00:00You can't get away!
00:06I'm right behind ya!
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at some of the most famous movie scenes that suffered some type of tragedy during production.
00:15It smelled like slow death in there. Malaria. Nightmares.
00:24Parasailing Behind the Boat, Triple X
00:26I wish I had a video camera!
00:28What you talking about?
00:30This is gonna be one hell of a trip.
00:32In the climactic sequence of this action flick, Xander Cage parasails behind a boat in Prague.
00:36Realizing that the string is about to hit a bridge, Cage lets go and zip-lines down to the boat, barely missing the bridge himself.
00:42It's a fantastic stunt, and it looks brilliant on film. Unfortunately, it cost stuntman Harry O'Connor his life.
00:47While filming the second take, O'Connor slammed into a pallaky bridge, breaking his neck and tragically passing away.
00:53Out of respect for his work, director Rob Cohen dedicated the final product to his memory.
00:58It shows you the lengths to which we'll go to bring this kind of intense experience to the viewer.
01:05The wide shot of Cage disappearing behind the bridge is the real shot of O'Connor, though there's conflicting information on whether it's from the first or second take.
01:12This film is dedicated to his memory. I miss him. He was a friend.
01:18The Skeleton Pool, Poltergeist
01:20You son of a bitch! You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn't you?
01:24Another climactic sequence, another bit of horrifying movie trivia. Diane Freeling slips into her swimming pool, and she's met by a number of skeletons that appear out of the water.
01:32Well, you can probably see where this is going.
01:34You only moved the headstones!
01:37Yeah, those are real. Makeup artist Craig Reardon reportedly purchased a number of surgical skeletons and made them up to appear more ghoulish.
01:44Actress JoBeth Williams had no idea that the skeletons were real, assuming quite understandably that they were props made by the special effects team.
01:51And at least one apparent reason for using real human bodies instead of making their own? You probably know the answer to that, too. It was cheaper.
01:58Those feelings are bad. They hurt.
02:02Falling into the Canal, Summertime
02:04I am now going to take a picture. Okie dokie.
02:09One of David Lean's more grounded films, Summertime tells of a budding relationship in Venice between Secretary Jane Hudson and antiques dealer Renato DeRosi.
02:17Catherine Hepburn plays Jane and received her sixth Oscar nomination for the performance.
02:21You know, all my life I've stayed at parties too long because I didn't know when to go. Now with you, I've grown up, I think I do know when to.
02:31She also received a permanent eye infection. In one scene, Jane is filming DeRosi's shop when she ends up in the canal.
02:37Despite having doubts about the safety of the water, Hepburn performed the fall herself after much prodding from Lean.
02:42You should have seen me in the Olympics!
02:45Shortly after executing the stunt, she began experiencing pain in her eyes and was diagnosed with pink eye.
02:49It was an uncommon form of the ailment and became a chronic issue that stayed with Hepburn.
02:57Man Overboard, Das Boot
03:05A very popular German war film, Das Boot follows submarine U-96 and its experiences during the Battle of the Atlantic.
03:12In one terrifying sequence, U-96 gets caught in a nasty storm and Pilgrim gets swept away by the water.
03:17According to movie lore, actor Jan Freder was actually swept off the prop boat.
03:21A co-star seeing the accident apparently yelled Man Overboard.
03:25Pilgrim!
03:29Freder was injured in the fall, with some sources claiming that he suffered a concussion and others that he broke ribs.
03:34As the movie was filmed chronologically, Pilgrim was reportedly rewritten in order to accommodate Fedder, who spent much of his time recovering in bed.
03:41Three rib fractures, one flat wound.
03:49Pretty much the whole movie, The Conqueror.
04:01This is one of the most legendary films in movie history for more reasons than one.
04:04First, it's terrible and problematic. Second, it was one giant health and safety disaster.
04:08Any time you see them in the desert, they're filming downwind from a nuclear test site.
04:12And when production moved back to Hollywood, Howard Hughes had tons of radioactive dirt shipped to the studio in order to keep continuity.
04:18About 40% of the crew eventually developed cancer, which many have attributed to the hazardous filming site.
04:24You have suffered much.
04:28But you will spare me further suffering.
04:30If it is in my power.
04:31However, these numbers also match the rates found in the general population, and tobacco use was extremely heavy at the time,
04:37leading some to question if the nuclear fallout was the true cause.
04:40Well, it certainly couldn't have helped.
04:50Attacked by real birds. The birds.
04:58Alfred Hitchcock had a murky relationship with actors, once even claiming that they should be treated like cattle.
05:03And few got it worse than Tippi Hedren.
05:05Hitchcock was reportedly obsessed with Hedren and often acted in a problematic manner towards her.
05:09I see. Good luck, Miss Daniels.
05:12Thank you.
05:14This extended to her physical safety, which he threatened during the climactic sequence of The Birds.
05:18To film the attack in the attic, Hitchcock had live birds thrown at Hedren.
05:22Live birds that were physically attached to her at a point to prevent them from flying away.
05:26Eventually, one of the birds scratched Hedren's face, and a doctor ordered that filming be stopped.
05:30Nice innocent little day.
05:32Oh, yes.
05:36The Horsehead. The Godfather.
05:38My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
05:41What was that?
05:42It's one of the most famous scenes in cinema.
05:44Jack Waltz wakes up and finds blood in his bed.
05:47Peeling away the blankets, he finds more and more blood until finally coming to the source,
05:50the decapitated head of his prized horse, courtesy of Vito Corleone.
05:53Francis Ford Coppola is known for his extreme style of directing,
05:56not to mention his penchant for showing real animal violence on screen.
06:00There you are, $600,000 on four hooks.
06:03I'll bet Russian John never paid that kind of dough for a single horse.
06:06Turns out this was a real horse head, which was acquired from a company that manufactured dog food.
06:10The studio asked Coppola to use a prop head.
06:13However, he didn't like the way it looked, so he acquired a real one.
06:15They put it in the bed, added a little prop blood, and made movie history.
06:19That's a true story.
06:21The Long Takes. The Shining.
06:23Yeah, this whole place is such an enormous maze.
06:25I feel like I'll have to leave a trail of breadcrumbs every time I come in.
06:28This classic film contains a number of complicated long shots,
06:31like the one where Wendy backs up the stairs
06:33and when she and Jack walk through the hotel with Stuart Ullman.
06:36The former scene is particularly infamous,
06:38with the Guinness Book of World Records claiming it was shot 127 times.
06:41According to Lee Unkrich, who wrote a massive book on The Shining, this is not true.
06:45However, the dolly shot of Wendy and Jack walking through the hotel
06:48apparently took 66 takes to complete, the most in the film, per Unkrich.
06:52My God, this place is fantastic, isn't it, hon?
06:56Sure is.
06:57Regardless, Kubrick's methodical style slowly eroded at Shelley Duvall,
07:01who reportedly started losing her hair from the constant stress.
07:04She later told Roger Ebert that making the movie was almost unbearable.
07:07If it hadn't been for that, you know, volley of ideas,
07:14and sometimes butting of heads together,
07:17it wouldn't have come out as good as it did.
07:19Willard's Breakdown. Apocalypse Now.
07:21Coppola dragged a performance out of you in Apocalypse Now,
07:25or at least urged it out of you as Captain Willard,
07:28that a lot of people who observed it, this is what I've read, found almost frightening.
07:33We return to Francis Ford Coppola for Apocalypse Now,
07:36which might as well describe the making of the film.
07:38Its production is as famous and notorious as the movie itself,
07:41and that includes the near-death and mental health struggles of star Martin Sheen.
07:44Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle.
07:48By the late 1970s, Sheen was dealing with alcohol use disorder and was in poor health,
07:52even suffering a heart attack on the set of the film, despite being just 36.
07:56The scene depicting Willard's Breakdown was real,
07:58with Sheen claiming that he was wrestling with some demons.
08:00He said he couldn't do it, and they had a nurse standing by,
08:03and I said, please, I must do this for myself.
08:05Coppola tried stopping him, but he was adamant that they continue filming.
08:08So Coppola kept the cameras rolling, capturing an actor at a difficult point in his life.
08:12And today I don't recognize that man as a pretty sad guy.
08:15Pretty sad man.
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08:33The Murder Flashback, The Crow
08:35The devil stood and felt how awful goodness is.
08:39One of the most notorious movie accidents occurred on March 31, 1993.
08:43Brandon Lee was filming the scene where Eric is shot and thrown from his apartment window.
08:48Unfortunately, this moment, and the entire film for that matter,
08:51have forever been tarnished by Lee's tragic death.
08:53I love you.
08:55Say that again.
08:56I love you.
08:57The scene required him to be shot at with blank rounds,
09:00but thanks to some grossly negligent actions by the production,
09:03Lee was accidentally killed when the firing of said blank propelled a lodged dummy bullet out of the barrel.
09:08The remaining scenes were reworked to accommodate Lee's death,
09:11and his face was notably superimposed onto the body of his stunt double.
09:14Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.
09:19Can you think of any more scenes with disturbing backstories?
09:22Let us know in the comments below.
09:23This actually smells like real blood.
09:26Did you enjoy this video?
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