The Stunt Driver

Ken Carter (Jay Baruchel), a Montreal-born professional stunt driver known as the 'Mad Canadian,' dreams of capping his 30-year career with the ultimate spectacle: launching a rocket-powered car across the mile-wide Saint Lawrence River from Canada into the United States. The film opens with Carter undergoing hypnosis on a radio program to conquer his fear of the jump, establishing both his determination and his self-awareness of the danger ahead.

To build the vehicle, Carter enlists Dick Keller (Ed Helms), the engineer who previously designed Evel Knievel's famous rocket car. A 1,400-foot takeoff ramp is constructed near Morrisburg, Ontario, with organizers expecting an audience of 100,000 spectators. ABC's Wide World of Sports agrees to broadcast the event — but only if Knievel (Ben Foster) provides his endorsement. Carter pursues the rival daredevil, and the two develop a competitive but ultimately respectful rapport; Knievel visits the site, initially pronouncing the odds of success slim, but eventually offers Carter his backing and encouragement.

At home, Carter's wife Gloria (Laurence Leboeuf) navigates growing anxiety about her husband's ambitions while trying to remain supportive. His best friend and longtime stunt partner Bill Wilkins stands by Carter despite quietly tiring of living in his shadow. Together they watch as the project balloons in scope, cost, and complexity.

The National Film Board of Canada deploys a documentary crew to capture the build-up, adding a media spectacle layer to an already outsized endeavor. The film reflects this meta-dimension by switching between widescreen and Academy-ratio formats whenever the NFB documentary crew appears — a stylistic nod to Robert Fortier's 1981 documentary The Devil at Your Heels, which recorded Carter's actual project.

Across roughly five years (1976–1979), Carter and his crew battle engineering setbacks, funding crises, and eroding public momentum. The first scheduled 1976 ABC broadcast is missed when neither the car nor the ramp is ready; ABC withdraws its $250,000 commitment. Further attempts in 1977 and 1978 are cancelled or fall apart. On September 26, 1979, Carter comes within five seconds of launch before aborting due to mechanical failure. He never makes the crossing. (In the historical record, another stuntman, Kenny Powers, later attempts the jump in Carter's stead; his vehicle breaks apart mid-flight and crashes into the river, though Powers survives with serious injuries. Carter himself died in 1983 in a separate rocket-car accident.)

The film frames the entire saga as a tragicomic Canadian underdog story — absurd in ambition, earnest in spirit — charting the personal costs of a man constitutionally unable to accept that some dreams may simply be too large. Coverage of the film's specific comedic sequences and its treatment of Carter's ultimate fate is limited ahead of wide release; the above is drawn from reviews, press materials, and the historical record.

Sources: Wikipedia (The Stunt Driver), Wikipedia (Ken Carter stuntman), Readdork (true story explainer), Boston Globe (review), Vimooz (trailer article)