The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, alongside their director, David Leitch, presented Logan Holladay, the stunt driver for Ryan Gosling’s titular character in the film, with a Guinness World Record certificate after he broke the record for the most cannon rolls in a car.
The cannon roll, described by Universal Pictures as a classic stunt dating back to the early days of cinema, involves fitting a cannon-like apparatus under a car, which propels it into a series of rolls upon activation.
Holladay accomplished this daring maneuver in a Jeep Grand Cherokee, surpassing the previous record of seven cannon rolls set by Adam Kirley for the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006).
Guinness World Records confirmed that the groundbreaking stunt was filmed in Australia in 2021 but was kept under wraps until the special screening event.
Gosling said the following about his longtime relationship with the stuntman before presenting Halladay with his award:
“I was on a kid’s action TV show called Young Hercules, and I’ve basically had a stunt double my whole life. There’s this sort of accepted dynamic where they come on set, they do all the cool stuff, they risk everything, and then they disappear into the shadows and we all pretend as if they were never there."
"Everyone else on set gets credit, but there’s kind of unspoken understanding that they won’t. That ends today!”
“It took like eight stunt performers to make one Fall Guy, and there were times when I was like, ‘Should we be making a movie or robbing a bank?"
"Because this is kind of the greatest bank-robbing team’… it was like the Avengers or something, and a lot of them probably were the Avengers, if you look at their CVs."
"I’ve benefitted from their work and their help since I started, so to be a part of telling their story and in some small way trying to reflect how vital they are and how important what they do is.”
You can watch the moment in the video below.
Reflecting on his achievement, Holladay expressed pride in his "surreal moment," stating:
Growing up, my dad was a stuntman, so the influence of film sets and the world of stunts was always there. When I learned about The Fall Guy going into production, I knew I had to be part of it."
"As for the cannon rolls, after two practice runs and one real take, we had one car and one shot left. And after I hit the eight-and-a-half rolls, I had a pretty good feeling that I had broken the record because it felt like the spinning was never going to stop."
"It was a surreal moment and I’m incredibly proud of what the team achieved."
People celebrated Holladay's achievement and urged award organizations to recognize stunt performers.
Under the direction of Leitch, The Fall Guy, loosely based on the 1980s TV show of the same name, tells the story of Colt Seavers (portrayed by Gosling), a seasoned stuntman who finds himself doubling for action star Tom Ryder (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in a film helmed by his former romantic partner (Blunt).
However, the plot takes a thrilling turn when Ryder vanishes under mysterious circumstances, propelling Seavers into a pulse-pounding rescue mission filled with high-octane action and suspense.
Guinness World Records said the film is an "homage to stunt-making" and that "the team wanted to make it a bigger and better version of the astonishing feats we’re used to seeing in film."
The first take, the organization observed, "didn’t go exactly to plan" but cited supervising stunt coordinator Chris O'Hara, who said that fortunately, the film set “had one more car."
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