Making a movie might seem like relatively harmless make-believe most of the time,
but sometimes those fake action scenes have painful consequences.
From action stars to comedy legends, all these actors got knocked out while making a movie.
Few actors have been bonked and bruised in the name of cinema quite as often or
as famously as Jackie Chan. He broke his eye socket while shooting 1978's "Drunken Master."
He dislocated his pelvis and sustained second degree burns and spinal damage while shooting
the explosive pole-slide conclusion of "Police Story." He even cracked his skull open while
shooting 1986's "Armor of God," arguably the most serious and squirm-inducing injury in his career.
That particular injury, in fact, is so famous that Chan has invited
other celebrities to occasionally feel the hole where a part of his skull used to be.
According to his autobiography, "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action," Chan was also knocked
unconscious while filming the 1976 movie "Hand of Death." As Chan tells it, he hit his head
after a stunt that involved a particularly daring fall. Despite the pain of the impact,
he immediately performed the stunt again to get the shot, before finally passing out. Supposedly,
director John Woo was convinced that Chan was going to die until the actor woke up an hour
later. Unfortunately, this would prove to be his first major concussion in a career full of them.
Frankly, it's a miracle that the legendary Buster Keaton made it out of the movie-making business
in (mostly) one piece. Heck, the man broke his ankle while goofing off on a moving staircase
during the shoot of "The Electric House." And according to Marion Meade's Keaton biography
"Cut to the Chase," the silent star even fractured his neck during the
filming of "Sherlock Jr" when a geyser from a water tower knocked him flat.
Keaton, a genius of both physical comedy and death-defying action sequences,
famously never refused a stunt, however dangerous. In 1926's "The General," Keaton's
re-telling of the true Civil War story of a runaway locomotive stolen by Union spies,
Keaton was knocked unconscious when he was standing too close
to a Civil War replica cannon that fired prematurely. That's commitment to craft.
In the second cinematic outing of Jason Bourne, "The Bourne Supremacy," everyone's favorite
amnesiac CIA assassin has his peaceful life threatened by a conspiracy involving Russian
documents, which naturally has something to do with the nefarious Operation Treadstone.
Bourne's covert adventure takes him to an airport in Naples,
where he allows himself to get spotted by security and taken into custody.
During his interrogation, he overpowers CIA officer John Nevins to get his SIM card.
As director Paul Greengrass explains on the film's director's commentary,
the execution of the fight scene didn't quite go as planned. Reportedly,
Bourne star Matt Damon's flying fists actually came into contact with Tim Griffin,
the actor playing Nevins, accidentally knocking him out cold.
While Greengrass' infamous shaky cam makes the hit hard to catch,
if you have the luxury of replaying the punch frame-by-frame, you'll indeed be treated to
a high-speed smack that looks like it hurt big time. To his credit, from what we see on-screen,
Damon doesn't break character. Hey, remind us not to mess with Matt Damon.
What if "Death Race 2000" was a whimsical slapstick comedy? Well, good news, that movie
exists, and it's called "The Great Race." Blake Edwards' 1965 film tells the unapologetically
capitalistic tale of professional daredevil the Great Leslie, who convinces automotive
manufacturers that a race from New York to Paris will increase car sales. The Great Leslie's
arch-nemesis — the mustachioed, black-suited Professor Fate — vows to vanquish his blue-eyed
foe by way of a car of his own invention that features, among other things, hydraulic stilts.
"The Great Race" is the proud recipient of a couple of cinematic superlatives, including what
a 1965 edition of LIFE Magazine dubbed as the "greatest pie fight ever." The scene featured
4,000 cream pies on one massive set, and was shot over five days. As fun as the ordeal sounds,
things steadily took a turn for the dangerous as the shoot wore on. In the LIFE article,
star Jack Lemmon, who played Professor Fate, claimed that he got knocked out a couple of times,
noting that getting smacked with a high flying pie feels, quote, "like a ton of cement."
The same article describes how, at one point, actress Natalie Wood choked briefly
when a pie flew directly into her mouth. Who knew pies could be so dangerous?
"Bad Boys" is a seminal piece of 1990s action cinema,
as well as a testament to the on-screen power of both Will Smith and director Michael Bay.
The film tells the story of two Miami cops — one a family man, the other
a womanizer — who have 72 hours to reclaim heroin stolen from their station's evidence
storage locker. Actress Téa Leoni was along for the ride as Julie,
the sole witness to a murder and someone who requires the protection of the title characters.
During the filming, Leoni was accidentally knocked unconscious by co-star Martin
Lawrence's stunt double. As the actress explained to Movieline in a 2000 interview:
"It was the AK-47 under the jaw that got me. I wasn't on the proper mark
when the stunt guy hit me with it. My legs went over my head,
and I landed flat on my back. Didn't have much memory at that point."
As she tells it, Bay, quote, "freaked out" about her ability to finish the film. Leoni was able
to pull through, and became a part of action movie history, with the injuries to prove it.
"Bloodsport" is a film that could easily be re-titled "Jean-Claude Van Damme vs.
the World." The film is a delightfully flagrant excuse to showcase the actor's
talents for taking and dishing out beatings. Van Damme plays Dux, a skilled fighter invited
to participate in an illegal martial arts tournament in Hong Kong known as the Kumite.
Determined to bring honor to his state-side father figure, Dux accepts the challenge
and proceeds along the long and bloody journey of beating up the best of the best.
One of "the best" is Sadiq Hossein, played by Bernard Mariano. During their brawl,
Hossein refuses to stay down and lurches forward from his defeated position on the
floor to challenge Dux for a second go-round. The script called for Dux to land a definitive punch
to keep Hossein down for good. Unfortunately for Mariano, Van Damme's elbow actually made
contact with his jaw, which you can see for yourself in the final film. Mariano later
told the South China Morning Post that the blood you see in the scene isn't movie magic, either.
One of the most memorable scenes in Rob Reiner's fairy tale comedy classic "The Princess Bride"
takes place when the newly reunited Westley and Princess Buttercup make their way through
the treacherous Fire Swamp, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Unfortunately, the pair's happy reunion is short-lived. They survive the mythical
creatures known as Rodents of Unusual Size and even pull their way out of quicksand,
only to fall prey to the ambush of the dastardly Prince Humperdinck. When it
came time to film the shot where the prince's right-hand man, Count Rugen, slugs the injured
Westley with the butt of his sword, the blow didn't look quite convincing enough on camera.
In his memoir "As You Wish," Westley actor Cary Elwes recalled that the Reiner solution
to the problem of making the hit look real made him quite literally see stars. As he
explained in the book, the camera angle meant that a fake strike just didn't look right,
so he told Count Rugen actor Christopher Guest to just, quote, "hit me hard."
Guest landed a blow with the butt of his sword, and Elwes woke up in the hospital.
Released 16 years after "Rocky V," Rocky Balboa" is the sixth entry in the saga of underdog boxer
Rocky Balboa, and catches up with the aging Philadelphia prize fighter in retirement.
He's in his 60s, widowed, and has a strained relationship with his son. When a simulation
predicts that superstar professional boxer Mason Dixon would lose to Rocky,
the undefeated Dixon throws down the gauntlet in the hopes of finally fighting a true contender.
To everyone's surprise, Rocky agrees and comes out of retirement.
As reported by The Guardian, "Rocky Balboa" star Sylvester Stallone was actually knocked
unconscious during the shoot, and the crew kept filming because they thought it was
all part of the actor's performance in his most famous role. According to the report,
Mason Dixon actor Antonio Tarver accidentally punched Stallone in the head while shooting
a fight scene in a Las Vegas ring, where the 59-year-old actor promptly collapsed.
After the crew realized that no, Stallone was not acting, they rallied emergency
services to tend to him. He was rushed to the hospital and thankfully made a full recovery.
Ryan Coogler's "Rocky" spinoff movie "Creed" sees former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky
Balboa serving as both mentor and trainer to Adonis Johnson, the son of Balboa's late friend
and former boxing rival, Apollo Creed. Somewhat appropriately for a film intent on revisiting
old ground, Jordan partook in the time honored 'Rocky' tradition of getting laid out for real.
"Now, you wanted this?" "Let's go coach."
"I want you to make it happen."
A behind-the-scenes tweet by none other than Stallone himself showed Jordan taking
a mean right hook from his co-star, very real professional fighter Tony Bellew...
and falling flat on the floor. On "The Graham Norton Show," Jordan recalled that the real
punch was orchestrated by Stallone to achieve a convincing slow-motion shot. Unfortunately,
the first time they did the real punch, Bellew's glove got in the way of the camera, so they had
to do another take. And it's this second hit that dropped Jordan like a sack of potatoes.
While the actor assured the talk show host that he wasn't "technically" unconscious, he admits,
"I was definitely seeing stars. It was definitely not. I was not all there.
Smelling the canvas and everything, I'll never forget it."
While promoting "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" on "Live with Kelly and Ryan," Chris Pratt
relayed the details of a stunt-gone-wrong in his latest outing as Marvel's Star-Lord. Pratt
explained that he got knocked out while he and an unspecified co-star were filming some wirework.
As Pratt describes in the interview, the accident was the result of the stunt happening too fast.
According to the star, he was trying to land on his shoulder when he hit his head
on a protective mat instead. Thankfully, the moment of unconsciousness was brief.
"And I realized if I didn't do the scene I was going to have to do the stunt again."
Given the amount of rig and wirework involved in the "Guardians" sequel,
we're not even going to try and guess which specific scene was being filmed
when Pratt came crashing down. Maybe one day he'll tell the whole story.
Wes Craven's 2005 airborne thriller "Red Eye" tells the story of Lisa,
a woman kidnapped by a stranger on a routine commercial flight bound for Miami.
With her father's life in the balance, Lisa finds herself dragged, unwillingly,
into assisting her menacing captor in the assassination of a politician.
In one scene, stars Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams duke it out in an airplane bathroom.
At the beginning of the confrontation, Murphy rushes at McAdams, pinning her against a wall.
However, while filming the scene, it seems Murphy miscalculated,
and McAdams hit her head for real and supposedly lost consciousness for a moment.
The incident is included in the film's gag reel, so clearly there were no hard feelings.
If you look closely during the actual scene as it appears in the film,
you can catch Murphy's hand protecting McAdams' head from future injury. How sweet.
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