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Scott Mann ’s “Fall” belongs to the trapped horror subgenre of films like “ The Shallows ” and “ Open Water ,” but it takes a dynamic that usually unfolds in the middle of deep water to thousands of feet in the air. Mann and co-writer Jonathan Frank have a clever concept that results in a film that should be avoided by anyone with even the mildest vertigo—I wouldn’t say I’m particularly afraid of heights but there are some scenes that made my stomach turn a bit. You’ve been warned. Sadly, the concept only takes “Fall” so high, and the execution, including some ineffective acting, editing, and other technical choices, makes this a misfire. It doesn’t exactly crash to Earth as much as drift off into the forgettable air of film history.

Becky ( Grace Caroline Currey ), husband Dan ( Mason Gooding ), and Becky’s BFF Hunter ( Virginia Gardner ) are climbing a sheer mountain face in the opening scene when tragedy strikes and Dan plummets to the ground below. A year later, Becky is drowning her grief in a bottle, avoiding Hunter and her worried father James ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan , taking a part so small that it's like a favor to a friend). One day, Insta-star Hunter comes to Becky with a proposal: They’re going to climb an abandoned 2,000-foot TV tower that’s basically in the middle of nowhere, from which they will find closure and spread Dan’s ashes. Of course, it goes very wrong, leaving Becky and Hunter stranded on top of the tower with no way down and no way to communicate with anyone who might be able to save them.

Filmed in the Mojave Desert, the vast majority of “Fall” takes place on the tower, and the film admittedly gets some nice adrenaline from the initial climb and disastrous ladder collapse that follows. In fact, there’s a better version of the film that starts right with the climb, allowing the characters’ trauma to arise through their conversations on the way up instead of with a horrendous set-up act that’s filled with clichés and poor filmmaking (it also would have helped reduce the runtime on a 107-minute movie that should be closer to 87). When Becky and Hunter begin their actual ascent, Mann has his firmest grip on the movie, building tension in a way that can be pretty effective.

And then “Fall” stalls again. Hunter is given a secret that's more like melodrama than realism, vultures and drones get involved, and the movie gets increasingly silly through its final act. The best “trapped” films usually rely on realism, making viewers feel like they’re actually trapped in the rocky waves of a film like “Open Water,” and “Fall” crumbles under that analysis. Currey and Gardner give committed performances in physical terms—it looks like an exhausting production—but they’re saddled with juvenile dialogue that doesn’t capture the terror people would really feel in this situation. “Fall” only works if we believe the predicament in which Becky and Hunter are trapped, but the thin dialogue, showy cinematography, and overzealous edits betray the potential of this nightmare.

Ultimately, “Fall” has been designed to be seen on as a big a screen as possible, which is why Lionsgate is going wide with it this weekend instead of shuffling it off to VOD. Much has been written about getting ticket buyers back into theaters with event movies that demand the theatrical experience. It's too bad this effort to help keep the theater industry aloft will only let viewers down.

Now playing in theaters.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film Credits

Fall (2022)

Rated PG-13 for bloody images, intense peril, and strong language.

107 minutes

Virginia Gardner as Hunter

Grace Caroline Currey as Becky

Jonathan Frank

Cinematographer

Robert Hall

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‘Fall’ Review: Things Are Looking Down

In this nerve-shredding thriller, two young women fight to survive while stranded on top of a 2,000-foot TV tower.

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By Lena Wilson

If you, too, are afraid of heights, you’re likely to experience “Fall” as a straightforward horror movie instead of a thriller. The director Scott Mann has certainly packed this latest venture with enough jump scares and bloodshed to blur genre lines. As a result, “Fall” occasionally feels overrun with gimmicks and gotchas, but it also offers one hell of an adrenaline rush.

The film opens on a tragedy. Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and her husband, Dan (Mason Gooding), are scaling a cliff face with their friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner), when an accident sends Dan plummeting to his death. Just shy of a year later, Hunter drags Becky back into the climbing game by promising her an easy half-day jaunt up a 2,000-foot TV tower. The two have been estranged; Hunter spent the last year becoming an influencer while Becky binge drank and contemplated suicide. But when they end up stranded on a small platform at the top of the tower, reconciliation takes a back seat to survival.

“Fall” loses its grip in the final act, as tension gives way to ludicrous horrors. Still, its twists are so bizarre that they’re kind of fun, and the actors sell them hard .

Most of all, this is an impressive feat of cinema. The bulk of the film was shot on a 60-foot platform on top of a mountain, to keep things looking realistic. Of course, that only makes “Fall” all the more harrowing. As Becky and Hunter’s brushes with death compounded, I kept flattening myself into my seat like a literal scaredy cat. Be glad it’s not playing in IMAX.

Fall Rated PG-13 for Ahhhhh!!! Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. In theaters.

Lena Wilson is a project manager at The New York Times and a freelance writer covering film, TV, technology and lesbian culture. More about Lena Wilson

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Review: Two women alone on a platform 2,000 feet in the air? ‘Fall’ somehow makes it work

Two women perched on a small platform high in the sky.

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One of cinema’s great wonders is the way a few moving pictures on a flat screen — composed and choreographed just so — can make a viewer’s palms sweat and heart race. Just look at “Fall,” a survival thriller that at times feels like an extended experiment in audience-poking, testing how many times director Scott Mann can induce a state of mild panic by repeatedly showing the same image. That image? Two young women standing on a small metal platform, perched 2,000 feet above the ground, attached to a narrow tower with no ladder.

“Fall” stars Grace Caroline Currey as Becky, a skilled mountain climber still reeling a year after witnessing the accidental death of her husband during an ascent. Virginia Gardner plays her best friend, Hunter, a social media influencer and daredevil who tries to shake Becky out of her torpor by inviting her along as she shimmies up an abandoned communications tower in the desert. On the way up, the ladies do have a ladder — rusty and shaky. But while they’re triumphantly taking selfies at the top, the way back down collapses.

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Mann and his co-writer, Jonathan Frank, follow a lot of the formulas for these kinds of movies, for better and for worse. On the downside, they pad out their story with Becky’s personal trauma, making her unresolved feelings about her husband’s death a bigger part of the plot than they need to be.

On the upside, “Fall” does what the best survival movies do, by carefully enumerating the resources the heroes have at their disposal so that we can enjoy watching them figure out how to deploy these pieces wisely — or wince as they waste chances. At the moment when the ladder crashes, Becky and Hunter have no cell service, and the backpack with their water is stuck on a dish about 20 feet below them. But they do have a drone camera, a flare gun, two phones and climbing gear. How can they use what they have to get help, while avoiding the circling vultures and whipping winds?

A similar question could be asked of the filmmakers: Can they do enough with this tiny amount of material to fill a whole movie? Well … sort of. Mann and Frank throw in some unexpected twists and obstacles; but while this film is quite long, it still feels like it’s missing one or two more story beats, either early or late. The space occupied by Becky’s heartbreak could’ve been filled with something more viscerally gripping.

That said: Oh jeez, that tower is so tall, and that platform so small, and those women look like they’re barely hanging on. For the most part, “Fall” works because it plucks on the same raw nerve, over and over. How many times can Mann freak out the audience by cutting to a vertiginous shot of the unfolding crisis? Every time. Sometimes cinema is simple.

'Fall'

Rating: PG-13, for bloody images, intense peril and strong language Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes Playing: In general release Aug. 12

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Fall Reviews

Some viewers might find the twist at the end of the third act surprising, but it all comes down to the unusual and absurd reason that finds it difficult to come to terms with this nightmare climb.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

To truly enjoy Fall is to buy into its semi-unbelievable premise, but does that really matter?

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

Please watch Fall with a barf bag in case you are afraid of heights. But please do watch it. This is an endorsement of the movie, BTW, and not a warning sign for you to never give it a try.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 20, 2023

Fall is a solid, well-played, and broadly effective thriller. While perhaps overly familiar in its genre tropes, it still succeeds with strong visuals, driven characters, and an urgent pace.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 22, 2023

Offering plenty of reminders that the most devastating thing can be hope, Fall is a simple premise executed with brutal, bravura and brilliant effectiveness.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 10, 2023

...Fall is a rather memorable, if messy film that engages the eye and trolls the brain…

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 2, 2023

[Fall] keeps the spectator in a constant state of anxiety in a situation where life hangs by a thread. Or a rope... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 27, 2023

To be fair, on a surface level – and let’s be honest, that’s the level upon which Fall is intended to function – director Scott Mann effectively exploits all the stuff that’ll make you clench your glutes...

Full Review | Jan 4, 2023

Audiences will just be dumbfounded by its mean spirited relentlessness for cruelty, and the sheer ineptitude (and idiocy) of our two main characters.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2023

But Fall’s main attraction, and the primary source of its visual pleasure, is the freestanding, red latticed tower itself, identified as the “B-67” and possibly inspired by the WHDH-TV tower in Massachusetts.

Full Review | Dec 23, 2022

This one’s a solid attempt at unsettling you. You will want to shut your eyes several times fearing a nasty fall.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 19, 2022

Fall is ultimately 70 minutes of great fun. The problem unfortunately is that it goes for 100 minutes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 9, 2022

If you don’t have a fear of heights already, you certainly will after watching Fall. This is an intense thriller that needs to be experienced on the biggest screen possible.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 13, 2022

Just reach inside your mind with the interplay of sound and vision and shake the hippocampus until your own nightmares come out to play with whatever’s on screen.

Full Review | Oct 28, 2022

Heart pounding intensity with decent dialogue leads Fall down a path of recycled tropes that has thrills, a few scares, and some good acting.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2022

The images are certainly spectacular, the core of the plot is original, and there's a great thriller amidst the watered-down scenes between two protagonists mistreated and reduced by the screenplay... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Oct 7, 2022

Pure sensorial cinema for restless hearts and kamikaze spirits, even if from the comfort of the couch... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 6, 2022

Fall is a surprising survival thriller due to the intense boorishness with which its plot evolves. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 4, 2022

Less is often more. FALL has a simple premise and sticks with it. If you are afraid of heights, you might want to skip this one. Fall makes you believe these 2 leads are 2,000 feet off the ground, struggling to stay alive. An intense, engaging premise!

Full Review | Oct 2, 2022

Forced to be atop a sky-high tower for two hours is a white-knuckle, vertiginous anxiety-fest, but you may find yourself in that funny place one gets to in one's head when the roller coaster arrives back at the starting gate: "Can we go again?"

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 29, 2022

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A Movie So Ideal for the End of Summer That It’s Actually Called Fall

August has always been a wasteland, the Sunday night of months, when the weather is at its sticky worst and everybody who has the ability to fuck off to someplace more pleasant has already done so. If you don’t have the means, there’s the cheaper sanctuary of the cineplex, with its welcoming darkness and arctic air-conditioning — except that after a summer in which theatrical releases mounted a rousing comeback , the studios neglected to schedule any big movies for this period in which we most need something dumb and fun. Fortunately, there’s a not-that-big movie that fits the bill of being silly and simple enough to fill a lazy afternoon without demanding anything strenuous from its audience at all. That movie is Fall , in which two young women climb up to the top of a remote TV tower for the sake of closure — and also content — and then get stuck up there.

Fall is part of that grand cinematic tradition in which attractive actors get trapped somewhere dangerous and have to struggle to save themselves, hopefully for at least the 80 minutes required for an acceptable feature-length. Recent-ish participants include Ryan Reynolds, who in a lull in his career back in 2010 spent the entirety of Buried in a wooden coffin; his spouse Blake Lively, who was trapped on a rock in the ocean by a persistent shark in the improbably good in 2016’s The Shallows ; and Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, and Kevin Zegers, who got marooned on a ski lift suspended over some convenient wolves in 2010’s Frozen . Like those movies, what Fall offers is a double layer of tension. Will Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) figure out a way to make it off a 2,000-foot TV tower unscathed? And will writer-director Scott Mann figure out a way to draw out the suspense for long enough when there are only so many things that can happen on top of a 2,000-foot TV tower and one of them is in the title?

Does it really matter? I’m tired. Tapped out. I have no means for a vacation at the moment and nothing else left to give to this season, and Fall asks for so little that it feels like too much to demand something as basic as logic or characters in return. See, Becky’s husband Dan (Mason Gooding) died during a rock-climbing excursion the two of them were taking with Hunter, and a year later, Becky’s still mourning — you can tell by the fact that she drinks alone at bars. Then Hunter, her internet-famous bestie, shows up with a proposal that will help Becky get her mojo back: They’re going to climb the decommissioned B67 TV tower out in the California desert. Becky is a sad brunette and Hunter is a fun blonde, and that’s about all there is to the two, despite a brief gesture toward an extreme-sports frenemies dynamic right out of The Descent . Braving the height looks like the bigger challenge at first — there’s a ladder up the side of the tower, so it doesn’t require Spider-Man-like free-climbing skills. But then the ladder, rusted and neglected, sheers off, leaving the two women trapped on a narrow platform high above the earth.

There’s blistering sun, and an attempt to get help with a flare gun, and when things get really desperate, some marauding vultures. Mann and his crew built a version of the tower close to a cliff to give his shots a real sense of dizzying height and a more tangible sense of danger. An incredibly weak twist pays off with a hilariously gruesome, triumphant finale. But what really makes Becky and Hunter’s little saga so seasonally appropriate is that it feels like a consolation for those of us feeling a little stuck ourselves. These two daring, adventure-seeking women head off for what’s supposed to be a fun getaway that tests their limits and restores their sense of self, and what happens? They get stranded, sunburnt and dehydrated, unable to get a phone signal or anyone’s attention as scavengers try to eat them. Sure, the vertiginous shots up the side of the tower are stomach-turning, but what’s really satisfying is the message that sometimes it’s better just to stay home. It’s Fall , get it? Summer is over.

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‘Fall’ Film Review: Heights-Driven Thriller Successfully Maintains Its Grip

This suspended-suspenser plays to audience acrophobia

Like a provisions-packed knapsack, a good deal of emotional backstory gets shoved into the first half-hour of “Fall” before it traps two female climbers 2,000 feet above the ground in a remote stretch of desert for the rest of its running time.

Will that friendship be tested? Of course. But the true signal that co-writer (with Jonathan Frank) and director Scott Mann has his thrill-hungry audience’s needs in mind is that before adventuring besties Becky and Hunter can even get to the base of the TV tower they intend to scale, they lock eyes with a carcass-gnawing vulture, who gets a righteously gnarly, ominous close-up.

In other words, you’re in good talons with “Fall,” a better-than-average B-movie corker that’s almost like a corrective these days to the behemoths that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on mayhem only to bludgeon us with exhilaration-free, numbingly digitized peril. If you long for the sweaty-palmed giggling inspired by Harold Lloyd hanging off a high-rise’s clockface or Tom Cruise on the harness-necessitating side of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, you will likely fall for “Fall.”

Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” character Ethan Hunt even gets a shout-out in Mann’s and co-screenwriter Jonathan Frank’s screenplay, invoked as an adrenaline god by daredevil vlogger Hunter (Virginia Gardner, “Runaways”), on a mission to snap her pal Becky (Grace Caroline Currey, “Shazam!”) out of a yearlong bereavement following the death of Becky’s husband Dan (Mason Gooding).

The movie’s “Free Solo”–esque prologue, set on a sheer mountain face, depicts that ill-fated climbing accident, witnessed by the two women. Twelve months later, Becky has curled inward into the drinking, crying, suicidal life of a shut-in, ignoring the emotional pleas of her worried dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), until bouncy, sassy Hunter shows up at her door with her version of a self-help scheme: Secretly ascending a disused TV tower for the one-year anniversary of Dan’s death, Becky will then be able to get past her grief, while Hunter, armed with a drone and a selfie stick, gets to create a lot of sexy-dangerous YouTube content.

The screenplay is chockful of platitudes about facing death, living life, confronting fear, moving on, letting go, blah blah blah, but that dialogue matters less than whether Currey and Gardner are a believable Gen-Z team of self-gratification junkies looking like they’re having fun doing something crazily reckless. From that angle, the duo’s energetic performances suffice, carrying an authentically warm and teasing camaraderie into the California desert, past that No Trespassing sign, up hundreds of rusted rungs, and onto a tiny circular platform that threatens to become the site of Becky’s and Hunter’s last selfie when the tower’s uppermost ladder separates from its loose bolts and strands them.

Mann’s previous hackwork in the grizzled-male action genre (“The Heist,” “Final Score”) won’t prepare you for how dedicated he is to avoiding scared-damsel vibes and centering instead the pair’s fearlessness and smarts. (Panic isn’t absent, mind you, just saved for when appropriate.) “Fall” can then focus on maximizing its one-location two-hander, toggling between what’s outlandishly fun about enduring this particular hazard (which is based on a real TV tower, one of the highest structures in the US) and what’s believably clever in the details of how Becky and Hunter try to save themselves.

On the characterization front, things can get clunky — one revelation is eye-rollingly predictable, and a third-act twist feels cribbed from a lot of unreliable-narrator movies. But viscerally the movie delivers — the site-specific peril is suitably unnerving when the stuntwork, effects, and cinematographer MacGregor’s more height-intensified shots are in synch, and the rescue hacks these tech-savvy women devise from their available items (phones, binoculars, shoes, drone, selfie stick, tower light, push-up bra) are enjoyably crafty enough to earn the movie’s one self-satisfied bit of dialogue: “That’s some MacGyver shit.”

And don’t forget those feathered harbingers of doom. This may be the first movie to apply the Chekhov’s gun rule to vultures, a portent sure to satisfy the more horror-minded ticket buyers, not to mention anyone else eager for the kind of back-to-basics survival excitement “Fall” refreshingly serves up in this dreary age of apocalyptic popcorn emptiness.

“Fall” opens in US theaters August 12.

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Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner in Fall.

Fall review – suffer from vertigo? Look away now

Two friends in search of adventure get stuck on top of a TV tower in the desert in this sweat-fest of a suspense thriller

E ven if you don’t suffer from vertigo, there are moments in Scott Mann’s thriller Fall – the single-handed selfie snapped while dangling from a rusty grating 2,000 feet in the sky, for example – that are almost unwatchable. But for those of us who are such babies about heights that we need to steel ourselves just to climb the ladder to the loft, this is the kind of button-pushing ordeal of a movie that makes your eyeballs sweat with anxiety.

The story is simple: two female friends in search of adventure and streaming clicks climb to the top of the disused B67 TV tower in the Mojave desert, but then find themselves stuck, with no phone reception and a pair of feisty vultures eyeing them with obvious interest. The trip is framed as a catharsis; a means for Becky (Grace Caroline Currey), recently widowed after a climbing accident, to confront and conquer her fears. But frankly, those fears – of scaling a shuddering structure that is groaning with metal fatigue and ominous rattling rivets – seem perfectly reasonable and healthy.

Mann is clearly having a lot of fun backing up the visual triggers (shots of slipping fingertips clinging to rungs) with a rich aural palette of tortured iron creaks and cracks. Even so, and even with a nicely macabre third-act twist, there is quite a lot of running time to fill with two young women stranded in the sky. But while the pace falters a little – there are only so many ways you can almost fall off a tower, after all – the tension is unrelenting.

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Like spinning a wheel labeled with people's greatest fears and landing on acrophobia, the latest entry in the thriller subgenre of single-location, anxiety-inducing situations is Fall , a movie that will be torturous for anyone afraid of heights but could otherwise be a bit of a bore for someone looking for thrills that go beyond that. Movies like Fall don't require much character work, nor do they need much plot beyond the situation at the center of the film and Fall is no overachiever. With predictable twists and one grating character, the Lionsgate movie tries to do something different from others like it, but it can't quite reach the heights that its main characters aren't (and should be) afraid of.

Fall follows Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) who, when the movie opens, are climbing a rock face with Becky's husband Dan (Mason Gooding). When Dan tragically falls to his death, Becky is sent into a tailspin of grief, giving up her favorite pastimes of free-climbing and pole-dancing to wallow alone at the bar. Soon enough, Hunter shows up with a proposition to climb a 2,000-foot tall radio tower. Mainly, it's so she can film a drone video of Becky hanging from the ledge for her 60,000 followers. When Becky and Hunter reach the top of the out-of-commission tower, the ladder falls, and they are stuck nearly half a mile above the desert with no cell service, no water, and no way down.

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As far as survival thrillers go, Fall follows the playbook established by films like 47 Meters Down or Crawl . As Becky and Hunter look out at the desert surrounding them, Fall offers plenty of visuals that are rendered well enough, with the desert surrounding them becoming even more deadly 2,000 feet above the ground. With limited space to move, it adds a new dimension to claustrophobic thrillers, one that makes the sky just as scary as the endless ocean in survival thrillers like Open Water .

Unfortunately, it doesn't add much to the genre itself. One twist that's supposed to land with an emotional punch is telegraphed early on and in a way that will make what's coming quite obvious to keen viewers. Another twist, while not as obvious, doesn't land as well as it's supposed to. Fall's nearly two-hour runtime also makes the circumstances feel drawn out when thrillers like these are better served with brisk runtimes that don't allow for much thought in between their obligatory plot points.

As Becky and Hunter's circumstances become increasingly dire, their efforts at rescue become almost laughable. That's the problem with Fall's setup. There's not much they can do except watch from 2,000 feet in the air as their attempts fail. There's no way for them to climb down and no way for them to call for help. They must rely on hair-brained attempts at contacting those on the ground and when those fail, there's not much left. While their attempts at rescue are funny, nothing is as funny as the film's incorporation of Becky's pole-dancing skills or its use of the song "Cherry Pie" by Warrant in one nail-biting sequence.

Gardner and Currey do what they can with the material, but both Gooding and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (as Becky's father) are criminally underused, a fault of the film's setup more than anything else. Sure, the film adds a new perspective to the survival thriller genre, but it relies so heavily on the idea that heights are scary (even if its protagonists don't think so) that there's not much left beyond that by the end of the film. When Fall concludes, it commits a cardinal sin of the genre that may have audiences scratching their heads.

Fall releases in theaters on August 12. The film is 107 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for bloody images, intense peril, and strong language.

Our Rating:

Movie Reviews
2 star movies

Fall Review

02 Sep 2022

You can almost imagine the ’70s B-movie disaster-movie-poster tagline for Fall : something along the lines of “2,000 feet of TV tower terror!” This is an enjoyably throwback breed of thriller, a movie only interested in making your palms leak sweat and your adrenal glands go into overdrive. In those modest goals, it is entirely successful.

It’s a ruthlessly efficient genre exercise. Characters and their respective motives are established quickly and unfussily: Hunter (Virginia Gardner, in a fearlessly fun turn) is a thrill-seeking YouTuber chasing clout by clambering up the fictional tower; her best pal Becky (Grace Caroline Currey, the emotional anchor and audience surrogate for the “nope!” moments) is a grieving widower hoping to conquer her climbing fears. Both are seeking closure after tragedy hit 12 months earlier, in a Mission: Impossible 2 -style opening sequence (a comparison openly embraced when one character calls another “Ethan Hunt”).

So, against all available better judgement, the pair of friends agree to make the climb up the “fourth-tallest structure in the United States”, and within 20 minutes of elapsed runtime they're ascending the ladder. Soon enough, the rusty steel cables start rattling, and so do your nerves, leaving us under no illusions as to what kind of film this is. Essentially it’s a series of problems being solved under extreme conditions (How do we find a phone signal? How do we drink water? How do we wee?); setbacks piling up and minor victories being achieved. While that means it follows a fairly familiar route, there’s room for at least one major surprise.

Scott Mann’s direction and MacGregor’s vertiginous cinematography do a decent job of making a boringly functional structure look cinematic and exciting.

But it hardly matters if the plot is somewhat formulaic because the experience is so brilliantly executed; so richly, stupidly, edge-of-your-seat exciting. Scott Mann’s direction and MacGregor’s vertiginous cinematography do a decent job of making a boringly functional structure look cinematic and exciting; when a character looks down at one point, the camera whips down too. There are CGI and green screens, inevitably, but the location photography in California’s Shadow Mountains makes full use of natural light and big skies, totally selling the danger.

It’s silly. Of course it’s silly. You don’t need a science degree to know that multiple laws of physics are being defied. There are terrible decisions being made roughly every ten or 15 minutes (“It feels solid,” one character says of a ladder that looks anything but). There is dialogue about personal drama that feels like it could probably wait until after they’ve sorted all the life-or-death stuff first. It doesn’t matter: Fall aims to thrill, and succeeds with flying, vertigo-inducing colours.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Profanity and mixed messages in perilous pulse-pounder.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Themes of friendship, facing your fears, and livin

The main characters are young women who are incred

Story centers on two strong, brave female mountain

Explicit modeling of reckless, dangerous choices.

Women wear low-cut tank tops, athletic gear, night

Frequent use of profanity, including "ass," "a--ho

Grieving character gets drunk and has to be stoppe

Positive Messages

Themes of friendship, facing your fears, and living life to the fullest. That said, living by this mantra gets the characters into a life-threatening situation.

Positive Role Models

The main characters are young women who are incredibly strong and brave, as well as creative problem solvers.

Diverse Representations

Story centers on two strong, brave female mountain climbers/adventurers, Becky and Hunter, though there are moments in which they're objectified. Black supporting character.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Explicit modeling of reckless, dangerous choices. Peril comes from characters putting themselves in a dangerous situation, but threats that come from nature are terrifying, realistic, sometimes fatal. Wounds are bloody and graphic. Vultures peck and disembowel a carcass; organs seen. Suicidal intent displayed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Women wear low-cut tank tops, athletic gear, nightgowns and are photographed through "the male gaze." Hunter is a YouTuber whose memorable mantra is "t-ts for clicks!" Pole-dancing reference and quick visual. Romantic conversation between married couple in bed together.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent use of profanity, including "ass," "a--hole," "d--k," "screw that," "s--t," "son of a bitch," "t-ts," and "whore." One use of "f--k off."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Grieving character gets drunk and has to be stopped from driving. Prescription pills are taken, and a character pours many into her hand to indicate that she's considering intentionally overdosing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Fall is an action thriller dealing with overcoming grief and fear. It centers on two young, adventurous women -- Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter ( Virginia Gardner ) -- who may be aspirational figures for teen girls. They're incredibly brave, and one is a fearless daredevil. But -- and perhaps this is because almost everyone behind the camera is a middle-aged man -- there are elements that undermine the female-empowering storyline. For example, there's a gratuitous pole-dancing scene. And the camera doesn't miss an opportunity to show how their tops just can't contain their breasts ("t-ts for clicks!" is Hunter's mantra). The women are trying to survive the elements, and the peril they face is nonstop and intense. Injuries are graphic, bloody, and even deadly. A despondent character gets drunk in a bar, almost drives home, and contemplates suicide. Persistent use of profanity includes "ass," "d--k," "s--t," and "f--k off." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (18)
Kids say (61)

Based on 18 parent reviews

Warning, not for young teens

Great 11 and up., what's the story.

In FALL, rock climbers Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter ( Virginia Gardner ) set out to climb one of the United States' largest structures, an abandoned radio tower. When the 2,000-foot climb doesn't go as planned, the women must find a way to get to safety -- or die trying.

Is It Any Good?

Two women climb to new heights, only to find they can't escape the patriarchy in writer-director Scott Mann's vertigo-inducing actioner. Fall is competently made, with cinematography that will have viewers on the edge of their seats. It's one part suspense, one part horror. This is about surviving the elements, like a different kind of Cast Awa y -- one borne out of the main characters' recklessly overconfident decisions. And, just like in a horror movie, viewers will want to yell at the screen: "Don't do it!"

From a parenting standpoint, there's a great benefit to that approach: Perhaps, when faced with the option of participating in dangerous situations, teens who've seen Fall will "know better" because they've walked in the characters' shoes. There's no doubt that Mann is a dad, especially when the storyline takes a turn that reinforces the idea that "Father knows best." But there's also no doubt that Mann and his co-writer Jonathan Frank are men who grew up seeing women portrayed on screen in a different way than we expect today -- and that's where Fall plummets. Warrant's "Cherry Pie" blasts throughout, and it's hard to imagine that two 28-year-old women in 2022 would even know this sexist 1990 anthem, much less make it their ring tone. They're wardrobed so that their breasts spill out of their shirts, with Mann so aware that it's objectification nonsense that he writes a justification into the script. And, somehow in this story that's about a woman finding her inner strength when she's already incredibly physically strong, the script finds a way to make it about men ( sigh ). Just like Becky and Hunter's plans, this film starts with promise, only to drop with a thud.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the appeal -- and risks -- of extreme sports. Why do you think people choose to participate in dangerous activities? What role do YouTube and social media play in encouraging creators to attempt wild stunts?

Would you call Fall "female-forward storytelling"? Why, or why not? How do you think it might have been different if it were written or directed by a woman?

What are the movie's messages? Does the story undercut those messages? If so, how? What will you take away?

Is drinking glamorized? Are there realistic consequences? Why does that matter?

Talk about the courage that Becky and Hunter demonstrate. Is it misguided, given the events that transpire? Where's the line between daring and foolhardy?

Movie Details

In theaters : August 12, 2022
On DVD or streaming : September 27, 2022
Cast : Grace Caroline Currey , Virginia Gardner , Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director : Scott Mann
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Thriller
Topics : Sports and Martial Arts , Friendship
Character Strengths : Courage , Teamwork
Run time : 107 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : bloody images, intense peril, and strong language
Last updated : September 29, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Fall (2022)

November 14, 2022 by Robert Kojder

Fall , 2022.

Directed by Scott Mann. Starring Virginia Gardner, Grace Caroline Currey, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Mason Gooding.

Best friends Becky and Hunter find themselves at the top of a 2,000-foot radio tower.

Director Scott Mann (also co-writing alongside Jonathan Frank) practically backs himself into a corner with Fall , leaving it difficult to care whether the protagonists in peril atop a 2,000-foot radio tower live or die by the time they start scaling it.

A simple setup goes on for roughly 30 minutes, establishing characters as various degrees of annoying, unlikable, or flat-out dumb (if such a subgenre exists of idiotic thrillseeking white women willingly placing themselves into danger that we are somehow supposed to care about, you can drop Fall right in there).

Becky’s (Grace Caroline Currey) life is a mess one year after a tragic mountain climbing accident that saw the death of her husband Dan (Mason Gooding). She appears to be an alcoholic with no direction, and her father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) worries about her. However, he says horrible things about Becky’s late husband to prove his point that she needs to stop wasting time morning him. He means well and is looking out for his daughter, but the dialogue doesn’t exactly paint him as a positive force in Becky’s life.

To be fair, dad realizes he has an unproductive approach toward reaching his distant daughter. As such, he convinces Becky’s best friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner), who was also there the day Dan fell to his death in a freak accident, to check up on her and to do something together to put her in a more healthy state of mind hopefully. It’s also apparent that Becky and Hunter haven’t spoken much since the tragedy. Hunter suggests climbing a massive radio tower (almost twice as tall as the Eiffel tower) and spreading Dan’s ashes. Cue the themes about confronting trauma and living life to the fullest (which involves a death wish for some people).

At first, Fall feels like it’s trying to be a parody of the frustrating stupidity I keep bringing up. Not only do Becky and Hunter (especially the latter) come across as dolts (who in the hell would climb a random tower that no one knows is even safe to do so, and more importantly, has parts constantly creaking the further they go up), but there’s also a social media angle as Hunter has a sizable following from her climbing and encouraging people to find a crazy activity that makes them feel alive. The message behind it is also smartly laid out without beating it over anyone’s head.

While Fall boasts a clever concept, most of its moves and plot reveals are telegraphed stolen clichés from nearly every other type of survivalist movie (including the one that should be banned from all future scripts unless it’s legitimately well executed). Fortunately, Becky and Hunter display resourcefulness and resiliency once stranded, turning them into characters worth rooting for.

The performances from Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner reflect this, as they give convincing physical performances despite the unconvincing green screen background. The downside is that they are given some weak dialogue involving an utterly unnecessary plot twist (one that can also be seen coming from a mile away, provided the viewer is paying attention). Thankfully, the script doesn’t spend too much time on it, but it does show that the filmmakers are straining for things to give these characters to do while stuck atop the tower.

What’s confounding is that with a running time of approximately 110 minutes, Fall does have the choice to cut some of this out. There are also clever ideas that play off of being stranded 2,000 feet in the air and what to do to get themselves rescued. It involves technology, not in the way one might assume, but not enough to open up a discussion on what works and doesn’t. There’s at least one decent fake-out moment of potentially being rescued, vultures circle the area at night, and some of the climbing, dropping, roping, and swinging make for thrilling acrobatic maneuvers. 1

A version of Fall that trims the first act bloat and cliché plot twists would probably play with tighter pacing and more intensity. As is, those issues are the film’s unrecoverable downfall.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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DVD & Streaming
Drama , Thriller

Content Caution

In Theaters

August 12, 2022
Grace Caroline Currey as Becky; Virginia Gardner as Shiloh Hunter; Mason Gooding as Dan; Jefferey Dean Morgan as Dad

Home Release Date

September 27, 2022

Distributor

Movie review.

Becky is completely and desperately stranded in her pit of despair.

Her beloved husband, Dan, died while out on a rock-climbing jaunt. Despite all the proper precautions taken, his equipment failed, and he fell like a helpless stone from a very high mountain wall. Becky was right there, climbing beside him. And she saw it all.

Now all these (what is it?) weeks (months?) later, she wanders hopelessly with little to guide her. The postage-covered cardboard box that holds Dan’s ashes still sits on the entryway counter where Becky dropped it. It silently watches as she leaves for the local bar and then staggers back home to get another drink, pop another pill.

Her dad is trying to get her to snap out of her funk and start life again. But all Becky can see is dark clouds. All she can feel is pain. And all she can say to her father is … well, hurtful, nasty things. He once spoke harshly of Dan, you see. And Becky’s current cup of misery spills over so easily these days.

Just before Becky fatally drowns in that cup, however, she gets a call from her BFF Shiloh Hunter. Hunter was a great friend to both Becky and Dan. And if anything, she was the best climber of all three of them. And so even though Becky doesn’t want to be “saved”—for this surely is another ploy orchestrated by her Dad—she opens the door and lets her girlfriend in.

Hunter has plans. Yes, she admits that Becky’s father called her. But she would have been there soon in any case had she known how bad off Becky was. In Hunter’s opinion, the only way Becky will ever pull herself up by her own carabiner is to face her fear straight on. Hunter knows exactly what to do: They’re going to climb.

In fact, they’re going to climb up the B-67 TV tower. Haven’t heard of it? That’s no surprise. It’s in the middle of nowhere, and it’s been defunct and abandoned for years now. But this skinny tower of iron and steel stretches some 2,000 feet straight up. It was once the tallest structure in the United States—so high that it needs a constant blinking red beacon on top to ward off low-flying aircraft.

And this, this will be Becky’s salvation. Together they’ll climb to a small platform at its peak and Becky will scatter Dan’s ashes. Like Dan used to say, “If you’re scared of dying, don’t be afraid of living.” That’s exactly what they’ll do, ‘cause there’s no living that compares to hanging off a small platform by one hand 2,000 feet in the air.

Of course, anyone who takes even a little time to think about a long-abandoned TV tower might wonder, Uh , wait, doesn’t iron and steel rust? And their answer would be, sure enough. Ladders, railings, rungs and supports do indeed rust. And old, rusty bolts rattle and wobble loose.

Becky and Hunter are indeed climbing together, hoping Becky will climb out of her pit of despair. But what they’ll find at the peak of tower B-67 is another question altogether.

Positive Elements

Becky and Hunter are good friends who both are willing to give their all for the other. Hunter repeatedly encourages her friend that she is much stronger than she gives herself credit for being. During their time together we learn of some points of strain in their relationship. But the two apologize and forgive.

Dan, on the other hand, is revealed to be less than what Becky always thought he was. In fact, her father’s harsh words about Dan—for which Becky had pushed him out of her life—turn out to be pretty accurate. Dad tries nonetheless to help his struggling daughter at every turn. Eventually, Becky and her father have a moment of healing and forgiveness, too.

Bravery and self-sacrifice abound here. Hunter and the film make it clear that people should live their lives to the fullest. (Though those statements could be misinterpreted as a license to take foolish risks. And on that front, there are some rather foolish choices made here.)

Spiritual Elements

Sexual content.

Becky and Hunter both wear tank-tops that reveal some skin. Moreover, Hunter has a social media channel that she’s recording herself for, so she wears a push-up bra to emphasize her attributes and takes a number of pictures and videos with that feature in mind. (The movie’s camera watches closely, too.) “T—s for clicks,” she proclaims. Later, though, she removes that bra to use it for something else. (She removes it while still under her top.)

We find out that Dan had an affair with someone.

Violent Content

Things get pretty violent and bloody in this PG-13 film. We see one person fall from a great height, but don’t see that person impact the ground. On the other hand, we do see one dead body that’s bloody, ripped and torn and then being eaten by vultures. Someone stuffs a large object into a wound on this corpse. The camera also examines a small animal that’s still alive with its organs hanging out. Vultures swoop in and begin eating this creature, too.

The birds swoop in an attempt to knock an injured person off a tower pole. One of the women also sustains a large cut on her leg that the vultures go after. However, one of those birds is grabbed, has its brains bashed out and is eaten in turn.

People dangle from heights in precarious ways in high winds. They swing on ropes and slam into the metal side and crossbeams of the tower. The tower falls apart under the weight of people climbing on it. They’re cut, injured from falls, and have their flesh torn from rope burns. Someone is almost hit by a speeding truck. Becky has a dream of waking in bed covered in blood. People feel the effects of having no food or water.

Crude or Profane Language

There are at least two f-words (perhaps more) in the tensest moments, along with more than 30 s-words. Joining those are several uses each of the words “d–n,” “b–ch,” “a–hole” and “h—.”

God’s and Jesus’ names are misused a total of 17 times (God being combined with “d–n” on three of those). Crude reference to male genitalia are uttered.

Drug and Alcohol Content

After her husband dies, Becky hits the liquor bottle hard. We see her staggering drunk in a bar and then going home to reach for another drink to wash down a prescription drug of some sort. In fact, it appears she’s about to take a handful of the pills before a call from Hunter stops her.

Other Negative Elements

We see one of the women urinating off the side of the tower platform (seen from a long distance away). Someone falls over and vomits. Two guys steal a vehicle instead of offering rescue to people in need.

Fall is a tense but spare film. After all, how much can you do when your characters are trapped 2,000 feet in the air on a 4-foot-wide platform?

That location and those story limitations certainly intensify the film’s acrobatic dangling, especially when you layer in up-close rusted breakage and acrophobia-inducing camera angles. But those constraints also tend to hold a magnifying glass up to this pic’s kinda rusty and formulaic seams. At times it almost feels like someone pasted a What If? or a And Then sticker on the various sky-high scenes.

That aside, though, the bigger problem for family audiences comes in the form of Falls constant flow of profane and foul language, along with some gore and booziness. Those bits cause this fingertip hanging flick to slip and they make it far less suitable for an exciting climb into your local theater seat.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Fall (2022) Film Review

Branyan Towe
August 10, 2022

Lionsgate’s Fall is insanely terrifying, and, even with its faults, the performances of Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner make it a compelling thriller .

By no means am I a “thrill seeker,” and, while Lionsgate’s Fall (2022) didn’t do much to change that, it did manage to fascinate me. In the very beginning, that fascination was due to some fantastic shots (which are prevalent throughout its runtime). Said shots work in tandem with the haunting score by Tim Despic to create a constant unsettling environment for the viewer. The film brings you in with some solid shots during the introduction of our two main characters, gives you their backstory, and then locks you in for the nerve-wracking ride that is coming.

Fall (2022) centers on best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), a pair of climbers who are attempting to move on a year after a tragedy. The duo decides to climb the abandoned 2,000 ft (which is about twice the height of the Empire State Building) B67 TV Tower in the California desert . However, when the tower’s ladder gives way, Becky and Hunter find themselves trapped at the top on a platform. Unable to call for help, they must put their skills to the test and find a way down together.

Once Becky and Hunter reach the tower, the terror skyrockets . That’s once again thanks to the cinematography and the score. While watching Fall , my heart felt like it was going to jump straight out of my chest. I’ve never been what one would call afraid of heights, but this entire scenario left me in a state of terror even during the film’s quieter moments. There are also shots that might make you experience vertigo, which makes sense considering the premise revolves around two young women climbing a 2,000-foot radio tower.

loud and clear reviews fall movie 2022 film

Much like 47 Meters Down (2017) from the same producers, Fall isn’t what you’d call a great film. Does that mean it is a bad one? Not exactly: even when the script stumbles, Fall is still entertaining and terrifying. Those stumbles stim from developments that might make you groan out an “of course” in frustration . if you’ve seen 47 Meters , or any other modern horror film, you know that most are likely to have a groan worthy moment or several in which the protagonists run into added obstacles. There is also the added element of the other characters, like Mason Gooding’s Dan, who is Becky’s Husband and fellow climber, and Becky’s father, James (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Both men could’ve probably used more character development, but I understand that the narrative is so centered on Becky and Hunter, so I see why their roles are ultimately small but pivotal. They help move the story of our protagonists forward and help them grow, so I can’t harp on that as much as I would in any other case. While I would’ve liked to seen more from them (partially because Gooding and Dean Morgan are terrific actors in their own right), Dan and James aren’t pointless characters, they’re essential to the narrative without ever being the focus or taking away from our two leads.

The story, while predictable in some ways, does feature things that you may not see coming . Interestingly enough, I was so engulfed by the terror I felt while watching Fall that the story sort of took a backseat in terms of importance. The use of practical effects and director Scott Mann’s decision to shoot on location (though not on the actual tower, of course) rather than in a studio makes everything seem that much more real and heightened my nerves . The performances of Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner (along with their terrific chemistry) made me care about Becky and Hunter, and genuinely fear for their lives. Because I cared about the leads, I was invested in their journey (which ends up mostly satisfying on both ends) and enjoyed the bonding moments they shared.

Grace Caroline Currey is sensational as Becky, giving a chilling, and powerful performance. She takes every bit of what an up and down script gives her and runs with it. Gardner also seizes her moments in the spotlight throughout Fall and without these two, the film would be nowhere near as compelling. When you consider the character of Becky was inspired by a member of Director and co-writer Scott Mann’s wife’s family whose husband had died young, it makes you think about her in a separate way. I personally didn’t know that until after watching, and it made the character and Currey’s performance stand out even more. Currey makes you feel every bit of Becky’s grief and pain in subtle ways that you can’t put on a script page. The leads, along with the cinematography, score, and the downright terror you’ll feel, make Fall worth the watch.

Even if the story can have a bit of a B-movie feel, you can get into Fall because of everything else that it offers. Those that disagree with me will probably get good laughs out of the film and some of the things that happen to occur. If I hadn’t been terrified, my guess is there’s one moment that I would’ve laughed at . You won’t really lose by watching Fall : what you enjoy about it might just depend on your taste . Both sides will likely only be able to agree on the high quality of Currey and Gardner’s performances.

Major kudos must be given to the makeup artists, who do manage to give Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner some rough looks that reflect what their characters go through during the narrative of Fall . It makes you really feel the impact of being in that situation, along with the use of practical effects and shooting on location . Some of the special effects used don’t always hold up, but they aren’t bad by any means given what the crew had at their disposal.

The bombastic score by Tim Despic is so good, soundtracking the scariest moments of Fall with music that’s dark and later hopeful whenever the situation calls for it. Even though the film doesn’t really need it to add to the fear, it most certainly does so in an effective manner.

Overall, Fall is a thrill ride that will have you on the edge of your seat. The faults it has will likely be masked by feelings of terror. Not only that, but you’ll likely appreciate the cinematography and the outstanding performances of Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner in the lead roles. The film serves as a welcome surprise for me because I wasn’t sure what I’d think of it, and I came away having enjoyed every scary minute.

Fall was released in US theaters on August 12, 2022. The film will be available to watch in the US on digital and on demand on September 27 , and on Blu-ray & DVD on October 18. In the UK, it will be released on Home Premiere on October 3 and on Digital Platforms on November 14 .

TAGS: genre: thriller

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Fall (2022) Movie Review & Ending Explained: Did Becky actually survive?

Single-location movies have a practical purpose: executing a story without worrying much about budgetary constraints. And as the proclivities of humanity have shown, the more the limitation, the more the abundance of creativity. However, the lack of acknowledgment of the fundamental flaw in the premise sometimes stops a movie from becoming great. Notwithstanding, sometimes, a movie’s sole purpose is to entertain, either by eliciting a palpable sense of horror or a nail-biting sense of tension. Scott Mann’s latest film, “Fall (2022),” falls more on the latter side of the category.

It is easy to lampoon “Fall” as “47 Meters Up”, as it is being bankrolled by the producers of “47 Meters Down”, itself a cult classic and a fantastic companion as a double feature. Both of these films follow two close female friends who must work together to get out of an unsolvable jam when the extreme sporting event they are a part of inevitably goes wrong. While “47 meters down” finds these women submerged in a cage in shark-infested waters, “Fall” finds them stuck 2000 feet up on top of a radio tower. But we are getting too ahead of ourselves.

Fall (2022) Movie Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis

Why does becky agree to climb the tower.

Virginia Gardner & Grace Caroline Currey in Fall (2022) Movie

The movie opens with best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), with Becky’s husband, Sam, rock climbing. While manipulating a particularly tricky opening, Dan is startled by a bat flying out of the crevice he was holding on to, disturbing him and losing his foothold. As Dan hangs in the air, his body connected to his harness, he tries to swing back but falls to his death. Fifty-three weeks later (one year for those counting), Becky’s life is a mess.

Swallowed in grief, resigned to alcohol, and distanced herself from her father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) because her father did not trust Dan to be good enough for her, she tried to commit suicide until Hunter visited her. Hunter tries to console her and suggests that Becky accompany her in climbing a 2000-foot TV tower situated in the desert. It would serve a dual purpose of both spreading Dan’s ashes once they climb to the top and providing a cathartic experience for Becky to gain closure on her loss and fear.

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Hunter, the adrenaline junkie, has now become an Instagram influencer. The climbing of the tower is the latest in a long line of crazy stunts she executes to attract fame and satiate the adrenaline junkie within her. As they drive towards the tower, they stop at a restaurant for dinner, where Hunter teaches her to charge her phone by connecting her charger to the leads of the lamp and using that as a power outlet. The girls drive towards the tower the next day but cannot pass the gate. Thus, they start walking toward the tower, where they come across a pack of vultures picking up a half-dead coyote.

As they shoo the vultures away, Hunter shoots a picture of the dead coyote. The girls soon reach the foot of the tower, where they start climbing the internal ladder. Becky almost backs out due to nerves, but Hunter convinces her to keep going. There are shots signifying how rickety the entire structure of the tower is and how the screws connecting the ladders and holding them upright are precariously close to unscrewing themselves due to the pressure being exerted on the steps.

Virginia Gardner as Shiloh Hunter in Fall (2022)

How do the two women get trapped at the top of the tower?

The girls reach the end of the internal ladder, which leads to a platform. From there, they must climb another 200 feet until they reach the top of the tower. As Becky and Hunter climb up the ladder, unbeknownst to them, one of the bolts comes loose. The girls finally make it to the top of the tower, where they manage to spread Dan’s ashes. An emotional moment that hit both Becky and Hunter hard. They also take pictures of them hanging in precarious positions with the help of Hunter’s 4K camera drone.

Finally, they decide to start climbing back down, but as Becky starts to climb, the unscrewed part of the ladder comes loose, causing the entire ladder to topple and fall to the ground. It also causes Becky to drop the bag containing their drone and water bottle on top of one of the satellite dishes attached below. Hunter manages to pull Becky up using the harness. It presumably causes a large gash on her knee, which Hunter helps her to stop bleeding by making a tourniquet. They also found a flare gun and binoculars in the compartment at the base of the tower.

Stuck at the top of the tower, Becky and Hunter cannot find a signal, thus rendering their smartphones effectively useless. After waiting for five hours and realizing that no one had heard the ladder crash and no one was coming to help them, the two tried to search for help via their binoculars and saw a trailer parked up near the gate. They planned to lower the phone a couple of feet so that the phone could regain signal, which would send an already prewritten message via Hunter’s Instagram.

How do the girls try to communicate?

They finally decide to drop the phone by putting it in one of Hunter’s shoes and reinforcing the shoe by padding it with Hunter’s sports bra-the logic being that the phone would regain the signal while falling and send the signal. However, the phone breaks, and even a dog belonging to one of the trailer park men sniff the shoe and finds the phone but doesn’t look up at the tower. The girls finally wait until dark before launching the flare from the flare gun and attracting their attention. Unfortunately, instead of driving the trailer to help them drive up to the gate, the men stole the car they had parked there.

Becky and Hunter start getting hungry and dehydrated. As charged emotions flare up, Becky watches a video of her and Dan’s wedding and notices Hunter’s gloomy face in the video. With the tattoo emblazoned on Hunter’s ankle (“1 4 3”), this compound forces Becky to confront Hunter by revealing to her that Dan had trouble proclaiming he loved her, choosing to say those three numbers instead. Hunter admits to having had an affair with Dan for four months, initiated by Dan after a drunken encounter. It forced Hunter to distance herself from Becky after Dan’s death because she had broken off the affair with Dan as she valued her friendship with Becky far more.

The following day, having ruefully acknowledged that the phone is broken and no one is coming, Hunter decides to climb down to the satellite dish and try to retrieve the bag containing the water and the drone. Using the harness, she lowers herself to the top of the satellite dish and manages to jump to the other dish and retrieve the bag. Hunter uses the selfie stick to reach the harness and manages to reach up. As she starts climbing up, Becky pulling her from the top, she appears to slip and fall to the dish. Becky, terrified, manages to peek down and sees her still alive, albeit her hands are profusely injured. But Becky manages to pull her up.

Do the girls manage to get the drone working?

Becky then tries to deliver a piece of paper using the drone to the motel where they had stayed the night before, but the battery starts running out, which forces them to retrieve the drone. Remembering Hunter’s trick of charging the phone via the lamp leads, Becky climbs up to the port where the tower’s night light is attached. Her wounded leg is already starting to smell, but she manages to climb up the pole with considerable effort, unscrew the light, and connect the drone’s charger with the leads and her marriage ring as a conduit. As the drone charges slowly, Becky holds on for dear life throughout the night, barely dodging the vultures smelling blood from her wounded leg.

Finally, after the drone is charged, the girls attach the piece of paper to the drone and fly it over the gate towards the motel. But, as fate would have it, and as a callback to a previous scene in the first act, a truck crashes into the drone and destroys it, shattering her hopes of ever sending a message. Becky soon starts to lose herself from delirium and dehydration, almost falling from the platform. She finally asks Hunter for her other shoe, so she can drop her phone and ask for help. But Hunter coolly replies that she doesn’t have the shoes because she isn’t here in the first place.

Fall (2022) Movie Ending, Explained:

What happened to hunter.

It is then revealed that she died when Hunter slipped and fell into the dish. Becky had only managed to pull up the bag. The “Hunter” who had been helping Becky throughout the rest of the events up to this point had been a figment of her imagination. It does make sense, as the “Hunter” who had been at Becky’s side after climbing back up to the platform had been more cautious, trying to provide Becky with moral support by talking about wrestling—a hobby which only Becky enjoys—or how Hunter convinced Becky to climb up the tower to connect the drone’s charger, to make Becky manage to survive.

Also, Read: ‘Fall’ Sequel to Double Down on Vertigo-inducing Thrills

Did becky actually survive.

One of the vultures flies down the following day and rests on the platform. Inching closer to Becky’s leg, it starts to nibble at the flesh. Waiting for that moment, Becky manages to capture that vulture by the throat and bash it, killing it. After eating it to regain strength, Becky finally manages to connect herself to the harness and pull herself down to the dish, where Hunter’s dead body lies half mangled by the impact of the Fall. The vultures tear apart her stomach exposing it further. The vulture nibbling Hunter’s flesh looks up at Becky’s bloodstained face and flies away, realizing there is another hunter. Becky, weeping with grief and whispering that she loves her, types a message to her father, inserts the phone inside Hunter’s shoe, stuffs the shoe in Hunter’s exposed stomach, and then pushes off the satellite.

In the next scene, we see Becky’s father, James, driving toward the tower and reaching the base to see police cars and paramedics already present. His heart sinks when she sees a dead body being carted off by the paramedics, but, he finally sees Becky, and the movie ends with their tearful reunion.

Fall (2022) Movie Review

Grace Caroline Currey in Fall (2022) Movie

From the standpoint of the premise itself, Fall is a flawed movie because it inherently exposes how underwritten and cliched the characters are. To undergo closure, the two protagonists decide to climb a 2000-foot tower, which is already rickety and falling apart. But what makes Fall so effortlessly engaging is Scott Mann’s direction, especially during the moments where he records the characters climbing and keenly focuses on the bent steps, the loose screws of the ladder, or the moments of physical prowess exhibited by the two protagonists.

It manages to make Fall reveal itself as a movie not having enough depth from an emotional perspective (the pedestrian dialogue doesn’t particularly help matters). Still, as a movie capable of eliciting tension and forcing you to have clammy hands due to Mann’s choosing to deploy wide shots and drone shots to evoke the feeling of standing atop a structure of great height, Fall does its job.

This movie proves Scott Mann’s expertise as a technically proficient and sound director, and Fall is one of those rare and engaging mid-budget movies. The visceral excitement and tension smooth over the dodgy CGI at specific segments. The performances, especially by Grace Caroline Currey as Becky, make you believe in her character arc, even if the writing doesn’t.

Fall (2022) Movie Links – IMDb , Rotten Tomatoes Fall (2022) Movie Cast – Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding

Where to watch fall (2022), trending right now.

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'The Fall Guy' review: Ryan Gosling brings his A game as a lovestruck stuntman

In “Barbie,” Ryan Gosling ’s job is Beach. In “ The Fall Guy, ” it’s Stunt and he’s pretty great at his gig.

Gosling nicely follows up his Oscar-nominated Ken turn as an embattled Everyman who falls 12 stories, gets thrown through glass and pulls off an epic car jump, among other death-defying moments in the breezily delightful “Fall Guy” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday).

Director David Leitch, former stunt double for a fella named Brad Pitt, revamps the 1980s Lee Majors TV show as an action-comedy ode to the stunt performers who never get their due, while Gosling and Emily Blunt dazzle as likable exes who reconnect amid gonzo circumstances.

"I'm not the hero of this story. I'm just the stunt guy," says Colt Seavers (Gosling) in voiceover as we first meet him. Colt is considered Hollywood's best stuntman, doubling for egotistical A-lister Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and fostering a flirty relationship with camera operator Jody Moreno (Blunt). However, a stunt goes accidentally awry in his latest movie, breaking his back as well as disrupting his love life, mental health and entire status quo.

'The Fall Guy': Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt talk 'epic' 'I'm Just Ken' Oscars performance

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A year later, down on his luck and confidence still shaken, Colt is parking cars as a valet at a burrito joint when he gets a call from producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham). Jody, now an on-the-rise director, needs him in Sydney to work on her first huge sci-fi epic “Metalstorm.” He gets there and after a gnarly cannon roll in a stunt car where he takes out a camera, Colt learns that not only did Jody not ask for him, she doesn’t want him around at all.

Still, the old spark's there and it turns out she does really need him: Tom has befriended some shady dudes and gone missing, and Gail tasks Colt to both keep Tom's disappearance a secret and also find the dude. Alongside stunt coordinator and pal Dan Tucker (Winston Duke), Colt uncovers a criminal conspiracy and in the process goes undercover as Tom in a nightclub (wearing some Ken-esque shades and cool coat), gets so high he sees unicorns and teams up with a dog that only takes commands in French.

Colt is put through the physical ringer during his twisty hero's journey, and it’s impossible not to love him through every punch, kick, stab and dangerous feat because of Gosling’s offbeat charisma. Before “Barbie,” he showed his considerable comedic talents in “The Nice Guys” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” yet marries them well here with a healthy amount of vulnerable masculinity and sublime nuance. With him, a thumbs-up – the stuntman’s go-to signal that everything’s OK – is also a way for Colt to try and hide his sensitivities.

Like Leitch’s other movies, from “Bullet Train” to “Atomic Blonde,” “Fall Guy” is filled with fights, explosions and assorted derring-do for Colt to (barely) live through. One mayhem-filled car chase scene has Gosling’s character tussling with a goon on an out-of-control trailer interspersed with Blunt singing Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds.” (It's essentially a two-hour argument for a stunt Oscar category.) The movie sports a definite musical heart, with an amusing scene between Jody and a weepy Colt set to the Taylor Swift lovelorn jam “All Too Well,” and is also interestingly timely considering a plot point about deep fake technology.

The one downside with this sort of stunt spectacular is Colt’s mission to find the narcissistic Tom and getting into hazardous shenanigans takes away from his romantic stuff with Blunt. Playful and quick with the zingers, their characters awkwardly rekindle their romance – in one sequence, she spills all sorts of tea about their past relationship in front of their crew – and you miss them when they're not together.

For ’80s kids, Majors was the “Fall Guy” – and Leitch’s movie pays tribute in multiple ways to the show and its scrappy spirit – but Gosling makes for a fabulous heir apparent. He’s not just Ken. He’s also Colt, and Gosling’s not done showing us the true extent of his talents.

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The 2024 Summer Movies Most Likely to Be the Hit ‘Fall Guy’ Couldn’t

By Kaare Eriksen

Kaare Eriksen

Media Analyst

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Note: This article relates to the Variety VIP+ special report “ Film Industry Hurdles 2024 ,” available to subscribers only.

The summer movie season kicked off last weekend with Universal’s “The Fall Guy,” a big-budget action comedy pairing Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt after their respective supporting turns in “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.”

However, there was no “ Barbenheimer ” magic to be found, putting immense pressure on “ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ” to evolve the box office this weekend.

“The Fall Guy” opened to just under $28 million domestically, starting the summer with a whimper, despite critical embrace at SXSW. The April-May weekend cusp has historically been the launch window for summer’s biggest blockbusters — often Marvel films — and resumed that reputation by 2022 after the COVID shutdowns, making Gosling and Blunt’s outing a sobering reminder of the box office’s susceptibility to unusual breaks from routine.

This time it’s the lingering impact of last year’s dual Hollywood strikes . With production schedules backed up, fewer films have been hitting theaters, and only the “Dune 2” release weekend in March exceeded the gross of its equivalent weekend in 2023.

Likewise, every Marvel film planned for this year was pushed back to 2025 — except one.

Due in July, Marvel and 20th Century’s “Deadpool and Wolverine” is projected by Guggenheim and HSX analysts to earn $350 million in its first four weeks domestically, which would make it the film of the summer, if not the year.

Notably, the same analysts thought ”The Fall Guy” would be capable of hitting the $150 million mark over the same timeframe, leaving it with much work to do after its lackluster opening, though its diminished audience did respond positively to the film.

Before the “Deadpool” sequel hits theaters, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” will test the vitality of the 20th Century label as a hitmaker between “Avatar” films, following its 2019 move to Disney from former parent Fox Corp. Its March projection was actually slightly worse than “The Fall Guy,” likely due to the lack of A-list talent to complement the CGI apes this go-round, and it’ll be sidelined by audiences when “Furiosa,” George Miller’s follow-up to “Mad Max: Fury Road,” arrives later this month.

Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” are better bets for summer success if “Kung Fu Panda 4” is anything to go by. It’s been eight years since the Jack Black-led animated kids franchise was in theaters, but its fourth incarnation has already passed $500 million globally.

The last “Despicable Me” doubled that amount, while the first “Inside Out” made well over $800 million and can’t be accused of overstaying anyone’s welcome when its first sequel is coming out nine years later.

Even so, nine years is nothing compared with several films getting their first follow-ups soon. A sequel to the 1996 bad-weather thriller, “Twisters” arrives in July, followed by “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” in September and “Gladiator 2” in November. The latter two do have Tim Burton and Ridley Scott, respectively, at the helm, and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” managed to pass the $100 million domestic mark earlier this year, so they have a shot at matching their projections.

If they don’t, the rest of the year looks bleak. A sequel to 2019’s “Joker” and another live-action “Lion King” should do well enough, but there are multiple weekends in the last quarter with no major-studio effort booked.

It’s possible smaller distributors such as Angel Studios, A24 and Neon can make good use of these gaps, but Angel’s “Cabrini” was a far cry from the success of its “ Sound of Freedom ” last year, and A24’s “ Civil War ” is falling short of matching the success of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” at more than twice that film’s budget, per Comscore data.

Until then, it’s up to Disney’s acquired apes to settle the score and get the summer swinging.

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Movie review: 'The Fall Guy' jumpstarts the summer movie season

May 9, 2024
Sebastian Petrou Griffith

Ryan Gosling, left, and Emily Blunt in “The Fall Guy.” Credit: Universal Pictures/TNS

When April meets May, the unofficial summer movie season kicks off, ending a long and treacherous few months of movie purgatory between the holiday season and summer break.

Around this time, theaters begin to bloom with an abundance of “popcorn flicks” — fun, lighthearted action or comedy movies that serve as a good time out for a wide range of audiences. “The Fall Guy,” the latest film starring Ryan Gosling (“Barbie,” “La La Land”), checks all those boxes as it commences 2024’s summer movie season.

Directed by stuntman-turned-director David Leitch, who oversaw “Deadpool 2” (2018) and “Bullet Train” (2022), “The Fall Guy” co-stars Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer,” “A Quiet Place), as Jody Moreno, a first-time director in need of a stuntman after her previous one disappeared under mysterious circumstances. This comes in the form of Gosling’s Colt Seavers, who just so happened to date Moreno on a past movie set before he suffered a back-breaking accident performing a stunt and was forced to quit his job.

The awkward romance that still lingers between the duo grows even more complicated when Colt is tasked with tracking down the superstar actor he stunts for, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who also has gone awol.

“The Fall Guy” is Leitch’s love letter to the underappreciated role of the stuntman, a theme that absolutely permeates throughout the 125-minute runtime. Every aspect of the film is over-the-top and in-your-face, from the constant explosions of the stunts to the absurdist subplot of Colt investigating the absence of his missing actor.

Like Leitch’s previous films, particularly “Deadpool 2,” the humor is meta, with Gosling often breaking the fourth wall, as well as the plot centering around the behind-the-scenes of a campy space film that frequently pokes fun at movies like “Dune” and “Mad Max.” The humor works most of the time, though the physical comedy and recurring jokes are more consistent than the one-liners, which sometimes fall flat.

It’s ironic that “The Fall Guy” starts off with Gosling’s character breaking his back, because Gosling’s back must hurt from carrying the film. He and Blunt both put in excellent performances, and no one would expect any less after their respective Oscar nominations for “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” The pair has innate chemistry that sustains the movie and keeps audiences entertained in a surprisingly touching romance.

“The Fall Guy” is at its best when Leitch takes a step back from directing the written quips and lets Gosling drive the movie forward with his natural charisma, but runs into issues when it gets too caught up in replicating the success of Leitch’s prior films.

In particular, Colt’s meta dialogue often seems like it was written for Ryan Reynolds, the star of “Deadpool” who is infamous for breaking character and the fourth wall, instead of Gosling. Gosling fits much better into the role of the character than Reynolds would, so it’s a shame that there’s a dissonance that lingers over the movie when it becomes obvious that some of Colt’s character quirks weren’t molded for the “right” Ryan.

In addition to the sometimes half-baked jokes, the CGI for “The Fall Guy” is genuinely awful, although it doesn’t necessarily always detract from the experience. Most of the time, it adds to the tacky charm of the backstage comedy; however, there are points at which it seems pretty ironic that a movie about stuntmen relies so heavily on computer-generated action.

All in all, “The Fall Guy” is a refreshing, digestible action-romcom that highlights an unsung subgroup of Hollywood glamor. The movie doesn’t quite know when to step off the brakes at times with its layered plot and barrage of banter, but it’s hard not to have a fun time sitting in a theater with a full bucket of popcorn watching Gosling — and his stuntman — set themselves on fire, bungee jump off buildings and drive cars over cliffs.

Rating: 3/5

On Tuesday, the Franklin County Coroner’s Office identified the individual who died after falling from the southeast side of the Ohio Stadium during Sunday's commencement ceremony. Credit: Katie Good

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By Anthony D'Alessandro

Anthony D'Alessandro

Editorial Director/Box Office Editor

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Fall Guy already has $8.4M-plus in the bank from a 38-market rollout last weekend including Australia, Turkey, Netherlands and Spain. The movie goes into 40-plus markets this weekend including UK & Ireland, Germany, France and Mexico.

No RT audience score yet.

Amazon MGM Studios’ Challengers is booked at 3,477 theaters and eyeing $2.55M in its second Friday, -59%, for a 3-day around $8.75M , -42%, for a running cume of $30.5M .

Third place goes to 20th Century Studios/Lucasfilm/Disney’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace at 2,700 locations for a $2.65M Friday, $8.5M 3-day.

RELATED: ‘The Fall Guy’ Review: A Highflying Tribute To Hollywood’s Unsung Stunt Heroes – SXSW

Sony/Screen Gems’ Tarot booked at 3,104 locations is seeing a $2.4M Friday, 3-day of $6M . Per social media monitor RelishMix, the social universe at 88.6M for this horror pic is running 39% under first installment horror genre norms across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram combined.

Legendary/Warner Bros.’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in weekend 6 at 2,884 sites is seeing $3.8M , -47%, after a $1M Friday. Running total is $187.4M by Sunday.

FRIDAY AM: Universal teed off summer Thursday night with the Ryan Gosling-Emily Blunt action comedy The Fall Guy, which made $3.15M from showtimes that began at 5 p.m. and Wednesday advance screenings. The movie is only expected to do around $35M for the weekend, maybe $40M . That’s not your typical start to summer, but we’re in this predicament due to the strikes’ delay on feature films.

RELATED: ‘The Fall Guy’ Trailer: Ryan Gosling Cries To Taylor Swift In New Take On ’80s TV Hit

Preview-wise that start is right near Paramount’s 2022 adventure rom-com Lost City, which did $3.2M before a $30.4M opening and a $105.3M domestic final.

The most recent release date for The Fall Guy had been March 1, but Universal pushed it to this weekend after Disney and Marvel Studios moved Deadpool & Wolverine to end of July — which some now view as the true start of summer.

Universal believed big time in The Fall Guy, bringing it down to SXSW in Austin for a world premiere where audiences laughed their asses off . This was followed by a screening at the onset of CinemaCon for exhibitors with a stunt-filled Hollywood premiere on Tuesday night. The anticipation is that the Gosling factor of The Fall Guy will keep pulling women to theaters. Also, the movie, despite its insider Hollywood vibe, has a sensibility of yesteryear ’70s/’80s action titles — ones that used to conquer the middle of the country, read Smokey and the Bandit and Every Which Way but Loose.

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Reviews for this PG-13 movie are very respectable at 85% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The Fall Guy , which cost $130M before P&A, expands to 4,002 theaters with PLFs and Imax.

Also getting re-released this weekend is Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace from Disney. This is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the prequel timed to May the Fourth aka Star Wars Day. Disney will be showing the pic in 2,600 domestic theaters, including 150 Premium Large Format screens and 130 specialty motion D-Box/4D auditoriums. Advance sales have been solid since launching on March 22, peaking this weekend. The 40th anniversary re-release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi opened to $5.1M 3-day about this time last year. The Phantom Menace will be paired with an exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming Star Wars series The Acolyte , which premieres June 4 on Disney+.

Amazon MGM Studios’ Luca Guadagnino-directed Zendaya movie Challengers ends Week 1 with $21.8M after a $1.3M Thursday, -7% from Wednesday at 3,477. It will keep a few Imax screens this weekend.

Lionsgate’s Unsung Hero is second for the week with $10.1M after a $465K Thursday, even with Wednesday at 2,832 locations.

Legendary/Warner Bros’ fifth week of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire clocked $9.1M at 3,312 venues after a $370K Thursday, -8% from Wednesday. The pic’s running cume is $183.5M.

A24’s third week of Alex Garland’s Civil War did $9M at 3,518 venues after a $480K Thursday, -9% from Wednesday.

Universal’s Radio Silence horror movie Abigail, booked at 3,393 locations, ends Week 2 with $7M after a $323K Thursday, -19%, for a running total of $20.5M .

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The Fall Guy review: a near-perfect summer blockbuster

Ryan Gosling wears sunglasses in The Fall Guy.

“Director David Leitch's The Fall Guy will remind you why you fell in love with movies in the first place.”

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt's magnetic lead performances
Numerous thrilling set pieces and stunts
A refreshing blend of action and romance
Several obvious third-act twists
A few stylistic decisions that don't totally work

A summer blockbuster made for then and now, The Fall Guy is a love letter to the oft-unsung efforts of the Hollywood stunt community. Loosely inspired by the 1980s TV series of the same name, the film is the brainchild of director David Leitch ( Bullet Train ), a former stuntman, his producing partner and wife, Kelly McCormick, and its charismatic goofball of a star, Ryan Gosling . Together, they’ve made a movie that is decidedly modern in its style and sense of humor, but also refreshingly old-fashioned. To put it simply: It’s been a minute since Hollywood has produced an action movie that has as much faith in the strength of its big-screen romance as it does in the awe-inspiring spectacle of its many explosions and fistfights.

The Fall Guy ‘s faith, fortunately, isn’t misplaced. The film is bursting at the seams with not just high-octane stunts but also soul-stirring declarations of love and heartbreak. It has everything you could possibly want from a film like it, whether that be high-speed chases, nightclub brawls, slow-motion shots of its leading man pulling himself triumphantly to his feet after taking a tough hit, hilarious moments of physical comedy, or montages of Gosling and his co-star, Emily Blunt, looking at each other with so much palpable longing that they’ll make even the most cynical among us believe again in the power of love. You’ll leave it reminded why you even fell in love with movies in the first place.

Tonally, The Fall Guy exists in the same lighthearted comedic space as another Gosling-starring classic, The Nice Guys , which was written and directed by Lethal Weapon scribe Shane Black . The latter wasn’t involved in the making of The Fall Guy , but his fingerprints are all over it. The film’s script was written by Black’s Iron Man 3 co-writer, Drew Pearce, who brings a distinctly Shane Black-esque, quasi-self-aware voiceover to The Fall Guy and fills it with the kind of small visual gags and narrative payoffs, including an ingenious use of a Miami Vice Stunt Team jacket, that Black has repeatedly proven to be his bread and butter. Even more importantly, the movie gives Gosling the same chance to mix screwball comedy and genuine pathos that The Nice Guys did eight years ago.

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The actor takes full advantage of that opportunity. He confidently and charismatically leads The Fall Guy as Colt Seavers, the experienced go-to stunt double for Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), an egotistical movie star. When the film begins, Colt is enjoying both his position as a well-respected stuntman and his budding romance with Jody Moreno (Blunt), a camerawoman with dreams of directing a movie of her own one day. Colt’s confidence is, however, violently rattled by a dangerous accident that puts him out of action and leads him to ghost Jody. After getting used to spending his nights working as a valet, Colt is pulled out of his self-imposed exile by Tom’s producer, Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), who tells him that Jody has specifically asked for him to perform some of the stunts on her big-budget, sci-fi directorial debut.

It’s not until Colt has arrived on the set of her movie that he realizes Jody not only didn’t ask for him but also hasn’t forgiven him for abandoning their once-promising romance. Colt, desperate to win her back, lets Jody take out her frustration and anger by continually making him redo a sequence in which he’s set on fire and thrown against a wall. His efforts to redeem himself take a further turn when Gail informs him that Tom has gone missing and that Jody’s movie will be shut down if he doesn’t find him and bring him back to set. In his quest to do so, Colt quickly finds himself caught up in a criminal conspiracy involving, among other things, a highly sought-after phone and a dead body in an ice bath.

The Fall Guy doesn’t ultimately invest as much thought or time into developing its dime-a-dozen crime plot as it does Colt and Jody’s love story. That proves to be a smart decision in the end, as Gosling and Blunt’s onscreen chemistry is so electric that you’re willing to look past the obviousness of some of The Fall Guy ‘s third-act twists because you just want Colt and Jody to get back together. It’s become common for Hollywood blockbusters to place romance at the very bottom of their priority lists, but The Fall Guy cares deeply about its leads’ love for each other. As far as movie-star pairings go, Gosling and Blunt feel as tied to Golden Age greats like Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn as they do more modern rom-com duos like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Watching them flirt and laugh together, one remembers why action and romance have been fundamental parts of Hollywood’s specific brand of moviemaking from the very beginning.

The Fall Guy recognizes that fact. In one memorable instance, Leitch cross-cuts between Colt’s dangerous fight with a group of mysterious kidnappers in the back of a speeding garbage truck and a lovelorn rendition of Phil Collins’ Take a Look At Me Now (Against All Odds) performed by Jody in a karaoke club. This section works far better than it should, as do most of The Fall Guy ‘s many ’80s needle drops, which reflect, thanks to their cranked-up power chords and full-throated musings of love, the epic nature of the film’s romantic spirit. They also match the scale of The Fall Guy ‘s set pieces, which get bigger and more breathtaking the further into its runtime it gets.

The film’s standout action sequences include Colt’s previously mentioned dumpster fight, which sees him end up surfing along the streets of Sydney on a broken piece of metal, as well as a nighttime boat chase through Australia’s Port Jackson Bay and a third-act series of explosions that climax with one car literally flipping over another. Behind the camera, Leitch and his team go all out — executing each of The Fall Guy ‘s brawls, chases, and fiery vehicular stunts so flawlessly that seeing the film on the biggest screen possible should be a mandatory requirement. It’s a movie that doesn’t just offer an inside look into the lives of Hollywood stuntmen but also pays tribute to their work by packing itself with the kind of rip-roaring set pieces that would be impossible to physically pull off were it not for the performers who are willing to regularly put their bodies on the line to do them.

For some, the disposable nature of The Fall Guy ‘s noir-tinged criminal conspiracy may be disappointing, especially given that it takes center stage a few times throughout the film’s final third. While The Fall Guy marks the first time that Leitch has successfully found the right shade of goofy, some of the director’s stylistic flourishes don’t work as well as others. His decision to accentuate a neon-lit showdown between Colt and a group of drug dealers with visual effects and animated lines that light up every time Gosling hits one of his combatants feels, for instance, out of place, and a prolonged use of split-screen in The Fall Guy ‘s second act eventually crosses the line and becomes gratingly meta.

The film’s flaws are few and far between, though. It’s made with so much love that you can’t help but root for it as you’re watching it, and it — much to its benefit — fundamentally understands the movie-star capabilities of its leads. The Fall Guy , in other words, isn’t afraid to rest patiently on a static shot of Gosling sitting alone in a car, and that’s what allows even its quietest moments, like an intimate, emotionally vulnerable conversation between Colt and Jody, to hit just as hard as its biggest stunts. Its confidence makes watching the film an easy, joyous experience. It’s a movie that asks you to jump headfirst without any hesitation or questions into its heightened behind-the-scenes world, and you should. The Fall Guy will catch you.

The Fall Guy is now playing in theaters.

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The summer is all about the blockbuster. These types of movies are the perfect form of escapism. There's nothing better than sitting in a cold theater on a hot summer day with a huge tub of popcorn as you prepare for a blockbuster to blow your mind. The action movie tends to be the best blockbuster because of the nonstop thrills and riveting entertainment.

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