Why The Fall Guy Doesn’t Rely on Guns: ‘Indiana Jones Didn’t’

Watching the Ryan Gosling action film The Fall Guy, one thing stands out: The lack of guns.

In fact, director David Leitch told MovieMaker, the only guns in the film are the ones that appear in the movie scenes within the movie. Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, and we get to see him acting out plenty of onscreen stunt sequences.

But in the “real” action scenes — the ones that are real to the characters in The Fall Guy, at least — Colt handles matters with his hands.

“Indiana Jones didn’t need to rely on guns to make a great action movie and I feel like The Fall Guy’s the same,” Leitch says. “We got to create something really fun and action-driven, but that feels fresh and accessible to everybody.”

Leitch, a stuntman-turned-director, isn’t anti-guns in movies. He was crucial to the first, gun fu-driven John Wick, even though the Directors Guild of America ultimately decided that only Chad Stahelski would get the director credit. (Leitch got a producer credit, even though both he and Leitch had directed.)

The Fall Guy and Guns

The decision not to go gun-heavy in The Fall Guy comes amid questions about the use of firearms on sets following the 2021 death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021. The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was sentenced last month to 18 months in prison after she was convicted in March on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Rust‘s producer and star, Alec Baldwin, who was holding the gun when it discharged, killing Hutchins, is scheduled to go to trial in July on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. He has pleaded not guilty and denied pulling the trigger.

The Fall Guy, based on the TV show starring Lee Majors, also draws on Leitch and Gosling’s experiences in Hollywood. Leitch is a veteran stunt performer and coordinator who broke out in comedy, performing stunts in the Trey Parker and Matt Stone ‘90s comedies Orgazmo and BASEketball, then was cast as Brad Pitt’s stuntman in David Fincher’s Fight Club. He returned to work with Pitt again on Doug Liman’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Leitch directed Pitt in Leitch’s previous film, Bullet Train, in 2022. 

The Fall Guy follows Seavers, a stuntman who left the industry, as he’s lured by the chance to work with his ex, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), as she directs her first film. When the movie’s star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), goes missing, Colt reluctantly agrees to track him down — hoping he might rekindle his relationship with Jody.

Main image: Ryan Gosling and Teresa Palmer fight without guns in The Fall Guy, directed by David Leitch.