Upamanyu Biswas
After Colt Seavers initially gives up on his stuntman career due to an injury in David Leitch’s action comedy film ‘The Fall Guy,’ he can be seen parking cars as a valet for a local restaurant. The Mexican joint, called El Cacatúa del Capital, is Colt’s workplace for a brief period before he joins his ex-girlfriend Jody’s directorial debut as a stuntman. Later, as Colt is neck-deep in unraveling a conspiracy involving Tom Ryder, the main star of Jody’s film, he takes a detour to Pendleton Hotel. It’s there that he discovers a dead body lying in a bathtub while still under the influence of drugs. Considering the two memorable scenes set in El Cacatúa del Capital and Pendleton Hotel, these establishments are expected to leave a mark on the viewers’ minds!
Pendleton is a Fictional Hotel
‘The Fall Guy’ was mainly shot in Sydney, Australia, where the action comedy is also set. However, there is no hotel named Pendleton in the city. The scene in which Colt tries to track down a receptionist named Kevin was shot at the Kimpton Margot Sydney Hotel, located at 339 Pitt Street in the New South Wales city. The Kimpton Margot Sydney is an enormous building with an Art Deco aesthetic. The scenes beginning from Colt’s inquiry with the receptionist to his discovery of the corpse in the tub were shot in this establishment.
The hotel scenes are memorable because of the ludicrous hallucinations Colt has after getting drugged—especially the ones involving a unicorn. In every room, hallway, and lobby Colt walks into during his time at the hotel, its presence invades him. David Leitch was wedded to the idea of shooting everything as authentically as possible. So, for the purpose of filming, his production crew arranged a horse in a unicorn get-up to accompany Colt throughout all his scenes within the hotel interiors. It helps sell the protagonist’s inundated state practically and also buys a few chuckles in the process.
El Cacatúa del Capital is Not a Real Mexican Restaurant
El Cacatúa del Capital is a fictional Mexican restaurant where Colt works during his 18-month hiatus from stunt work. David Leitch and his screenwriter Drew Pearce conceived a place where the protagonist could spend his days in anonymity while he recovered from his injury. Because Colt was at a low point after losing his career and his girlfriend, working as a valet at the Mexican joint shows us just how morose and forlorn he becomes. This is made abundantly clear when a former colleague throws shade at him for his accident while he chauffeurs his car.
Since the principal photography for the action comedy took place in Sydney, it’s possible that the filming of this establishment’s exterior was done at the crew’s production facility in Disney Studios in Moore Park or a nearby undisclosed outdoor location within the city. However, this is not consistent with El Cacatúa del Capital’s actual location in the film. The restaurant should be somewhere in the United States, as Colt is still landlocked in his own country at that point. Bereft of his true purpose, Colt’s only solace comes from the army of valets outside the restaurant who greet him as one of their own while he’s down in the dumps.
Read more: The Fall Guy: Is Tom Ryder a Real Actor? Is Gail Meyer an Actual Producer?
