“It was almost like Bond was going to kill me”: the action scene Sean Connery hated doing
Many people consider the first actor to have played James Bond to be the ultimate version of the legendary British secret agent character. Indeed, Sean Connery, who played 007 in seven movies, delivered a version of the spy that dripped in masculinity and unbridled suaveness.
Beginning with 1962’s Dr. No, Connery defined the very first Bond movies with his fearsome intensity right up until his final effort in the non-Eon-produced Never Say Never Again. Connery would then go on to star in several other classic movies like Highlander and The Hunt for Red October.
However, Bond was not the only significant movie franchise that Connery contributed to, for in 1989, he featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as Indy’s father, Henry Jones Sr. There was one scene in the classic action-adventure film that Connery appeared to detest having to take on: the iconic big tank scene.
Last Crusade special effects technical Mike Dawson once revealed Connery’s disdain for the scene when he appeared on The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of podcast. The problem for Connery was how the smoke was placed within the huge military vehicle and how it provided him with severe discomfort.
Dawson had called the tank itself an “amazing piece of engineering”, pointing out how it had been built from scratch. Explaining how the tank scene went down, the technician explained, “We were inside that tank, and it was my unenviable job to put a little bit of smoke in there. At the time, we were using oil and gas, so it was like a hot smoke. It wasn’t water-based as it is now.”
Connery felt the hot smoke coming down at him and proceeded “in his thick Scottish accent” to tell Dawson, “If you put that anywhere near me again, I’ll shove it up your ass.” The result was that Dawson felt the fear of God within him and soon began to focus on not causing Mr. Connery any further annoyance.
In fact, Dawson, at one point, believed that Connery would come good on his word and take matters into his own hands. He signed off on the matter, “I was so scared at the time. It was almost like Sean Connery, a Bond, was going to kill me. I ran out. But he was alright; he calmed down afterwards. He did mean it at the time. I think he would’ve done it.”
Of course, Connery is no stranger to letting it be known when he does not enjoy performing a scene. In Never Say Never Again, he famously refused to shoot an underwater scuba scene more than one time. “The guy was trying to explain to me that if I would just breathe somewhat normally, they would be able to film it easier,” he had once told Jonny Carson. “Even in the film, there is a certain note of panic in my eyes; you can see it.”
In 2008, Connery was given the chance to return to Indiana Jones with The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but he refused to take part. At that point, Connery was well into his 70s and hadn’t acted in over four years. He admitted that his role as Henry Jones Sr. wasn’t too important to the way the franchise had gone, but maybe the iconic tank scene from Last Crusade also informed his decision.