★★★★ (4 out of 4 stars)

How far would you go to make sure people remember your name? Michael Dowse’s The Stunt Driver tells the wild, funny, and surprisingly heartfelt story of Canadian daredevil Ken Carter, played with incredible energy by Jay Baruchel.

Known as “The Mad Canadian,” Carter dreams of jumping a rocket-powered Lincoln Continental across a mile-wide section of the St. Lawrence River. It is the kind of idea that sounds impossible because, according to every law of physics, it practically is. But Carter is not interested in what is reasonable. “I am chasing respect,” he says, and that line explains almost everything about him.

His team builds one of the fastest cars in the world, capable of reaching between 260 and 280 miles per hour. Ken does not simply want to drive it; he wants to launch it across a river, despite not knowing how to swim. As Ed Helms’ character points out, “You don’t drive this car. You aim it.” Even more hilariously, Carter is a professional stunt driver without a driver’s licence.

But beneath all the comedy and insanity is a man desperate to prove that his life matters. “When I fly, everybody is my friend,” Ken says. When he is then asked what will happen if the jump kills him, his answer is simple: “Everybody will remember my name.” Those two statements explain what is truly driving him. The jump is not only about breaking a record; it is about being seen, respected, and remembered.

Ed Helms brings humour and humanity as Carter’s car designer and technician, Dick Keller. He admits that his job is to make sure Ken survives the jump—not necessarily to make the jump successful. Even when he believes Carter might kill himself, he still agrees to help because he understands that Ken cannot let this dream go.

Ben Foster’s Evel Knievel encourages him to “live large,” while Gloria, Ken’s wife, remains incredibly supportive despite being terrified that the jump could take his life. Laurence Leboeuf gives Gloria strength and emotional depth. Her support shows how one person’s dream can become an enormous burden for those who love them.

The most disturbing moment comes when promoter Bill Wilkins pressures Carter to jump even though the conditions are unsafe, threatening to replace him if he refuses. At that point, courage is no longer simply personal—it becomes something others are willing to exploit.

“You have to be brave when you have nothing,” Ken says. That may be the film’s most important line. Carter appears fearless, but his need to be remembered reveals how frightened he is of living an ordinary and forgotten life.

“We go perfectly or catastrophically,” the announcer says before the jump. That is also the perfect description of The Stunt Driver: a big, reckless, deeply Canadian story about ambition, insecurity, love, and one man’s refusal to let gravity—or common sense—tell him what he cannot do.