9 On-Set Accidents That Made Them Films Over
From the Jason Bourne franchise to James Bond movies, a good stunt or action scene will live rent-free in the minds of audiences for years after a movie is released.
However, not all stunts go well. In fact, filming, in general, can be a dangerous occupation, whether or not a production team creates the next blockbuster action movie. On-set accidents, comedic or serious, happen more than audiences realize. But you may not know that some of these incidents are filmed and sometimes kept in the final cut. Whether intentional or not, some of the most iconic releases are littered with on-set accident footage that creeps into the finished film.
Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible: Fallout” (2018)
Perhaps the most well-known wound retained in a recently completed film is Tom Cruisehas a broken ankle. The Top Gun: Maverick the star injured himself while filming a stunt for the 2018s Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
Cruise is famous for doing a lot of his stunts, and usually having an actor take the lead during the action scenes makes for a compelling visual experience. However, this particular stunt had those who spotted the crash recoil beyond ecstasy. In situations like these, perhaps keeping the actors out of harm’s way would have been better for everyone involved.
Leonardo DiCaprio in “Django Unchained” (2012)
pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino created more than a few unforgettable characters and collaborated with some of the greatest actors working today. For his 2012 Western Django UnchainedCast of Tarantino Leonardo DiCaprio (of Titanic and Don’t look up fame) as the heartless Calvin Candie. DiCaprio may also have played the role of the callous slave owner, as the actor not only suffered a serious injury during filming, but incorporated the injury into his gripping performance.
During a tense dinner scene with the film’s protagonists, Candie breaks a glass, cutting her hand with the broken shards, but continues to monologue despite her newly acquired injury. Amazingly, the accident wasn’t faked, with DiCaprio insisting on the scene despite his bloody hand. The impressive take is in the final film, though many audiences were none the wiser.
That one Stormtrooper in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ (1977)
The star wars The films depict thrilling sci-fi adventures, with their heroes facing a fair share of danger in the epic galactic conflicts that each film brings to life. The show’s villains are often the ones dealing with peril, save for a now infamous Imperial grunt. An actor playing a Stormtrooper in Star Wars: A New Hope inadvertently crashed his head against the frame of a sliding door as he entered his scene, making it one of the funniest and most eccentric accidents to make it into a finished film.
Even the filmmakers acknowledged the comedic nature of the incident on camera, drawing attention to the blooper with an accompanying sound effect in the 2004 DVD re-release of george lucas‘ original trilogy, immortalizing the hapless Stormtrooper with a hilarious, unequivocal to bump.
Viggo Mortensen in “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002)
In an irrefutable example of perfect casting, the director peter jackson chose Viggo Mortensen play the heir to Gondor, Aragorn, in his adaptation of JRR Tolkienit is The Lord of the Rings. The award-winning film trilogy is full of scenes that would give any fantasy fan chills, but filming one particularly emotional moment hurt Mortensen badly.
Filming The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the actor broke his toe while filming a scene showing Aragorn angrily kicking a helmet. We can see why Jackson included it in the final film; the anguish that Mortensen exhibits makes the scene a bit more difficult. Mortensen’s injury and resilience cemented his performance in the fantasy trilogy as one of the greatest works of his career.
Brad Pitt in “Troy” (2004)
Wolfgang Petersonit is Troy follows the assault on the eponymous city by the armies of a united Greece, focusing on many of the characters and skirmishes that defined the Trojan War. With its colossal battles and a wide array of mighty mythological heroes, Troy should be a delight for fans of ancient Greece and a must-watch for those who love a great historical epic.
In the 2004 movie, brad pitt plays Achilles, the most skilled warrior demigod in all of Greek mythology, who would have been unkillable had it not been for a fatal wound to his vulnerable heel. In what seemed like a very poetic stroke of bad luck, Pitt suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon, the strip of tissue responsible for connecting the calf muscles to the heel. Despite intensive physical training, Pitt recalls how “in a fit of stupid irony, [he] tweaked [his] Achilles’ tendon” during the filming of the first of his character’s fight scenes (a confrontation with the warrior-brute Boagrius), delaying production by ten months. Injuries aside, Pitt is capable of great fight scenes, and his confrontation with the giant remains a sight to behold.
Martin Sheen in “Apocalypse Now” (1979)
Francis Ford Coppolathe iconic war movie Revelation now was notoriously difficult to achieve. From one of its main cast members suffering a heart attack to the technical issues surrounding the film’s audio, describing the film’s production as “troubled” would be the understatement of the year. Curiously, however, a serious on-set accident involving the actor Martin Sheen led to the creation of one of the most iconic movie scenes of all time.
In one of the film’s earlier scenes, Sheen’s Benjamin Willard cut his hand hitting a mirror. Naturally, Coppola and his crew wanted to stop filming and help the actor with his injury, but Sheen insisted they keep filming. Visceral images of a wounded Sheen remain in the film’s final cut.
Ellen Burstyn in “The Exorcist” (1973)
The filming of The Exorcist sounds like a more terrifying ordeal for its cast than it would ever be to watch. That’s saying a lot, considering the film is considered one of the scariest films of all time.
Director William Friedkin cast Ellen Burstyn as a mother whose daughter Regan (Linda Blair) becomes possessed by a demonic entity. In an interview with HuffPost Live, Burstyn revealed how an accident while filming permanently injured her spine. One shot required cables to make it look like Burstyn was thrown to the ground by her possessed child, but she was pulled too hard on the ground. His pain reaction is barely acting, and the footage was later used in the final film.
Gianni Russo in “The Godfather” (1972)
Typically, fight scenes are meticulously planned so as not to compromise the safety of the performers on set for the spectacle and drama of the feud. The Godfather remains one of the greatest films of its time. But the movie wasn’t as injury-free as you might think, as filming the classic gangster flick left the actor Gianni Russo quite painful.
In the 1972 film, Sonny Corleone (James Caan) defeats Carlo Rizzi (Russo) for physically abusing Connie Corleone, who is Sonny’s sister and Carlo’s wife. Unfortunately for Russo, Caan decided to throw his hands up for real. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Russo reports that Caan “got a little aggressive” and improvised much of the altercation. Filming the scene left Russo with a chipped elbow and two broken ribs, leaving director Francis Ford Coppola in awe. Audiences can still see the brutal beating in the final cut of Coppola’s film.
Jake Gyllenhaal in “Nightcrawler” (2014)
Acclaimed actor Jake Gyllenhaal did everything. From shining in twisted thrillers to playing an MCU villain in Spider-Man: Far From Home. He even checked the box for a serious on-set accident to appear in a finished film, thanks to an unfortunate injury sustained while filming Dan Gilroyit is Somnambulist.
In one of the best performances of the past decade, Gyllenhaal plays Lou, an aspiring journalist who becomes increasingly obsessed with filming and photographing violent incidents and selling his grizzly coverage to local TV stations. In an intense scene, Lou violently attacks a mirror. Hitting the mirror was an intentional part of the scene, but Gyllenhaal accidentally broke the mirror during filming, cutting his hand. The injury required stitches, but the unlucky catch remains intact in the finished film.