In keeping with our “Travel Like a Stuntman” theme, we wanted to take the time to celebrate the work real stunt doubles do every day in Hollywood. These professionals risk death and sustain injuries to make the illusion of the theatre as perfect as possible. Here are six of the most iconic, impressive and awe-inspiring feats of stunt-double derring-do ever put on camera.
Raiders of the Lost Ark Truck Drag (Terry Leonard)
Harrison Ford and three different stunt doubles participated in this thrilling homage to the old-school serials, with Leonard playing the part of the imperilled Indy. To film it without killing anybody, the production team had to specially modify both the truck and the road beneath it. They altered the truck’s suspension so it rode higher than normal, and dug a trench along the route to create more clearance.
Credit/Paramount Pictures
Live and Let (Croco) Die (Ross Kananga)
This campy escape from the crocodile farm in the James Bond classic featured Roger Moore crossing a pond by running across the backs of four ferocious crocodiles. Though many moviegoers at the time thought this trick used fake crocodiles like the fake shark in Jaws, they actually filmed this by having stunt double Ross Kananga run over the backs of four actual, live crocs. To make it worse, Kananga had to make several attempts, each one braving the jaws of the reptilian stepping stones.
Credit/United Artists
Pretty Much Everything in Fury Road (Dane Grant & Dayna Porter)
When Frank Miller envisioned this 2015 tour de force, he opted to do as much as possible in real life, with no CGI. The “pole cats” leaping from car to car on pole vaulting poles were actual, live people doing that on actual, moving vehicles. The motorcycles jumping over the War Rig dropping bombs were actual, live people doing motorcycle jumps over a moving truck and dropping actual, live fire bombs. We couldn’t choose a particular scene from this amazing stunt double extravaganza, so here’s a 20-minute film on the stunt work in general.
Credit/Warner Bros.
Stagecoach (Yakima Canutt)
This is the stunt double scene stunt doubles talk about to this day when they mention the best and most dangerous stunt scenes of all time, where Yakima Canutt leaps from a horse onto a running team of horses, then falls among the running legs to be dragged along — all in days before serious medical attention was within easy reach of a filming location. If this seems familiar, that’s because Spielberg openly admits the truck chase in Raiders was inspired by this epic an iconic scene.
Credit/United Artists
Footloose Stunt Dancer (various)
Kevin Bacon openly admits being “furious” that the production team for this eighties classic didn’t think he was a good enough dancer to do these scenes himself. Instead, they brought in five stunt workers, dancers and gymnasts to do the bodywork for this scene. In related news, did you know the nude scene in Dancing With Wolves was shot with a pair of stunt buns?
Credit/Paramount Pictures
Rumble in the Bronx Hovercraft Hop (Jackie Chan)
No discussion of stuntwork is complete without mentioning Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan’s work as his own stunt double. His film team trains harder than most professional sports teams to create the exciting, quirky fight scenes and flamboyant feats they bring to the audiences. The list of representative scenes could be an article all its own, but perhaps the best choice is his leap to a bridge foundation to catch a moving hovercraft — a leap in which he broke his ankle badly (and then continued to shoot the rest of the film).
Credit/Golden Harvest
True movie buffs can visit the sites of most of these Great Film Moment (™) during a trip to the appropriate area. Just be sure to do your research before booking your flight. For example, most of Rumble in the Bronx was filmed in Vancouver, BC.
