15 Times Movie Stunt Performers Took Extreme Risks

Don't try these at home.

Published 4 months ago in Wow

We've all been there. You're watching a movie where the hero needs to jump out of a burning carn, parkour from building to building or do some sort of superhuman feat to save the day. Even though we know our star will most likely emerge unscathed from the wreckage, our hearts are racing, waiting with bated breath to see whether they'll make it out alive.

While we may chalk up these high-stakes moments to movie magic — and more recently, CGI — there are still often real people behind those impressive feats.

From Tom Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa to the longest controlled-burn stunt in the history of film, here are some of the most dangerous stunts ever attempted.

1
“In Akira Kurasawa's 1961 film "Throne of Blood", real arches shot arrows into the wall as the actor ran past.”

2
I don't know if it qualifies as a "stunt" along the lines of what you're thinking of, but according to legend Curtiz actually flooded the set to film a flood scene in his production of Noah's Ark, which led to the death of multiple extras and injuries for much of the leading cast.

3
"Stuntman Dar Robinson fell 220 feet for the movie Sharky's Machine, setting a world record."
4
'I think the craziest stunt ever, has to be the end action scene in 'The Last Boy Scout'. At the end of this scene, a stuntman does a bungee dive 18 inches above a hovering helicopters rotors, in front of a crowd of about 35,000. If I remember right, they paid him a million dollars, and used...11? cameras, because there was only going to be one take. It is absolutely stunning, and will never be done again."

5
“This film set a record for longest uninterrupted on-screen controlled burn in Hollywood history. Kane Hodder was set on fire and stayed alight for a record-setting 40 seconds.”
6
“The Spider-Man fan film The Green Goblin's Last Stand has a scene where the actor for Peter does actual parkouring and web-swinging in character and costume with no harness or safety precaution (they could not afford it, this whole thing took $400 to produce).”
7
"Order of the Black Eagle. A stuntman gets his head run over by an ATV. He got messed up but he's okay.”

8
“Jackie Chan jumping off a cliff onto a hot air balloon in Armor of God. No safety precautions, just jumping off a godd—n cliff. If we count the ones where there were serious injuries, the slide down the pole in the mall in Police Story. Again, no safety precautions, just Jackie Chan jumping onto a vertical pole and sliding down five stories through live electrical cables. He fractured his spine, but still finished the scene.”
$“Jackie Chan jumping off a cliff onto a hot air balloon in Armor of God. No safety precautions, just jumping off a godd—n cliff. If we count the ones where there were serious injuries, the slide down the pole in the mall in Police Story. Again, no safety precautions, just Jackie Chan jumping onto a vertical pole and sliding down five stories through live electrical cables. He fractured his spine, but still finished the scene.”$
9
“That jump from the top of a moving truck into a window from Police Story made for some the most brutal behind the scenes footage I’ve ever seen. Really makes you believe it when Jacky Chan says one of his most important skills is how to fall right.”
10
“How about Margaret Hamilton catching on fire? That's not even a stunt, but you know shots like that aren't real in films anymore. It's all post.”

11
“So this is actually from a movie most people would consider bad (and I fully admit that it's a guilty pleasure of mine) but Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse. Near the end of the movie, Milla Jovovich's character Alice does this crazy stunt where she runs along the side of the Toronto city hall before jumping on a couple of bad guys below. Surprisingly that entire sequence wasn't CGI, and Milla herself did a pretty d—n good stretch of the run.”
12
“There's a stunt in a mostly forgotten Canadian action movie called ‘Highpoint’ where the stuntman jumped off the CN Tower (at the time the world's tallest building) with only a hidden parachute as protection.”
13
“My dad was working in the Burj Khalifa when they filmed the movie, and him and his coworkers could see Tom Cruise walking on the windows of the building.”

14
“It's a little obscure (and about as silly as the name implies) but ‘Amsterdamned’ has an incredible speedboat chase thru the titular city's canals that nearly broke the leading man's spine (and injured him badly enough that shooting was shut down for three weeks).”
15
“Check out the cold open of the Bond film 'For Your Eyes Only.' It has some absolutely insane helicopter stunts, with it straight up chasing people, flying through buildings. Four years later the tragic helicopter accident on The Twilight Zone movie happened and wisely helicopter safety on set has been majorily improved. Doubt you'll see another production do something that crazy again.”