adverts in which McConaughey declared, "I've been driving Lincolns long before anybody paid me to."
One of the Post-it notes Tom has displayed (visible during the shoot-out sequence) is a reminder to buy unicorn food. This suggests he has been taking, recreationally, the same hallucinogen with which Colt was drugged.
Alma insists on receiving a producer credit in return for handing Tom's phone over to Colt. The credits for Metalstorm list her as a producer.
Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has sticky notes plastered all over his flat with random thoughts jotted on them. One of the notes reads "Is it Momoa or Mamoa?" By the film's close, Tom Ryder's Metal Storm role is recast with Jason Momoa.
Emily Blunt partially modelled her character on Greta Gerwig, saying, 'With the warmth and the charm, I suppose there's a little Greta in there.'
The film-within-a-film Metalstorm draws heavily on the actual picture Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983). Its overall concept, costumes, desert setting and car-based stunt work are taken straight from Charles Band's film, which has been characterised as "Star Wars meets Mad Max." The tagline "It's High Noon at the End of the Universe." used for the film-within-the-film is also the same tagline employed by the 1983 release and by the Full Moon Entertainment production Oblivion 2: Backlash (1996).
During a fight scene in Tom Ryder's flat in Sydney, Colt Seavers pushes his friend Dan aside when someone shoots at a mobile phone. The sound effect is the same as that used in The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), which also stars Lee Majors.
Justin Eaton portrays Henry (uncredited), the stuntman for Metalstorm who doubles for Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Eaton is also a professional stuntman who doubled for Taylor-Johnson and Ryan Gosling on the stunts for The Fall Guy (2024), and can be clearly seen in the end-credits outtakes.
An in-joke within the industry: Hannah Waddingham's character, the film producer, is practically chained to her phone throughout the film, a nod to the stereotype that producers are perpetually on the phone.
Tired after his intercontinental flight, Colt is denied coffee on five separate occasions: the on-set PA doesn't bring him any; he asks for the coffee lady but is obliged to perform a driving stunt instead; the coffee machine in Gail's trailer is out of order; in Ryder's flat he manages to get a cup but is assaulted; and in his hotel room he pours himself a drink only to drop it when he discovers a body in the bath.
Blake Shelton performs a modernised cover of the song "The Unknown Stuntman" over the end credits. This was the theme tune to the 1980s TV series The Fall Guy (1981), originally sung by its star Lee Majors, who crooned about being "the unknown stuntman, who made Eastwood (Clint Eastwood) look so fine." The up‑to‑date rendition omits references to actors from the 1970s and 1980s that have since become dated.
Jean Claude, the dog, only responds to commands spoken in French. This particular characterisation was conceived as a nod to Ryan Gosling's wife Eva Mendes, who owned a Belgian Malinois called Hugo that was trained using French commands. Beyond that reference, the dog's exclusive comprehension of French commands also alludes to Gosling's country of birth, Canada, where French and English are both official languages. The dog may additionally be an homage to action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, who was born in Brussels, a predominantly French-speaking city.
Lee Majors appears as a police officer in the mid-credits scene. Heather Thomas — who portrayed Jody Banks in the original The Fall Guy — is the blonde police officer seen alongside him.
Near the beginning of the film, while Colt is recuperating from his injury, he attaches two round devices to his back. These are TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) units, used in physiotherapy to replicate the brain's signals to the nerves — in this case to activate the muscles and, in theory, speed up his recovery.
One of the Post-it notes in Tom Ryder's flat reads "Pirate Download Bullet Train." Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who portrays Ryder, also appeared in Bullet Train (2022), which was likewise directed by David Leitch.
Jason Momoa: Portrays himself, stepping into the Space Cowboy role previously held by Tom Ryder.
Heather Thomas: appears as a police officer in the mid-credits scene.
One of the Post-it notes in Tom Ryder's flat reads "Pretend went to Julliard," a reference to the renowned school for the arts. The actor who plays Tom Ryder, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, began his career as a child actor and received no formal training at all.
As is remarked on camera in the scene where Colt first borrows an American-spec, left-hand-drive pick-up, the vehicles featured in the Sydney-based shoot are present for product placement. Colt drives a GMC pick-up, whilst Jody is shown as a passenger in a GM-produced Hummer EV during the "Metalstorm" filming sequences. GM did, in fact, acquire the film's product placement rights.
Members of the film crew wear T-shirts displaying company logos, including 87 North, the production company established by David Leitch and Kelly McCormick, who serve as the film's producers.
While crafting Jody's appearance, costume designer Sarah Evelyn said she drew inspiration from Lauren Hutton, Brooke Shields, Kathryn Bigelow, Patty Jenkins, Greta Gerwig and Agnès Varda.
The climactic action sequence includes re-enactments of the stunts seen in the opening credits of the original television series: Colt hangs from helicopter skids, falls from great heights, swings from a metal frame suspended beneath a vehicle, among other feats.
The screenwriter proposes that the characters in MetalStorm could give the camera a knowing wink by having a line in which they admit they're having trouble with the film's third act. Jody, the director, dismisses the suggestion, but by doing so The Fall Guy itself ends up winking at the audience.
During rehearsals for the reunion between Colt and Jody, Emily Blunt was actually wearing a large hat that kept being knocked off whenever a helicopter landed nearby. Her co-star Ryan Gosling thought the mishap would add humour to the scene and urged Blunt to keep the hat on for the take.
Due to numerous scenes featuring a skull painted with the Vietnamese flag, the film was prohibited in this country.
During the boat chase, Colt brings his powerboat to a stop in front of a sailboat with distinctive rectangular portholes. It is an Endeavor 42, the very same craft Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) calls home in the drama series Miami Vice (1984). The series' theme tune is played as an added tribute.
The The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) bionics sound effect is employed as an homage to Lee Majors, who played the leading role in that series, which is also the series on which this film is based.
When Tom Ryder is delivering his "High Noon at the end of the universe" address, one of the soldiers has the words "Death From Above" daubed on her helmet. That same motto appears on Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore's (Robert Duvall) helicopter in Apocalypse Now (1979).
Although Emily Blunt's character retains the same first name as Heather Thomas's earlier role, her surname has been changed from Banks to Moreno — which is particularly odd given that Banks is an English name and Emily Blunt is English.
At the start of the film, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) narrates several stunt sequences from other films. Appearing in that order, the clips are taken from The Rundown (2003), Atomic Blonde (2017), Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Fast Five (2011), Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and Nobody (2021). David Leitch directed Atomic Blonde and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, produced Nobody, and served as a stunt performer on The Bourne Ultimatum.
The rubbish-container bearing the legend "Long Drop Skips" is where the fight takes place. In Australia and other places this sort of receptacle is called a skip or skip bin — roughly equivalent to what might be termed a dumpster elsewhere. In Australia and New Zealand, a "long drop" denotes a pit latrine: an outdoor toilet that disposes of waste directly into a hole in the ground, commonly found at campsites and along walking trails.
In the tussle between Colt, Dan and Tom Ryder's security operatives, Colt is disarmed and "shot" with his own firearm. The gun contains blank cartridges, and Colt feigns death. The scene echoes a stunt from the pilot episode of the series The Fall Guy.
In the film’s final helicopter showdown, the aircraft is painted in the A‑Team’s van livery — a nod to another popular, over-the-top 1980s action series.
The stock sound effect of Colt having the wind knocked out of him (when he strikes a rock wall while on fire) is reused repeatedly for many of his full-body thuds and landings afterwards, in the manner of the Wilhelm scream.
