As spectators to the epic chases, crashes, explosions, fights, and other mayhem that make up the action genre, the audience assumes actors aren’t faced with any real danger. But while there are precautions and preparation that go into any stunt, things don’t always go as planned — and some scenes are seemingly only made possible at the expense of the actor’s health.
While directors often cast a stunt double in their stars’ place when danger calls, it’s fairly common for adrenaline junkie thespians to push their bodies to (and sometimes past) their limits to make a production work. It is effectively expected for career-long daredevils, like Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan, to pump out nail-biting action blockbusters with minimum CGI. But even those who don’t specialize in action have made the sacrifice.
Actors frequently take their cuts, burns, bruises, and broken bones like champs, and will often try to push through if the damage permits. Even those who have been rushed to the hospital and put out of commission in the middle of filming aren’t always discouraged by pain. Some have rushed back to set generally fine, but before they’ve fully recovered; while others have returned with permanent afflictions, eager to do it again. The risk of injury can be a deal breaker for some, and Hollywood accidents have resulted in a smattering of spectacular lawsuits. But for others it’s the price of a clean shot, and just one more reasons the Oscars ought to have a Best Stunt category.
While hand-to-hand combat adds excitement to any storyline, there is more that goes into production than pointing the camera at two actors exchanging haymakers. Fight choreography and pre-production planning are essential to any successful action scene. Timing, location, camera movements, and reactions all play into the story’s plausibility and are just as important as the scene’s daring main events. Although stunts are rehearsed and mapped out in advance, filming them for the first time can be nerve-wracking – even for veteran stunt-people and actors, like Cruise who has to be reminded by producers to contain his smiles of excitement while filming. For those who are less eager and more so paralyzed by the fear of heights, fire, or severe bodily injury, performing their own stunts is a terrifying curve from which to learn.
Keep reading on for an incomplete list of stunts that seriously injured actors during production, which will be updated overtime. Then, check out IndieWire’s guide to nightmare film shoots with The Most Grueling Movies Ever Made.
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“Armour of God” (1986)
Image Credit: ©Dimension Films/Courtesy Everett Collection Even for someone as highly skilled and experienced as Jackie Chan, accidents happen. The acrobat and martial artist is one of the longest running action stars in Hollywood so his sweeping list of injuries doesn’t come by surprise, however his resilience does. Chan had his closest encounter with death in a scene where his character jumps from a wall into a tree, a routine stunt that otherwise would have been no big deal if the branch hadn’t snapped. Chan plummeted to the pavement, cracking his skull with a piece lodging into his brain. The injury required surgery and a metal plate was put into Chan’s skull to correct the damage. Chan detailed the aftermath of the incident in his 2015 memoir, “Never Grow Up.”
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“Back to the Future Part III” (1990)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Luckily for Michael J. Fox, his character Marty didn’t spend too much time in the Wild West. In the third and final film of the franchise, Marty follows Doc back to 1885 where he’s met with the great-grandfather of his cinematic rival Biff, Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen. Shortly after being nabbed by Tannen and his group of bandits, Doc comes to the rescue — freeing Marty of the noose around his neck. Not soon enough, however, as Fox claims he passed out during one shot.
“This shot was not designed to include my whole body, so for the first couple of takes, I stood on a small wooden box,” Fox revaled in his 2002 autobiography, “Lucky Man: A Memoir.”
“No matter how I shifted my weight, the swinging effect was not realistic, so I offered to try it without the support of the box,” he continued. “Noose around my neck, dangling from the gallows pole, my carotid artery was blocked, causing me briefly to pass out. I swung, unconscious, at the end of the rope for several seconds before Bob Zemeckis, fan of mine though he was, realized even I wasn’t that good an actor.”
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“Bruised” (2020)
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection It was brave enough of Halle Berry to step into a cage with a professional MMA fighter but when she continued filming after a kick from Valentina Shevchenko broke two of her ribs, it solidified her as one of the toughest performers in Hollywood.
Early into the production of the Netflix original “Bruised,” Berry learned firsthand the damage a blow from a UFC champion does to your body. Regardless of the injury, Berry pushed through and the show went on.
“After two and a half years of training, I felt like a fighter and I had the fighting spirit inside me,” Berry said in an interview with Seth Meyers. “Quitting is just never what fighters do.”
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“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000)
Image Credit: ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Michelle Yeoh is one of the biggest badasses in cinema history, but even she has her stunt mishaps. During filming of Ang Lee’s wuxia classic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Yeoh tore her ACL while running across a rooftop. Yeoh received surgery, and took three months to recover for filming the last fight sequence, and described the experience as “one of the most painful moviemaking experiences I had.” In several scenes of the film, Yeoh wore a leg brace, obscured underneath her clothing.
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“Kill Bill: Vol. 2” (2004)
Image Credit: ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection As Uma Thurman was wrapping up filming the “Kill Bill” duology, she was reluctant to drive the blue Volkswagen Karmann Ghia that she felt was faulty after the car’s manual transmission was reconfigured to an automatic. Thurman claims to have requested a stunt double for this scene, but was prompted by director Quentin Tarantino to get behind the wheel. After losing control of the vehicle, Thurman spun out and crashed into a tree, resulting in a concussion and permanent knee damage. The actress posted the video on Instagram which was edited out of the movie. It shows Thurman grabbing her head immediately after the impact.
Tarantino later described the incident as the “biggest regret” of his life, and broke down the specifics of how the crash occurred to Deadline in 2018.
“I told her it would be OK,” he said. “I told her the road was a straight line. I told her it would be safe. And it wasn’t. I was wrong. I didn’t force her into the car. She got into it because she trusted me. And she believed me.””
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“Maze Runner: The Death Cure” (2018)
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection Dylan O’Brien suffered a concussion and several facial lacerations after being run over by a car while filming. Despite the use of a safety harness, the actor fell from on top of a moving vehicle and was struck by a car that followed. The severity of his injuries required surgery. After O’Brien returned from his hiatus to finish the movie, he stepped away from acting for several years.
“The state that you’re in after something like that, you just want to run from all that stuff,” O’Brien said. “I didn’t really even want to leave my couch necessarily when I was allowed to.”
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“Rocky IV” (1985)
Image Credit: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection Sylvester Stallone was committed to making the most realistic fight scenes for his movies so he asked Dolph Lundgren not to hold back as the two duked it out. A blow to the chest however damaged Stallone’s pericardium, an injury typically associated with a head-on car collision. The actor spent four days in the hospital.
“He hit me so hard in the chest that the next thing I knew I was on a low-altitude flight to intensive care at Saint John’s hospital, surrounded by four nuns,” Stallone said in an interview with Jimmy Fallon. “I thought, ‘Here I go.’”
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“Seven” (1995)
Image Credit: ©New Line Cinema/courtesy Everett / Everett Collection During filming for a chase scene in David Fincher’s thriller “Seven,” Brad Pitt slipped on a car hood and smashed his hand through the windshield. According to the film’s DVD commentary, Fincher explained that Pitt received several stiches and a forearm cast, and his injury was written into later scenes. For scenes shot after the chase but set prior, Pitt kept his hand in his pocket or obscured it in order to hide the injury.
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“Tag” (2018)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection In an action comedy about a group of friends who have carried on a 30-year game of tag, Jeremy Renner broke both his arms after falling from a stack of chairs onto the gym floor. Right after the 20-foot drop, Renner got back up and gave the stunt another go before going to the hospital on lunch break. The actor never skipped a beat, however, returning to the “Tag” set from the hospital. Renner claimed that since his body and face were in the scene, the audience could tell if he used a stunt double.
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“The Rhythm Section” (2020)
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Blake Lively underwent two surgeries and physical therapy after she broke her hand in a fight scene with Jude Law while filming “The Rhythm Section.” As the two exchanged punches, Lively lunged at Law with a knife who blocked the shot, shattering her hand. The injury delayed the film for six months while Lively recovered before she returned to the set, still needing to film most of her character’s fight scenes.
“I punched his elbow and my hand just basically turned to party confetti,” Lively said in an interview with Jimmy Fallon.
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“The Wizard of Oz” (1939)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection The number of injuries matched with the leniency of safety precautions while filming “The Wizard of Oz” makes it one of the most dangerous movies ever made. Makeup poisoning, asbestos exposure, and doping actors up with amphetamines are not the only reasons either. Wicked Witch actress Margaret Hamilton suffered third-degree burns when a trap door below her failed to open during a pyrotechnic scene. The stunt sent Hamilton up in flames and enveloped by smoke leading to a two-month absence from production.
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“Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (2018)
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection One of the more severe injuries in his career, Tom Cruise suffered a broken ankle in the sixth installment of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise after leaping from one rooftop to another. What he considered to be an “easy” stunt resulted in a nine-week delay in production, although doctors expected a nine-month recovery. After months of rehab, he returned to shoot the remaining scenes still with a fractured talus. But with an urgency to get the movie in theaters, Cruise pushed through the pain
“I had all the running left [to do] in the movie, so when you look at the film, I actually have a broken foot,” Cruise said. “I just thought, I’m going to do it no matter what. I’m going to come back and I’ll be able to run.”
