Big Names Who Paid Bigger Prices
Movie buffs can appreciate a great flick, but how many appreciate the dedication it takes to put those scenes together? Despite exhaustion concerns and malfunctioning equipment, many actors go the distance for their roles, and these 20 names nearly lost their lives because of it.
1. Tom Cruise, The Last Samurai
Believe it or not, we’re actually not talking about his insane Mission: Impossible stunts. No, we’re talking about The Last Samurai, wherein this action star nearly lost his head during filming—literally. Due to a mechanical horse mishap, poor Hiroyuki Sanada almost decapitated Cruise in a fight scene gone wrong, one that used real swords.
2. Jackie Chan, Armour of God
Cruise isn’t the only action star known for doing his own stunts! Jackie Chan has seen his fair share of fists, but this time, a tree was the major culprit for his dangerous Armour of God accident. After attempting to slide down one, he fell 25 feet and cracked his head on a rock. He fractured his skull and, to this day, has a hole in his head that he covers with a plug.
U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Lee M. McCaskill on Wikimedia
3. Melanie Griffith, Roar
If not friend, why friend-shaped? Look, it’s never a good idea to have over 100 jungle cats on set, but Roar threw those safety measures out the window—and Melanie Griffith paid the price. After being attacked by a lion on set, she needed 50 stitches and reconstructive surgery to undo the damage.
Manfred Werner (Tsui) on Wikimedia
4. Viggo Mortensen, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Don’t worry, we’re not talking about the toe thing. We are, however, talking about the time everyone’s favorite ranger nearly drowned on set. Remember that scene where Aragorn goes in the water? Well, a current actually yanked him under, and Mortensen later recounted that he thought he was done for.
Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación on Wikimedia
5. Charlize Theron, Aeon Flux
The good news is that this accident was no one’s fault. The bad news is that one of her stunts nearly paralyzed Charlize Theron for life. After landing on her neck in a maneuver gone wrong, she needed eight years of pain management to deal with spasms and nerve damage.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America on Wikimedia
6. Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future Part III
As if Marty McFly doesn’t have enough on his plate. In a tense hanging scene, our hero is dragged to an unfinished courthouse where he’s strung up to hang. Initially, crew members wanted Fox on a box and a waist-up shot, but they decided to go for the real thing instead. Fox agreed, but after several takes he miscalculated his hand placement and was hanged for real. He passed out before Robert Zemeckis noticed and had him brought down.
7. Brendan Fraser, The Mummy
Brendan Fraser suffered the same fate during his hanging scene in The Mummy. The original plan was to have Fraser on tiptoe for the scene, but director Stephen Sommers didn’t think it looked real enough. They then did another take where Fraser was lifted a little higher—right before passing out and coming to at the end of the shot.
8. Charlie Sheen, Platoon
Charlie Sheen was taught one cardinal rule during Platoon: don’t let go of your weapon. Well, he took that to heart during a helicopter scene shot 1,000 feet in the air. As the chopper made its turn, Sheen never let go of his weapon and almost fell out. Thankfully, Francesco Quinn grabbed his backpack before tragedy struck.
Angela George at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/ on Wikimedia
9. Sylvester Stallone, Rocky IV
When you’re up against a guy like Dolph Lundgren, maybe don’t ask him to hit you in the face. But, a movie’s a movie, and Stallone wanted the money shot. He got it and then some. After getting clocked by Lundgren, Stallone wound up in the ICU for nine days, his rib cage punched into his chest and compressing his heart.
10. Ed Harris, The Abyss
Shooting underwater is always a little nerve-wracking, but Ed Harris narrowly dodged the worst-case scenario in this flick. After one of his safety divers got caught, Harris needed oxygen from a backup crew member—one who incorrectly inserted the regulator. Harris wound up breathing in a mix of water and air, and recounted later that he thought he was a goner.
11. Jim Caviezel, The Passion of the Christ
A lot of wacky things happened on the set of this movie, but Jim Caviezel took the brunt of it. In the very last shot of the film, the actor was actually struck by lightning. As you can imagine, the strike did some serious damage, and he needed two heart surgeries afterward.
12. Isla Fisher, Now You See Me
You know what’s worse than an underwater scene? An underwater scene in a confined space. The stunt called for Fisher to escape a water tank, but a mechanism malfunctioned and trapped her inside. At first, no one recognized that she needed help and chalked it up to acting, but a stuntman thankfully spotted the danger and stepped in.
Richard Goldschmidt, www.piqtured.com on Wikimedia
13. Dylan O'Brien, Maze Runner: The Death Cure
You’d like to think production crews would heed an actor’s safety concerns, but that wasn’t the case with Dylan O’Brien. Despite wariness about a particular stunt, he was made to do it anyway. After getting pulled from one car, he was struck by another, and the resulting damage left him with a concussion, facial fracture, and brain trauma.
14. Margaret Hamilton, The Wizard of Oz
You may know Ms. Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West, but this dedicated actress braved far more than a little makeup. As it turns out, her fiery entrance in The Wizard of Oz actually left her with severe burns to her hands and face, which forced production to shut down for several weeks.
15. Uma Thurman, Kill Bill: Vol. 2
The show must go on—at least, that’s what Quentin Tarantino thought, and it cost him his relationship with Thurman for years. After making her drive a stunt car herself, she got into a horrific accident that left her “in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion.” They had a huge blowout over it and didn’t talk for years afterward.
16. Oliver Robbins, Poltergeist
Looks like Robbie Freeling had every reason to fear clowns. In the infamous scene where he’s strangled by the animatronic clown, a technical error caused the arm to constrict too tightly around his throat. At first, Spielberg thought Robbins was acting, but quickly realized the terror was real.
17. Jodie Foster, Napoleon and Samantha
Remember what we said about big cats on set? Well, this was the ‘70s, and Zamba the lion was just about everywhere. Not only was poor Jodie Foster a child at the time, but she was the prime target for Zamba one day, who actually picked her up and shook her. Even scarier? Crew members bolted the other way when they saw the lion coming.
18. Meryl Streep, The River Wild
Can you believe we almost lost a legend like Meryl Streep? In a scene gone wrong, a raft she was in flipped over and knocked her into the river. In an interview, she said, “[I] remember sinking down to the bottom with this powerful and freezing water pulling me in deeper.” Luckily, crew pulled her out before anything got too serious.
Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan on Wikimedia
19. Tom Hanks, Cast Away
You’d like to think a movie about being washed ashore wouldn’t actually end your life, but Tom Hanks nearly succumbed to a staph infection while filming this classic flick. In the early days of shooting, he suffered a pretty significant cut on his leg. It shut down production for three days while he was being treated.
John Bauld from Toronto, Canada on Wikimedia
20. Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York
Daniel Day-Lewis hasn’t been in many movies, but just about everyone knows of his immense talent. However, not everyone knows about his immense dedication. Thanks to his method acting, he was the only actor on set who insisted on wearing era-appropriate clothing—and thanks to his method acting, he was the only actor on set who contracted pneumonia.
