Movie stunts that didn't go according to plan, but turned out so good that they were left in the film (8 photos + 7 videos)

One of the most underrated skills in the world of cinema is stunt coordination, without which no action movie could succeed. Stuntmen put themselves in harm's way so that top-tier actors look flawless on camera.





Although most movie stunts are carefully planned, there are times when something goes wrong. Weather conditions, a stuntman's mistake or an absurd accident - any of these lead to the fact that the trick does not go as originally intended. However, sometimes a botched stunt looks so cool and brutal that directors feel obligated to include the botched version into the final film. Let's look at some interesting examples.

Enjoy reading!

Tom Cruise Broke His Ankle (Mission: Impossible: Fallout)



Tom Cruise is known for his dedication to performing all his own stunts, but this dedication has another side to the coin - injuries.

While filming the sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, the actor unsuccessfully jumped from one building to another. Although Cruise performed the stunt with all safety precautions, he made a slight mistake with his jump and broke his ankle when he landed a bad foot on the wall.

As a result, filming was suspended for seven weeks at a cost of a whopping $80 million, which luckily was covered by insurance. Director Christopher McQuarrie decided to include the fatal take in the film itself, including the shot where Cruise, languishing in pain, climbs onto the roof and runs away, limping heavily.

Stuntman Guy Norris was thrown into the air and broke his hip (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior)





Each of the films in the Mad Max franchise was filled with impressive stunts, and there were so many of them that it is truly surprising that all the actors remained intact during filming. Almost all.

In the second film, stuntman Guy Norris performed a risky stunt with a car, but things didn't go according to plan. Norris accidentally hit his knee on the buggy, causing him to be thrown uncontrollably into the air before hitting the ground and flipping several times in the air.

Norrsie suffered a broken femur, but because the resulting stunt looked so damn amazing, director George Miller couldn't bring himself to abandon it. Amazingly, this stunt appears to be so carefully planned that it is impossible to prove that Norris's ballet-like flight was not the original idea. Despite his injury, Norris returned to the film's set just a few days later to complete his fight scene with Mel Gibson.

Stuntman Rick Sylvester's parachute was in danger (The Spy Who Loved Me)



One of the most famous stunts in cinema history occurred in the scene in which James Bond skis down a mountainside, falls into the abyss and, after a long free fall, deploys a parachute to ensure a safe landing.

The scene was filmed without any optical tricks, and stuntman Rick Sylvester was hired for the stunt. The stunt cost nearly half a million dollars, making it the most expensive stunt in cinema history at the time, and while the results are absolutely breathtaking, it's hard to ignore that it was anything but safe.

The trick required Sylvester to drop his skis in the air, and only then open the parachute, but no one took into account that during the fall, the dropped skis would remain on top, and when the parachute opened, there was a chance that the skis would damage it or simply pierce it. This is practically what happened - after the parachute opened, the skis touched its upper part, but fortunately, the parachute withstood such contact, and the stuntman reached the ground unharmed.

 

Stuntwoman Cheryl Wheeler crashes into a pole and falls 10 meters (10 meters) (Back to the Future 2)



The stunning hoverboard chase in Back to the Future Part 2 culminates with Griff Tannen and his gang of thugs crashing into the glass façade of the Hill Valley Courthouse Mall. One might assume that such a potentially dangerous stunt was carried out with all precautions, but this was not the case.

The plan was for four stuntmen to be launched into a glass storefront using cables and then all land safely on a mat inside a shopping mall. However, when the four were launched towards the glass, Wheeler veered off course and crashed into one of the large stone pillars. The result was injuries to the face, forearm and hand, although none of the injuries, fortunately, had serious consequences or interfered with his career.

In fact, this shot is barely visible in the film. One moment Wheeler comes into contact with a pole and hangs awkwardly in the air, and a moment later Robert Zemeckis abruptly cuts to another shot of other stuntmen crashing into the glass.



A random car is hit during a car chase (The French Connection)



The classic crime thriller is best remembered for its climactic car chase. It was filmed late in production, without a filming permit, which meant the stunt drivers were riding alongside regular people quietly going about their business.

As a result, stuntman Gene Hackman crashed his car into a white 1968 Ford Torino, but this car was not part of the stunt - it was a random car of a completely random person. The production company paid all the repair costs, so everything ended well.



Steve Austin broke Sylvester Stallone's neck (The Expendables)



One of the most memorable moments in The Expendables involves the fight between Sylvester Stallone and wrestler Steve Austin. Instead of letting stuntmen do the heavy lifting, the actors decided to go it alone, filming the entire sequence without outside help.

The tough guys got so carried away that Austin threw Stallone to the ground with such force that the actor suffered a fractured cervical vertebra. He required major surgery, during which a metal plate was inserted into his neck.

It's interesting that Stallone didn't realize the seriousness of his injury until a routine doctor's visit a week later, where he was informed that the fluid that had accumulated around the fracture could lead to very serious consequences.

Austin was horrified when he heard about Stallone's injury, but Sylvester called to reassure him that there were no hard feelings, just a work situation in which something didn't go according to plan. Naturally, as director, Stallone included this scene in the final version of the film.

Stuntman Shea Adams hits his head on the front tire (Ghost Rider)



At the beginning of Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze unsuccessfully jumps over trucks. Initially, in this scene, stuntman Shea Adams was supposed to simply fall off the motorcycle, but he unsuccessfully hit his head on the front wheel of the motorcycle, causing his helmet visor to break.

Reports vary on the extent of injuries sustained from this botched stunt, but the fact that Adams worked on several films the following year suggests there were no serious health consequences.

The resulting fall scene was so beautifully clunky that there was no way it wouldn't be included in the film itself. No graphics, just the dedication of the stuntman, coupled with a pinch of bad luck.