Some of the more famous movie accidents, or ones with famous actors.
City Heat (1984). Burt Reynolds suffered a broken jaw after being hit on the face with a metal chair while filming a fight scene. The injury left him restricted to a liquid diet; he lost 30 lb (14 kg) by the time filming wrapped.[149]
Dune (1984). Jürgen Prochnow suffered first- and second-degree burns to his face while filming a scene where his character lay unconscious and spewed green gas from his torn cheek. To achieve this effect, a tube connected to a pump was attached to a prosthetic cheek over Prochnow's face. However, a malfunction caused heat to build up inside the fake cheek and spill near molten goo on Prochnow's face once it was torn open.[153][154]
Top Gun (1986). On 16 September 1985, aerobatic pilot Art Scholl crashed his Pitts S-2 camera-plane off the southern Californian coast near Carlsbad. Neither the aircraft nor Scholl's body were ever recovered.[35][79][148][162]
Die Hard (1988). Bruce Willis lost two-thirds of his hearing in his left ear after firing a gun loaded with extra-loud blanks from underneath a table.[166]
Red Heat (1988). Stuntman and director Bennie Dobbins suffered a fatal heart attack while filming a fight scene in freezing conditions outdoors in Austria. The scene required Arnold Schwarzenegger and another actor to fight near-naked in deep snow. Dobbins over-exerted himself trying to install fan heaters in the snow to prevent the actors suffering hypothermia.[168]
The Abyss (1989). Actor Ed Harris almost drowned during an underwater sequence. Despite him yelling "Cut" when he ran out of air, the production crew did not give him oxygen until he passed out. The trauma caused him to break down in his car on the way home.[169]
Cyborg (1989). While filming, Jackson "Rock" Pinckney lost an eye during filming when Jean-Claude Van Damme accidentally struck him in the eye with a prop knife. Pinckney sued Van Damme in a North Carolina court and was awarded $487,500.[171][172]
Back to the Future Part III (1990). In the scene where Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen and his gang roped and hanged Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox lost consciousness for a few seconds from being hanged before an extra realized he was legitimately being asphyxiated and the noose was lowered. He recounted this event in his autobiography, Lucky Man.[178][92]
Super Mario Bros. (1993). Bob Hoskins was stabbed four times, electrocuted, and was nearly drowned. During one scene, Hoskins broke a finger when the door of a van slammed on his hand.[185].
The Crow (1994). On 31 March 1993, American actor and martial artist Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed in North Carolina with a .44 magnum gun that was intended to fire blanks but contained a bullet left behind after a dummy round had been inserted and removed.[35][69][79][173][188] Also, on 1 February 1993 on the opening day of filming, a carpenter was severely shocked and burned when his scissor lift struck power lines.[148]
Waterworld (1995). Kevin Costner nearly died when he was caught in a squall while tied to the mast of his trimaran.
XXX (2002). On 4 April 2002, Vin Diesel's stunt double, Harry L. O'Connor, was killed during filming,[174] in a scene where he was supposed to rappel down a parasailing line and land on a submarine. Instead, he struck a bridge at high speed and died immediately.[79][148]
The Passion of the Christ (2004). In playing the role of Jesus Christ, Jim Caviezel sustained gashes to his back from multiple whippings, hypothermia, and a separated shoulder from carrying a giant cross. He was also struck by lightning before filming the Sermon of the Mount scene.[83]
Troy (2004). Brad Pitt, who played Achilles in the film, tore his left Achilles tendon during production.[35]
Syriana (2005). During a torture scene where he was tied to a chair, George Clooney suffered head and spinal injuries and memory loss when he hit his head on the floor after the torturer knocked his chair over. The impact ruptured his dura mater, resulting in loss of cerebrospinal fluid. The injury was so painful that he contemplated committing suicide while recovering.[230]
The Dark Knight (2008). Cameraman Conway Wickliffe was killed in 2007 on the set of The Dark Knight, as he rode in a pickup truck driving parallel to a stunt car; the pickup missed a 90-degree turn and crashed into a tree.[21][79][248]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010/2011). During production at Leavesden, Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double David Holmes suffered a serious spinal injury during the filming of an aerial sequence, which left him a paraplegic. Holmes fell to the ground following an explosion that was part of the stunt.[256][260][261][262]
Lost (2010). While filming a fight scene for the series finale "
The End",
Terry O'Quinn mistakenly stabbed
Matthew Fox with a real knife instead of a collapsible one. Fox's life was saved by the kevlar vest underneath his shirt.
[263]
The Eagle (2011). When filming in a freezing river, actors have a mixture of boiling hot water and river water poured down their suits to stay warm. A crew member forgot to mix the hot water with the river water during filming; as a result, Channing Tatum was scalded with boiling water that burned the skin off the tip of his penis.[166][256]
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). On 12 June 2014, Harrison Ford fractured a bone in his leg while filming at Pinewood Studios after a hydraulic door fell on him, and was subsequently taken to a hospital to receive treatment. Filming was initially expected to continue as planned as Ford received treatment,[302] though it was later revealed that production was suspended for two weeks to accommodate Ford's injury.[303] Ford's son Ben released details on his father's injury saying that his ankle will likely need a plate and screws and that filming could be altered slightly with the crew needing to shoot Ford from the waist up for a short time until he recovered.[304] Director J. J. Abrams also injured his back while helping lift the hydraulic door off Ford's leg.[305]
