Top 10 Movie Stunts That Almost KILLED The Actor

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (2023)
Tom Cruise is known for doing his own death-defying stunts, but this scene might have been the most dangerous one yet. Cruise has revealed that after jumping off the cliff, he was in the wrong position when he opened the parachute. He began to drift toward the side of the mountain, almost crashing into it. Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t the only time Cruise was nearly killed on set. In “Top Gun,” while Maverick waits to be rescued from the ocean, Cruise’s parachute began filling with water, and he almost sank. And during filming of a battle scene in “The Last Samurai,” co-star Hiroyuki Sanada came terrifyingly close to slicing Cruise’s neck with his sword. It’s almost a miracle that he’s still around to tell these tales.

“Deliverance” (1972)
Filming this movie turned out to be almost as harrowing as actually getting lost in the Georgia wilderness. In this scene, director John Boorman had planned to send a dummy over the falls and into the dangerous rapids. But Burt Reynolds was convinced he could do the stunt himself. After landing in the water below, he immediately fractured his tailbone on a rock. He then got sucked into a whirlpool, which sent him to the bottom of the river. Fortunately, it spit him out relatively safely – but not before tearing off all his clothes.

“The Green Inferno” (2013)
This gore-fest from horror director Eli Roth features plenty of harrowing scenes, but one of them actually put star Lorenza Izzo in real danger. While fleeing from a group of bloodthirsty cannibals, her character Justine jumps into a river. Izzo had a rope tied around her waist to prevent her from being swept away, but the strong current still pulled her under. She clung to a rock while screaming at the crew to cut, but no one could hear her over the noise of the water. Finally, the stunt coordinator realized that Izzo wasn’t acting, and stopped the cameras. The footage of Izzo’s near drowning actually made it into the final cut of the film.

“Back to the Future Part III” (1990)
Time travel is dangerous enough, but running into a posse of murderous gang members makes it even worse. Shortly after arriving in 1885, Marty is attacked by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen and his gang, who try to hang him. Originally, the scene was meant to be filmed with Michael J. Fox standing on a box and shown only from the waist up, but the shot didn’t look quite right. Fox volunteered to try it without the box, using his hands to keep himself from choking. However, as he explained in his autobiography, during one take he misjudged where to put his hands, and he actually passed out while swinging from the rope. Fortunately, Robert Zemeckis realized what was happening and rescued Fox in time.


#6: High Speed Car Chase
“Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)
Tom Cruise makes another appearance on our list, but this time, it’s not his fault. While filming a car chase sequence with co-star Emily Blunt, the pair had a nearly fatal accident. Blunt was driving the unwieldy vehicle, and on the second take, the stunt coordinator encouraged her to really floor it. However, she misjudged a turn and sent the two of them careening off the road. As much as he’s known for taking crazy risks, even Tom Cruise might think twice before getting in a car with her again.

“Rocky IV” (1985)
When you ask a fourth-degree black belt to knock you out, you can’t be surprised when you end up in the hospital. That’s exactly what happened to Sylvester Stallone on the set of “Rocky IV.” While filming the fight between Rocky and Ivan Drago, he challenged Dolph Lundgren to punch his lights out. The Swedish beefcake took him up on it, and gave Stallone a pounding. Later that evening, he had to be airlifted to an ER when his chest began to swell. Lundgren had punched him hard enough to compress his ribcage into his heart. The two reunited years later for “The Expendables,” which also landed Stallone in the hospital when he fractured his neck during a fight with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

“Now You See Me” (2013)
Isla Fisher is yet another actor who came terrifyingly close to drowning on set. In this scene, her character performs a trick where she pretends to be trapped in a tank of water. But Fisher really did get trapped when the chain connecting her wrists and ankles got stuck under the metal slats. She pounded on the glass and screamed for help, but everyone assumed she was just acting. Although she was submerged for more than three minutes, luckily Fisher came out unscathed. This incident should be a lesson to the entire industry: always have a safe word when filming dangerous stunts.

“Armour of God” (1986)
Jackie Chan is no stranger to doing his own stunts, or to serious injuries on set. A single stunt in 1985’s “Police Story” dislocated his pelvis, injured his back, and gave him second-degree electrical burns. But that’s nothing compared to what happened while filming “Armour of God.” After shooting multiple takes of a scene where his character drinks from a can of beer, Chan had to jump from the top of a high wall into a flimsy tree. On the second take, the branches broke and Chan fell twenty-five feet. He fractured his skull, and a piece of bone became lodged in his brain. He was rushed into emergency surgery – and he still has the hole in his head to prove it.

“Maze Runner: The Death Cure” (2018)
Dylan O'Brien was injured so badly filming this stunt that it made him question whether he wanted to return to acting. The details of the incident have never been made public, but production of “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” was shut down for almost a year after O’Brien was run over by a vehicle. The star suffered a concussion and brain trauma and fractured bones in his face. The accident was so severe that his co-stars worried O’Brien had been killed. The young star spent months “in a dark place,” debating what to do with his career. Fortunately, he made a full recovery, and was even able to channel the experience into his next character.

“Dr. No” (1962)
Playing James Bond shouldn’t be as dangerous as actually being James Bond. During this car chase sequence, Sean Connery is pursued by assassins around winding mountain roads. He comes around a sharp turn to find a crane blocking the road and drives underneath it. Connery tested the stunt to make sure the car would actually fit under the crane, and it did – with only a few inches to spare. But when the cameras were rolling, Connery was driving much faster, and the car was bumping up and down wildly on the dirt road. Connery narrowly missed being decapitated when the car took one last, lucky bump before going under the crane. Otherwise, “Dr. No” might have been the first and the last Bond film.


Which near-fatal stunt terrified you the most? Let us know in the comments.