In just a few months, the 2024 release schedule will deliver a love letter to stunt performing in the form of The Fall Guy, a film adaptation of the same-named TV series that ran from 1981 to 1986. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, The Fall Guy is already scoring a lot of positive reception from the SXSW premiere, and it definitely looks like a must-watch for those who enjoy practical filmmaking. But here’s the cherry on top of the proverbial sundae: this new movie also broke a major Guinness World Record during the course of filming.
The above featurette released by Universal Pictures details how Logan Holladay, Ryan Gosling’s stunt driver on The Fall Guy, broke the Guinness World Records title for most cannon rolls in a car. Holladay, whose credits also include Shazam! and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, achieved eight and a half barrels in a Jeep Grand Cherokee while the movie was shooting on the beaches of Sydney, Australia in 2022. This surpassed the previous record set by Adam Kirby, who pulled off seven cannon rolls during the making of 2006’s Casino Royale.
In order to pull off a cannon roll, one of cinema’s classic stunts, a cannon-like apparatus is placed beneath a car that shoots off the ground. Once the car reached the right speed, the mechanism activates and propels the car into the series of rolls. Rigorous planning was required for The Fall Guy to pull off its cannon roll safely on the flat beach, and that included making meticulous adjustments to account for the changing tides and specific terrain requirements. The crew also ensured that the propelling was finely tuned and strategically placed underneath the car, and they also analyzed the car’s speed and ground density.
As Chris O’Hara, The Fall Guy’s 2nd unit director and supervising stunt coordinator, says in the video, while the first attempt at the barrel roll went decently, it wasn’t what they were “trying to achieve.” Luckily, they had one more car to work with, and after coming up with the right calculation, they were able to hit the impressive eight and a half rolls. So Logan Holladay has now been honored by Guinness World Records for this tremendous achievement in filmmaking, with Gosling presenting the stunt driver with his certificate at a special Los Angeles screening of The Fall Guy.
The movie follows Gosling’s Colt Seaver, a past-his-prime action choreographer who has to go searching for a missing actor he used to double for way back when. If he doesn’t then, the production which is being helmed by his ex-girlfriend, Emily Blunt’s Jody Moreno, for her directorial debut, then it will be shut down. These two are joined on-camera by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, Stephanie Hsu, Teresa Palmer and Hannah Waddingham and Lee Majors, the latter of whom starred in the original TV show. Behind the scenes, David Leitch directed and produced through his 87North Productions banner, and Drew Pearce wrote the script.
The Fall Guy opens in theaters on May 3, and following its big screen run, it will presumably become available to stream later on with a Peacock subscription. From there, we wait to see if history will deem it to be one of the best action movies.