No one should live like Court Gentry does. The taciturn spy at the center of The Gray Man gets into scrape after scrape over the course of the Russo brothers’ new action thriller, racing through Europe with a horde of bloodthirsty mercenaries hot on his heels. In real life, Ryan Gosling’s job on the film wasn’t all that different — like Gentry, he was called upon to take a beating in the service of the greater good (in this case, the successful completion of a blockbuster action movie). Unlike Gentry, though, the actor had some help, in the form of The Gray Man’s fearless stunt team. 

For James Young, one of the film’s stunt coordinators, taking on The Gray Man was a daunting challenge. And when Joe and Anthony Russo brought him on board, they gave him fair warning. They told him that they were aiming for a start-to-finish thrill ride, with nine specific, showstopping action sequences. “[It was] shocking at first,” says Young, laughing. “That’s an incredible, incredible amount of action to be doing for a movie.” To borrow the parlance of another iconic spy saga: This was Young’s mission, should he choose to accept it.

Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) squares up.

Paul Abell/Netflix

And accept it he did. To simplify the process of planning such a marathon of physical punishment, the Russos and their stunt team broke down each scene into a simple structure with a simple question: What is each character’s goal? “It's not so much about the fight,” Young says. “It's about what they’re fighting for.”

In one of the film’s centerpiece dustups, Court and his unlikely ally Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) take on Avik (Dhanush), one of the most brutal and formidable henchmen on their tail. All three trade blows in a hospital ward as they struggle to keep their hands on Court’s valuable flash drive, which holds the government secrets that sent him on the run in the first place. “If that’s two people fighting two-on-one just to kill each other, then the fight would look a little different,” Young says. “For us, the one thing was, [it’s] a fight over a hot potato. You want control of the hot potato.”

Dhanush Fights Ryan Gosling and Ana De Armas | The Gray ManAssassin Avik San takes on Sierra Six and Dani.

Every burst of high-octane action went through this behind-the-scenes process. “The No. 1 thing we always want to do by the end of the sequence, is to advance the character and story,” Young says. Of course, stunt work isn’t just a series of story structure discussions. There’s also plenty of running and jumping involved. The massive Prague chase that sees Gosling escaping a careening tram had the actor leaping off of life-size tram models on a soundstage (albeit with wires attached and full supervision by a team of professionals).

The Gray Man (Ryan Gosling) prepares to make a leap of faith.

On top of advancing character and story, the stunt team also aimed for something that was occasionally even more difficult — how could they make each sequence different from the last? “You don't want [them] just to all blend into one,” Young explains. “So every action scene has kind of a juxtaposition about it. You've got a hyperviolent gunfight in a dark nightclub with fireworks and balloons. So there's a funness to it [that], again, balances out the action… Every fight had something on the opposite side of it.” 

Of these juxtaposed moments, one of Young’s favorites is an early brawl in a plummeting C-130 aircraft. It also happened to be the most difficult. “To put us in a small tube with a car, and then [have] five military special ops types was a fun thing to play with,” he says. “But logistically that was difficult with cameras. Space in there is very, very tight.”

According to Young, the stunt team had a great set of partners in the film’s cast, who tagged in for a good portion of their own stunt work. He rattles off a rapid-fire series of compliments: “Chris [Evans] is incredible at learning choreography… Ryan has got brilliant timing and intensity… Ana: Ferocity… And then Dhanush is everything, Dhanush is fantastic.”

 Ryan Gosling films a scene as Court Gentry.

Paul Abell/Netflix

Of course, not every stunt is safe (or comfortable) enough for Hollywood’s prettiest (and most priceless) faces. “At the end of the day it’s always [about] communication with your actor,” Young says. “You know, ‘This is what we're trying to accomplish. These are the beats that we've learned. You're great with these. And then with these we'll go to the stunt double to get hit to the ground.’” 

“Getting hit to the ground” is what Court Gentry does best, and the stunt team knows it. At one point, Young unwittingly (and eerily) slips into referring to the character by the actor’s name. “It was just literally Ryan escaping by the skin of his teeth, taking a beating and having to keep on going, keep on going, keep on going,” Young says. “Just see how we can put him in a crazy situation and see how he can get out of it.” And get out of it he does — with a little help from his friends, the real-life action heroes behind the scenes.

Behind The Making Of The Gray ManStarring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and directed by the Russo Brothers.