Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Action’ on Peacock, A Docuseries Taking A Look At The Stunt Performers And New Techniques At Work In Today’s Biggest Action Movies

The six-episode docuseries Action (now streaming on Peacock) goes behind the scenes to show what it’s like to throw a punch, take a hit, fall from a tall building, or roll a brand-new car, and along the way shine a light on the unknown stunt persons behind the stars. David Leitch isn’t just the director of the upcoming Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt – he’s a former stunt performer who found his way into the director’s chair with his innovative work as a stunt coordinator and as a co-director on 2014’s precedent-setting John Wick. And in Action, Leitch and his wife Kelly McCormick are featured as their production company 87 North takes on new projects heavy on the design and implementation of contemporary stunt performance. Those interviewed include Leitch, McCormick, 87 North’s stunt coordination and fight sequence teams, and Mr. Wick himself, Keanu Reeves.

ACTION: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Ask Keanu Reeves for his history of action movies, and he’s the kind of guy who has prepared a thoughtful answer. “Action is in the fabric, in the DNA of cinema,” says the star of the John Wick and Matrix films. “It’s fundamental. It’s…air.” 

The Gist: “In modern stunts,” continues Reeves in Action, “David Leitch and Chad Stahelski have been in the prow of that boat.” For those guys, shooting the first John Wick film was a career accelerant, because it showcased their ability to link the physical and technological in planning out a stunt. “You can’t separate the choreo from the way you’re going to shoot it,” Leitch says of his process. “You need to present the full idea.” And that’s where his production company’s specialty comes in. “Pre-vis,” as in visualization, is the process 87 North uses to rough out the tone, movement, and spacing of a particular fight sequence, and the early going of Action reveals this technique in the run-up to shooting the dark action comedy Violent Night, which stars David Harbour.     

As a stunt coordinator on huge movies like Black Panther and Dr. Strange, Jonathan “Jojo” Eusebio knows how important it is to build the right team, and Action jets from Los Angeles, California and Berlin, Germany to Vancouver, British Columbia, and Bellingham, Washington as Eusebio gathers a crew that includes Phong Giang, Cha-Lee Yoon, Can Aydin, and Mitra Suri. All of these stunt pros have worked together before. Eusebio says he met Suri on the set of Nikita when she was doubling Maggie Q. “And if you’re doubling Maggie Q, that means you gotta be good.” And as the team convenes in Winnipeg to prepare for Violent Night, we also learn a little about work-life balance difficulties specific to this industry. It can be a tall order to fly out for a months-long film shoot at a moment’s notice, because they’ve all got little kids at home. But they do what they gotta do. “To love it this much,” says Eusebio, “I’ve sacrificed in other places.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The 2021 doc Stuntman followed veteran stunt performer Eddie Braun as he attempted to fulfill a dangerous rocket-powered dream, and Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story appeared in 2020.

Our Take: Action takes a few of its cues from the reality show format, setting up filmmaker David Leitch and his production partner and wife Kelly McCormick as the ultimate decision makers whose approval the stunt teams strive for. Here also is the stress that comes from trying to balance one’s professional obligations and ambitions with the expectations of family life at home – obviously tricky, and something Action portrays with the confessional cutaways and everyday life look-ins familiar to the reality genre. These bits of spotlighting can be revealing – “This career is very, very hard on families,” stunt performer Can Aydin says with conviction, while another sequence captures Mitra Suri training on a mat while her kids play in the background – but they also stay pretty static, and highlight challenges that aren’t specific to the film industry.

It’s when it highlights professional processes at work that Action is most engaging. The concept of “pre-vis” makes plenty of sense in theory. But to see it in, er, action from the ground up in this docuseries is really something, as Jonathan Eusebio and his team not only plan out the placement of punches, but construct a roughed-out, cardboard-and-markers-made space that represents where a particular fight will take place on film. Run that footage through editing software, add in a few sound effects, and the whole sequence finds its way to a tense critique with Leitch and McCormick, who must approve the action design before anything is shot. You would be forgiven for thinking stunt work in Hollywood is just people falling backwards off high rises into enormous inflatable bladders. But there are way, way more steps to making sure the actors look like badasses, and Action gets its best kicks when it shows how this happens. 

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Things are moving right along with the planning and execution of the fight sequences for Violent Night when Eusebio hops on a tough call with Leitch and McCormick. The production has taken a punch that’s a hard one to plan for: a bout with Covid taking out most of the stunt team for an undetermined length of time.

Sleeper Star: While Reeves is explaining the technical aspects of shooting a fight scene, he becomes ever more animated until he’s adding in “Dush” and “Ku-Bam” sound effects like a kid on the playground reenacting a fight scene from Reeves’ movies. “Then (grunts) Super (punches the air forcefully) – power, power, power. Right? Then, cut into the fist. (KA-BOOGH!) Then your (reacts with an audible grunt); then, you’d cut behind the guy who I just hit. Then he’s on the camera (Grunts, CRUSH), and land. Right?”   

Most Pilot-y Line: “We got a lot to do,” Jonathan Eusebio says as the days tick off til the start of filming. “Priority one is trying to make a vocabulary,” and in accompanying practice space footage we hear him using terms like butterfly grip, torque, and cinch. “So, when we start making a choreo, we all have the same language. The hard part for us is designing a fight style that fits the actual character on the page.” 

Our Call: STREAM IT. Most “making of”-type shows reveal more than a few interesting facts about how that movie sausage gets made. But the meat of Action is even more notable, since it showcases the physicality, technology, and intensity of contemporary stunt work. 

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.