Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
David Holmes served as Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double throughout the Harry Potter series and became close friends with the actor over time. While working on a flying scene for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Holmes was knocked into a wall by an explosion and fell to the ground. Almost immediately, Holmes said he couldn’t feel his legs.
After being taken to a hospital, Holmes learned that he had broken his neck. The impact of hitting a wall with such force left him with damaged spinal cord nerves which resulted in paralysis in both legs and arms.
Now You See Me
Isla Fisher doesn’t usually do her own stunts, but agreed to be chained into a water tank for a dramatic scene in 2013’s Now You See Me. The top of the tank remained open and there was also an emergency lever for her to pull if she needed help, but when Fisher tried to swim up she found that the chains were stuck to the bottom.
She screamed for help, but the crew thought it was part of the scene. Thankfully, one stunt coordinator noticed that Fisher’s handcuffs were stuck, and she was freed after three minutes underwater.
The Expendables 2
2012 action sequel The Expendables 2 suffered an unexpected tragedy during a sequence shot by the film’s second unit team. A rigged explosion set off near a rubber boat injured stuntmen Kun Liu and Nuo Sun.
Liu died from his injuries, and his family sued the producers in a wrongful death lawsuit that lasted four years and ended with an award of only $195,000 Hong Kong dollars (approx. $270,000 USD). After hearing about this, Expendables star Jet Li donated $800,000 USD to the family.
For Your Eyes Only
23-year-old stuntman Paolo Rigon suffered a grisly death during production for the 007 movie For Your Eyes Only. Whilst filming a sequence in which Bond is chased down a bobsleigh track, Rigon slipped out of the sleigh he was riding in, getting trapped beneath it before being dragged for a considerable distance.
Despite efforts to slow the bobsleigh down, Rigon was dead by the time it reached the bottom of the run.
Deadpool 2
Sequana Joi Harris was the first African American woman to be professionally licensed as a motorcycle road racer. Despite having no movie stunt experience, she joined 2018’s Deadpool 2 only one week before shooting started, selected because her skin tone matched that of Domino actress Zazie Beetz’s.
Shooting a motorcycle stunt without a helmet, Harris lost control and crashed into the Sham tower. Stunt professionals blasted the filmmakers, arguing Harris should never have been put in that situation because her motorcycle skills did not constitute stunt work. The film includes a dedication to her in the credits.
Top Gun
Art Scholl was an American pilot, famed for his daring aerobatic stunts. When the producers of Top Gun were recruiting pilots for the film, Scholl’s name was naturally at the top of the list, and he was quickly brought on board.
Tragically, whilst piloting one of the camera planes, Scholl lost control of his aircraft, shouting “I have a problem, I have a real problem” before he plunged into the pacific ocean. His body was never recovered.
American Made
In 2015, three stuntmen were involved in a catastrophic accident after the plane they were flying in plummeted into the Andes during the production of American Made.
Two of the stuntmen – Alan Purwin and Carlos Berl – were killed in the crash, whilst Jimmy Lee Garland was left paralysed. In the resulting legal battle, the families of the stuntmen accused Tom Cruise, who starred in the film, of pushing for excessively dangerous stunts to make the movie as realistic as possible.
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
An extra on the set of Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon was left with life changing injuring following a freak accident during one stunt. A steel cable that was being used to pull a car snapped, whipping into the car Gabriela Cédillo was sitting in and severely damaging her skull.
Despite the best efforts of neurosurgeons, Cédillo was left brain damaged, partially paralysed and blind in one eye. The studio paid out $18 million in the ensuing legal fallout.
xXx
Harry O’Connor was a Navy SEAL before he got into the stunt industry. Serving as Vin Diesel’s stunt double on 2002’s xXx, O’Connor collided with a pillar of Prague’s Palacky Bridge in a paragliding scene, and fatally broke his neck. Director Rob Cohen said, “We had 500 stuntmen involved with this picture; 499 didn’t get a scratch.
It shows you the lengths to which we will go to bring this kind of intense experience to the viewer.” The fatal accident occurred on O’Connor’s second take of the stunt; his first take was successful and was used in the film.
Shark!
In 1967, stuntman Jose Marco was eaten alive by a great white shark after it broke through some protective netting. The film Marco had been working on was supposed to be titled Caine, but after the attack the producers changed the name to Shark!
and used the tragedy to garner publicity, printing movie posters with the tagline ‘a realistic film became too real’. Samuel Fuller, the film’s director, was disgusted by the callous use of a man’s death for marketing purposes, and battled to have his name removed from the project.
How The West Was Won
In the climax of 1962’s How The West Was Won, stuntman Bob Morgan was supposed to be shot in a gunfight on a moving train. Morgan was playing a robber, and he was positioned next to some logs on a flatcar.
The equipment holding the logs together broke, and he was crushed by them. Morgan lost a leg, and it took five years of recovering before he could move independently. His wife, film actress Yvonne De Carlo (later known for TV’s The Munsters), put her acting career on hold to nurse him back to health.
Noah’s Ark
The production of 1928’s Noah’s Ark was so catastrophic that it led to the introduction of rules ensuring safety procedures on film sets. For the climactic flood scene, the filmmakers unleashed 600,000 gallons of water onto a crowd of extras.
Things went predictably terribly: three extras drowned, one extra’s leg was so badly crushed that it had to be amputated, and dozens of other background players sustained broken bones and other injuries.
The Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Whilst shooting The Death Cure, third film in The Maze Runner series, actor Dylan O’Brien was almost killed. While filming a stunt that required him to move from one car to another, O’Brien was dragged under the vehicle he was strapped onto and suffered a concussion, fractured cheekbones and orbital sockets and lacerations.
Production was pushed back several weeks, but when it was discovered that O’Brien’s injuries were more serious than originally believed, the delay was extended to nearly a full year. Fortunately, O’Brien made a full recovery.
Back to the Future III
Michael J Fox nearly lost his life after a stunt went badly wrong during production on Back to the Future III. Fox was filming a scene in which his character is hanged by the film’s villain, with the stunt coordinator advising Fox to hold onto the rope around his neck to prevent strangulation.
Unfortunately, the actor didn’t have a good grip on the rope and was quickly choked unconscious. An extra realised something was wrong and raised the alarm; the crew then hastily cut Fox down and resuscitated him.
The Cruel Sea
Actor Donald Sinden nearly drowned in a water tank after a series of misunderstandings on the set of 1953’s The Cruel Sea. Prior to shooting the scene – which depicted the sinking of a warship – the director had asked Sinden if he knew how to swim.
When the actor replied that he did not, the director assumed he was joking. Sinden, in turn, thought that the water was shallow enough to stand. When filming commenced, Sinden jumped into the deep water, sinking immediately and forcing his co-star Jack Hawkins to dive in and save him.
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Twilight Zone: The Movie was a 1982 anthology film for which multiple directors filmed four short stories inspired by episodes of the original television series.
The production was going well until director John Landis filmed a Vietnam war sequence involving heavy use of explosives. On July 23, 1982, an explosion blew over a hovering helicopter, killing actor Vic Morrow and child actors My-ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen. Landis and several other crew members stood trial for manslaughter, but after a lengthy court case were found not guilty. The Vietnam scene was left out of the final film.
Vampire in Brooklyn
On 1993’s Vampire in Brooklyn, 27-year-old Sonja Davis was killed doubling for Angela Basset in a scene where her character had to fall off a building. Director Wes Craven instructed her to relax rather than push herself back, but nerves got the best of her, and she pushed back, hitting her head on the opposing brick wall.
On landing, only the tip of her toes hit the airbag, whilst the rest of her body hit the pavement. Even worse, her mother and siblings were there to witness the accident. The family later filed a lawsuit against the studio and the filmmakers.
The Eiger Sanction
Based on the novel of the same name, 1971’s The Eiger Sanction starred Clint Eastwood as a former assassin who is blackmailed into carrying out one final hit. The film involved a number of climbing sequences that were incredibly difficult to film, and a number of experienced mountaineers were brought in to help.
On August 13, 1974, whilst filming on a section of the Eiger’s north face appropriately nicknamed the “murder wall,” a giant rock broke free and plummeted straight onto David Knowles, a 27-year-old climber, killing him instantly.
Red Cliff
A stunt that went badly wrong during production of 2000’s Red Cliff left one stuntman dead and another six injured. The stunt involved a crash between two ships, one of which was on fire, but unexpectedly high winds caused the flames to grow out of control and both ships were set ablaze.
23-year-old stuntman Lu Yanqing lost his life in the ensuing carnage, whilst the other stuntmen suffered burns of varying severity.
Catch-22
Based on the satirical war novel of the same name, 1970’s Catch-22 led to the death of assistant director John Jordan. Whilst filming an aerial sequence, Jordan refused to wear a safety harness, resulting in him getting sucked out of the open tail turret of the B-25 Mitchell he was flying in.
The plane was at a height of 1,200 metres when Jordan slipped out, meaning he would have fallen for around 15 seconds before hitting the ground.
Comes a Horseman
Reality mirrored fiction with tragic results during production of 1978’s Comes a Horseman. Jim Sheppard – Jason Robards’ stunt double for the film – was shooting a sequence in which Robards’ character is dragged to his death by a horse.
Instead of running in a straight line, as it was supposed to, the horse weaved to the side and Sheppard’s head struck a fence post, resulting in brain injuries that the stuntman succumbed to the following day. The scene was kept in the film, although it cuts before the fatal impact.
The Hangover Part II
In December 2010, Australian stuntman Scott McLean was almost killed whilst filming the second instalment of the Hangover franchise. McLean was leaning out the window of a car during a stunt sequence in Bangkok when his head collided with a passing vehicle.
The stuntman was rushed to hospital and placed into a medically induced coma, and, although he recovered within a matter of weeks, McLean has since claimed the incident left him with permanent brain damage.
Kill Bill: Volume 2
During production of Kill Bill: Volume 2, Quentin Tarantino convinced Uma Thurman to drive the stunt car during a driving sequence. Thurman was reluctant to drive the vehicle, but Tarantino assured her that she’d be completely safe.
The actress promptly lost control of the car, plowing into a palm tree and sustaining a severe concussion and damage to her knees. The incident led to a lasting rift between Tarantino and Thurman, with the pair refusing to speak to each other for a number of years.
Exit Wounds
On August 18, 2000, seasoned stuntman Chris Lamon was filming an action sequence for the Steven Seagal flick Exit Wounds. Lamon was supposed to jump out the back of an upside down truck that was being dragged along the street, but he missed his landing and hit his head on the pavement, fracturing his skull.
Although he survived the initial impact and sought medical attention, Lamon unexpectedly died six days later in hospital.
Rocky IV
Sylvester Stallone’s commitment to realism once almost cost him his life. Whilst filming Rocky IV’s climactic fight sequence, Stallone instructed Dolph Lundgren – who was playing his opponent – to hit him for real. Lundgren reluctantly obliged, catching Stallone with a vicious punch to the ribs that resulted in cardiac swelling.
The actor spent five days in the ICU, eventually making a full recovery.
Titanic
Kate Winslet made headlines for holding her breath for seven minutes and fifteen seconds of the set of Avatar: Way of the Water, but in the days of Titanic, she didn’t have a clue like the rest of us.
During the scene where she and Leo are trapped by a closed gate, Winslet’s coat snagged on the thing, trapping her under the rising water. She managed to wriggle out of her coat eventually.
The Right Stuff
A former Green Beret turned stuntman, Joseph Svec was tragically killed during production of The Right Stuff, a 1983 historical film chronicling the selection of the first military test pilots.
Svec died after he failed to open his parachute whilst filming a scene depicting flying-ace Chuck Yeager’s ejection from an NF-104. Subsequent investigations found no faults with the parachute, and it is still unclear what went wrong.
The War Lover
1962’s The War Lover starred Steve McQueen as the arrogant pilot of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during The Second World War.
Whilst filming a sequence in which the crew of the plane have to bail out over the English Channel, stuntman Mike Reilly – who was doubling for Robert Wagner – plunged to his death after his parachute failed to open properly.
The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan’s seminal superhero movie The Dark Knight was briefly embroiled in controversy after Heath Ledger overdosed following his turn as the Joker.
The actor’s high-profile death, however, overshadowed another fatality that occurred during production. Whilst shooting a chase sequence, a pickup truck missed its turning and careened straight into a tree, killing cameraman Conway Wickliffe, who was filming from the flatbed of the vehicle.
They Died with Their Boots On
The production of 1941’s They Died with Their Boots On saw the deaths of three stuntmen.
The first death occurred after a stuntman took a tumble from his horse and broke his neck; the next came after a stuntman suffered a heart attack during a stunt; and the final fatality was the result of Jack Budlong accidentally impaling himself on a real sword (which he had insisted on using) after an explosion threw him off his steed.
The Crow
Brandon Lee followed in his father’s footsteps when he lost his life at a tragically young age. Whilst working on 1994’s The Crow, another actor fired a gun at Lee that was loaded with a blank.
Unfortunately, there was a bullet fragment still lodged in the gun’s chamber from a previous stunt, and the force of the blank detonating launched the fragment at Lee, striking him in the stomach. The actor collapsed and was rushed to hospital, but died 28 days later during surgery.
Million Dollar Mystery
Dar Robinson – a stuntman who once set the record for highest stunt jump – tragically lost his life while filming a chase sequence for 1987’s Million Dollar Mystery.
Robinson, who was 39 at the time, was cornering on a dirt bike when he lost control, plunging down a 40-foot embankment and crashing into a boulder. The stuntman suffered extreme internal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ghostland
An accident on the set of 2016’s Ghostland left actress Taylor Hickson permanently disfigured and resulted in a lawsuit against the movie’s production company.
A pane of glass shattered after Hickson was instructed to pound it with her fists as hard as she could, with the actress falling forwards and sustaining severe cuts to the left side of her face. Hickson was immediately rushed to hospital and received 70 stitches, but was left with prominent scarring from the incident.
The Horse Soldiers
Veteran stuntman Fred Kennedy died during production of 1959’s The Horse Soldiers when he fell off his horse and broke his neck whilst shooting a battle sequence.
John Ford, the movie’s director, was distraught and blamed himself personally, shutting down production for several months. Although filming eventually recommenced, Ford remained despondent and had little enthusiasm for the project, rewriting the script to bring production to a close earlier than planned.
Such Men Are Dangerous
The production of Such Men Are Dangerous has one of the highest body counts of any film ever made. On January 2, 1930, two of the production’s camera planes collided over the ocean near Santa Monica.
Ten men were killed in the accident, including director Kenneth Hawks, cameraman George Eastman and cinematographer Conrad Wells. The families of the men who died tried to sue Fox Film Company, but the courts ended up siding with the studio.
Ben-Hur (1925)
Ben-Hur blew audiences away with its thrilling chariot race sequence when it was released in 1925. However, filming the scene proved extremely difficult. During one of the first attempts at the Circus Maximus in Rome, a wheel broke on one of the chariots, sending the stuntman who was riding in it flying.
He sustained serious traumatic injuries and passed away soon after. The shot of his crash was kept in the final cut.
The Sword and the Sorcerer
in 1981, 37-year-old stuntman Jack Tyree lost his life on the set of The Sword and the Sorcerer. Tyree was performing a stunt he was highly experienced with, falling 24 metres off a cliff onto an airbag.
Unfortunately, on this occasion Tyree misjudged the jump, missing the airbag by a mere 60 centimetres and slamming into the ground, dying instantly on impact.
Trail of ’98
A 1928 historical epic about the Klondike Gold Rush, Trail of ’98’s production was marred by the tragic deaths of three stuntmen. The stuntmen in question – Jerome Bauten, Howard Daughters, and Ray Thompson – were filming a sequence on the Copper River in Alaska when they were swept into rapids and drowned.
The stunt was repeated with different stuntmen, who managed to get the shot and survive.
Armour of God
Jackie Chan’s impressive stunts have made him a legend in the film industry. He has broken almost every bone in his body during filming but has never let that stop him performing these amazing feats of athleticism.
Chan’s deadliest near-miss occurred whilst filming 1986’s Armour of God; he fell from a cliff and landed on his head, fracturing his skull and sending pieces of bone into the actor’s brain. Chan confirmed that he “almost died” after the accident, but that didn’t stop him from making more action movies and continuing to do his own stunts.
Golden Eagle
Thai action star Mitr Chaibancha tragically lost his life whilst filming a stunt for 1970’s Golden Eagle. For the film’s closing shot, Chaibancha was supposed to be carried off whilst holding on a rope ladder dangling from a helicopter.
A few seconds into the stunt, the actor lost his grip and plunged to his death. The shot was kept in the original theatrical release, but was removed when the film was later rereleased on DVD.
Steel
Stuntman A.J. Bakunas had proudly held the record for highest on-screen stunt fall for a number of years, until his record was beaten by Dar Robinson.
Intent on reclaiming his crown, Bakunas agreed to tumble from the 22nd floor of a construction site for a sequence in 1977’s Steel. The fall went smoothly until the airbag Bakunas landed on ruptured, with the stuntman sustaining grievous injuries that he would succumb to the following day.
Shotgun Wedding
The action/rom-com hybrid Shotgun Wedding isn’t much to write home about. If anything, it’s more famous for almost causing the untimely demise of its star Jennifer Lopez.
In one scene, Lopez’ wedding dress is pulled into the wheel of a car. During one take, this happened for real. Lopez was dragged towards a cliff edge. Luckily, her co-star Josh Duhamel pulled her to safety.
The Mummy
Brendan Fraser may be an Oscar winner these days, but he had to suffer for his art back in the day. On The Mummy, he botched a hanging scene by standing on the balls of his feet as the rope was getting raised, making him pass out for real.
The stunt coordinator told him when he came around, “Hey, congratulations! You just joined the club with Mel Gibson. He got choked out on Braveheart, too.”
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
While filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, a fog machine broke and Jennifer Lawrence got lost in the cloud. The assistant director was yelling for the machine to be turned off and for the fans to clear the way.
After several minutes of panic, a rescue team retrieved a spluttering Lawrence. Just a little longer and she may have choked.
Across the Border
Whilst filming a scene for 1914’s Across the Border in which her character is crossing a river, actress Grace McHugh fell into the Arkansas River when her boat capsized.
Cameraman Owen Carter leapt into the water to save her, but they both ended up getting sucked into a sandbar and drowning. Carter was posthumously awarded the Carnegie Hero Award.
No Deposit, No Return
During production for 1978’s No Deposit, No Return, veteran stuntman Dale Van Sickel was filming a scene in which a car drives off a wharf. The run-up had been slicked with oil to help the car slide off, but too much was applied and the car spun out of control, smashing into the pillar of a bridge.
Van Sickel sustained severe brain damage during the accident and required extensive care for the rest of his life.
The Valley of the Giants
During production of The Valley of the Giants, silent film star Wallace Reid was severely injured when a train he was filming on crashed in Oregon.
Left in debilitating pain, Reid was forced to use ever increasing doses of morphine, which the studio supplied him with so he could continue working. By the time production wrapped, Reid was severely addicted to the opiate, and he died a few years later at the age of 31.
Haunted Spooks
Whilst filming a publicity shoot for 1920’s Haunted Spooks, actor Harold Lloyd picked up what he believed to be a prop bomb with a lit fuse.
Unfortunately, the bomb turned out to be quite real, and the ensuing explosion blew off Lloyd’s thumb and index finger and temporarily blinded him. After the accident, the actor began wearing a prosthetic glove to conceal his missing digits.
The Lion in Winter
Actor Peter O’Toole severed the tip of his finger in an accident whilst shooting a boating sequence for 1968’s The Lion in Winter. O’Toole calmly disinfected the wound in brandy, reattached the fingertip and tightly bound the wound with bandages.
When he removed the bandages a few weeks later, he discovered that, whilst the fingertip had reattached, he’d accidentally put it on the wrong way round.
Trifling Women
Joe Martin was an orangutan who appeared in around 50 silent movies, becoming quite the celebrity in his own right. Towards the end of his career, Joe began displaying signs of aggression, with some speculating that the orangutan had become “incurably insane.”
During production for 1922’s Trifling Women, Joe became extremely attached to his costar Barbara La Marr, and he attacked Edward Connelly in a fit of jealousy during a scene in which the actor places a necklace on La Marr. Connelly’s hand was badly mangled during the attack, and his arm was possibly broken.
Summertime
A scene for 1955’s Summertime required Katherine Hepburn to fall into a canal after taking a step back. The actress was in ill health and wanted a stunt double to fill in, but director David Lean felt that the switch would look too obvious and insisted Hepburn perform the stunt herself, making her film it a total of four times.
Hepburn’s eyes soon began watering and itching, and it turned out she had contracted a rare form of conjunctivitis that caused problems with her vision for the rest of her life.
The Captive
During production for 1915’s The Captive, a silent era film set during the Balkan Wars, a tragic accident claimed the life of an extra.
Whilst filming a scene in which a group of soldiers shoot through a door, one of the actors accidentally left a live round in his rifle, and when he fired he shot an extra named Charles Chandler in the head, killing him instantly.
Flower on the Stone
During production for Flower on the Stone, a Soviet-era romantic drama, actress Inna Burduchenko was filming a scene in a burning barracks when the flames grew out of control.
Burduchenko – who was three months pregnant at the time – sustained severe third-degree burns, passing away in hospital a month and a half after the incident.
Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.
Whilst filming a sequence for 1966’s Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. off the coast of Kauai, cameraman Robert King Baggot was washed overboard when a rogue wave hit the ship he filming from.
Despite the efforts of the cast and crew, Baggot – who was weighed down by his equipment – tragically drowned, causing Disney to put production of the film on an indefinite hiatus.
Chasing Mavericks
Gerard Butler revealed in an interview that before the agreed to accept the role of surfer Frosty Hesson in Chasing Mavericks, he had no prior experience surfing.
During filming, a wave completely wiped out Butler, trapping him underwater with a two-wave hold down. Translation: he didn’t have time to get up before another wave came crashing by.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a notorious shoot. Money was slim, meaning there were no cool sound stages. Leatherface actor Gunnar Hansen and co had to brave the sizzling August sun while running around like maniacs.
At one point, Hansen slipped and let go of the very real chainsaw which went flying in the air and landed a few inches away from his face.
Dune
Jurgen Prochnow suffered horrendous second-degree burns to his face when filming a scene where his character had to spew green gas from his torn cheek.
To get this effect, a tube hooked to a pump was placed in a prosthetic cheek over the actor’s face. A malfunction caused the prosthetic to heat up and leak molten goo onto Prochnow’s face.
The Last Samurai
There’s a scene in The Last Samurai where Horioyuki Sanada swings a sword at Tom Cruise’s character. A real one. Cruise, mounted on a mechanical horse that malfunctioned at the worst possible moment, fell off at the wrong time.
Luckily for him, Sanada had expert reflexes and managed to withdraw his swinging sword half an inch before it would’ve reached Cruise’s neck.
The River Wild
Meryl Streep wasn’t feeling the water anymore at the end of a long day filming The River Wild, but director Curtis Hanson asked for just one more take.
Streep agreed, but her boat flipped over into freezing water when the cameras began rolling. She recalled, “When I got to the shore, my legs actually went out from under me… My heart was just pounding.”
Promising Young Woman
In a climactic scene in Promising Young Woman, Chris Lowell was tasked with putting a pillow over Carey Mulligan’s head. The first three takes went well, but on the fourth, Mulligan began to suffocate.
She had been given a signal to indicate she was struggling for real beforehand which was her saving grace. One tap on Lowell’s leg and that was that. He refused to do a fifth take.
Edge of Tomorrow
During a scene in which Sergeant Rita Vrataski and Major William Cage are in a car chase in Edge of Tomorrow, Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise were actually in the car.
Blunt, who was behind the wheel, was supposed to make the car make a hard right, only to accidentally drive her and Cruise into a tree, almost killing him. Thankfully, they emerged unscathed.
Thor: The Dark World
Jaimie Alexander suffered grave injuries after slipping off a metal staircase during a wet morning on the set of Thor: The Dark World.
All in all, she slipped a disc in her thoracic spine, chipped 11 of her vertebrae, dislocated her left shoulder, and tore a rhomboid on her right side. The injuries kept her out of action for a month.
Ghostland
Taylor Hickson was not expecting to crash through a glass door when she was filming Ghostland in December 2016. The incident caused huge injuries to her face and ended up requiring several reconstructive surgeries.
Hickson now has a permanent facial scar thanks to the crash’s effects.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
During a tense rooftop scene in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Ellie Cornell accidentally slipped and cut her torso on a large nail, which resulted in the actress losing a huge amount of blood.
Thankfully, she recovered and returned to film the rest of the horror sequel.
The Squeeze
Victor Magnotta was a veteran stunt performer when he was tragically killed on the set of 1987’s The Squeeze. Driving into the Hoboken pier and into the Hudson River, Magnotta realised he was pinned in the car and couldn’t escape as easily as he planned.
Despite efforts to save him, Magnotta ultimately drowned. Surprisingly, footage of the fatal stunt was kept in the movie.
Midnite Spares
During production on 1983 Australian motor-racing movie Midnite Spares, focus-puller David Brostoff was killed. The crew were filming at the Parramatta City Raceway when one of the sprint cars lost control and flew into Brostoff, spearing his body through two fences.
The filmmakers were slated for allowing non-stunt drivers to drive at high speed.
Fitzcarraldo
The shoot of director Werner Herzog’s epic Fitzcarraldo was marred by several injuries and deaths of indigenous extras who were hired as labourers. One Peruvian logger was forced to amputate his own foot after being bitten by a poisonous snake.
Production was also marred by two plane crashes, which resulted in five critical injuries and one paralysis.
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven
1994’s The Crow became infamous for the tragic, freak death of its star Brandon Lee, but you might not have known that its TV spin-off series also resulted in an untimely death.
Stuntman Marc Akerstream was struck on the head by flying debris following a botched explosion, killing him instantly. The series was cancelled not long thereafter.
Wind
Australian stuntman Chris Anderson suffered a severe injury on the set of Wind, a 1992 yacht-racing drama starring Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey.
Anderson was sitting on a boat eating his lunch during a break in filming, when a 30-foot yacht collided with his vessel. Anderson ultimately required a leg amputation below the knee, and stunt double Trevor Hellier was also severely injured.
Masti Gudi
In November 2016, whilst shooting Indian action movioe Masti Gudi, actors Anil Kumar and Raghava Uday tragically drowned in the Thippagondanahalli Reservoir near Bangalore after taking a 60-foot plunge out of a helicopter.
Neither actor had worn any safety equipment, and a a motorboat meant to pull the actors out of the water failed to get to them in time.