Jay Baruchel Plays Daredevil Ken Carter in The Stunt Driver
Jay Baruchel plays stunt driver Ken Carter in The Stunt Driver, built around a plan for a mile-long leap over the St. Lawrence River in a rocket-powered car. The film is directed by Michael Dowse and arrived at the Toronto film festival in September 2026. Variety set out the casting and the jump plan in a review published on 13 September 2026.
The story is true. Carter, a Canadian stuntman, spent years organising the river jump. The film credits the 1981 documentary The Devil At Your Heels as source material, a film that followed five years of Carter's project.
Helms plays engineer Dick Keller, the man tasked with making the rocket car work. Dan Bakkedahl plays sports agent Bill Wilkins, and Laurence Lebouef plays Ken's wife Gloria. Ben Foster appears as Evel Knievel, the American daredevil known for long-distance motorcycle jumps.
For Baruchel and Dowse, it is familiar ground. They previously collaborated on Goon, the hockey comedy. In fact The Stunt Driver is their third collaboration, and the pair have been friends for more than 20 years, they said in an interview published by Deadline on 11 September 2026.
The film is an IFC comedy-drama, a mix of humour and drama backed by the independent company IFC, as reported by Variety on 1 September 2026. The Toronto festival programme describes it as a raucous yet heartfelt comedy about a Canadian stuntman, according to TIFF. That description points to the domestic side of the tale. A daredevil. An anxious family. A team trying to hold it together.
The Toronto launch brought Baruchel and Dowse together for the festival premiere, as reported by Variety on 11 September 2026. Deadline published its joint interview with the two men that same week. TheWrap and RogerEbert.com both published reviews on 12 September 2026.
What makes this stand out for newcomers is the simplicity of the dare. One man. One car with a rocket fitted to it. A river a mile wide. No digital shortcut can dramatise that calculation.
