Born in Montreal and raised in a working-class neighbourhood, Carter dropped out of school and joined a travelling stunt show, launching cars through the air at racetracks across North America. But jumping over buses and wrecking perfectly good automobiles was merely the warm-up act.
In 1976, Carter announced a plan so spectacularly Canadian that it bordered on folklore: strap a rocket to a Lincoln Continental and jump one mile across the St. Lawrence River.
The proposed leap attracted international attention, along with $250,000 in backing from ABC, which planned to broadcast the stunt on Wide World of Sports on September 25, 1976. The years of preparation, mechanical chaos and mounting danger were later captured in the National Film Board documentary The Devil at Your Heels.
Now Carter’s wonderfully reckless story is getting the big-screen treatment.
The Stunt Driver is an upcoming Canadian comedy-biopic written and directed by Michael Dowse, starring Jay Baruchel as Ken Carter alongside Ed Helms of The Office. Filming took place around Montreal in September 2025, including locations along the St. Lawrence between Boucherville and Varennes.
It is shaping up to be an unusually good year for car movies. The Fast and the Furious returns to theatres on August 21, Pixar’s Cars follows in September, and now TIFF 2026 is showing Drifter, Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend and The Stunt Driver? Seems like TIFF has a real gearhead on their selection committee!
Before arriving in theatres on September 25, The Stunt Driver will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Special Presentations screening takes place Friday, September 11, 2026, at 8:45 PM at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, following a press and industry screening the previous day.
Rocket-powered Lincolns, Canadian daredevils, a TIFF red carpet and a mile of open water. What could possibly go wrong?