5 unbelievable movie stunts that were real
The rise of CGI in films has made audiences suspicious whenever there is a perfectly executed stunt. However, these films actually pulled of these unbelievable stunts in real-life.
1. Live and Let Die (1973)
In Live and Let Die, Roger Moore as James Bond, finds himself stranded on an island surrounded by crocodiles. Bond then uses the crocodiles as a bridge, jumping to safety on the other side of the reptiles. This stunt was executed by using the owner of the crocodile farm where they were shooting, Ross Kananga. To prevent the reptiles from swimming around, Kananga tied their feet to concrete blocks. He then attempted to cross the reptile bridge five separate times, and a few of the attempts led to near-death experiences. In one attempt, Kananga slipped midway and was stuck on the back of a croc and then another time, a croc got a hold of his shoe and he was in a tug-of-war battle to keep his foot. On the sixth try, he nailed the stunt.
2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
Near the end of the film, T-1000 shapeshifts into a helicopter and flies beneath an overpass. Director James Cameron wanted this stunt to be real but he had to make sure there was enough space for the helicopter to fit under the overpass. After wheeling it under the overpass, he found he had five feet of space above him and four on each side. The scene was so risky that the camera crew refused to film it so Cameron shot it himself. The risky stunt was successfully pulled off.
3. Speed (1994)
This move features a scene where the bus has to clear a huge gap in a freeway. Sandra Bullock’s character, Annie Porter, successfully clears the gap and the bus lands safely on the other side. The filmmakers digitally removed the missing bit of concrete in the road but, the director actually got the bus to fly in the air. A stunt driver sped along a LA freeway and went up a constructed ramp. The jump made the driver go up in the air and land 0.49 seconds later. The landing ruined the bus but the driver survived due to a special harness that was designed by the stunt director.
4. Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Tom Cruise is known for being a daredevil and performing his own stunts. In Mission: Impossible II, the actor’s character gets into a fight with a villain on a beach. The guy gets a knife and tries to stab Cruise in the eye, and during filming, a real knife was used. To make sure he wouldn’t lose his sight, there was a steel cable that was attached to the weapon and Cruise positioned himself so it would stop a quarter of an inch away from his eye.
5. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
In the third movie of the Bourne series, Matt Damon is chasing an assassin and has to leap across an alleyway and crash through the window to get him. To film the scene, director Paul Greengrass got a stuntman to leap from one building to another, smashing into a false window. In order to get the perfect shot, another stunt guy was attached to a wire rig and was given a handheld camera to follow the body double. The director said that they had to film the scene a couple of times to get the perfect shot and in one attempt, the cameraman’s harness got stuck and ruined the shot.
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