This article was originally published on 24/7Mirror
It Wasn't All Fun and Games While Filming Hangover Part II
People who have watched the Hangover series can tell you that it is hilarious. But not many people know that it wasn't all fun when the cast and crew were filming the movie. Scott McLean was the stunt double of Ed Helms and in one scene he had to stick his head out of a moving truck only to have his head narrowly miss an oncoming car. However, it didn't go as planned.
Mclean experienced severe head trauma after his head hit the other vehicle. He was then airlifted to the hospital. He has recovered since then and has relearned how to walk and talk. He and his wife blame stunt coordinator Russel Solbery for the injury.
A Sad Tragedy On The Set of Film Jumper
When Jumper movie was released in 2008, it received a lukewarm response from critics but went on to make 222.2 million USD on a budget of 85 million USD. Not many people know that the making of the film put several people's lives in danger, even leading to one person's death. Such was the impact of the tragedy that set dressers found themselves tearing down when the unimaginable happened.
Four workers were sorting lumber debris when frozen sand and gravel adhering to a wall broke away and fell on top of two workers. It instantly killed 56-year-old David Richie and another worker received really severe injuries to the head and shoulder. Although it was described as a "fluke accident", the film production company was fined $250,000.
Roar is the Most Dangerous Film of All Time
It won't be wrong to say that the idea of Roar movie was just plain stupid. The movie which was completed in 1981 is about a family who is attacked by wild animals during their visit to the home of an animal researcher. Although the idea wasn't that stupid, what made it so moronic was the use of real predatory animals. Yes, the filmmakers went on to bring in real lions, tigers, leopards, and other wild animals. They shot the movie on a ranch where they coexisted with - you've guessed it right - wild animals.
It took 11 years to complete the production and over 70 members of the cast and crew were injured by the wild animals. Ironically, the filmmakers were also close to getting killed from various incidents such as bone fractures, scalping, and gangrene.
A Too Extreme Scene for An Extreme Film xXx (also known as Triple X)
The 2002 action film xXx was filled with countless action scenes and stunts. As the movie progresses, we see that each scene starts to become more outrageous and so does the danger. Unfortunately, one of the stunts cost aerial stuntman Harry O'Connor his life. He was acting as Vin Diesel's character, Xander Cage, in which Xander had to land on a moving boat by zip-lining down the cable of his paraglide, hence barely making the landing.
However, O'Connor wasn’t able to make it under the bridge and struck a pillar at a fast speed. It instantly killed the 45-year-old stuntman. The scene finally made into the final cut of the movie, but it was edited to make it look like nothing bad happened.
Deadly Explosives In Rambo: First Blood Part II
When the title of the movie is Rambo, it is guaranteed to have everything that satisfies action fans all over the world. The Rambo: First Blood Part II was also filled with enough violence and stunts. However, one of the dangerous stunts led to the death of special effects technician Cliff Wenger Jr.
Wenger was in charge of setting up countless explosions in the film and unfortunately, it took his life. There is still uncertainty about his death as some claim he fell off a waterfall while rigging up explosive while others think that his death was a result of premature detonation.
When The Set of Twilight Zone: The Movie Became Death Zone
During the filming of 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie, the improperly timed special effects and the reckless use of a helicopter on the set resulted in the unthinkable. It caused the death of two child actors (Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen) and actor Vic Morrow – the American actor was famous for roles in King Creole, Blackboard Jungle, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, and The Bad News Bears.
The accident happened when the helicopter which was flying dangerously low above the scene crashed on top of three actors due to a poorly timed explosion. It was a horrible scene to witness as the helicopter crashed on child actor and decapitated the other child actor, along with Morrow. The horrifying accident led to a high-profile legal case and director John Landis, the special effects coordinator, and the helicopter pilot were charged with involuntary manslaughter. All of them were later acquitted. However, the film was later released and it received mixed reviews.
Waterworld Almost Became a Deathtrap
When Waterworld was released in 1995 on a budget of 175 million USD, making it the most expensive film ever made at the time. It received a lot of praise for the futuristic setting and premise (shot in the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of Hawaii. Due to the unpredictability of the weather and the ruthless waves, the lives of several members of the cast, crew, and even main lead star were in danger.
The film's lead star, Kevin Costner, was lucky enough to escape after getting caught in a storm for about 30 minutes. He was tied to the mast of a boat and he made a very lucky escape. Even Costner's stunt double, Laird Hamilton, got lost at sea while "commuting" to the set on a jet ski and he had to be saved on time. Overall, the entire production seemed like a wreck because almost everything was falling apart. Luckily, everyone was able to come out of it unharmed.
Sylvester Stallone Getting Injured While Filming The Expendables 3
The cast of The Expendables 3 comprises some of the biggest stars of Hollywood, but there is no arguing that all of them are well past their prime. So, it isn't surprising that there was a list of injuries to actors when the shooting concluded. One of the worst injuries occurred when Sylvester Stallone fell and it resulted in him getting a metal plate inserted into his back.
Another accident happened that could've seriously injured Jason Statham. He was driving the truck when it accidentally launched off of a dock into the Black Sea. Although the actor appeared calm and composed, he later admitted that he feared for his life.
Head Injury While Filming Salt
Salt was a 2010 drama/action movie that did well at the box office and received a lukewarm response from critics as well. In the movie, Angelina Jolie plays the role of a CIA agent who is accused of being a Russian spy. As it was an action-packed thriller, it was obvious that there was going to be a lot of stunts and some injuries on the set as well.
One of the most notable injuries occurred when Angelia Jolie took a hard hit to her head. As there was a concussion, she was asked to stop working for several weeks. This resulted in costing thousands of dollars to the production company.
The Conqueror Movie Resulted In Death of Over 90 People
John Wayne was cast as Genghis Khan in the 1956 box office flop movie The Conqueror. It was a financial failure, but the highlight was that the director Howard Hughes almost killed the entire cast that worked on the film. It is because the film was shot in the Utah desert. It was not the heat that nearly killed the entire cast, it was something more sinister.
You see they shot the film in Utah desert downwind from the location where the US government had previously detonated 100 nuclear bombs from 1951 to 1962. As the filming began in 1953, eleven nuclear bombs had already been detonated by then. There wasn't much awareness of the nuclear fallout at that time and the Atomic Energy Commission declared the area as safe. However, in the following decades, over 90 members of the cast and crew died from cancer that many experts believe caused by their continuous radiation exposure during the time they spent on the set.
Ghostland Injury Lawsuit
Given the fact that there dying and chasing around in horror movies, they usually require a lot of stunts and special effects. Ghostland was no different as well. In the movie, actress Taylor Hickson's character was supposed to be thrown through a glass door, with of course nothing happening to her in reality.
However, the unexpected happened as the stunt resulted in the actress getting severe cuts on her face. It left her with a permanent scar on her cheek. It all happened because a wrong kind of glass was used in the stunt. She ended up suing the film company for their mistake in overlooking safety measures.
When Things Got Too Real While Filming Quantum of Solace
As Daniel Craig was filming a fight scene for his second James Bond film, he took a big hit on his face. A stuntman went for a free-kick that wasn't supposed to hit the actor's face, but it actually landed there and caused a lot of damage to his face.
The actor received eight stitches and the filming was put on hold for some time. Moreover, he also received a black eye. As a result of it, the production had to spend more money to digitally remove the damage around Craig's eye.
When Marilyn Monroe Caused The Production to Go Over Budget
Marilyn Monroe was inarguably one of the best actresses in the world in the 1950s. That's why producers would go to any means just to bring her abroad. That's what the producers of Some Like It Hot did as well. But it soon became clear to them that they had made a big mistake hiring her as Sugar Kane.
It is because she was going through some major personal problems at that time and her issues were affecting her work as well. She couldn't remember most of her lines and would come to work fairly late. She also didn't get along with the rest of the cast and crew. Unsurprisingly, her movie didn't recover its production costs.
Troy Incident Leading To Crew Member's Death
During the filming of the 2004 war epic Troy, everything was going normal at first. However, when the extras in the film were given unclear directions during a crowd scene, the stuntman George Camilleri leaped into an unsuspecting crowd. It resulted in him getting serious damage to his lower leg. He was admitted to the hospital and later discharged. Unfortunately, he was re-admitted to the hospital and he passed away two days later due to pulmonary thromboembolism – it was due to a blood clot in his leg.
Brad Pitt, who played fearsome Achilles, also damaged his Achilles tendon. The injury stopped the production for over two months before he was fit again.
The Death of Bruce Lee's Son in The Crow
Brandon Lee, son of legend Bruce Lee, starred in the 1994 film The Crow. He played the role of a murdered rock and roll musician who comes back to life just to take revenge on people who killed him. While filming one scene in which Lee's character is shot, a fluke accident occurred and killed the actor.
There was a piece of debris in the gun which wasn't cleaned properly and it was fired into Lee's chest. Although he was taken to the hospital without wasting any time, he bled to death. It was devastating news for everyone and it even led Michael Masse to quit his acting career for a year. The film was later dedicated in remembrance of Lee.
It Wasn't All CGI in Film Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
We all know that director Michael Bay loves to work on big-budget, over-the-top films and the majority of his films emphasize a lot on CGI, especially the Transformers series. However, not all the stunts and explosives are accomplished in his films by using CGI.
During the filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, a steel cable holding a car snapped and the car flew into the windshield where Gabriela Cedillo was sitting. As a result of the accident, Cedillo received severe lacerations on her face and also suffered from permanent brain damage. It led to a lawsuit and Paramount Pictures had to award the family $18 million.
Iron Man Suit Not Strong Enough
We all love Avengers, especially Iron Man. After all, The Iron Man series kick-started things and was a major success from the start. The films have always done well in the box office.
During the filming of Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr. who played Tony Stark in the series got his ankle injured during one of the action sequences. The entire production of the movie had to stop because there was no way for the actor to continue working. The ankle took about six weeks to recover.
When Pair of Gloves Caused So Much Trouble on The Set of Skyfall
Are you all excited to see No Time to Die next year? It would be the last film of Daniel Craig as James Bond 007. Did you know that Craig bought a pair of gloves during the production of Skyfall because he thought they would go great with his Bond character? What happened next was thing something no one expected.
When filming in a cold warehouse, the actor asked director Sam Mendez if he could allow him to wear the gloves. The director was already under a lot of pressure and he gave it a green signal without thinking a lot about it. However, when the crew was in the editing room, they realized that Craig was wearing gloves when he's shooting a gun. It was a big continuity error because the gun had fingerprint recognition. They knew that re-shooting it would cost millions and was not a feasible option, so they had to spend extra to digitally paint over Craig's hand and that's why his hands appeared abnormally large in the scene.
When The Hateful Eight Smashed History
The Hateful Eight is a well-directed movie that you should definitely watch. In Quentin Tarantino's film, actress Jennifer Jason Leigh's character is a prisoner and she knows how to play guitar and sing. She was even instructed to learn the guitar before the filming started. After all, she was going to use Martin guitar from the 1860s.
In one of the scenes, Kurt Russel's character smashes the guitar from Leigh just to stop her from playing. When filming the scene, Russel thought that they were using the prop guitar. However, it was the antique guitar which he destroyed. It was worth around $40,000.
The High Cost of Fake Babies
When filming, fake babies generally cost way less than real babies and working with them is quite easier as well (they don't cry at all). However, if you are going to use a fake baby in a film then you have to make sure that it looks real enough so that the audience cannot tell the difference.
Military drama American Sniper was a big hit, but it ran into some troubles for using a fake baby. It is because when Bradley Cooper's character goes on to pick the baby, everyone can easily notice the fake baby. The production team attempted CGI to make the doll's arm seem alive, but it made it seem even weirder. As a result, they spent the extra money and still got a backlash for their lazy work.
Expensive Car Crash
We don’t know if producers put aside a special budget for wrecked cars during filming, but we are sure they started to consider the option after what happened in 2018's Proud Mary. In the movie, actress Taraji P. Henson plays the role of a hitwoman who works in Boston. While filming, the actress insisted that she would do her own driving scene.
However, it meant that she would be driving the film's expensive Maserati. The actress accidentally drove the car into a fire hydrant and it cost about $12,000 to repair it. Thankfully, the actress was okay in the little accident.
Real-Life Apocalypse During Filming Apocalypse Now
If we look at the filming of the movie Apocalypse Now, we will notice that it is one of the most taxing and miserable shoots of all time. After all, the conditions in the area where it was filmed were quite challenging and the cast and crew had to battle with bad weather and diseases. But that's not it.
Martin Sheen was almost on the edge of a mental breakdown while he was battling with severe alcoholism. It eventually led him to have a heart attack. Dennis Hopper was abusing alcohol and drugs and Sam Bottoms spent most part of the year-long shoot on LAD. Moreover, Copolla lost 100 pounds and even threatened that he would kill himself...he threatened not one but three times. It was truly a miracle that no one died during the shooting.
No Need for Tom Cruise's Stuntman
There are not many actors who prefer to do their own stunts. However, Tom Cruise is the machine and he is very committed to doing his own stunts. He feels that it helps bring more authenticity and makes him feel closer to his characters. As a daredevil actor, Tom Cruise rarely requests a stunt double.
So, while filming for Mission Impossible – Fallout, the actor said he would do all his stunts. He was also doing them pretty well. However, during one of the action sequences, he ended up shattering his ankle. It left him out of commission for months and the film lost a lot of money due to it. Nevertheless, it didn't stop him from doing his stunts.
When The Actor Couldn’t Get It Together
Most of us who have seen Burt Reynolds in the original Smokey and the Bandit can say that he was exceptional in the film. So, when the first film became a huge success, it was not surprising that they started to work on the second one. However, this time things didn't go as smoothly as expected. It is because the actor couldn't get any of his lines right.
Due to his 'so many mistakes,' the studio had to bear a loss of thousands of dollars for re-shootings. And even in re-shootings, the actor kept messing up his dialogues. According to one of the crew members, they could take all the wasted footage to make a full-length film out of it.
Resident Evil: Final Chapter Incident
There is no denying that the Resident Evil series has always attracted audiences, despite the fact that critics never really liked it. The action-packed series is full of dangerous stunts and each film in it attempts to outdo the previous one. In Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, stuntwoman Olivia Jackson almost lost her life in a motorcycle crash when a camera rig failed to get out of the way.
The accident caused the stuntwoman severe injuries. She was in a medically-induced coma as her body broke from different places and her face almost ripped off. Later, her left arm had to be amputated. Luckily, she survived her injuries. However, the same couldn't the said about another crew member Ricardo Cornelius who was crushed to death after a Humvee pinned him to the wall.
Pushing the Limits in Hell's Angels
Howard Hughes was a business magnate and it meant he had so much money he could do whatever he wanted. His fascination with Hollywood led him to produce films in 1926. However, the only movie he wrote and also directed was Hell's Angels in 1930. It was World War I aviation drama and Hughes went on to assemble a private air force of 87 fighter planes to ensure that the dog fight scenes could look as realistic as possible.
During the filming, two pilots and one mechanic died. As other pilots refused to do stunts, Hughes decided to do one himself. He crashed and it resulted in lacerations on his face and a concussion.
The Hobbit Trilogy Wasn't Safe for Animals
Although no humans were seriously harmed or killed during the filming of The Hobbit, the same cannot be said for the poor animals. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it only happened due to the relaxed standards of self-regulation of Hollywood. As a result of it, 27 animals died. Their death didn't happen on the set of the film, but where they were being housed.
There were enclosures built for over 150 animals on top of underground steams that led to sinkholes. The animals would fall down the sinkholes, break bones and even suffocate to death. It was heartbreaking to see so many animals die and the situation was definitely hard to ignore
When a Controlled Explosion Caused Complete Chaos
As most of us know The Avengers from the superhero comic books and of course, film series, not many people know that these are not the only Avengers in popular culture. In fact, The Avengers was also a British spy TV series of the 1960s which was later adapted into a film.
The movie which starred Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes turned out to be a complete bomb. It not only failed at the box office but also couldn't impress the critics who were hoping it would do well. And that's not it. During the filming, a disaster struck when a controlled explosion went horribly wrong. As rogue sparks landed on the roof of one of their studios, they caused fire and cost the production around $1.6 million in damages.
When Authenticity Led to Serious Complications
During the Shooting of The African Queen, director John Huston's dedication to authenticity encouraged him to film The African Queen in the real jungle instead of a jungle set in Hollywood. So, the film was shot in Uganda and The Congo in over a seven-week period.
Although the cast and crew didn't battle the dangerous elements of jungle, they had to battle with dysentery from drinking bad water. Due to drinking bad water, the entire cast and crew spent over seven weeks dangerously ill. Huston and Humphry Bogart survived it as they preferred whiskey over water. Luckily there was no causality because dysentery can even lead to severe dehydration and death.
That's An Expensive Wig
Marvel introduced a new character to its fans in Thor: Ragnarok. The new character named Valkyrie was played by actress Tessa Thompson. It was a huge delight for all Marvel fans. Not many fans knew that the actress would cost the production an extra $10,000 because of her wig.
So, when Thor: Ragnarok was wrapping up, the actress began working on her next film Sorry to Bother You. In her new film, her character had orange hair and that's why she had to dye her hair. But when she was asked to come back for Thro re-shoots, she had orange hair that caused some problems. So, the studio had to get her a $10,000 wig to cover her orange hair.
When Clint Eastwood Almost Cancelled The Eiger Sanction
The 1975's The Eiger Sanction was Clint Eastwood's third movie as a director. The movie was filmed on a 13,000-foot mountain in the Swiss Alps, Eiger Mountain. As the movie was already being shot in a dangerous location, the legendary Eastwood didn't stop taking risks, including super risky dangling thousands of feet off the ground.
It felt like an accident was waiting to happen and it didn't take long before a giant boulder became loose and killed stuntman Dave Knowles. It also seriously injured climbing supervisor Mike Hoover. As Clint Eastwood strongly started to consider canceling the film, the other stuntmen changed his mind as they didn't want Knowles to have died for nothing.
Breaking the Wrong Thing
Battlestar Galactica was a 1970s television show that received a makeover with a bigger budget in the early 2000s. In the 2007 episode “Maelstrom,” the viewers can see Amiral Adama, played by James Olmos, working on a beautiful model ship. In an attempt to overcome his rage and grief, the actor destroys the model. However, that wasn't even in the script.
He didn't know at that time the museum had loaned that piece to the production company. He later confessed that he would have never done it if he had known it was so expensive. The ship model was worth $200,000.
Expensive Authenticity
It is said that Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now was a nightmare for everyone. It is mainly because Coppola insisted that the movie should be filmed in the Philippines instead of a Hollywood studio.
It turned out to be a problematic decision as building an entire fake village in the heart of the jungle was hit with a strong typhoon that nearly destroyed the entire set. Coppola knew the only option for him was to rebuild the village and it cost around $1.5 million.
Shut Down of Midnight Rider
Midnight Rider was a film about Greg Allman's life. During the filming, an accident with a train took the life of crew member Sarah Jones. She was shooting a scene on the train tracks. Apparently, she was given just a one-minute warning to clear all the personnel and props from the tracks.
As a result of her death, the producers were charged with being criminally negligent because the investigation found that they hadn't received any permission to film on the railroads' property. As Hollywood and Greg Allman heavily condemned the film, it was later entirely canceled. The director, Randall Miller, received a sentence of 1 year in prison.
Can't Get Rid of Moustache
Superman actor Henry Cavill has a busy work schedule as he is working on a lot of projects. It became an issue when he was working for his role in Mission Impossible – Fallout and also had to wrap up filming for Justice League. As he was required to grow a mustache for Mission Impossible movie, he was told that he needed to reshoot some scenes for Justice League.
However, the issue was that he had no plan of getting rid of the mustache due to the demand for his role. That's why the filmmakers of the Justice League had to spend extra money to use the magic of CGI to hide his facial hair. Of course, it cost them money to do it. By the way, how many of you are excited to see Henry Cavill in The Witcher TV series?
Unlucky Octopus
During the filming of 1985's film The Goonies, the filmmakers originally thought of adding a giant octopus at the end of the film and they even went through with it. So, the octopus was supposed to attack Stef and Mouth in the lagoon. Afterward, data would then go on to shove a cassette into the octopus's mouth which would lead it to breakdance to Goon Squad's “Eight Arms to Hold You.”
The studio went on to shoot the scene and yet it didn't make it to the final cut. It is because the octopus looked incredibly odd and the mutual decision was to cut it out of the movie. All the invested energy, time, and money were wasted. Who else feels sad for the poor octopus?
Surprisingly, Nobody Died While Filming Ben-Hur
With an 18-acre set (the largest set ever constructed) for the infamous chariot scene, it is really surprising that nobody died during the filming of Ben-Hur. Released in 1959, the movie is particularly known for its chariot scene because of its huge scale and also due to how dangerous it was.
As the technology back then was nowhere near as good as it is today, all the pileups and crashes had to be done for real (without using any camera tricks). So, there was added pressure that everything had to be executed perfectly. There was one injury that occurred during the scene when stuntman Joe Canutt was pitched over his chariot in a way that he landed between two horses. He was lucky enough to suffer minor wounds. However, some people believe that the scene was so dangerous the MGM covered the death of a stuntman.
A Loss of Life and Money
As we mentioned earlier how Brandon Lee accidentally got shot on the set and lost his life, did you know how much it cost the production to re-shoot the entire film?
The death of Lee was heartbreaking for everyone and it also took a big toll on the budget of the film. As a result of re-shoots and scheduling conflicts, the movie went $8 million over budget.
Having Second Thoughts
We cannot imagine Back to the Future Series without Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, but did you know that Eric Stoltz was originally cast for the part?
In fact, they had spent over five weeks on set before the director Robert Zemeckis decided that Stoltz and Marty's girlfriend weren't suitable for their parts. So, it was decided to cast Fox. It meant that they had to waste a lot of money and footage due to their change of mind.
Rewriting Script Doesn't Come Cheap
When the writers of Resident Evil gave the main character, Alice, played by Milla Jovovich, almost the same number of lines as Rain, a secondary character in the film, she felt offended. It is because Jovovich was the protagonist in the series and she felt that her character would need to have more screen time and lines.
As a result of it, she gave a simple ultimatum to the filmmakers: either change the script or she would leave the movie. As both options would've cost a lot of money to the studio, they decided to rewrite the entire script as it was the cheaper option. Nevertheless, it still cost the studio money.
Creative Differences
There Will Be Blood is a masterpiece, but did you know that Kel O'Neill was supposed to play the roles of identical twins Paul and Eli Sunday? As a result of many arguments and creative differences over direction between Daniel Day-Lewis, Anderson, and O'Neill, Paul Dano replaced O'Neill.
Given that O'Neill had worked a lot on the production, it meant spending a lot of money on recasting and re-shooting many of the scenes. However, it proved to be a great decision because Dano's performance received worldwide acclaim.