Before directing Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, or Bullet Train, David Leitch was one of the most prolific stuntmen in Hollywood. He doubled for Brad Pitt in Fight Club and Troy. He executed stunts on two of the Matrix movies and one of the Bourne installments. He is a scholar of the action flick and told TIME his latest movie, The Fall Guy, is a “love letter to action movies.”

The film centers on a stunt man, played by Ryan Gosling. He had a brief romance with an aspiring director (Emily Blunt) but ghosted her after a serious injury. When she finally gets her first big break, her new movie’s star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing, so the stunt man sets out to find him and save his true love’s picture (and maybe win her back in the process). The Fall Guy depicts the meticulous preparation needed to execute stunts as well as the fantastic feats themselves. …