Movies might be safe spaces for audiences to experience a few harm-free thrills, but
making those stunning visual dynamics happen can be risky business for everyone involved.
These movies in particular had some of the most horrifically fatal set accidents in Hollywood
history.
Gone in Sixty Seconds 2
Before the 2000 reboot of Gone in Sixty Seconds crashed its way into the box office, the first
film's director Toby Halicki endeavored to make his own follow-up to the 1974 original
with what would've been called Gone in Sixty Seconds 2.
Halicki already had a history of on-set scares with the first film, as he suffered a nasty
spinal injury while performing a big jump scene in the third act.
Nevertheless, Halicki returned to the story in 1989 and decided to ramp up the stunt surprises
even further by having a tractor trailer collide with a water tower.
Unfortunately, the cable supports for the structure snapped, knocking over a telephone
pole, which crushed Halicki under its weight.
The Twilight Zone: The Movie
John Landis' original segment in 1983's Twilight Zone: The Movie, titled "Time Out," starred
actor Vic Morrow as a bigoted man named Bill Connor who's made to experience his own hatred
through the eyes of others as he time hops through some of the 20th century's most heinous
race-based conflicts.
The segment was originally supposed to end with Bill rescuing two Vietnamese children
from jungle warfare to redeem himself, but filming that scene took a horrific turn.
Morrow carried the children, aged six and seven, across a river as a helicopter flew
overhead to simulate the danger of the scene.
The craft was helmed by an experienced pilot, but a mortar effect exploded too closely to
the vessel after the director demanded that the pilot fly the craft lower than he'd been.
The helicopter careened out of control due to the blast, and the impact cost the lives of all three
actors.
According to co-star Dick Peabody,
"Vic's last words in life, while holding two children and waiting for the director to say
'action' were, 'I've got to be crazy to do this shot.
I should've asked for a double."
Midnight Rider
The Jesup, Georgia set of Midnight Rider became a crime scene once director Randall Miller
was charged with manslaughter after one of his crewmembers perished in a very preventable
accident.
The cast and crew was sent out to a local train trestle to film a scene with William
Hurt laying in a bed on the tracks, and they were told they'd have a 60 second window to
escape if a train came along.
Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly enough time to get everyone to safety, and 27-year-old
camera assistant Sarah Jones was fatally struck by the vehicle, while several others were
injured.
The grisly incident was captured on film by the crew's cameras, and the film's director
pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter as a result of the accident.
He was released early from his sentence in 2016, but is still legally forbidden to be
involved in a film in any capacity involving safety responsibilities.
The Crow
Actor Brandon Lee, son of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, was all set to step off of his
father's famous coattails with a starring role in The Crow, but his life was tragically
cut short during what should have been a routine stunt shot gone terribly wrong in March 1993.
A Magnum .44 pistol used in a scene was supposed to be loaded with a single harmless blank,
but had a piece of a bullet still lodged in the chamber from earlier.
When it was fired off by Lee's co-star Michael Massee as planned, the bullet pierced Lee's
abdominal aorta; he could not be saved despite several hours of surgical effort.
The studio and filmmakers had the option to table the pic altogether, with insurance covering
the production expenses.
However, they decided to forge on and finish with subs coming in to round out Lee's remaining
pieces so that his life's last work could be shared.
The actor who pulled the trigger later said,
"I wasn't even supposed to be handling the gun until we started shooting the scene, but
they changed it.
I don't think you ever get over something like that."
The film was eventually released to resounding praise in 1994, and, contrary to urban myth,
did not include the actual footage of Lee's fatal wound.
Top Gun
All those aerial trick maneuvers that made Top Gun such a maverick movie came at a devastating
cost for one of the pilots who helped make them happen.
The life of Art Scholl, an experienced airman, was lost during production of the 1986 action-adventure
classic after he lost control of his plane during an inverted flat spin and crashed into
the Pacific Ocean.
Eerily enough, the circumstances of the accident were strikingly similar to what happened in
the events of the movie itself, in which the character Goose also perished after failing
to recover from a flat spin.
The move was considered relatively low-risk for a pilot of his caliber, and it's impossible
to know exactly what went so wrong that day, as his vessel and body were never found.
And that wouldn't be the last Tom Cruise movie to cost an experienced airman his life.
American Made
The Colombian production of American Made became the site of a tragedy when two pilots
lost their lives in a plane crash on the set.
The film, which gives cinematic life to the true story of Barry Seal, a pilot who ran
covert operations in Central America for the CIA, required a lot of aerial shots and acrobatics
in dangerous conditions.
And in September 2015, one effort to return for more sky shots became catastrophic when
the plane crashed near a small village.
Local villagers reportedly discovered the wreckage shortly after witnessing the crash
and found that all three pilots inside were alive, albeit burned.
By the time medical assistance arrived, however, only one was alive, while the other two had
passed away.
The families of the deceased brought legal action against the studios, alleging that
actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman demanded "lavish" shots during long days, which may
have contributed to the cause of the plane's crash.
Cruise himself had reportedly been on a helicopter flight through the same terrain just minutes
before the fateful crash.
Thanks for watching!
Click the Grunge icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!