And this is why we wouldn't do our own stunts! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the worst, near-fatal on-set injuries and disasters in movie history.
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00:00 [Screaming]
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the worst
00:09 near-fatal onset injuries and disasters in movie history.
00:13 "He received last rites from a priest who did not speak English."
00:16 Number 30. Jennifer Lawrence. The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2.
00:21 "We gotta go, we gotta get out of here now. They released Mutz!"
00:23 "Alex, what's the fastest way out?"
00:26 One time, America's sweetheart Jennifer Lawrence was on set in Atlanta filming the Hunger Games
00:31 finale. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until disaster nearly struck. During a scene
00:38 where her character Katniss leads people through a tunnel, a fog machine malfunctioned. It kept
00:44 pumping thick fog into the tunnel, choking Lawrence and her co-stars. Everyone vanished
00:49 in the mist, though the sounds of gagging and choking were audible. The assistant director
00:55 barked orders to turn on large fans to blow it away. The crew carried Lawrence to safety,
01:00 though she was nauseous and nearly hacking up a lung.
01:03 "Katniss, come on, move!"
01:05 Number 29. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Premium Rush.
01:10 Premium Rush was a 2012 action crime thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bike messenger
01:16 in New York. Unfortunately, the mean streets of NYC can be wild and dangerous. One day,
01:22 while filming a biking scene, a car unrelated to production swerved into Levitt's lane and
01:28 cut him off. Levitt managed to barely avoid getting squashed by swerving himself.
01:34 Unfortunately, he flew off his bike through the back windshield of a taxi cab.
01:39 "You know, Mr. Gordon, I'm not too afraid of you, and the way you ride."
01:44 The director thought he'd killed the actor until he made it to the scene of the accident.
01:50 Levitt walked away with 31 stitches in his arm. Ironically, Levitt would get into another
01:56 on-set bicycle accident a few years later, this time on the set of 2020's Project Power.
02:02 Number 28. Halle Berry. The Call.
02:06 You wouldn't necessarily think that a film about a 911 call center operator would be dangerous.
02:11 You would be wrong. Just ask Halle Berry. The Oscar winner, no stranger to on-set injuries,
02:17 had to be rushed to the hospital after a slip and fall. Berry was filming a fight sequence
02:23 during a late-night shoot. Around 10 p.m., she slipped and cracked her head on the concrete
02:28 floor. She was sent directly to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. While head injuries are no
02:34 laughing matter, Berry thankfully was released soon after, with only minor injuries.
02:39 "It's already done."
02:40 Number 27. Chevy Chase. Modern Problems.
02:46 You don't often run the risk of losing your life while shooting a comedy,
02:50 but that's exactly what happened to former SNL star Chevy Chase on the set of Modern Problems.
02:55 "What? Is he alright?"
02:56 "I think so. He said he felt fine. He's with a doctor."
02:59 At one point, his character enters a dream sequence where he imagines himself as an
03:04 airplane. He wore a special suit equipped with landing lights. Unfortunately, the suit was
03:10 incredibly warm, and the future community star began to sweat profusely. This moisture
03:16 short-circuited the lights, and Chase was badly electrocuted. His entire nervous system was
03:22 overloaded, and he lost consciousness. While he survived the accident, Chase suffered from PTSD
03:28 and drug use afterward. Both, along with his notorious temperament, significantly harmed his
03:34 career. "I'm a monster, look at me! This is the real me!"
03:38 Number 26. Matthew Fox. Lost.
03:41 On-set accidents happen, but they can be especially traumatic when a co-star is responsible.
03:50 While Terry O'Quinn may be a nice guy in real life, his character in Lost could be a scary dude.
03:56 In the show's finale, O'Quinn's character fatally stabs hero Jack Shepard,
04:01 played by Matthew Fox. Unfortunately, the stunt almost proved fatal for the actor as well.
04:07 O'Quinn had two knives, one real, one rubber, for the sequence. When it came time to shoot
04:13 the moment of the stabbing, he accidentally grabbed the real knife. He actually stabbed
04:18 his co-star, who thankfully managed to survive the incident with good humor.
04:22 Number 25. Charlize Theron.
04:25 Eon Flux. The 2005 adaptation of Eon Flux was an absolute disaster in almost every respect.
04:33 Not only did it cost the studio millions when it flopped at the box office, but it almost cost
04:38 Charlize Theron her life. Theron was filming a highly gymnastic sequence when the wires holding
04:43 her aloft snapped. She fell on her head, severely injuring her neck. She was paralyzed for almost a
04:50 week until the swelling went down. Theron has since admitted that she was a mere centimeter
04:55 away from being paralyzed for life. She spent the next three months committed to a grueling
05:00 physical therapy program. During that time, the agony of the injury and therapy almost caused
05:06 the Oscar-winning actress to give up acting forever.
05:10 "But in Eon Flux, you almost got paralyzed. You fell on your head or something trying to do one
05:15 of these quacky stunts." "You know why? Because I have no business doing back handsprings. I'm
05:19 not a gymnast."
05:20 Number 24. Daniel Day-Lewis.
05:23 Gangs of New York. Daniel Day-Lewis paid a heavy price for his extreme brand of method acting on
05:29 more than one occasion. But on the set of the Scorsese epic Gangs of New York, this devotion
05:34 to craft almost cost Day-Lewis his life. As his character lived in the 1860s, Lewis insisted upon
05:41 wearing period-specific clothing 24/7, despite the cold weather. When he developed pneumonia,
05:47 he refused to treat the illness with modern medicine. Instead, he would spend his off-time
05:52 in character on the streets of Rome, New York, trying to instigate fistfights with locals.
05:58 "You're a great one for the fighting, Bill, I know. But you can't fight forever."
06:02 "I can go down doing it." "And you will."
06:04 After the production ended, Day-Lewis confessed that his approach to the character almost ended
06:09 with his own demise. Number 23. Margaret Hamilton. The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz may be one of
06:16 the most classic films in American history, but the set was a death trap. "Ahh! You cursed rat!
06:23 Look what you've done!" The original actor cast to play the Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, had to drop out
06:28 when the silver body paint gave him a near-fatal allergic reaction. He had to recover in an iron
06:34 lung. Margaret Hamilton, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West, met with a nastier,
06:40 near-disastrous fate. There was a running gag that the witch would often disappear in a puff of smoke.
06:50 During one of those scenes, the trapdoor she had to fall through malfunctioned,
06:54 and the pyrotechnics caused severe burns. She spent six weeks recovering and refused to do
07:00 the stunt again. Number 22. Brendan Fraser. The Mummy. Long before his renaissance and Oscar win,
07:08 Brendan Fraser was a 1990s heartthrob. He reached the pinnacle of stardom with the 1999 blockbuster
07:15 The Mummy. His career almost ended on that set when a crew member made an almost deadly mistake.
07:21 During a scene where his character is almost hung, a crewman held the other end of the noose off
07:26 camera. Fraser stood on his tiptoes while the crewman tugged the rope to keep it tight on camera.
07:31 He pulled a little too hard, though, and yanked Fraser completely off the ground.
07:37 The actor almost choked to death before anyone recognized the error.
07:41 There was a stunt guy, the coordinator was there and he was going, "Brendan! Brendan,
07:48 wake up!" And I'm like, "Oh, what happened?" He goes, "Ha ha, congratulations, you're in the club.
07:53 Same thing happened to Mel Gibson on Braveheart!" He lost consciousness and woke up dazed on the
08:00 ground with gravel in his teeth. Number 21. Kurt Russell. The Thing.
08:11 On the set of the 1982 John Carpenter classic The Thing, star Kurt Russell learned a valuable lesson.
08:18 Dynamite is incredibly dangerous. In one of the film's most famous scenes, his character MacReady
08:24 blows up the alien shapeshifter with a stick of dynamite. He didn't realize just how powerful the
08:30 explosion would be. In the scene, he tosses the stick at the creature and is blown back by the
08:35 force of the explosion. That was 100% real. Russell nearly died but was thankfully thrown to safety.
08:43 The take was left in the film. Number 20. Dylan O'Brien.
08:49 Maze Runner. The Death Cure. A post-apocalyptic world doesn't make for a safe work environment,
09:01 apparently. In March of 2016, it was reported that actor Dylan O'Brien had been struck by a car
09:07 while on set working on the death cure, resulting in multiple injuries. The exact nature of the
09:13 injuries were not initially revealed to the public, but he was rushed to the hospital.
09:18 The production was initially put on hold for a little under two months before being extended
09:30 indefinitely. It was close to a full calendar year before shooting resumed. It turns out that
09:35 Dylan had suffered a facial fracture, concussion and brain trauma, as well as other injuries.
09:41 19. Jackie Chan - Armor of God. Jackie Chan is well known for performing his own stunts.
09:51 In this particular one, the stunt resulted in him falling over 16 feet from a tree.
09:56 For Armor of God, while attempting to jump from a wall toward a branch, Chan landed hard,
10:08 and in the process, his skull collided with a rock. This pushed bone into his brain,
10:13 which required surgery to remove. Everyone's favorite martial artist still has a hole in
10:19 his head, though it's been filled with a plastic plug. Luckily, Chan seemingly escaped the incident
10:24 without lasting brain damage. More on his stunt work later.
10:27 18. Isla Fisher - Now You See Me.
10:35 Remember when escapologist and magician Henley Reeves pretends to be stuck in a
10:44 tank of water as piranhas pour in? Well, it turns out pretending to be stuck and being stuck look
10:56 very similar. During the filming of this Now You See Me scene, actress Isla Fisher banged on the
11:02 glass to tell the cast and crew she was stuck, but since that's what her character was supposed to do,
11:06 no one thought much of it. Thankfully, she managed to free herself in time.
11:16 Practical effects shouldn't need to be this real. What happened to movie magic?
11:20 17. Viggo Mortensen - The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers.
11:32 Depending on who you ask, Mortensen came close to dying in Middle-Earth twice.
11:36 Viggo almost drowned doing one of his own stunts, which is well established. Aragorn was supposed to
11:42 be doing a dead man's float down the river, but the speed of the current coupled with the weight
11:46 of his costume made for real danger. Mortensen was pulled underwater and nearly stayed there.
11:59 But it's also been reported that a scene where Aragorn deflects the Uruk-hai's throwing knife
12:04 was actually a mistake, and the deflection was actually self-preservation. Planned or
12:10 accidental, Viggo's clearly got some survival skills. 16. Kate Winslet - Titanic.
12:25 Few things are scarier than a near-drowning incident. Can you imagine having to run from
12:30 a giant wave? During the Titanic scene in question, Kate Winslet caught her coat on a
12:42 gate and got pulled underwater. James Cameron continues to dismiss the idea that she was in
12:47 any real danger, claiming they only let her think she was going to drown. He also claims to know
12:58 what he's talking about because he's almost drowned on many occasions. Let's put this incident aside
13:03 for a second and ask ourselves, why does James Cameron keep nearly drowning? 15. Ed Harris - The
13:15 Abyss. James Cameron consistently pushes the boundaries of visual effects, but when it comes
13:24 to water scenes, he prefers the old-fashioned way. Titanic wasn't the first time Cameron
13:29 reportedly almost led a cast member to a watery grave. Just ask Ed Harris. For one particularly
13:35 elaborate scene in The Abyss, Harris was dragged, without oxygen, many feet underwater. When he ran
13:41 out of air, Harris called to cut, but due to complications, he wasn't given oxygen until he
13:46 was on the edge of passing out. According to the actor, the traumatic episode caused him to weep
13:51 that night. Rumor has it, he also punched Cameron in the face. 14. Jamie Alexander - Thor The Dark
14:05 World and Blind Spot. This thief actress got defeated by the most humble of foes in the second
14:10 Thor flick, A Flight of Stairs. After tripping over in heels, Jamie Alexander chipped 11 vertebrae,
14:20 knocked out her left shoulder, slipped a spinal disc, and tore a rhomboid. Don't worry though,
14:26 she was largely healed and back to filming within a month. However, we couldn't finish
14:32 this entry without mentioning the injuries she sustained on the American crime drama Blind Spot.
14:37 During a Today appearance, the actress needed to consult her smartphone to remember the multitude
14:47 of injuries she sustained on set. The only conclusion you can make is she's a real life
14:58 Asgardian warrior. 13. Sylvester Stallone - Rocky IV By the time Stallone was filming the first
15:13 Expendables movie, he was already in his 60s, but he was still doing many of his own stunts and fight
15:19 scenes. This resulted in an inadvertent neck fracture for the Italian stallion, courtesy of
15:25 stone-cold Steve Austin. It wasn't his first on-set injury, of course. While filming Rocky IV, Stallone
15:34 once asked his Mountain of a Co-Star to punch him as hard as he could. His co-star, Dolph Lundgren,
15:40 obliged, and sent Stallone to the hospital with a swollen heart. Without medical attention,
15:46 it's very likely Stallone would have died from the punch.
15:48 12. Michael J. Fox - Back to the Future Part III The Back to the Future series isn't known
16:01 for its realism. The time-traveling car and flying skateboards made sure of that.
16:10 Yet one scene of the trilogy was all too real for lead Michael J. Fox.
16:14 In the series' final installment, Marty McFly is captured by bandits and hung with a noose until
16:25 the doc rescues him. If McFly's squirming looks genuine, it's because the actor really was being
16:36 hung. He even passed out for half a minute before he was saved. Luckily, director Robert Zemeckis
16:41 caught on in time that, in the words of Michael J. Fox, he wasn't that good of an actor.
16:46 11. Kevin Cosner - Waterworld
16:53 Waterworld is widely considered to be one of the greatest cinematic failures in the history of the
17:04 industry. From production through to the box office, everything that could go wrong did.
17:10 For one scene, Kevin Cosner was strapped to the mast of his character's boat, 40 feet in the air.
17:15 When a storm picked up, conditions proved too difficult to get Cosner down safely,
17:19 and he was left there to be assaulted by the storm for 30 minutes. The Hawaiian set was
17:24 regularly hammered by brutal weather, but unable to shield himself from this particular storm,
17:30 Cosner claims it nearly cost him his life.
17:32 10. Halle Berry - Various Films
17:41 As mentioned before, this Academy Award-winning actress has had more than her fair share of
17:49 on-set accidents. While filming Die Another Day, a stunt involving a helicopter resulted in Berry
17:55 getting shrapnel in her eye, which had to be medically removed. On the set of Gothika, Robert
18:01 Downey Jr. accidentally broke her arm while shooting a confrontational scene. Then, while
18:06 shooting Catwoman, lighting equipment hit her over the head. Thankfully, it wasn't serious,
18:11 but Berry just might have nine lives. 9. Johnny Depp - The Lone Ranger
18:17 The Lone Ranger already had to suffer being panned by audiences and critics, but imagine
18:22 how much hate it would have received if it had been the cause of Johnny Depp's demise.
18:27 During one horseback riding scene, Depp's saddle slipped. Johnny held onto the horse's mane before
18:37 letting go and falling in front of the horse. Luckily, the horse's hooves just missed his head,
18:43 meaning he received only minor wounds from the fall. Obviously, Depp survived,
18:53 and the only thing the film did any permanent damage to was his career.
18:56 8. Eli Wallach - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
19:01 Wallach has had his fair share of accidents, but they all happened during a single film.
19:08 While shooting Sergio Leone's masterpiece, Eli nearly bit the dust a whopping three times.
19:14 In one instance, he had to be rushed to the hospital after someone left a bottle of
19:19 acid next to his prop bottle of soda, which he drank. Another time, a bound Wallach was put at
19:24 risk when the horse he was mounted to was spooked and ran off for a mile. And then there was the
19:29 incident where he was nearly decapitated by the heavy iron steps of a speeding train.
19:34 Remarkably, he survived, dying at age 98 in 2014.
19:39 7. Jason Statham - The Expendables 3
19:43 You'd feel pretty safe hanging out with the Terminator, Rambo, and Terry Crews, wouldn't you?
19:48 I think we should get this over with.
19:50 In fact, when these guys are together, the biggest fear might be that the continent they're on could
19:55 run out of protein. This guy's got more muscle than a cartel king. Maybe he's overcompensating
19:59 for something. Yet Jason Statham did nearly die doing a stunt for The Expendables 3.
20:03 How much we get paid for this? Not enough.
20:06 While driving a truck, the brakes gave out and the actor drove off a cliff into the Black Sea.
20:11 The transporter's driving may have let him down, but fortunately,
20:14 his expert-level diving skills helped him escape the wreckage and swim to shore.
20:19 6. Aaron Paul - Breaking Bad
20:25 Did you know that Jesse Pinkman was supposed to be killed off in the first season of Breaking Bad?
20:29 The idea was ditched early on because, you know, Jesse's awesome.
20:36 But the writers may never have had the chance to save Jesse if Aaron Paul wasn't a perfectionist.
20:43 In episode 6 of the first season, Paul asked to change the position where he was standing.
20:49 This was very lucky because a boulder fell down off the roof of an RV and landed exactly where
20:54 Aaron had been standing during the filming of the scene.
20:57 5. Martin Sheen - Apocalypse Now
21:12 An infamously troubled shoot, the cast and crew of the critically acclaimed film
21:17 have said that, much like Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz,
21:20 many involved in the production kind of lost their minds. Those involved partied very,
21:26 very hard, getting lost in the jungle atmosphere and losing themselves in their roles.
21:30 Martin Sheen, who was already hitting the bottle, began to lean even more heavily into alcohol
21:36 throughout the high-stress shoot. Ultimately, his body responded in the form of a heart attack and
21:41 nervous breakdown. He survived, but the entire experience would continue to haunt him for years.
21:46 4. Tom Hanks - Castaway
21:53 Tragedy nearly struck when actor and generally nice bloke Tom Hanks cut himself on the set of
21:58 this adventure drama. While only a minor cut, it quickly became infected. When he finally went to
22:08 the hospital, a doctor told him the cut could poison his blood, so Hanks was kept in the hospital.
22:13 This incident set filming back three weeks, but Hanks fully recovered,
22:20 and we're certainly glad he didn't die. Who would have broken the news to Wilson?
22:24 3. Jim Caviezel - The Passion of the Christ
22:33 The Passion of the Christ is a story of a man who was shot in the countryside outside of Rome. The
22:46 cast and crew of The Passion of the Christ continued to work through some less than
22:50 favorable weather conditions. While recreating the Sermon on the Mount, Jim Caviezel was literally
22:55 struck by lightning. He walked away unscathed, but he clearly got off lucky. Roughly 24,000 people
23:02 die from lightning each year, although very few of them are actors. Assistant Director Jan Michellini,
23:08 who was standing beside Caviezel, also got struck, although for him it was the second
23:13 time in production. Think somebody was trying to tell them something?
23:17 2. Tom Cruise - The Last Samurai The Last Samurai is heavy on the swordplay.
23:25 Combine this with the fact that Tom Cruise likes to do his own stunts, and it seems like he was
23:36 bound to get hurt on its set. In one scene, Cruise and his Japanese co-star were seated on mechanical
23:42 horses. These two horses were hurtled towards each other, and his fellow actors' sword missed
23:48 Cruise's neck by an inch, thanks to his martial arts skills. Still, that was
23:55 relatively tame. Another fight scene featuring four attackers apparently had 70 instances in
24:01 which Cruise could have been wounded. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and
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24:14 occasional videos or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings
24:19 and switch on notifications. 1. Jackie Chan - Police Story
24:24 This action legend has put life and limb on the line enough times to earn his stunt work
24:34 top 10 lists of its own. Of course, with that sort of commitment comes serious risk. One of
24:40 Chan's scariest on-set moments came while filming Police Story, which he wrote and directed himself.
24:46 The 1985 film included a scene where he had to slide down a 70-foot pole surrounded by string
24:52 lights. For his trouble, he received second-degree burns, a dislocated pelvis, and two damaged
25:02 vertebrae in his spine. Chan not only survived, but also went on to film countless other awe-inspiring
25:09 feats. Movie making can be a dangerous business. Are there other near-fatal accidents that should
25:19 be on this list? Let us know in the comments. Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other
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