Dodging brain damage and collapsed lungs, the scrappystunt communityis facing a new dilemma; this time, however, it’s an existential threat. Seldom acknowledged by the most prestigious ceremonies in Hollywood, stuntpeople experienced a rare moment in the sun afterThe Fall Guy’s Ryan Gosling lobbied on behalf of the profession, stating they deserved their own Oscar category like any other important position on a film set. The timing, however, is ironic.
After a thankless century of entertaining the masses under their belts, putting their limbs and lives on the line, the sketchy world of stunt work is well on its way to extinction. Stuntmen and women are already all but forgotten, and if tech giants have their say, these daredevils could be obsolete sooner rather than later.
There very well could come a time when we cannot tell the real Jackie Chan from the deep-fake impostor flailing across the screen. Sure, there are some valid reasons why studios are eager to jump on the bandwagon; we’ll get into that, too. At this point, though, it’s far too late to put the genie back in the bottle. A lack of Academy recognition might be the least of the profession’s conundrums.
Adding Insult to Traumatic Brain Injury
We can’t talk about stunts without addressing the physical toll. There is a reason tough guys like Stallone warn fellow actors,“Don’t do your own stunts.“Movies are complicated, and aside from the tangible dangers of stunt work, there’s always something that could go wrong – not merely for the person performing the stunt but also for camera operators, gaffers, electricians, and other personnel on the set.
Every high-octane sequence harbors the potential for fractures, concussions, or other internal injuries.Data backed up by theJournal of Occupational and Environmental Medicineshows that 4 out of 5 stunt performers had either hit their head or suffered some spine trauma.The lasting effects of brain injuries are hard to ascertain and may never be fully treated or detected; many willingly accept it as part of doing business.
Ryan Gosling Jests The Fall Guy Is ‘Just a Giant Campaign to Get Stunts an Oscar’
Ryan Gosling portrays the unknown stuntman in The Fall Guy; he jokes that the film is an attempt to garner the profession an Academy Award.
The pay historically has been meager, and except for Buddy Joe Hooker, no one has ever gained any name recognition for their decades of work. You’d think the lack of respect and reasonable wages would keep them in the good graces of film studios, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, unfortunately.
The Financial Dangers of Stunt Work
Summer blockbusters are potential cash cows, yet that money stream comes with the ever-present worry of accidents and lawsuits. The bigger the movie, the more things that blow up. A stunt gone awry onL.A.’s Finestset resulted in casualties, and the production had to be delayed as the cast and crew stepped aside to make way for investigators,Deadlinereported in 2019. And that’s with modern standards in place.
In the eighties, aCannonball Runscene went disastrously wrong and permanently disabled a stuntwoman, which cost far more than the insurance policy paid out, as detailed in the bookInsurance Coverage Litigation.People don’t think of insurance when contemplating movie budgets, but all these expenditures add up quickly.
10 Action Movies Full of Challenging and Complicated Stunts
Big screen productions that choose to utilize authentic stunt work and action sequences often become some of the industry’s greatest achievements.
We could go on, but you may see how dealing with flesh-and-blood stunt performers is an issue for studios making action movies. Removing practical effects (and humanity) from the filmmaking equation makes for safer and potentially cheaper products. Stuntpeople be damned. Celebrities doing their own stunts make for great press, but it is a worst-case scenario for a producer, given the potential dangers involved.
What’s Next For Stuntpeople?
There is a solution to stuntmen’s health crisis, but no stuntperson is going to like it.A dozen or so companies are currently engaged in a battle royal to conquer the AI frontier. Because the film industry is seeking to trim costs wherever they can, the people falling down stairs for a living might be the first on the chopping block of a revolutionGeorge Lucas considers “inevitable.”
It’s bad enough that CGI has rendered so many revered aspects of filmmaking disposable, but if the threats from AI are to be believed, stuntpeople might soon be a dying breed. In 2023, following a major downturn in financial fortunes in the film industry, veteran stunt co-coordinator Freddy Bouciegues toldFrance 24he feared for his professional life, reading the writing on the wall:
“The technology is exponentially getting faster and better … There could be a world where they sa[y], ‘No, we don’t want to bring these 10 guys in… we’ll just add them in later via effects and AI. Now those guys are out of the job.’ "
He’s not alone in his doom spiral. When it comes to generative AI taking over, it’s likely only a matter of when and to what degree. However, some legislation will undoubtedly be passed to shelter certain industries and professions. The real obstacle is that AI is advancing daily, leaving those crafting legislation clueless about how AI functions and slow to react to curbing its proliferation.
Doctor Whoproducer/writerSteven Moffat has a pointwhen he says that AI faces a huge hurdle when it comes to replacing the human element in art. Running AI requires an obscenely large amount of computing power, which is not yet cost-effective on a wide scale – the operative word being “yet.” Moffat isn’t entirely correct, though, especially when it comes to artificially-generated videos. That technology has come a long way in a very short time.
Without the public backing of actors like Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, or Chris Pratt, raising the profile of this unsung line of work, we could be in the twilight era of the old-school action movie. But will anyone care?
