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5 Reasons Fall 2 Can't Be A Direct Sequel

Fall: 10 movies that used their locations as plot devices, 8 recently announced movie sequels we're shocked are actually happening.

• The ending of the 2022 movie Fall movie leaves some questions unanswered and has ambiguous deeper meanings, adding to the intensity and suspense of the story.
• By the ending of Fall it's revealed that Becky is hallucinating, and that Hunter is dead for most of the movie — after her fall, she does not catch the backpack and climb back up.
• The tower in Fall is based on a real tower in the California desert and was specifically constructed for the film, creating a desolate backdrop that reflects the characters' isolation and loss of hope.

The Fall movie ending provides a nail-biting climax to an intense, high-altitude story of survival that leaves some questions unanswered and some deeper meanings ambiguous. Fall revolves around a grieving mountain climber named Becky whose husband Dan fell to his death. A year later, her friend Hunter proposes climbing to the top of a decommissioned 2,000-foot TV tower to scatter his ashes, and Becky agrees in the hope that it will help her to move on. However, they ironically end up fighting for their own lives when they’re stranded at the top with dwindling hope of survival.

While it earned an admirable $21 million at the box office (via The Numbers ), Fall didn’t really take off until it arrived on streaming a few months later. Fall was a surprise hit on the small screen, pulling in so many viewers that a Fall sequel has been confirmed . The way the Fall movie ending brings its story to a conclusion with Becky taking charge and figuring out a way to save herself is a satisfying end to a vertigo-inducing ride — however, it's the shocking twist that ensured Fall became so widely discussed.

Fall is available to stream on Starz

Fall True Story & Real-Life Inspiration Revealed

Netflix's Fall tells the story of two women who find themselves trapped at the top of a 2,000ft TV tower - but is the film actually based in reality?

How Long Is Becky Trapped On The Tower?

Becky is stranded 2000ft above the ground for around a week in fall.

While Fall doesn’t provide an exact timeframe for Becky’s ordeal on the TV tower, it’s pretty easy to work out. She’s on the tower for long enough to become delirious from hunger and dehydration. After the drone is destroyed and Becky loses hope of being saved, it takes her a few days of no food and water to finally realize Hunter is dead.

The day after Becky realizes that Hunter didn't survive, Becky is attacked by a vulture that she kills and eats to regain some of her strength. By the time Becky is saved by emergency services in the Fall movie ending, she’s spent around a week on the tower.

What Does Hunter's Tattoo Mean?

The 1-4-3 tattoo in fall reveals that dan had cheated on becky with hunter.

During their first night on the tower, after Hunter’s car is stolen, Becky notices a tattoo on Hunter’s ankle that ends up revealing a four-month affair that Hunter had with Dan before Becky married him. The tattoo features the numeric phrase, “1-4-3.” Becky instantly connects these numbers to Dan because he used to use “1-4-3” to tell Becky he loved her.

Hunter reveals that she and Dan had been having a secret affair behind Becky's back.

Since “1-4-3” was Dan’s obscure way of telling Becky he loved her, Becky immediately deduces that he must’ve used the same line on Hunter to warrant the tattoo. Hunter reveals that she and Dan had been having a secret affair behind Becky's back. This is why Hunter volunteers to retrieve the backpack — it's partially to try and make amends. Unfortunately, Becky cannot bring herself to forgive Hunter, and the 1-4-3 tattoo causes a rift between the two friends that is never resolved, as Hunter dies before the Fall movie ending.

Here are the five biggest reasons Fall 2 cannot be a direct sequel to 2022’s Fall and why it should start afresh with a new story and characters.

Is The Tower From Fall Real?

The tower becky and hunter climb is fictional, but based on a real structure.

Fall isn’t based on a true story, but the 2,000-foot TV tower that Becky and Hunter get stuck on is based on a real tower in the California desert. It has a fictitious name and purpose in the film, but the filmmakers were inspired by the real-life KXTV/KOVR radio tower (via Digital Spy ). Also known as the Sacramento Joint Venture Tower, this broadcast tower can be found in Walnut Grove next to a Doppler weather radar station. Standing at 2,049 feet tall, KXTV/KOVR tower is the tallest structure in California.

The tower seen in the film was constructed specifically for the production at the top of a mountain to create the illusion that the actors were at a higher altitude than they actually were

The tower seen in the Fall was constructed specifically for the production at the top of a mountain to create the illusion that the actors were at a higher altitude than they actually were (via Radio Times ). But the shooting took place in California, the same state where the real tower is located. This location was crucial to creating the vertigo-inducing visuals of Fall . The California desert provided a desolate wasteland as the backdrop to symbolically reflect Becky and Hunter’s isolation and their gradual loss of hope as rescue seems more and more unlikely.

Why Did The Campers Not Help Becky And Hunter?

The campers symbolize that nature isn't the only danger.

When Becky and Hunter realize they’re stranded at the top of the tower with no chance of escape, one of the first things they find is a flare gun. Since they only have one flare, they only have one chance of alerting potential rescuers to their presence, so they don’t want to use it until they know someone will definitely see it. On the first night, they hope some campers in the desert will spot them. Just as the campers are getting ready to call it a night, Becky and Hunter shoot the flare into the sky.

Becky and Hunter face threats from gravity, harsh weather, and birds of prey — but other human beings can be just as cruel and uncaring.

The flare catches the campers’ attention as intended, but they don’t save Becky and Hunter. When the campers see the flare and realize the owners of the nearby vehicle are trapped on the tower, they see it as an opportunity to steal their car. This spirit-crushing scene in Fall highlights that other people can be as much of an obstacle to survival as dangerous circumstances. Becky and Hunter face threats from gravity, harsh weather, and birds of prey — but other human beings can be just as cruel and uncaring.

Fall is one of many movies that revolve around a single location for a plot. And each one tried to do something different.

Why Didn't Becky Realize Hunter Was Dead?

Becky was suffering from psychological shock.

The biggest twist in Fall reveals that Hunter was dead throughout the latter portion of the thriller movie . After she climbs down to retrieve her backpack, Becky manages to pull both Hunter and the backpack back to the top of the tower. The pair then try to charge the drone, so they can send it to get help. However, when the twist is revealed, it emerges that Hunter never made it back to the top of the tower. After the botched attempt to retrieve the backpack. Hunter becomes a sort of mouthpiece for Becky’s conscience and inner monologue.

There are some hints that Hunter isn’t really there.

Aside from the improbability that Hunter could survive the fall and climb back up, there are some hints that Hunter isn’t really there. When Becky drops the backpack, Hunter makes no attempt to catch it. After a couple of days, Becky realizes Hunter isn’t alive. When she fell from the tower, she hit a communication dish and bled to death.

Becky didn’t notice Hunter had died in Fall because she was so weak and feverish from lack of food and water that she hallucinated her friend was still alive.

Becky didn’t notice Hunter had died in Fall because she was so weak and feverish from lack of food and water that she hallucinated her friend was still alive. The hallucination was a psychological result of Becky’s denial about being left stranded at the top of the tower all by herself . Imagining a dead character is still alive as a coping mechanism is a common trope in survival stories — it can also be seen in Adrift and Gravity .

What Happens After Becky Is Rescued?

The ending of fall doesn't reveal much about becky's fate once she makes it down from the tower.

What happens to Becky after she’s saved in the Fall movie ending will likely be explored in the sequel. She will either resume her daredevil lifestyle with a new lease on life after fighting so long for survival or double down on her fear of danger and close herself off. If Fall 2 is a direct sequel, then it will follow on from the Fall movie ending and detail where Becky’s life goes after surviving her ordeal on the TV tower.

If it’s not a direct sequel, then the franchise could become a sort of anthology series introducing new characters stuck in unenviable high-altitude situations like the one seen in Fall .

The recent announcements of new installments for beloved films have surprised many, highlighting Hollywood's trend of embracing sequels.

The True Meaning Of Fall's Movie Ending

The climax of the fall movie is about having perspective.

The real meaning of the Fall movie ending is that life shouldn’t be taken for granted. In the blink of an eye, anyone can find themselves in a deadly situation with the odds stacked against them. The ending of Fall is bittersweet because Becky survives, but Hunter doesn’t.

This near-death experience puts everything into perspective and makes Becky’s differences with her dad seem petty and insignificant

After spending so many months mourning the loss of Dan, coming so close to death and losing another loved one reminds Becky to keep fighting and embrace life. This near-death experience puts everything into perspective and makes Becky’s differences with her dad seem petty and insignificant, leading to a heartfelt reunion between the two.

What Was Real & What Was Hallucinated?

Nothing about the ending of fall is guaranteed to be real.

The biggest thing that played out in the twist at the Fall movie ending was that Becky was on her own for much of the time. She never realized that Hunter had died, and she hallucinated the entire discussions and planning with her friend. Hunter's death happened after she fell to the platform below and bled out. This means that almost everything Becky saw in the second half of the movie was fake, a hallucination that started when she began to realize there was no hope.

It is possible that the vulture Becky killed was simply another figment of her imagination

Since Hunter and Dan had an affair, Becky was angry, and she manifested that in her entire anger and spite toward her friend — all within the hallucination. There was also the moment prior to the Fall movie ending where a vulture attacked her and Becky killed it. This was one of two vultures that was feeding on Hunter's dead body, and she shooed the other vulture away and finally climbed down and sent out the SOS message for help.

However, with the other hallucinations, it is possible that the vulture Becky killed was simply another figment of her imagination, making one wonder if Becky ever did make it down, or if the conclusion of Fall was another ending like The Descent .

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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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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’ 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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When a high-rise climb goes wrong, best friends Becky and Hunter find themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot TV tower. When a high-rise climb goes wrong, best friends Becky and Hunter find themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot TV tower. When a high-rise climb goes wrong, best friends Becky and Hunter find themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot TV tower.

• Jonathan Frank
• Grace Caroline Currey
• Virginia Gardner
• Mason Gooding
• 944 User reviews
• 205 Critic reviews
• 62 Metascore
• 4 nominations

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• Trivia The filmmakers had considered green screen or digital sets, but ultimately opted for the real thing. They decided to build the upper portion of the tower on top of a mountain so that the actors would really appear to be thousands of feet in the air, even though in real life they were never more than a 100 feet (30 meters) off the ground.
• Goofs IPhone battery indicator shows fully charged when the main character uses her phone for the last time.

Becky : Life is fleeting. Life is short, too short. So you gotta use every moment. You have to do something that makes you feel alive, and that shit, that would spread that message far and wide.

• Alternate versions The UK Blu-ray includes both the theatrical version and the uncut version.
• Connections Featured in Projector: Fall (2022) (2022)
• Soundtracks I Have Never Felt More Alive Written by Madison Beer and Big Taste (as Leroy Clampitt) Performed by Madison Beer Courtesy of Epic Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

User reviews 944

• Oct 2, 2022
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• August 12, 2022 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Official Site
• Cú Rơi Tử Thần
• Shadow Mountains, Mojave Desert, California, USA (Tower)
• Capstone Global
• Tea Shop Productions
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• $3,000,000 (estimated)
• Aug 14, 2022
• $17,363,261

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 47 minutes

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Fundamentally absurd yet as evocatively minimalist as its title, Fall is a sustained adrenaline rush for viewers willing to suspend disbelief.

As long as you don't go in expecting anything realistic, Fall is a solidly suspenseful B-movie done right.

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Fall Review: This Nail-Biting Survival Thriller Is Surprisingly Effective, If Not Entirely Convincing

The one-location thriller is a tough nut to crack. When you trap your characters in one spot, you run the risk of the narrative growing stale and the pacing floundering. So how do you mix it up? You keep the audience (and the characters) on edge; you throw obstacles in the way, with things going from bad to worse to catastrophic. And you make us care about what happens to the trapped characters. "Fall" is a new entry in the one-location survivalist thriller, and it plays out a bit like "The Shallows" without a shark, and a bit like "The Descent" without underground cave monsters. And you know what? It's surprisingly fun — in a silly but nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat kind of way. Directed by Scott Mann, "Fall" makes great use of its location, even if it doesn't always convince us of its reality. An occasional bad bit of CGI gets in the way and keeps "Fall" from being a complete success, but when this movie works, it works well. 

After an opening tragedy featuring some of that shoddy digital work (it involves dangerous mountain climbing), Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) enters a mourning period that lasts for almost an entire year. She drinks to excess, she turns away from the world, and she brushes off her loving dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Then Becky's friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner) shows up and proposes they go on an adventure — one that will hopefully help shake Becky out of her gloom. The adventure: climbing a remote radio tower that looms over 2000 feet (taller than the Eifler Tower, and, according to Hunter, the fourth highest structure in the U.S.). 

Is the tower rickety and falling apart? Oh yeah. Is it in the middle of nowhere? Of course! So, uh, what could go wrong? 

'What the hell are we doing?'

Becky is understandably hesitant to go along with the plan. But eventually, she gives in and the duo heads for the tower, with Hunter filming the journey for her Instagram page. The climb up is intense, but the pair eventually makes it — although, at one point during the climb, Becky rightly asks, "What the  hell are we doing?" Good question, Becky! Having never had any interest in climbing anything (not even a tree), I can't say any of this makes sense to me. But I also know real people go out there and risk their lives for these sorts of sporting activities (see "Free Solo" for example). But even if you're into climbing, Mann does a splendid job making the journey seem genuinely  insane . The ground below feels impossibly far away, and the tower is so narrow and unstable. 

Occasionally, the cinematography can't match the thrills — lots of scenes featuring the sky taking up much of the screen are an ugly faded blue with nothing to draw the eye, which robs a lot of shots of perspective. But there are also plenty of moments where we believe that these two characters are really climbing this gargantuan, deadly structure. It's to the credit of Currey and Gardner, who find little ways to make their characters likable and relatable and, well,  terrified , that we can ultimately buy into this entire facade. Currey leans into Becky's uncertainty while Gardner plays up Hunter's bravado, which starts to crumble when things grow hazardous. 

Needless to say, things don't end up going very well for our heroines. A series of terrifying misfortunes strands them on the top of the tower, thousands of feet in the air, on a platform that Becky describes as being the size of a pizza box. Does either of the women's phones work? No, of course not! There's no signal up there! (Although, and I guess this is me admitting I don't know a damn thing about how the real world works, but wouldn't being up high  improve your signal?) Is there anyone around to see or rescue them? Nope! So how the hell are they going to get down? They can't just stay up there forever. 

Don't look down

In order to survive, Becky and Hunter have to get creative. Time and time again, they think up MacGyver-like plans to save themselves, and time and time again, something goes wrong and puts their lives in danger. That's not to say "Fall" is repetitive — it finds clever ways to change things up, and while some of the backdrop footage looks off, Mann has a knack for staging intense, immersive moments, like a scene that's lit only by a flashing red light that's on the top of the tower. The script, by Mann and Jonathan Frank, is also loaded with Chekhov's Gun-like teases of ideas and items that are introduced early only to show up again later. 

Unfortunately, there are times when that same script can't get out of its own way. Some plot twists present themselves in clunky fashion, and while one such twist ramps up the tension a bit, another feels utterly pointless and kind of silly in its execution. And yet ... I cannot deny I had a blast watching "Fall," and came out of the movie satisfied despite those occasional missteps. I entered this worried it was going to be little more than cheap schlock, and what I got was a breezy, scary, entertaining thriller. 

"Fall" doesn't break the mold, and there are a wealth of one-location thrillers that are much better than this. But when you're climbing that tower with Becky and Hunter, you can't help but follow along, nervous, but still exhilarated by the journey. Watching "Fall" on a big screen and experiencing the nerve-shredding vertigo that comes from the proceedings is the kind of pulpy fun that memorable late-summer movies are made of. 

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Fall Review: Vertigo-Inducing Thriller Nails a Whopper Climax

Best friends (Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner) get stranded on a TV tower in Fall.

Best friends face a terrifying scenario when they attempt to free climb an abandoned TV tower. Fall is a vertigo-inducing thriller that keeps you guessing with a bombshell reveal . The plot follows the standard disaster track until clever twists ramp up the adrenaline. Slick technical direction sells the literal high stakes as the situation becomes increasingly desperate. A minor detour into second act melodrama almost derails the nail-biting crisis. Fall wisely resumes the tension and then barrels toward a sharp climax. It would have benefited from a leaner runtime but forgivable for overall popcorn cinema fun.

Married couple, Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Dan (Mason Gooding), free climb a steep rock face with their best friend, Hunter (Virginia Gardner). Disaster strikes when a clamp fails. Nearly a year later, a depressed Becky drinks and takes pills in abject sorrow. Her concerned father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) tries to establish a connection. Becky rejects his kindness and continues to spiral down.

Hunter, now a bourgeoning social media star, has an idea to lift Becky's spirits. She wants to climb a derelict, two-thousand-foot TV tower in the desert called B-67. The only way Becky can reclaim her life is to be adventurous once more. That's what Dan would have wanted. Becky reluctantly agrees. They drive out to the middle of nowhere with excitement and trepidation.

B-67 soars into the blistering sky. Buzzards chew on the guts of a dying critter. They ignore "danger" and "no trespassing" signs. A nervous Becky ropes herself to Hunter; who begins to document their journey for her followers. They carefully make their way past broken transmitters to a small metal platform at the top. Hunter revels at their glorious achievement. Becky weeps in elation. They don't realize that rusted bolts have fallen from the ladder. It crumbles spectacularly into a dust plume thud. They are stuck on the platform with no cell reception or supplies. Becky has a nasty gash on her thigh. The buzzards circle at the scent of blood.

Related: Summering Review: Good Intentions Can't Save Flawed Coming-Of-Age Drama

Believability of Fall

Fall's most important aspect is believability. Becky and Hunter's dilemma doesn't work if you think they're on a set in front of a blue screen. Director/co-writer Scott Mann ( Final Score , Heist ) sells the nerve-wracking balancing act. The women sit precariously in the rushing wind. Their rescue attempts are intercut with long-distance and sickening overhead shots. The tower is a needle glistening in the brutal sun. Mann does a great job orchestrating the camera angles, visual effects, and sound design. There's never a point where the film looks fake.

Fall manages its dramatic arc with mixed results. Currey sheds a river of tears as Becky. She's been through a crushing tragedy so that's expected. The script adds an unnecessary subplot between the women as they dangle. These ten minutes of meandering serves no real purpose. Mann has you hooked then swerves away from a gripping primary narrative. He tries to avoid the pulp label by beefing up the plot. I say own the grit and stick with it. Fluff detracts from entertainment value.

A third act whopper puts the ship back on course. It's a doozy that caught me completely off guard. A good surprise takes Fall to another level. See this film on the biggest screen possible. Acrophobics should steer clear of this one.

Fall is a production of Capstone Global, Tea Shop, Flawless, and Cousin Jones. It will have a theatrical release on August 12th from Lionsgate Films.

The Ending of 'Fall' Reminds Viewers of '47 Meters Down' (SPOILERS)

Aug. 14 2022, Published 1:04 p.m. ET

Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for Lionsgate film Fall .

The heroines of Fall quickly find themselves up against impossible odds 2,000 feet off the ground, struggling to survive while stuck on a radio tower. Advertised as "from the producers of 47 Meters Down ," Fall could easily serve as a sister film or spiritual sequel to the deep-sea epic for more reasons than one.

If you found yourself confused about how Fall ended, here's the ending of the film explained .

Here's the ending of 'Fall,' explained.

Climbers Becky (Grace Caroline Currey of Shazam! fame) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner, The Runaways ) embark on a quest to spread the ashes of Becky's late husband Dan (Mason Gooding Jr.). Following Dan's death, Becky is reclusive. It isn't until her YouTube-adventurer pal Hunter arrives with a daring idea that she finally crawls out of her grief.

Hunter is the one who suggests spreading the ashes at the top of a radio tower 2,000 feet off the ground. Quickly, this idea turns to disaster as the girls end up stranded without food, water, or cell service. Becky loses her footing and accidentally drops a backpack of supplies on an outcropping dish antenna. She also injures her leg in the process.

The girls attempt to get cell service by dropping Hunter's phone in a shoe padded with a push-up bra to try and send an SOS, but the phone breaks as it hits the ground. Another bombshell amid an already tense situation: Hunter admits she helped Dan cheat on Becky during their marriage.

With no other options and tensions at a peak, Hunter offers to attempt a risky climb to the backpack, unhooking herself from the safety rope and leaping to the dish. Becky recovers the backpack, but how does Hunter get back to the safe platform?

The answer is ... she didn't. Initially, audiences see Hunter pulled up with the backpack by Becky, but it's soon revealed that she died falling on the antenna. Hints of her death are sprinkled through the ending, including a sequence of Becky "having a nightmare" of Hunter's dead body covered in vultures.

Inside the backpack is the key to an escape from the radio tower: a drone that requires charging but could seek help below. Following Becky's nightmare, she recalls Hunter explaining a charging technique that could get the drone functioning. She climbs to the very top of the tower and uses the socket of the aviation light to recharge the drone.

Unfortunately, the drone gets smashed on the way to seek help. Becky's hallucination of Hunter finally reveals she is dead. Becky travels down to the dish to use Hunter's remaining shoe and her own cellphone to get a message to her father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as a last-ditch effort. To ensure the message reaches the ground safely, she puts the shoe and the phone in Hunter's body, throwing the whole body down to the ground.

Thankfully, Becky's efforts work, and she is rescued via helicopter and reunited with her father. The end of Fall is reminiscent of 47 Meters Down , which also included a scene of one character hallucinating the other long after she's dead.

Fall is now available for viewing in theaters everywhere.

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Fall ending explained: What really happened to Hunter?

"It's down there."

Fall spoilers follow.

What really happened to Hunter in the end? And how could the story continue in a potential sequel?

According to producers, there have already been discussions about Fall 2 . The sequel, they teased, will "look to unsettle audiences with another terrifying tale set at a great height".

It sounds like it might be unconnected to Fall character-wise — which is a smart call, as we imagine Becky (Grace Fulton) is never going up a tall structure again.

The first movie sees Becky climb an abandoned radio tower in the desert with her best friend Hunter (Virgina Gardner), only for the pair to end up stranded 2,000 feet in the air with no help on the way. It all leads to an intense finale that delivers a surprise reveal that changes everything you thought you were watching.

But if you were suffering from altitude sickness from all the movie's heights, we're here to help explain Fall 's devastating ending. Now, it's among the best movies on Netflix , so let's delve into it.

Needless to say, major spoilers are ahead.

Fall ending explained

Rescue appears to be in sight for Becky and Hunter when they get their hands on the drone that was on the communications dish below them. To make up for the fact she had a four-month affair with Becky's husband, Hunter risks her life to climb down and collect the drone for them.

They send the drone on its way to the nearby diner with a written message for help, but in a cruel twist of fate, the drone is hit and destroyed by a truck before it reaches the diner. Before they give up entirely, Becky decides to use her mobile to send a message to her father.

Hunter had tried before with her phone by packing it inside her shoe and sending it off the tower. However, the padding wasn't enough to stop the phone from being destroyed when it hit the ground. Becky just thinks they can use more padding and the shoe approach will work this time.

She asks Hunter for her remaining shoe, but Hunter can't. "It's not up here, is it? It's down there," she replies, referring to the communications dish where she picked up the drone — and where Hunter's body now lies.

That's right folks: Hunter is dead.

How does Hunter die in Fall?

If Hunter's leap to the suspended backpack and subsequent climb seemed impossible at the time, that's because it was. Hunter fell in her attempt to get back up to Becky, and she's been a figment of Becky's imagination ever since.

It explains why Hunter suddenly knew about wrestling (despite the fact she's never watched it), and why she appeared more supportive of Becky after that incident. It wasn't because they had grown closer, it was just because Becky was imagining the support she needed.

After this devastating revelation, Becky is woken up the next day by a vulture eating her wounded leg. She kills it and eats it, naturally, before climbing down to the dish where Hunter's body lies.

Becky sends a message to her father on her phone, then she pops the phone into Hunter's remaining shoe which she then shoves inside of Hunter through a gaping wound. With the phone now suitably padded, she pushes Hunter's body off the tower and the message successfully gets through to her father.

Her father comes to the tower with the emergency services and Becky is saved. Although we imagine she's probably going to have nightmares for months — and will never actually climb again. Or possibly use a phone. Or even a shoe.

As mentioned above, Fall 2 is on the table, so don't say goodbye to Becky just yet.

Fall is available to watch now on Netflix UK.

Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.  

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} Endings Explained

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Fall review – wildly effective survival thriller delivers seat-edge suspense

Two young women are trapped on top of a 2,000ft tower in an absolutely absurd yet undeniably effective nightmare

P re-release debates over the title of Jordan Peele’s patchy summer hit Nope were settled last month when the secretive writer-director revealed that no, it wasn’t an acronym for “not of planet earth” but was something far more simple. It was, as others had expected, a nod to what many audiences are accustomed to wearily shouting at the screen during a horror film. Investigate that unsettling sound coming from a barely lit basement in a remote house late at night? Nope! Accept a lift from a creepy stranger in a blood-spattered pick-up truck? Nope! Climb up an ancient and abandoned 2,000ft TV tower without support, food or alerting anyone else first? Nope!

With the release of ridiculous yet undeniably rattling new thriller Fall, it’ll be heard on a loop from cinemagoers across the US this weekend, said first with an eye-roll before being screamed through sweat-drenched fingers. Hinged on a setup so stupid that it takes some strength to make it through the first 15 minutes without checking out, the buzz-free August surprise manages to erase all early doubt with enough genuine seat-edge suspense to turn it into the most exciting and effectively agonising action movie of the summer. I found it hard not to quietly cheer while watching this tiny-budgeted underdog swoop in and climb its way to the top of the tower; Mavericks, Thors and Grey Men falling away with speed.

In a sub-Cliffhanger cold open, Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) suffers a devastating loss when her husband Dan (Mason Gooding) falls to his death in a climbing accident leaving her and best friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner) to pick up the pieces. A year later, Becky is drowning her sorrows when Hunter, now a successful YouTuber specialising in extreme stunts, calls, saving her from the brink. The estranged pair reunite when Hunter suggests she join her on an audacious climb to the top of a 2,000ft tower in the middle of the desert. Spurred on by a vague idea of confronting fear, she says yes. But when they reach the very top, disaster strikes, the ladder falls away and they’re left stranded.

It’s all head-shakingly ridiculous and while the script isn’t equipped to find a believable justification as to why someone trying to get over such horrific trauma would want to do something quite so deranged, none of that really matters once we’re halfway up (a point that we’re chillingly reminded is the height of the Eiffel Tower). While the dodgy green screen in the cold open had me worried, despite an astonishingly low $3m budget, British director Scott Mann manages to make the high-in-the-sky danger feel scarily, stomach-churningly real and if the pace allowed for it, it’d be tempting to Google just how on earth they managed it all while watching. Despite obvious VFX work (even Tom Cruise would turn down such a stunt), the joins are so hard to spot and the illusion so skillfully conjured that I found myself utterly, horribly immersed in the big dumb spectacle of it all. Spanish cinematographer MacGregor and an A-game visual effects team use the structure’s perspective to breath-taking, dizzyingly queasy effect and even find time for some rather stunning standalone images, briefly transforming a B-movie into something oddly artful.

Stupidity might have got the pair up to the top but their actions once situated are grounded and satisfyingly competent, Mann and co-writer Jonathan Frank finding an impressive amount of mileage from two people stuck on a small grate with a small bag. It’s a puzzle for them to solve and like the very best survival movies, it has us trying to solve it alongside, could that or would that or how about questions tidily fitting in-between the steady stream of nopes. There are two silly, derivative twists, the first incredibly easy to spot and the second incredibly easy to get annoyed with, but it’s mostly a pretty straightforward against-the-odds thriller, a throwback of sorts with some slight nu-tech tweaks (who knew a selfie stick could be such a vital emergency tool?). The tension of it all is heightened even moreso by two fully committed performances from little-known actors giving it their all, trying admirably hard to sell some laughably goofy dialogue during a physically gruelling vertical obstacle course (Gardner emerges as the real standout, possessing the effervescence of a young Reese Witherspoon).

Fall is the rare three-drinks-in “what if?” elevator pitch that somehow survived the journey to the big screen, made with unusual precision and punch. Director Mann sets his sights low even as his simple, sturdy film climbs so very, very high and in doing so, delivers in a way that so few have this year, a $3m embarrassment to the studios throwing a hundred times more at blockbusters with a hundred times less of a thrill factor. Arriving in the dog days of summer, it’s something of a marvel.

Fall is out in US cinemas on 12 August and in the UK on 2 September

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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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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Read More: The Festival of Troubadours (2022): Review & Ending Explained

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.

A cinephile who is slowly and steadily exploring the horizons of the literature of films and pop culture. Loves reading books and comics. He loves listening to podcasts while obsessing about the continuity in comics.

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With the notable exception of “ Barbie ,” the modern blockbuster can be pretty serious stuff. Whether it’s the dense lore and world-building of “Dune” or “ Avatar: The Way of Water ,” or the self-serious connected universe of the MCU, blockbusters have often felt like work lately too. This is not to say that some of these films aren’t masterful, only that there’s been a dearth of old-fashioned entertainment, the kind of Hollywood productions designed to entertain above all else. A movie where you don't need to take notes or have seen the ones that came before it. “The Fall Guy” wants to entertain you. It wants to put the blinding star power of two of the industry’s most charismatic leads in fun, romantic situations and see what happens. It wants to remind viewers of a time when stunt work mattered more than it does in the CGI era, and embrace the team aspect of filmmaking in a manner that’s infectious and, well, wildly entertaining. This is a ridiculously fun movie, anchored by a movie star in a part that fits him perfectly and a director who really has been working toward this film for his entire career.

David Leitch started as a stunt double, working with actors like Brad Pitt , Jean-Claude Van Damme , Matt Damon , and many more. His directorial debut was a little film called “ John Wick ,” and he parlayed that success into films like “ Atomic Blonde ” and “ Bullet Train .” He returns to his roots in “The Fall Guy,” inspired by the Lee Majors show of the same name about a Hollywood stuntman who happened to also be a bounty hunter. Little narrative DNA is shared with the show beyond a profession and a name, but the 2024 “The Fall Guy” does have the general tone of ‘80s television in the way it blends a bit of humor, romance, mystery, and action into the mix, willing to drop references to the action stars that inspired it while also carving out its own personality.

Ryan Gosling is ridiculously charismatic as the new Colt Seavers, giving one of those broadly magnetic performances that made him so likable in films like “ The Nice Guys ” but also leaning on some acting chops and intensity that should remind fans of his iconic turn in “ Drive .” “The Fall Guy” is very much about the people behind the scenes of the movie industry, but it’s almost more of an ode to the era of the movie star, when a performer could hold a viewer over any narrative speedbump. Mostly for the better, Hollywood shifted to a story-and concept-driven approach to moviemaking, but Leitch and the team behind “The Fall Guy” clearly remember when a superstar who was both sexy and funny—think Burt Reynolds at his peak—could be more than enough. Gosling has that easy-going charm. When he was singing “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars, the man next to me at the bar at which I was watching it at SXSW, said, “I’m almost annoyed at how that guy can do anything.” “The Fall Guy” proves again the last five words of that statement true.

Colt is introduced on set as the double to a diva action star named Tom Ryder ( Aaron Taylor-Johnson , doing enough of a blend between Tom Cruise , Brad Pitt, and even Matthew McConaughey that he seems right without ever feeling like he’s specifically ripping on one actor). When a fall goes horribly wrong, Colt is sidelined for 18 months, leaving behind his girlfriend Jody ( Emily Blunt ) and maybe the industry for good. When Jody’s producer Gail ( Hannah Waddingham ) comes to Colt to beg him to double Ryder again on the set of Jody’s directorial debut, Colt relents. The first act of “The Fall Guy” basically plays like a romantic comedy as Jody berates Colt for running from their relationship after his accident in a great scene in front of a lot of cast and crew—it feels like a reminder of how little privacy there is on a movie set—and then the script by Drew Pearce pivots into mystery and action when Ryder goes missing. Winston Duke , Stephanie Hsu , Teresa Palmer , and a French-speaking action dog round out a great cast. More needle drops from the era of the show, including recurring use of the very recognizable riff of “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” by KISS, feel like a nod to both the era of the original series and when they made more action-rom-coms like this in Hollywood.

A theme of “The Fall Guy” is how stunt people have to put their life at risk, narrowly avoid injury, and, hopefully, give a thumbs up as a sign that they’re okay. They are people who never get credit but have made so many classic films what they are in our collective memory. So, naturally, “The Fall Guy” has to include some insane stunt work, including a record-breaking cannon roll stunt, an incredible fight in a spinning dumpster, and more than one massive vehicle jump. Leitch and his team find a great balance between character, comedy, and action, although it is worth noting that Blunt kind of takes a back seat in the second half of the film, which is disappointing after the pair’s excellent chemistry in the first. Hsu also feels a little wasted, although Waddingham and Duke get to have some fun, especially the latter, who gets to remind viewers that he too can do a little bit of everything.

With a message that should resonate with anyone worried about AI and deep fakes, “The Fall Guy” feels like a pushback against all the CGI-heavy, character-less, humorless blockbusters that have been coming off the content production line over the last few years. It’s actively—and its detractors would likely argue too aggressively—trying to simply provide ticket buyers with what too often feels like a secondary concern in big movies lately: fun.

This review was filed from the world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. It will be released on May 3rd.

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.

The Fall Guy (2024)

Rated PG-13

126 minutes

Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers

Emily Blunt as Jody Moreno

Winston Duke

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Tom Ryder

Hannah Waddingham as Gail

Stephanie Hsu

Teresa Palmer

• David Leitch
• Drew Pearce

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'If' movie review: Ryan Reynolds' imaginary friend fantasy might go over your kids' heads

Even with likable youngsters, a vast array of cartoonish characters, various pratfalls and shenanigans, and Ryan Reynolds in non- Deadpool mode, the family comedy “IF” isn’t really a "kids movie" – at least not in a conventional sense.

There’s a refreshing whiff of whimsy and playful originality to writer/director John Krasinski’s big-hearted fantasy (★★½ out of four; rated PG; in theaters Friday), which centers on a young girl who discovers a secret world of imaginary friends (aka IFs). What it can’t find is the common thread of universal appeal. Yeah, children are geared to like any movie with a cheery unicorn, superhero dog, flaming marshmallow with melting eye and assorted furry monsters. But “IF” features heady themes of parental loss and reconnecting with one’s youth, plus boasts a showstopping dance set to Tina Turner, and that all leans fairly adult. Mash those together and the result is akin to a live-action Pixar movie without the nuanced execution.

Twelve-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming) doesn’t really think of herself as a kid anymore. Her mom died of a terminal illness and now her dad (Krasinski) is going into the hospital for surgery to fix his “broken heart,” so she’s staying with her grandma (Fiona Shaw) in New York City.

When poking around her new environment, Bea learns she has the ability to see imaginary friends. And she’s not the only one: Bea meets charmingly crusty upstairs neighbor Cal (Reynolds) as well as his IF pals, like spritely Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and overly sensitive purple furry monster named Blue (Steve Carell). They run a sort of matchmaking agency to connect forgotten IFs whose kids have outgrown them with new children in need of their companionship, and Bea volunteers to help out.

'Welcome to Wrexham': Ryan Reynolds talks triumph, joy and loss of new season

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Bea is introduced to an IF retirement community located under a Coney Island carousel with a bevy of oddball personalities in the very kid-friendly middle section of the movie. “IF” low-key has the most starry supporting cast of any movie this summer because of all the A-listers voicing imaginary friends, an impressive list that includes Emily Blunt and Sam Rockwell as the aforementioned unicorn and superdog, Matt Damon as a helpful sunflower, George Clooney as a spaceman, Amy Schumer as a gummy bear and Bradley Cooper as an ice cube in a glass. (It's no talking raccoon, but it works.)

One of the movie's most poignant roles is a wise bear played by Louis Gossett Jr. in one of his final roles. Rather than just being a cameo, he’s nicely central to a key emotional scene.

While the best family flicks win over kids of all ages, “IF” is a film for grown-ups in PG dressing. The movie is amusing but safe in its humor, the overt earnestness overshadows some great bits of subversive silliness, and the thoughtful larger narrative, which reveals itself by the end to be much more than a story about a girl befriending a bunch of make-believe misfits, will go over some little ones’ heads. Tweens and teens, though, will likely engage with or feel seen by Bea’s character arc, struggling to move into a new phase of life while being tied to her younger years – not to mention worrying about her dad, who tries to make light of his medical situation for Bea.

Reynolds does his part enchanting all ages in this tale of two movies: He’s always got that irascible “fun uncle” vibe for kids, and he strikes a fun chemistry opposite Fleming that belies the serious stuff “IF” digs into frequently. But unless your child is into old movies, they probably won’t get why “Harvey” is playing in the background in a scene. And when “IF” reaches its cathartic finale, some kiddos might be wondering why their parents are sniffling and tearing up – if they're still paying attention and not off playing with their own imaginary friend by then.

‘The Fall Guy': Five Ways in Which the Movie References the Original Series

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Fall Guy movie.)

Yes, The Fall Guy is based on a TV series.

If you weren't aware of that, it's likely because you're of a younger generation that wasn't alive or old enough to remember the series, which hasn't exactly re-entered the zeitgeist in the four decades since it went off the air. (An unscientific scan of social media shows more than a few folks who had no idea of the original IP.) But for moviegoers of a certain age, there are references to the series that inspire nostalgia.

The show, which aired from 1981-86, starred Lee Majors as a stuntman who moonlighted as a bounty hunter. The movie stars Ryan Gosling in the lead role, who is also a stuntman. While the movie is not an exact copy of the show, there are several ways in which the film references and pays tribute to the original. Read on to see how - and where the movie differs from the show. 

The Characters

Gosling and Majors both played characters named Colt Seavers, who are stuntmen. While Majors' version of the character worked as a bounty hunter as a side gig, Gosling's version gets drawn into a criminal investigation at the request of a film producer with whom he's worked for several years. Meanwhile, Emily Blunt plays Seavers' ex-girlfriend, named Jody Moreno, which is a nod to the show's character Jody Banks, played by Heather Thomas. However, while Blunt's character is a camerawoman-turned-director, Thomas' Jody was a stuntwoman.

In the film version, Gosling drives a GMC Sierra, which is taken directly from the show, in which Majors' character drives the same vehicle (though, obviously, an older model). In the movie, Gosling's character borrows the truck from the set of the film that Blunt's Jody is directing.

Each episode of the series featured a slew of stunts, as you would expect. But one stunt in particular was iconic to the show and was repeated throughout the series: Seavers' GMC Sierra jumping over various obstacles and barriers while chasing the bad guys. In the movie, Gosling's character also jumps over barriers in the truck. Director David Leitch, himself a former stuntman, has said that some of the stunts in his film paid homage to those in the show. "The first … truck jump in the movie, it's inspired by the Fall Guy television show," he said. "Every episode, you'd see the truck - the GMC Sierra - enter the chase from behind a hedge or bushes or over a wall. And it was always sort of this classic, like, here are the bad guys, and they would come in hot pursuit. And so we wanted to sort of do that same sort of jump with the new Sierra."

'The Iron Claw' Is An Incredible And Unbelievably Sad Movie: REVIEW

"The Iron Claw" is an outstanding film, but it's brutal to sit through at points.

The incredibly popular movie about the Von Erich wrestling family recently started streaming on Max, and after missing its theatrical run, I knew I had to check it out.

The film follows the incredible true story of the Von Erich family's rise to the top of the wrestling world. Zac Efron , Jeremy Allen White, Harrison Dickinson, Maura Tierney and Holt McCallany all have starring roles. Efron plays Kevin Von Erich, White plays Kerry Von Erich and Dickinson plays David Von Erich.

It's an outrageously loaded cast. I couldn't wait to fire it up, and I was blown away by what I watched unfold for more than two hours.

"The Iron Claw" is an emotionally devastating film.

Generally speaking, I like to avoid spoilers, but that's kind of impossible in a situation like this because it's a true story that's been covered for decades.

Now, I know nothing about pro wrestling and I knew nothing about the Von Erich family going into the movie. I was completely blind, which is why I think it was so brutal to sit through.

Wrestling fans know how this saga ends. Fritz Von Erich and his wife Doris had six sons, and five of them met tragic ends, including three suicides. Only two of these are shown in the movie.

"The Iron Claw" is a powerful movie, but also emotionally devastating. (Credit: A24)

Viewers start with the rise of the Von Erich family as small-time wrestlers into international superstars. However, the family simply seemed cursed, and that brings me to the meat of the review.

The rise and fall of the Von Erich family is captivating, but even more so, it's downright tragic. Young men desperate to entertain and please ended up killing themselves or dying from freak incidents.

Of the six sons, only Kevin is still alive. What are the statistical odds one family would have five sons die from suicide, cancer and other health complications before a single one hit the age of 34. 

"The Iron Claw" is tough to sit through at times. (Credit: A24)

I don't want to ruin too much because people will finally get the chance to stream it on Max , but damn, it's just tough to watch. The final 20 minutes are *BRUTAL* for anyone with a functioning heart and soul. How could one family experience so much pain, trauma and death?

It takes a lot for most guys to get emotionally attached to a movie. A film like "Black Hawk Down" gets it done, but truly moving movies for your average dude are few and far between. I can promise "The Iron Claw" will get the job done. It's every bit as entertaining as it is horrible as the tragedies unfold. Give it a shot on Max, and hit me with your thoughts at [email protected] .

The Real-Life ‘Fall Guys’: How a Tight-Knit Stunt Team Pulled off Ryan Gosling’s Death-Defying Scenes

By Katcy Stephan

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SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains light spoilers for stunt sequences from “ The Fall Guy ,” in theaters now.

Leaping from a high-flying helicopter, being engulfed in flames, and rolling a car over eight and a half times—while these heart-stopping moments may be the stuff of nightmares for most, they’re just another day on the job for the daredevil stunt performers at the heart of David Leitch’s “The Fall Guy.” 

Ryan Gosling’s Colt Seavers is repeatedly put through the wringer in Universal’s action comedy based on the 1980s TV series of the same name. Lucky for the Oscar-nominated actor, a team of pros was there to do the heavy lifting. 

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How did you each get into stunt work and become involved with “The Fall Guy?”  

Logan Holladay: My dad was also a stuntman. It was never my goal to be a stuntman, but my dad was also a motorcycle racer. I loved motorcycles and I just wanted to be a dirt bike racer, and I wanted to try to be one of the best at it. Through all of that racing, I started doing photoshoots for different people. I was racing for Yamaha and Honda, then I started doing commercials with them. I was like, ‘I’ve raced a lot, and this seems like a lot of fun. I think I might just do this.’ I made a shift away from racing as I was getting a little bit burnt out, so I started doing stunts. I put it up, put everything I have into it. I treat it kind of like going into a race, and the only outcome I’m okay with is winning. 

Ben Jenkin: I was actually on another show. I got a call from [ stunt designer ] Chris O’Hara. I said, ‘I’ve never done a fire burn. I’ve never been hit by a car before. I’d love to do both.’ And he’s like, ‘Good thing that they’re both in the script. You can do both.’ Perfect! 

How do you get into the headspace to perform these tasks that could very well kill you? I freak out over a simple fender-bender!  

Holladay: I think we’re just different types of people. I could go do it right now. I don’t need to prepare my headspace for it. I like to really make sure I know exactly what I’m doing, but that’s it. We like adrenaline! We come from action sports. Our entire lives have been spent scarring ourselves and getting a thrill in achieving something.  

Logan, let’s break down your record-breaking eight-and-a-half cannon rolls in the film.  

Holladay: I don’t know how I could ever top that! We didn’t think that I was gonna get a Guinness World Record. We were just trying to do the biggest, best stuff that’s ever been done. The best part is, it’s someone else’s turn now to go out there and beat that set. I understand why it’s been so long since that world record was set for seven rolls because it’s hard . When you get to about five or six rolls in a car, it is extremely hard to do more. It just takes a lot of speed and a lot of commitment. Everybody always talks about that cannon roll, but I also jumped a trophy truck 225 feet over a canyon. For me, that was even scarier. That was an even bigger feat! 

Ben, how many times did you get lit on fire? And what did you think when you first read the fire scene, when Jody (Emily Blunt) forces Colt to perform the pyro stunt over and over again for revenge?  

Jenkin: I was lit on fire eight times. It was once the first day and then seven the next day. When I first heard about it, I mean, it’s hilarious. How can you not like it? She’s so pissed off at him that she’s like, ‘I’m gonna make you do this thing that sucks.’ It hurts getting slammed against the wall and set on fire. And you’re full of sand. It’s uncomfortable. All stunt performers have been in that situation where you do something and you’re like, ‘God, I hope we don’t have to do that again because that really hurt.’ 

Troy, how did you pull off that helicopter fall during the film’s climax?  

Brown: I didn’t even think that there was an airbag that existed that I could fall 150 feet into. The last time that my dad jumped into his airbag was in 2004 in Namibia, South Africa, in a movie called ‘Flight of the Phoenix.’ He sold that bag and left it there. He ended up finding the people that he sold it to, And they had just kept it in a box for the last 20 years. Universal had it shipped over to Sydney. I had to put some duct tape on it and sewed up a couple of things, but the material felt good. It was just a crazy thing for me, watching videos of that airbag since I was a super little kid, and then getting to like see it in person and jump into it. 

Your dad was on set for the fall, right?  

Jenkin: Everyone ran over. Everyone was crying.  

Holladay: I cried! 

This movie really feels like a love letter to stunt performers. Why is it so important for a project like this to shine a light on stunt work?  

Holladay: I think one of the reasons why it hasn’t been recognized is that for a very, very long time, actors would always say, ‘I do all my own stunts.’ They felt like they had to tell everybody that they’re actually the one that does this stuff. 

You have an amazing actor, like Ryan Gosling, who could deliver the story like nobody else. So now we have that piece of the puzzle: then his character has to do big car stunts, or his character has to parkour. Well, Ryan spent his whole life acting, so he’s amazing at acting. But if you want to have these things at the highest level, you’ve got to bring in the professionals. So we all come together, and we make this great character. 

Jenkin: Well, I think it goes hand in hand with the whole stunt industry being recognized. It’s, in my opinion, long overdue. We didn’t get into this to win awards, be famous, and be recognized. This whole thing is so new to us. We’ve never done press before in our lives! However, when you take a step back and think about it, every single department involved in the creative process of making these incredible movies deserves to be recognized. 

I just want to say ‘thank you’ to people like David and [producer Kelly McCormick], Ryan and Emily and all the cast that are really shining such a positive spotlight on the stunt industry. It’s about time that some people get recognized for the danger. People are really risking their lives for the love of making movies. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 260 Spoilers & Manga Plot Leaks

By Marla Añonuevo

Spoilers for the upcoming Chapter 260 of Jujutsu Kaisen are now available. Todo and Yuji face Sukuna together and the chapter ends with a shocking cliffhanger. Here’s a guide on the Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 260 spoilers and plot leaks .

List of Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 260 spoilers

Todo’s cursed technique has improved.

Todo’s left arm has been replaced with something called Vibraslap. The narration explains that the activation of Boogie Woogie has now changed from Todo clapping his hands together to parts of the Vibraslap hitting each other. Todo’s now capable of swapping around 50 times within a second.

Yuji and Todo attack Sukuna simultaneously, catching him off guard. Todo used a Binding Vow on the number of times he could swap with the Vibraslap. This maximized his cursed technique and he can now have multiple targets. He also expanded the technique’s range. The narration says Todo evacuated the sorcerers out of Sukuna’s Domain successfully.

Sukuna thinks Todo showed up at an inconvenient time. Before Todo can kick Sukuna, he avoids it. Todo notes that Sukuna is capable of dodging mid-air. Yuji throws a rock in their direction then Todo swaps Yuji and the rock, allowing Yuji to kick Sukuna.

Sukuna struggles with Boogie Woogie while Yuji continuously attacks him

Sukuna grabs Yuji by the face and attempts to attack. However, Todo keeps switching around while Yuji keeps punching Sukuna at his blind spots. Sukuna realizes the number of times Todo switches per tap can vary, so it would be almost impossible to get the hang of Boogie Woogie.

However, Sukuna tries figuring out when Todo’s going to switch, which is when Yuji’s at peak focus. He thinks Todo might fake the switch by swapping something else instead of Yuji, so he prepares to land a hard punch on Yuji. But Mei Mei’s crow arrives and Sukuna realizes he misinterpreted Todo’s move.

Sukuna believes they switched with the crow, so he tries to adjust accordingly but Todo tricks him again. Todo didn’t switch places and Yuji lands a Black Flash on Sukuna. Yuji then uses his hand to pierce through Sukuna’s chest.

Gojo’s implied return

Sukuna attempts to use Domain Expansion but sees a mysterious silhouette. The narration explains that Sukuna saw the strongest ghost he buried with his own hands. The final panel looks like Gojo. The editor’s note at the end says those “eyes” are unmistakable.

JJK is not on break next week.

For more anime content, check out our guide on One Piece 3D2Y’s meaning and if it’s canon .

(Source: @JujutsuSpoilers on X, formerly Twitter)

A huge anime and manga nerd that only functions after having an iced coffee.

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Movie Review: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are great fun in ‘The Fall Guy’

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ryan Gosling in a scene from “The Fall Guy.” (Eric Laciste/Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Emily Blunt, right, and Ryan Gosling in a scene from “The Fall Guy.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ryan Gosling in a scene from “The Fall Guy.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Winston Duke in a scene from “The Fall Guy.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Aaron Taylor-Johnson in a scene from “The Fall Guy.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ryan Gosling, left, in a scene from “The Fall Guy.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Emily Blunt, left, and Ryan Gosling in a scene from “The Fall Guy.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

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One of the worst movie sins is when a comedy fails to at least match the natural charisma of its stars. Not all actors are capable of being effortlessly witty without a tightly crafted script and some excellent direction and editing. But Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt seem, at least from afar, adept at that game. Just look at their charming press tour for “The Fall Guy.” Theirs is the kind of fun banter that can be a little worrisome — what if their riffing is better than the movie?

It comes as a great relief, then, that “The Fall Guy” lives up to its promise. Here is a delightful blend of action, comedy and romance that will make the audience feel like a Hollywood insider for a few hours (although there are perhaps one too many jokes about Comic-Con and Hall H).

Loosely based on the 1980s Lee Majors television series about a stuntman who made some extra cash on the side bounty hunting, Gosling takes up the mantle of said stunt guy, Colt Seavers.

Colt is a workaday stunt performer and longtime go-to for a major movie star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Tom is the kind of deeply egotistical and self-conscious A-lister who tells everyone he does his own stunts and worries out loud about Colt’s jawline being distractingly softer than his. I think the word “potato” is thrown around as a descriptor. Taylor-Johnson has quite a bit of fun playing up all his eccentricities that you hope, and fear, are at least somewhat inspired by real horror stories of stars behaving badly.

The film comes from director David Leitch, the Brad Pitt stuntman and stunt coordinator who helped bring “John Wick” to the world and directed “Atomic Blonde” and “Bullet Train.” He’s a guy who not only has the vision and know-how to bring the best in stunts to films and make them pop, but also has a vested interest in putting them in the spotlight. Forget the Oscar, how about just any acknowledgement? Perhaps “The Fall Guy” is just one tiny step on the path to making audiences more aware of some of the behind-the-scenes people who really make movies better and risk it all to do so.

It’s revealing that the movie starts with Colt suffering a terrible injury on a set. The stunt that goes wrong is one he’s just done and doesn’t seem remotely nervous about. The film cuts to his recovery and semi-reclusive retirement until he gets a call from Tom’s producer Gail (a delightfully over-the-top Hannah Waddingham) begging Colt to come back for a new film. They need him, she pleads, as does his longtime crush Jody (Blunt), who is making her directorial debut. She waits to inform him that Tom is missing and he’s the one who has to find him. On the quest, Colt encounters tough-guy goons, enablers, a sword-wielding actress, and a dead body on ice that all lead up to something big and rotten. And like a selfless stunt guy, he does it all out of sight of Jody — trying his best to save her movie without giving her something extra to worry about. Nothing about it is particularly plausible, but it’s not hard to get on board for the ride, and much of that is because of Gosling.

While he’s not quite underappreciated for his comedic timing, especially after “Barbie,” it’s fun to get to see him really embrace and lean into the goofiness — whether it’s crying and singing along to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” or quoting movie lines to his stunt coordinator pal (Winston Duke, always a good addition) in the midst of an actual fight.

There is something very juvenile and sweet about Jody and Colt’s will-they-won’t-they romance, with its mix of attraction, banter, misunderstandings and hurt feelings. It was a genius stroke to cast these two opposite each other and it leaves you wanting more scenes with the two.

Working with a script from Drew Pearce (“Hobbs & Shaw”), Leitch packs the film with wall-to-wall action, in both the film’s movie sets and its real world. And with the self-referential humor, the industry jokes and the promise of a little romance, it feels like one of those movies we all complain they don’t make anymore.

“The Fall Guy,” a Universal Picture release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “action and violence, drug content and some strong language.” Running time: 126 minutes. Three stars out of four.