Here are five movie scenes that nearly killed their leading actors.
Movie sets can be a very dangerous place. With loose electrical wires, long working hours, dangers props, special effects like explosives, and egotistical crew members, it is no wonder that many actors and crew members have died on movie sets or almost died during a scene of a movie. Don’t believe me? Here are 5 near miss movie set tragedies.
#1. Back to the Future Part 3
In the movie Back to the Future Part 3, Michael J. Fox nearly died. There is a scene in the movie where Fox’s character, Marty has a noose around his neck and Doc has to save him.
At first there was a box that was used for the actor to stand on since his whole body would not be shown. However, the director didn’t like the way it looked so, they did the scene without the box.
It was the 7th take when Fox started getting tired and didn’t correctly calculate when his hand was supposed to go between the noose and his neck. Michael J. Fox would end up passing out for at least 30 seconds. The reason why Michael J. Fox passed out was because the noose was tight around his neck for a full 30 seconds. It took everyone around him nearly a minute before they noticed what was going on.
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#2. Die Another Day
In the James Bond Movie, Die Another Die actress, Halle Berry nearly choked to death in a scene. In a love making scene with Pierce Brosnan, Brosnan feeds her a piece of fruit and she begins eating it. Unfortunately, she started choking on that piece of fruit and no one noticed what was going on for several seconds. Evidently, she got caught up on the scene and didn’t chew her fruit all the way. Brosnan saved her life by doing the Heimlich maneuver.
#3. Rocky IV
In the boxing movie, Sylvester Stallone and his fighting partner, Dolph Lundgren started throwing fake punches at each other.However, after several fake punches were thrown, Stallone decided that it was not real enough for them and they started punching each other for real.
Despite being a good idea to make the movie more realistic, it nearly put Stallone in a coffin. Stallone ended up getting hurt and almost died. Stallone told Lundgren to give him his hardest punch, and he did. He punched Stallone so hard that it made Stallone’s heart swell and put the actor in a hospital for eight days. Stallone would later admit that he should not have told Lundgren to punch him so hard.
#4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The cast and crew of the Harry Potter franchise had to film nearly everyday for long hours because the schedules were so tight. But, as the movie progressed the stunts and special effects got riskier as the films went on. Making the set more and more dangerous.
In one scene where Harry Potter is flying through the air on a broomstick. Daniel Radcliffe‘s stunt double had to whip through the air on wires in front of a greenscreen to achieve the perfect cinematic effect. While he was doing the stunt, a wire snapped and Holmes smashed into a wall face first before plummeting into a crash mat. His stunt double end up paralyzed from the waist down. Radcliffe was devastated when he heard the news and offered his friend and coworker emotional and financial support.
#5. Apocalypse Now
In the critically acclaimed movie, “Apocalypse Now” actor, Martin Sheen nearly died. The director, Francis Ford Coppola wanted realism in his Vietnam movie, so the director spent five years filming in the jungles of the Phillipines, battling malaria and bad weather. It is reported that nearly all of the cast and crew suffered dysentery, flu or pneumonia, as well as constant physical injuries.
To add insult to injury, Martin Sheen was a heavy drinker and abused drugs at the time. While filming a scene the actor suffered a heart attack in the middle of production and had to crawl nearly a half mile to receive help. He was back on set less than a month later.
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