Since we were talking about The Fall Guy earlier today…
Stuntmen were known to exist when Glen Larson created the original TV series for ABC, following the adventures of stuntman Cold Seavers as he earns money between stunt gigs by bounty hunting. This new movie appears to just be a stuntman forced to be a hero when his ex-girlfriend’s movie set is forced to deal with actual bad guys. That’s disappointing unless this is an origin movie (not that we needed one as the TV series didn’t need it) for how he decided to supplement his income by moonlighting as a bounty hunter.
The question is whether or not the movie (since Lee of The Film Theorists apparently doesn’t know there was a TV show) fudges the actual chances of a stuntman in dealing with the kinds of villains that show up in action movies. Does their stunt training transfer to actually getting into fights or in less controlled environments of life risking. That’s what the following video attempt to theorise on based on training of actual police and military personnel versus what we know stuntmen learn in these days of behind the scenes videos and stuntmen and stuntwomen having their own YouTube channels. Even MacGyver (both versions probably) fudged the science a bit, as Mythbusters proved testing some of Mac’s science solutions. Lee isn’t even sending real stuntpeople into a life-or-death situation.
But that’s why it’s a theory, isn’t it?
I posted the following in the comments:
The original Colt Seavers has one extra advantage: experience in doing all this stuff practically outside of the movie set. In the TV series the movie is (allegedly) based on, Colt (played by Lee Majors) takes bounty hunter gigs between movies to pay the bills. That means he has used those stunt skills in dangerous situations numerous times in the past and possibly even vice versa, taking something he did chasing a bad guy out of necessity (because it’s still an action TV show) and creating a stunt out of it in a more controlled environment.
Hope the movie at least ends with this Colt doing the same after his experience in the events of the movie. The one Ryan’s working on, not the one Colt…you know what I mean.
I even once created a stuntman superhero, which wasn’t even new when I did it. Stuntmen and actors have been superheroes now and then. The original Elasti-Girl of DC’s “Doom Patrol” is a former actress and Robotman was into extreme sports and I think a race car driver at some point. Another DC character, Blue Devil, was a stuntman mystically fuzed to his demon costume. Hardcase of the Ultraverse was also an actor doing his own stunts.
In the real world, Tom Cruise is known for doing his own stunts while Keanu Reeves learned martial arts for the Matrix movies and how to shoot guns for the John Wick franchise so he appeared more authentic in the movies. Even the old show Emergency had the actors playing paramedics/EMTs take a course in being paramedics and one of the firefighters was an actual firefighter. If actors are learning skills from actual professionals, why not have stuntwork also training the body to do those things in a real life situation?
The only problem would really be the stuntman or stuntwoman themselves. Stunts are performed in a controlled environment, and they practice those stunts over and over so they know where the explosion is going to be, how to make a fake punch look real, and wear a harness to land on a disguised crashpad whenever those options are available. That doesn’t happen too much in the real world. You don’t know what’s in that dumpster you’re jumping into. Like Lee said, though, they usually know when a stunt is a bad idea and will try to find a better way to do it. Of course, they also have the option to walk off if there isn’t.
Whether stuntpeople could actually fight evil or not, what they do is still amazing and they do deserve more credit and praise for what they put themselves through and risk to make your movies look amazing. Sadly we only hear about them when one is injured or killed during a stunt. That was the reason for the original TV show, and hopefully the movie gets that right at least.
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