The Ending of The Fall Guy Movie, Explained

If you were a child of the '80s, there's a good chance that the TV series The Fall Guy was a weekly watch in your household. The "case of the week" action series starred Lee Majors as a tough guy Hollywood stuntman who side hustled — before that was a thing — as a bounty hunter to make extra dough. Forty-three years later, The Fall Guy is back as a blockbuster movie directed by David Leitch, built around the same profession while remixing just about everything else.

In this iteration, Ryan Gosling takes a fighting stance as Colt Seavers, a veteran Hollywood stuntman who has ascended the ranks to become the primary double for Hollywood bad boy actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). After an on-set accident injures Seavers and takes him out of the biz, he's wooed back to stunt doubling for Ryder, but only when he finds out the star's latest film is also the directorial debut of Seaver's former girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Hoping to reunite with her in any way after their bad breakup, Seavers jets off to Australia... where nothing goes right. 

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Problem number one becomes Ryder's disappearance from set. In a panic, Ryder's executive producing partner, Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), quietly hires Seavers to find their missing star and get him back to set so the whole film doesn't spiral into a production shutdown. What ensues is Seaver's wild trek through Sydney, Australia as he's sent on one wild goose chase after another trying to figure out what kind of trouble Ryder's gotten himself into. 

What happens at the end of The Fall Guy?

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) in 'The Fall Guy', directed by David Leitch. Photo: Universal Pictures

As Seavers uncovers Ryder's secret life of drugs, violence, and murder, his own life is threatened over and over again by thugs trying to pin a murder that Ryder committed onto Seavers. After faking his own death to escape Ryder and his goons, Seavers sneaks back onto Jody's set and finally lets her know where Ryder has been, and that Gail has been trying to frame him for Ryder's nefarious deeds. 

The pair concoct an elaborate plan to get Ryder on set to perform his own major stunt without a double, fully mic'd, in a bid to coerce a confession for his crimes. And in turn, clear Seaver's name. Out on the dusty location, Seavers, his stunt coordinator bestie Dan Tucker (Winston Duke), and the stunt team set up a helicopter stunt for Ryder. It does freak him out, which gets that confession. But it all goes wrong when Gail and Ryder try to escape on the helicopter, along with his recorded confession.

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Seavers ends up grabbing onto the helicopter to stop them, and dangles from it until, eventually, he performs a dramatic free fall (with the audio files) onto a stunt crash pad below. The end result is a big ole' Hollywood ending kiss between a triumphant Colt and Jody. Ryder gets replaced in the film by actor Jason Momoa taking over the lead role in Moreno's epic, sci-fi, blockbuster, Metalstorm, which audiences get a taste of in the "official" trailer that plays to a besotted crowd in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. 

Colt ends up establishing his own stunt coordinating business called "The Fall Guys," and is seen rolling doughnuts on the beach in his beloved GMC K-2500 pickup truck with Jody by his side. "The End" is literally when those two words a typed out on screen, script style. 

The Fall Guy is out in theaters now. Get tickets here!