How 'The Fall Guy' Proves The Oscars Need a Stunts Category!

If there is one thing in the film industry that has been infamously underappreciated for years, it’s stunt people. Almost every movie that you see has stunts that require a stunt double, a stunt coordinator, and a safety supervisor to ensure that everyone can walk away without getting hurt. Just over a month ago, audiences were treated to an inside look at the stunts community via David Leitch’s The Fall Guy. Based on the '80s TV show of the same name (and NOT the video game; I know I’m not the only one who got the two mixed up), the film follows stunt man Colt Severs returning to work as a stunt double in hopes of impressing a film director… whom he just also happens to have a huge crush on.

Sounds like a good time, right? Well, it is! Following a successful premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, The Fall Guy went on to secure an 81% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (with a similarly high audience score) and was poised to be the first entry of the Summer movie season at the start of May. Unfortunately, the film did not garner the opening weekend that Universal was hoping for. As a  result, The Fall Guy was released on VOD/Digital only a couple weeks after its theatrical release, despite many pundits vouching for audiences to see this movie in theaters. And here we were thinking that Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, fresh off their Oscar-nominated performances for both halves of Barbenheimer, would have been enough to bring butts into seats, but alas.

Still, even with a more lackluster box-office performance, everyone who has seen The Fall Guy has universally enjoyed the movie as the pure love letter to the stunt community that it has aimed to be. Well, that noise may be proving helpful, since we recently heard a little rumor that those fellas over at the Academy were starting talks about creating an award for Best Stunts during the Oscars… To which everyone replied, “About dang time!”

For many years now, cinephiles have been campaigning for the Oscars to create a Best Stunts category. I mean, why wouldn’t they? Actors get rewarded, writers get rewarded, VFX artists, even the infamous adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song (to be fair, the song was very good). Every year, it seemed like the Academy would finally pull the trigger on creating this category, and every year, fans have been disappointed by their absence when so many films have stunts that go above and beyond.

Just look at Tom Cruise in the Mission: Impossible franchise, pushing himself to do the craziest stunts imaginable so that the fans have something to cheer for. Personally speaking, I think someone who has climbed the Burj Khalifa, hung off the side of a plane, and rode a motorcycle into a literal canyon should earn at least a gold star for a stunt well survived! Maybe even a pat on the back... everyone likes a good pat on the back.

After all, it’s not like the Academy hasn’t been open to change. Over the last 10 years, the Academy has seen unprecedented amounts of new members welcomed in, with a large portion coming from diverse backgrounds following the controversial #OscarsSoWhite years. Since the increased membership, the efforts for change has been evident across the board. Best Picture went from 5 to 10 nominees. More international filmmakers were welcomed into the Academy, leading to a historic Best Picture win for Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, an Original Song win for RRR, and more. Heck, the Academy even thought those superheroes who are “just meant for kids and theme parks” deserved some recognition, with Black Panther and Joker both garnering Best Picture nominations, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature, and Angela Bassett nearly won her first Oscar for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Yeah, we think it is safe to say that the Academy does listen to feedback and can change. Are they a bit slower with change than one would hope for? Yes, that is undeniably true. But the important thing to note is that change is happening for the Oscars. As a matter of fact, starting in 2025, the Academy will officially start recognizing another under looked area of the industry: casting! Just this February, the Academy officially announced that they will be adding a new Best Achievement in Casting award at the Oscars that will become official come the 98th Oscars Ceremony; meaning, every movie released in 2025 will be eligible for a Best Casting Oscar.

Clearly, the Academy is making long overdue efforts to give out Oscars in areas they have neglected in years prior, so it seems like it is about time to give stunts the same treatment. During this year’s Oscars ceremony, we genuinely thought they were about to announce this very thing when Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt came onstage to give a special shoutout to the stunts community as a promotion for The Fall Guy. This was cool and all, but we think everyone else watching was confused why they were willing to give the stunts community a shout out at the Oscars instead of an actual award.

Funny enough, there is even a line of dialogue in the movie where someone assumes that they do give out Oscars for stunt work, and Gosling has to deny it. Wouldn’t it be such a wonderful full-circle moment to have that joke be the spark to make The Fall Guy the first Oscar-winning movie for Best Achievement in Stunts? If the Screen Actors Guild can reward the many stunt performers, coordinators, and designers for their dangerous job that they do all for our entertainment, the Academy can and should do so as well!