No action movie or even action comedy would be complete without some amazing, death-defying
stunts - even if the whole audience knows nobody was ever really in harm's way.
But what if they were?
The truth is, stuntmen and women are often asked to put their health on the line - so
it's only right that movie fans recognize their risks.
Here are 10 Most Dangerous Stunts Performed in Movies.
Live and Let Die In the long history of James Bond films, 007
has pulled off some ridiculous escapes.
But none is harder to believe than in Live & Let Die, when the spy finds himself surrounded
by crocodiles - and decides to just run across their backs to safety.
The craziest part?
A stuntman actually did it.
No surprise, one of the crocs managed to bite him on the FOURTH take, but he still had one
left in him - the shot you see in the film.
Terminator 2 James Cameron is famous for being a ruthless
director, so when he felt something was missing from the helicopter chase in Terminator 2,
the pilot flying it had an idea: forget just missing an overpass - he could fly the helicopter
UNDER it.
Cameron was convinced, but the crew wasn't.
They were so sure the stunt wasn't worth the risk, Cameron has to find a driver while he
filmed the helicopter personally.
Can't argue with the results.
The French Connection As the first R-Rated movie to win the BEst
Picture Oscar, the French Connection isn't best-known for its stunts.
But when the film's chase scene called for star Gene Hackman's character to speed through
New York following a train, they didn't overthink it.
Without any permits or precautions, the director hopped into the car with a stunt driver and
a camera man wrapped in pillows, and tore off.
Every close call is for real - including that bystander who got a little too close - but
luckily walked away (the crash).
Skyfall Sure, there may be plenty of CG to thank for
James Bond's modern stunts, but the opening action of Skyfall is more real than you realize.
As in... it's completely real.
Actors were really put on a moving train, scrambled on top of it, and even watched as
it was torn to pieces around them.
Which means playing 007, and actually being him aren't all that different.
Raiders of the Lost Ark No movie fan can forget the opening of Indiana
Jones' first adventure, fleeing an ancient tomb with a massive boulder rolling on his
heels.
Massive, yes - but made out of fibreglass for the shoot.
Still, the ball really was rolling behind star Harrison Ford, and weighed close to half
a ton.
In hindsight.
director Steven Spielberg admitted it was an insane idea to put Ford in harm's way,
since disaster could have struck over the smallest mistake.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation How do you top climbing up the side of the
world's tallest skyscraper?
If you're Tom Cruise, you strap yourself to an airplane and hang on for dear life.
For Rogue Nation, Cruise committed to the film's opening number, attached to a real
airplane with a single safety line, and wearing special contacts to protect his eyes as it
took off and flew to 5,000 feet before landing.
At one point he worried a pebble had actually tore through his skin - but apparently it
knew who it was messing with, and just bounced off harmlessly.
Mission: Impossible 2 Tom Cruise's stunts may have gotten bigger
with Mission: Impossible sequels, but that doesn't mean they're crazier.
That honor might go to the first sequel, when a fight scene required the villain to swing
a knife within an inch of Cruise's eyeball.
But why rely on CG when you can do it for real, with a steel cable guaranteed to stop
the blade just short of killing your star?
It's almost impossible to believe, but it really did happen.
The Fellowship of The Ring The stars of this fantasy epic all earned
some scars or broken bones, but things almost got seriously dangerous for Viggo Mortensen.
When battling the lead orc in the first film, the stuntman was SUPPOSED to pull a knife
from his leg, and throw it past the actor, with an added shot showing it slam into a
tree.
But when it came time to shoot, the stunt knife slipped - and flew straight at Mortensen's
face.
Would it have done the same damage as a real blade?
No.
But Mortensen slashing the knife away as a reflex guaranteed he wouldn't have a stunt
knife flying at his eyes, either.
Lethal Weapon 2 The Lethal Weapon series is known for its
explosions, but one is more than it seems.
In the first sequel, a woman goes for a swim only to have her dive interrupted by a hidden
bomb.
It looks like the stunt went off fine, but in reality, it actually detonated a moment
too soon, leaving the stuntwoman not only caught off guard, but actually propelled off
the diving board by the fiery blast, explaining why she simply freezes in mid-air, having
narrowly missed a serious injury.
Point Break They don't call them "extreme sports" for
nothing, but when the makers of the Point Break reboot had the idea of sending multiple
wingsuit jumpers down a mountainside in formation, there was one problem: it had never been done.
But a handpicked team spent a full year on hundreds of jumps to dial the stunt down to
the foot - literally.
The shot of one jumper actually making contact with the ground made it into the finished
film - closer than they were actually planning.
Those are just a sample of some of Hollywood's most insanely dangerous stunts, but there's
plenty more where those came from!
Let us know which ones we missed, and subscribe to our channel for more videos like this one!