While watching a movie , all we ever see is the glitz and glam; the spectacle of it all. Very seldomly do we ever hear of the heartbreak and tragedy that often befalls a production .
So in an effort to help bring some of these lesser-known events to light, here are 10+ filming disasters that made a huge impact on production.
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Crew member Ricardo Cornelius was killed in a freak car accident on the set of *Resident Evil: The Final Chapter*.
Ricardo was crushed after a Hummer on a rotating platform malfunctioned , fell off, and wound up pinning him against the wall.
He sadly died of his injuries while en route to the hospital.
Stunt pilot Art Scholl crashed his plane and was killed filming *Top Gun*.
Art was one of the most well-respected aerial acrobatic pilots in the game.
His plane crashed into the water and was never recovered. Because of this, there’s no conclusive evidence to explain exactly what happened.
One stuntman lost his life after getting too close to an explosion while filming *The Expendables 2*.
Kun Liu was only 26-years-old when he lost his life after failing to clear the blast radius of an on-set explosive device.
His parents sued production claiming that they’d failed to create a safe working environment.
The SFX technician on the set of *Rambo: First Blood Part II* fell to his death.
Cliff Wenger Jr. was supposedly checking a waterfall explosion when he lost his footing and plummetted to his death.
He was submerged underwater for more than five minutes before the crew could retrieve his body.
Production on *Maze Runner: Death Cure* was halted for nearly a year to allow Dylan O’Brien time to recover from injury.
Initially, it looked as if the injuries that Dylan suffered weren’t severe; that prognosis changed almost overnight.
The young star was diagnosed with a severe concussion and low-grade brain trauma .
Sylvester Stallone nearly died filming a fight scene with Dolph Lundgren in *Rocky IV*.
Supposedly, Dolph Lundgren punched Sylvester Stallone so hard that it nearly ruptured his heart.
Stallone was forced to go on bed rest for 8 days until the swelling started to go down.
Production grinded to a halt on *Live Free Or Die Hard* after Bruce Willis’ stunt double fell more than 25 feet.
Larry Rippenkroeger fell nearly 30 feet onto the pavement. He had fractures in his wrists and broken bones in his face.
In order to allow Larry time to recover, production was temporarily shut down. Bruce Willis even comped his parents’ hotel bill.
Vin Diesel’s stunt double on *XXX* was killed while filming a bridge sequence.
Harry O’Connor was the one responsible for those death-defying aerial stunts that you see in XXX .
While filming a bridge stunt , Harry hit the wall at full speed and broke his neck. He then crashed into the water below and was killed on impact.
One stuntman was rushed to the hospital after accidentally being stabbed during a battle scene in *Fury*.
Apparently, things got extra heated between two stuntmen, and one ended up accidentally stabbing the other with his bayonet .
Production was put on pause temporarily and thankfully the injuries suffered as a result of the accident weren’t life-threatening.
The time that the entire cast and crew of *Titanic* was poisoned.
More than 60 cast and crewmembers ingested a dangerous neurotoxin after eating bad shellfish.
Bill Paxton told Entertainment Weekly “One minute I felt O.K., the next minute I felt so [expletive] anxious I wanted to breathe in a paper bag.”
Angela Bassett’s stunt double in *Vampire In Brooklyn* lost her life after a horrific fall.
Sonja Davis fell 42-feet onto an airbag that wasn’t properly secured. This caused her to bounce back up, smash into a building, and then collapse back down to the floor.
To make matters worse, her family was on set that day and saw the whole thing.
Stuntman Conway Wickliffe sadly lost his life after losing control of a vehicle on the set of *The Dark Knight*.
Conway was filming and was leaning out of the car. The driver lost control and smashed into a tree at 20 mph.
The cameraman sustained terrible injuries and was pronounced dead on the scene.
Film extra Gabriela Cedillo’s life was forever changed after a freak occurrence on the set of *Transformers: Dark Of The Moon*.
While filming was taking place, a cable pulling a car snapped and came crashing through Gabriela’s windshield, striking her in the head.
She suffered permanent brain damage and was awarded $18.5 million in settlement fees.
Martin Sheen had a heart attack while filming *Apocalypse Now*.
The mythos behind the film Apocalypse Now is truly unequaled. By all accounts, this movie was an absolute war zone (no pun intended).
Martin’s heart attack not only nearly killed him but also sidelined him for weeks.
Brandon Lee was killed while filming *The Crow*.
Somehow, one of the blank rounds malfunctioned and fired a real shot.
Tragically, Brandon was killed making the film that was intended to help launch his career as a legitimate movie star.
