A near-drowning, getting beat up by a broomstick, and nearly suffocating in a real fire...and those are just things that happened on the sets of James Cameron movies. These sci-fi scenes left the actors shaking.
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00:00 A near-drowning, getting beat up by a broomstick, and nearly suffocating in a real fire?
00:05 And those are just things that happened on the sets of James Cameron movies.
00:09 These sci-fi scenes left the actors shaking.
00:13 The Alien franchise exists somewhere between science fiction and horror, blending unique
00:17 futuristic ideas with plots ripped straight out of a slasher film.
00:21 And Ridley Scott is apparently a director who will go to any lengths to get those terrifying
00:26 shots.
00:27 At one point, in Scott's blockbuster prequel to Alien, 2012's Prometheus, during which
00:31 a new group of explorers unearth terrifying monsters in a remote part of the galaxy, we're
00:36 treated to some creepy extraterrestrial creatures designed to feast on the cast.
00:41 In one sequence, a pair of scientists, played by Sean Harris and Rafe Spall, come face to
00:46 face with a cobra-like alien.
00:51 A few moments later, the alien proceeds to viciously attack and kill them.
00:55 When the remaining crew arrives on the scene, they find their friend lying face-first on
00:59 the ground.
01:00 They turn the body over, and the cobra unexpectedly shoots from his mouth, causing the others
01:04 to scream in shock.
01:05 According to a behind-the-scenes video available on the DVD, the crew rigged a dummy snake
01:10 to a wire that they could pull on Scott's command, which would send it flying out of
01:14 the corpse's mouth.
01:15 Then, Scott warned the crew not to share the storyboards for the scene with the actors
01:19 Kate Dickey and Idris Elba, to capture their shock at the horrific moment.
01:23 It worked!
01:27 Steven Spielberg's sci-fi classic about a man's obsession with aliens boasts some of
01:32 the director's most iconic moments.
01:34 From the intense chase across the countryside to the musical finale set at Devil's Tower,
01:39 Close Encounters of the Third Kind remains an incredible cinematic extraterrestrial experience,
01:44 replete with astonishing performances from Richard Dreyfuss and the late Melinda Dillon.
01:49 Surprisingly, the most remarkable performance comes from an unlikely source, child actor
01:54 Carey Guffey, who was only three and a half years old when the movie was filmed.
01:58 As the precocious Barry, Guffey believably conveys various emotions across his young
02:03 face.
02:04 In one particularly memorable sequence, he stumbles across a kitchen splattered with
02:07 remnants of food and broken dishes.
02:09 The camera lingers on his face in one long, unbroken take as the boy gazes at the unseen
02:15 aliens off-screen.
02:16 At first, he looks frightened and confused.
02:18 Then, his face morphs into a smile.
02:21 It's wondrous to behold.
02:22 Getting a three-year-old to believably convey a specific range of emotions is a huge challenge,
02:27 so Spielberg deployed an assortment of tricks.
02:29 To get the reaction for that specific scene, he had to give Guffey just a teensy little
02:34 scare.
02:35 "I dressed up our makeup man as a gorilla.
02:37 He took a step back and he gets completely…
02:41 " Spielberg then had the man in the gorilla
02:43 costume take off his mask.
02:45 Guffey recognized him as a friend and broke out into a smile.
02:48 "And that's one take.
02:49 You can't do that twice."
02:51 After the wild success of The Hunger Games, Hollywood went on a quest to discover the
02:55 next blockbuster young adult franchise.
02:57 This led to a slew of book adaptations, and among these, The Maze Runner found its place
03:02 in the spotlight, mainly due to its modest production budget and decent box office performance.
03:07 The trilogy ended with the release of Maze Runner The Death Cure in 2018.
03:11 In this concluding chapter, the characters persist in their mission to unearth a cure
03:15 for the deadly flare virus.
03:17 This virus transforms its unfortunate victims into aggressive and zombie-like beings called
03:21 Kranks.
03:22 These Kranks pose a constant and menacing threat within the dystopian backdrop of their
03:26 post-apocalyptic world.
03:28 Dylan O'Brien famously suffered a terrifying accident while filming a chase scene for the
03:32 film, but there was another moment that caught both O'Brien and his co-star Thomas Brody
03:37 Sangster off guard.
03:39 During a promotional interview for the film, the actors shared a peculiar and unsettling
03:43 experience involving a Krank actor who stayed in character between takes.
03:47 While they commended the actor for their dedication, both of them agreed that it got a little unnerving,
03:52 or as Brody Sangster put it, "terrifying."
03:55 James Cameron's demanding nature and relentless pursuit of perfection are legendary.
04:00 It can create tension on set, but it's also led to some of the biggest blockbusters of
04:03 all time.
04:04 However, 1989's The Abyss pushed the limits of everyone involved.
04:08 This production ranks among the most challenging in cinema history, worthy of its own unique
04:12 film adaptation.
04:13 A behind-the-scenes documentary from 1993 details the tumultuous filmmaking process
04:19 and reveals that actor Ed Harris nearly drowned during a crucial scene.
04:23 In the film, characters wear helmets filled with oxygenated perfluorocarbon, allowing
04:28 them to dive deep underwater.
04:30 In a clunky dive suit, Harris had to hold his breath while being pulled by cables, but
04:34 on the third take, he almost drowned because he was given an upside-down regulator that
04:38 flooded his lungs with water.
04:40 "I took another big breath, got water back in my lungs, and for a split second I really
04:45 thought I was gone."
04:46 This incident left Harris understandably shaken.
04:49 Luckily, everyone made it through the grueling shoot and crafted an astonishing piece of
04:53 science fiction.
04:54 Despite not matching Cameron's other blockbusters at the box office, The Abyss remains a remarkable
04:59 sci-fi action and romance blend with top-notch effects and a timely message about preserving
05:05 the Earth that feels all the more relevant today.
05:08 The Fifth Element offers the kind of eccentric, visually stunning, quirky entertainment typical
05:13 of a Luc Besson production, and has gone on to enjoy cult status among genre enthusiasts.
05:18 Centered around the quest to find and protect a mysterious element that holds the key to
05:22 saving Earth from an impending cosmic threat, Fifth Element follows a cab driver named Corbin
05:26 Dallas, who becomes the unlikely hero tasked with safeguarding the enigmatic Leeloo from
05:31 a group of malevolent beings known as the Mangalores led by Zorg.
05:36 Impact and epic in scope, the 1997 sci-fi extravaganza contains plenty of memorable
05:41 moments, notably a significant bit in which Zorg faces away from a massive explosion.
05:46 His face expressionless, while his henchman, played by musician Tricky, ducks an alarm
05:50 behind him.
05:51 Well, Tricky's reaction was unplanned and perfectly natural, according to Oldman.
05:55 "We didn't tell him how big the explosion was going to be."
06:02 In addition to the massive explosion, a gust of wind apparently came through just then
06:06 and directed the heat back at the two actors, partially melting Oldman's plastic headpiece
06:10 and, well, terrifying Tricky.
06:13 "And Tricky soiled his costume."
06:22 In 1985, Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg introduce Back to the Future, a
06:27 tale of teenager Marty McFly accidentally altering his parents' destiny by time-traveling.
06:33 This hit film birthed two sequels, Back to the Future Part II, where Marty journeys to
06:37 the future to aid his kids, and Back to the Future Part III, which sends him into the
06:41 Wild West to save Doc from Mad Dog Tannin.
06:44 Back to the Future Part III blends Western and sci-fi genres, and thus pays homage to
06:48 classic cowboy films and genre conventions.
06:51 In a pivotal scene, Marty is pursued by Mad Dog's gang and strung up by his neck, leading
06:56 to an unexpected real-life mishap.
06:58 In his 2002 memoir Lucky Man, Fox recalls the stunt gone awry.
07:03 Initially, he was to stand on a box for a close-up while a stunt double performed in
07:06 the wide shots.
07:07 Unsatisfied with the scene, the crew decided to have Fox hang for real, assuming he could
07:12 position his hand correctly to avoid suffocation.
07:14 While this approach worked initially, on the third take, Fox miscalculated and lost consciousness,
07:19 as his carotid artery was blocked.
07:21 He dangled unconscious for a few moments before Zemeckis intervened.
07:24 There is no word on whether the scene in the film is where the accident occurred, but the
07:28 story does lend more terror to the moment.
07:31 Long before Denis Villeneuve adapted Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi series Dune to critical
07:36 acclaim on the big screen, David Lynch took a stab at the story with the peculiar but
07:40 entertaining 1984 version.
07:42 Featuring a cast including Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Patrick Stewart, Sean Young,
07:47 Alicia Witt, and Sting, Dune '84 is an ambitious, albeit outlandish, piece of pulpy sci-fi.
07:54 Lynch's vision left its fair share of scars for all involved, quite literally in the case
07:58 of German actor Jürgen Prochnow.
08:00 In a dramatic scene, Prochnow's character, Duke Atreides, meets his demise after a failed
08:05 attempt to assassinate Baron Harkonnen using poisonous gas from a tooth in his mouth.
08:09 According to Empire, Lynch attached a device to the side of Prochnow's face to produce
08:14 green smoke for the shot.
08:15 Several tests were carried out to guarantee the performer's safety.
08:18 However, when filming commenced, the smoke caused first and second-degree burns on Prochnow's
08:22 cheek, leaving visible scars for the rest of his career.
08:26 "Water of my life.
08:29 For all."
08:34 While filming James Cameron's juggernaut Terminator 2 Judgment Day, Linda Hamilton came to blows
08:39 with a co-star named Ken Gibble, better known as the weird orderly who licks her face right
08:43 before she bashes his face in with a broomstick.
08:45 Well, the bloody beatdown wasn't all movie magic.
08:48 In fact, according to the commentary track, Hamilton had grown frustrated with a previous
08:53 scene that required Gibble to punch her in the stomach with a baton.
08:56 Gibble kept pulling his punches, necessitating several takes, meaning Hamilton had to fall
09:01 hard on the floor over and over again.
09:03 Naturally, she got a little tired of the endless takes and became frustrated with Gibble's
09:07 lack of conviction.
09:08 When it came time for Sarah to make her escape, Hamilton showed her co-star how to land a
09:12 proper hit.
09:13 Cameron laughs about the incident on the film's commentary track, noting that each shot delivered
09:17 to Gibble's face was real, as was the pure terror on his face.
09:21 "Real.
09:22 Oh, Jesus.
09:24 Real.
09:25 And real."
09:29 Cameron added, "I had a heck of a time getting him to do another take.
09:32 Fortunately, the first take worked just fine.
09:34 I think Linda was a little more method than he expected."
09:38 Stanley Kubrick unquestionably created remarkable movies, including 2001 A Space Odyssey, The
09:43 Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut.
09:45 He was also infamous for being a perfectionist who employed numerous takes to capture the
09:49 ideal shot.
09:50 Invariably, these efforts paid off, especially from an artistic perspective.
09:55 A notable example is the legendary scene in A Clockwork Orange, where doctors at a rehabilitation
10:00 clinic use lid locks to keep Alex's eyes open, subjecting him to a barrage of sex and violence
10:05 to attempt to quell his destructive urges.
10:07 As actor Malcolm McDowell revealed in a 2019 essay, filming this scene was as painful as
10:12 it appears on screen.
10:13 He said, "When we shot it, the lid locks kept sliding off my eyelids and scratching my cornea.
10:18 When the anesthetic wore off, I was in such pain I was banging my head against a wall."
10:22 But Stanley was mainly concerned about when he would be able to get his next shot.
10:26 It's fair to say that genuine pain infuses McDowell's performance, as you witness Alex
10:30 taped to a chair with his face contorted in terror.
10:34 Did you think we'd exclude Aliens from this list?
10:37 Another challenging James Cameron production, the critically acclaimed blockbuster sequel
10:40 to Ridley Scott's Alien, faced its fair share of disasters on set.
10:44 During an intense rescue, the Armored Personnel Carrier, or APC, carrying the team is hit
10:50 by a wayward flamethrower, causing a fire that nearly kills everyone inside.
10:54 Bill Paxton, in a behind-the-scenes documentary, described the mishap.
10:58 The crew intentionally lit parts of the set on fire, but the molded plastic used in designing
11:03 the set also began to burn.
11:04 Conditions became so severe that Jeanette Goldstein, who portrayed Vasquez, struggled
11:09 to breathe.
11:10 Paxton initially thought she was ad-libbing lines, until he tried to take a breath.
11:14 "And there literally being no oxygen.
11:16 Just like, 'h' and then I realized, 'Oh my God, she's not in character.
11:21 She's suffocating like I am.'"
11:23 Apparently, the same thing happened again in the next take.
11:25 The next time you watch Aliens, pay close attention to this sequence and observe the
11:29 genuine panic that unfolds when the fire erupts, because it's undeniably real.
11:34 "It's kind of like what you feel like when you hear about chemical weapons and so on
11:37 and so forth.
11:38 What it would be like.
11:39 And you just suck in, there's like nothing other than fire in your lungs."
11:42 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:45 (upbeat music)