If Hollywood is known for one thing, it would be how faked everything is. Movies sets are reduced to green screens, props, and some great acting. Today, stunts have been made to look real by professionals sitting behind a computer editing film for hours on end – but the art of the stunt has not been completely forgotten by some actors that feel the need to put themselves in harm’s way to make a great performance.
1.Brandon Lee
Bruce
Lee was a great action movie hero and a professional in martial arts.
His son, Brandon Lee was following in his father’s footsteps when he
died. In the movie The Crow, the stunts were not so extreme,
but in the end it was an unknowingly dangerous stunt that lead to a
fatal injury. In a prop malfunction, a blank bullet had been lodged
into the gun and on the next trigger pull, Lee was shot. When the
director yelled, “cut” Lee was unresponsive. He died hours later at the
age of 28.
2.Jason Statham
You’ve seen him in movies like Snatch, The Italian Job, and The Transporter. His passion for stunt driving has lead him into some very dangerous situations, like when filming the movie Crank. Statham had to drive high-speed through the streets of LA on a motorbike – wearing nothing but a hospital gown. Had he crashed, he would have not only taken a fair bit of road-rash, but also a fair bit of public embarrassment. Statham also did his own stunts in Death Race.
3.Sylvester Stallone
Even Rambo himself can’t stop the aging process. Sylvester Stallone, at the age of 61, performed a great deal of his own stunts in the most recent Rambo movie, proving that age is only a number. Of course, his ripped physique and a lot of experience led this actor to do his own risky stunts in the entire Rambo series.
4.Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford’s most famous roles include Han Solo from Star Wars, as well as the Indiana Jones series. As Indy, Harrison Ford was set up to do many of his own stunts. Even in the most recent Indiana Jones
flick, Harrison Ford did 90% of his own stunts. Not bad for a 65
year-old man! Harrison’s stunts were only really considered dangerous
because of his age, but he would repeatedly attempt the same stunt
until he got it right, without taking a break.
5.Keanu Reeves
Keanu
is one of those guys that you poke fun of for having a lack of any
emotion, expression, and most of the time, a lack of presence. That
being said, Keanu is a man of action. He’s not afraid to get down and
dirty to pull off a stunt. Most notably in the movie Speed,
Keanu’s director, Jan de Bont, would not allow him to attempt one of
the movies more dangerous stunts where Keanu’s character Traven was to
jump from a car onto the bus at high speeds. However, Keanu secretly
rehearsed the scene, practicing day in and day out without the director
knowing – and on the day of the scene Keanu insisted on doing the stunt
himself and almost gave de Bont a heart attack by executing it
flawlessly.
6.Tom Cruise
Surprisingly,
Tom Cruise’s most dangerous stunt was not jumping up and down on
Oprah’s sofas. Cruise has been known to do his own stunts in action
movies, but in Mission: Impossible he was quite adventurous.
He dodged trucks, did some extreme rock climbing and could have even
drowned. In the scene where a large number of aquariums inside a
restaurant were broken, shards of glass and a flood of 16 tons of water
came rushing towards our dearest hero and could have easily killed him.
Originally the stunt was to be done with a stuntman, but the director
felt that the scene wasn’t real enough without having Cruise to do it
himself, so he stepped up to the plate and pulled it off like a champ.
7.Viggo Mortensen
In his breakthrough role as Aragorn in the Lord Of The Rings
trilogy, Viggo Mortensen performed all of his own stunts. Peter Jackson
referred to Viggo, and two other stuntmen as “the walking wounded” due
to all of the injuries they sustained while filming the trilogy. While
filming a fight scene, Viggo actually had one of his teeth knocked out
and had it repaired over lunch, and returned to work immediately
afterward. However, his most dangerous stunts were actually performed
in the movie Hidalgo, where he was to race at breakneck
speeds on horseback – a stunt that the professional stuntmen would not
even attempt. Luckily Viggo is a skilled horseback rider and did not
sustain any injuries at all during filming.
8.Jackie Chan
Jackie
Chan’s long list of stunts are almost equally dangerous, to the point
where choosing a ‘most dangerous’ one would not do him enough justice.
He got cuts, bruises, 2nd degree burns and almost paralyzed himself
while shooting Police Story, injured his neck in a clock tower free-fall in Project A, cracked his head open to the point where he bled out of his ears in Armor Of God. His most dangerous stunt is one that if done wrong, would have definitely killed him. In Who Am I?
he had to fight off bad guys on top of a very high building in Holland.
He had to get down to the ground below using the quickest way possible
– which was to slide down the side of the 21-story building (which was
slanted about 45 degrees). Jackie Chan remains one of the most
inspirational stuntmen in modern film.
9.Christian Bale
Christian Bale is no stranger to the danger of a good stunt. In Batman, he did all his own kicking, punching, and running. In Rescue Dawn
he swung from a helicopter – dangerous, yes, but insane? No. What was
insane was losing 63 pounds in a matter of months for his role in The Machinist.
Bale went on a crash diet of nothing but coffee and apples. If you’ve
seen the film, you’ll notice that his character starts out at a healthy
weight, and then deteriorates. Director Brad Anderson never asked Bale
to perform such a task, but in the end Bale was quoted as saying that
it was “very calming mentally.” At his peak of weight loss, he tipped
the scale at 121 pounds.
10.Matt Damon
As
Jason Bourne, Matt Damon had to do the majority of his own stunts.
Damon said he was especially nervous when he was doing a scene in the
water, because “to drown is a very human fear.” When panic sets in, a
stunt can be dangerous to all of the stunt cast and crew, but luckily
Damon had it under control. Another scene in a Bourne film had him
jumping over off a bridge, which was also fairly unnerving for the
actor. He also did all the car crash stunts in the series. Matt Damon
has also done other stunts in films such as Saving Private Ryan, and Courage Under Fire.
