Real On-Set Injuries That Made The Final Cut
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It takes a good actor to stay in character through difficult moments on set. It takes an incredible actor to stay in character when that actor legitimately injures himself on set. Such was the case with the intense Candyland table scene in Django Unchained. When DiCaprio smashes his hand on the table and the glass breaks, that's really DiCaprio's blood. It was simply too good for Tarantino to cut from the film.
- Video: YouTube
While filming 1936's Follow the Fleet, famed dancer and actor Fred Astaire took a hard thwap from the arm of his longtime co-star, Ginger Rogers. During the dance scene for the number "Let's Face the Music and Dance," Rogers was wearing a beaded, flowing gown with sleeves Astaire claimed "must have weighed a few pounds each."
During the scene's first take, Rogers did a quick turn, and those remarkably heavy sleeves smacked Astaire in the face, injuring his cheek and eye and leaving him "somewhat maimed." When looking over the film later, everyone thought that, regardless of the injury, it was the best take. So it stayed in the film.
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Who can forget the image of Malcolm McDowell, eyes pulled open to capacity, in the Ludivco sequence of A Clockwork Orange? Certainly not McDowell given that he scratched his cornea and nearly went blind from filming it. McDowell's injury, along with the real-life doctor they hired to apply his eye drops in the scene, can both be seen in the final cut of the film.
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In the sports drama/sort of biopic Foxcatcher, Channing Tatum stars as Olympic champion wrestler Mark Schultz. During a hotel room scene, Tatum's character has a breakdown. He hits himself in the face and smashes his head into the mirror several times. You can see the character's blood in the scene.
Guess what? That's actually Tatum's blood, because he cut his head on the mirror. Though the mirror was coated with safety plastic, Tatum smashed the mirror so hard, he broke all the way through to the wall and broke the wall too. Now that's some good acting.
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There's a highly emotional moment in The Two Towers where, after having ridden up to a pile of smoldering Orc remains, Aragorn and the gang fear that Merry and Pippin have been killed, as well. In response, Aragorn he boots his helmet across the screen and lets out a raw cry of anguish. According to Peter Jackson, the scream Mortensen lets out isn't just great acting - it's legitimate pain because Viggo Mortenson broke two toes during filming. Of course, the take is brilliant, so it had to stay in the final cut.
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2014's Nightcrawler is a pretty intense film about violence and ethics, but it becomes much more intense when you learn the level of passion the movie's lead - Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom - put into his character.
During a scene that takes place in the bathroom of Bloom's apartment, the angry and frustrated photojournalist smashes the mirror. The mirror wasn't supposed to break, and ended up badly injuring Gyllenhaal's hand - he even ended up in the hospital. He stayed in character though, and you can see his bloody hand in the final cut.
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Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the classic film The Wizard of Oz, suffered a major injury on set that ultimately made it onto film. When the witch disappeared behind a blaze of flames from the scene in Munchkinland, Hamilton had not yet descended through a trapdoor when the flames rose. This resulted in severe burns to her hands and face. The scene remained in the film.
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In the opening scene of Apocalypse Now, Captain Benjamin Willard, played by Martin Sheen, is alone by himself in a hotel room. He goes absolutely stir-crazy, falling drunk all over the room, staring blankly for hours at the ceiling fan. At one point, he even injures his own hand and wipes the blood all over his face.
While this seems like some movie magic, the blood was actually Sheen's very own. He stayed in character the whole time. While it's impossible to confirm, some sources have claimed Sheen was also very drunk while filming the scene.
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It's no secret that Quentin Tarantino is a perfectionist. Because of this, it might not come as all that much of a surprise that, during Diane Kruger's death scene in Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino choked Kruger with his own hands, instead of letting Cristoph Waltz do the job.
Of course, that means Tarantino ACTUALLY STRANGLED Kruger. According to her, "you feel it when someone is choking you... it was very strange being strangled by the director." Some sources claim that she actually passes out on camera as well, but this can't be verified.
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During the final climactic scene in Patriot Games, Harrison Ford and Sean Bean's characters have a showdown on a speedboat. During the scene, Ford hits Bean in the face with a metal hook. Well, as luck would have it, the hook actually hit Bean, and that blood coming from his head in the actual film is real.
Now, Bean has a permanent scar above his eye. Luckily, though, Bean is almost always a bad guy in the movies, so the scar helps with his villainous appeal.
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Blade Runner is a dark, gritty film, and it's not without its tales of on-screen accidents. One of these involved star Daryl Hannah. While playing the replicant Pris, Hannah flees upon being discovered by scientist and inventor J.F. Sebastian.
In the scene, you can see Hannah slip as she flees, and her elbow makes hard contact with the parked van. Her elbow was chipped in eight places and she was badly cut. Hannah still has a scar from the stitches.
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When Sonny Corleone (James Caan) attacked Carlos Rizzi (Gianni Russo) in The Godfather, some serious injuries happened. The fight was brutal, but it was even more brutal than most people think - while hitting Russo with the trash can, Caan accidentally broke Russo's ribs and supposedly even shattered his elbow.
- Photo: Golden Harvest/Media Asia
During the opening scene of the film, Chan jumps from a wall to a tree branch. On the second take, the branch broke and Chan fell over 15 feet to the ground. Upon his crash landing, a piece of bone lodged into Chan's brain after his head smashed into a rock. Staff on set acted quickly and got him to a hospital where he had to have emergency surgery. He now has a permanent hole in his skull and partial hearing loss. He also nearly died.
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In 2004's Troy, Brad Pitt played the hero Achilles - known for his only weakness, his heel. Well, as luck would have it, during the Battle of Troy scene, the film's epic climax, Pitt landed strangely on his foot, rupturing his Achilles tendon. In the final cut of the film, you can see the pain on his face.
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