In the wizarding world, Harry Potter was known as "the boy who lived" — but it's a stunt double for the blockbuster franchise who knows he's lucky to be alive.
In a new HBO documentary, David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, we meet Holmes, who played Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double in the Harry Potter films before he was paralysed in an on-set accident.
With Holmes teaming up with Radcliffe to share his story, here are some of the key moments from the 90-minute documentary.
The accident happened during rehearsals for the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
From the Philosopher's Stone to the Half Blood Prince, Holmes performed countless manoeuvres, from "flying" through the air playing Quidditch to swimming underwater during the Triwizard tournament.
But it was during rehearsals in 2009 for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 where everything changed.
In the film, Harry and Hermione visit the cemetery where Harry's parents are buried before following a witch into her home in their search for Voldemort's remaining horcruxes.
It's then the old woman turns into Voldemort's snake Nagini and launches at Harry, sending him slamming through a wall of the house.
In the documentary, Powell explains how the stunt performer would be jerked backwards on a wire, with the force increasing in rehearsals until the landing was perfected.
Fellow stunt performer Marc Mailley describes how Holmes rehearsed the scene the day before, and turned down Mailley's offer to step in to give himself a break.
"And the last thing I said to Dave before he went, I was like 'after yesterday Dave, this one should be a lot easier'," Mailley says.
He describes what happened as "a blur".
"As soon as I left the floor, as soon as the load hit me, I thought 'nope, that's too big,'" Holmes says.
"[David] literally said straight away 'I've broken my neck'," Mailley recalls.
David was immediately rushed to hospital where his father, Andy, says he was "presented with the fact that it was a pretty serious injury".
"He needed to have an operation because at that stage, potentially at any time he could have been fatal."
Holmes was paralysed from the chest down and spent weeks in hospital.
Things were complicated further when he developed a cyst in his spinal cord after surgery, resulting in continued deterioration.
David was adamant against taking legal action
David's mother, Sue Holmes, recalls how she was "very angry and bitter" following the accident and sought someone to blame — but her son disagreed.
"He said 'why Mum? My life's ruined. Why would I want to ruin anyone else's life?'"
David says: "Straight away I was like, do I go for the specifics of the blame, the individuals that are in charge?"
"And I just went, what is people getting sacked really going to change? You’re paralysed. You’re not gonna get fixed.
"It’s just a catalogue of errors that led to my paralysis and I had to focus on being positive and I still do."
Colleagues struggled stepping into David's role
Filming began shortly after David's accident, and he was also adamant about having his friend and colleague Marc Mailley take his place as Harry Potter's stuntman.
"Dave made it very clear to Marc early on that he wanted only him to do it and didn't want anyone else to do it," Radcliffe says.
But for Marc, it was the last thing he wanted to do.
"I didn't want to do the job my mate's broken his neck on, not because I'm scared but because that's his job," Marc says.
"You know, I've nicked his job off the back of him having an unfortunate event.
"Every time I got ready, I'd sit there and think I shouldn't be sitting here, getting hair and makeup done, looking like Harry. This isn't right, this isn't the plan.
"It's a lot to work out in your head."
The incident made Daniel Radcliffe not take his career for granted
The Harry Potter series took years to film and threw Daniel Radcliffe into the global spotlight at just 11 years old.
As the phenomenon came to an end, he told the documentary he "didn't know what was important" and he went into "freefall."
"It was something that I talked to Dave about and he was, as he always had been, a really good guiding star in all that," Radcliffe says.
"He was like, I'm not going to let you throw the opportunity you've got away.
"There was something about seeing somebody have their career taken from them involuntarily where I realised you can't get complacent and think you'll be in this industry forever.
"I had Dave as a constant point of comparison to, subconsciously at least, know how random and fleeting everything could be."
The stunt coordinator blames himself to this day
Growing up in Essex, England, Holmes spent hours getting skilled at gymnastics with the dream of one day becoming a stunt performer.
After small roles on productions such as Lost in Space, Holmes was hand-picked by stunt coordinator Greg Powell to become Daniel Radcliffe's main stunt double.
Powell reveals that he continues to blame himself for what went wrong that day on the set of the Deathly Hallows.
"I hate seeing him like that," Powell admits.
"In the nicest way, I want to say I wish I never met him, when I see him like that. Because it wouldn't be like that if he never met me.
"I was the last one to touch him when he could actually walk and I was the first one to touch him when he couldn't walk. And that's an awful feeling. I'm getting choked up now.
"I still blame meself because I was there."
David's colleagues are working on making stunts safer
David says that for all the hardships that have come from his accident, "a lot of positives have come from the negative".
In the following years, his mates and colleagues have worked to make stunts safer on set.
"After Dave's accident, our focus was on trying to make stunt rigging, or the wire work, the flying you see in films, as safe as possible," Mailley says.
"That's been the main achievement since Dave had his accident.
"Stunts should look dangerous, but they should not be dangerous."
Since 2020, David has hosted his own podcast series devoted to stunt performers and coordinators, and he's keen to create a stunt training facility for young performers.
He's also raised more than 100,000 British pounds ($192,000) for hospitals and other spinal charities through the David Holmes Cricket Cup.
Since 2009, his friends, family and former Harry Potter colleagues have come together each year to play cricket and raise money for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.
"I was in love with my job. Still am, in a weird way," Holmes says in the documentary.
"It was the biggest love of my life. One of my only loves, really.
"If my legs come back tomorrow I'll go back to work. That's how good a job it was for me."
David Holmes: The Boy Who Lives is available on Binge.