Stunts have been an integral part of Hollywood movies since the early days of cinema. In the early days, stunts were performed by the actors themselves, but as movies became more complex and dangerous stunts became more common, the need for professional stunt performers grew.
My new book, The Double coming out next month is about a Hollywood stuntman on the backend of his career who is accused of murder. To clear his name he has to catch the people responsible for them. To do this he will have to make use of all his skills. Skills that allow him to gain access to otherwise inaccessible areas, and to escape from close calls. Not to mention the best stuntman are all trained fighters. I wrote the book in part out of my love for the action movies I watched endlessly growing up and the stuntmen who pulled off the daring feats that made those movies so memorable.
Some of the stunts that I remember watching when I was a kid that had my mouth agape was Sylvester Stallone leaping from the cliff in the first “Rambo: First Blood.” I remember watching him make the jump and then falling through a forest of trees. Later, I found out Stallone really made the jump himself. If you watch the movie you can actually see Stallone hit the branch that broke his rib.
Another big stunt at the time was the opening scene to “Goldeneye” which rebooted the 007 franchise with Pierce Brosnan as the British secret agent. The movie opens with a bungee jump from the top of a dam Bond performs to gain access to the bad guys’ compound. Bungee jumping was all the rage of the time. Having bungee jumped once myself I can tell you it’s pretty insane if not exhilarating. The thing to remember is after you fall, the bungee cord goes taut and then pulls you back up. Which means you fall again. Now, Goldeneye used what’s called a descender. Which is wire where the distance can be set which allows for the wire to slow the fall of the stuntman as they reach the full distance.
Wire work is now a staple of stunt work in Hollywood. Marvel has made great use of wire work to make the superheroes more hero. Or allows martial artists the ability to pull off high flying kicks, flips, and fights. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon being one of the first big movies to make use of this technique.
I still remember watching movies like Point Break and Drop Zone about skydiving adrenaline junkies using their high-flying skills to pull off heists. At the time I couldn’t understand why Point Break looked so much better and chalked it up to the skill of the filmmakers behind each movie (both of which are good but I love Point Break). I later learned that the reason the skydiving scenes in Point Break look so much better is because Patrick Swayze actually did them. That’s him jumping out of places and doing aerial flips.
“Amazing. F’ing amazing!”
The thing about Hollywood stunts is it’s not just about the danger level or how elaborate the stunt is. Sure, that’s part of it. But you can go on YouTube and watch “People Are Amazing” videos to see people doing unbelievable things on camera.
But when yelling a story, action can’t be just for action sake. The best stunts are the ones where the action informs the character. As with Crouching Tiger, or Rambo.
Speaking of Stalone, another big stunt I remember was from the movie Cliffhanger. It didn’t involve Stallone, but one of the bad guys. The stunt was in a scene that sees the bad guy pull off a mid-air heist by zip lining from a crashing cargo plane to a private jet. The stunt was performed by famed Hollywood stuntman, Simon Crane, who was paid a million dollars to pull that off.
One of the earliest and most famous stunts in Hollywood history was performed in the 1923 movie "Safety Last!" starring Harold Lloyd. In the film, Lloyd climbs the side of a building and hangs from the hands of a clock high above the street. The scene has become an iconic image of silent film comedy.
Another famous stunt was performed by Buster Keaton in the 1928 movie "Steamboat Bill, Jr." In the film, Keaton stands in the middle of a street as a building facade falls on him. Keaton was positioned in a specific spot so that the window frame fell perfectly around him, leaving him unharmed.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the popularity of action movies led to more elaborate stunts. One of the most famous stuntmen of this era was Hal Needham, who worked on movies such as "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Hooper." Needham was known for his daring car chases and jumps.
Then, there was another Burt Reynolds classic, “Hooper” which is a movie that pays tribute to Hollywood stuntmen in general, in particular to well-known stuntman Jock Mahoney. Mahoney is the stepfather of co-star Sally Field.
In more recent years, the "Mission: Impossible" series has become famous for its elaborate stunts. In the “Mission: Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise has redefined what it means to be a Hollywood leading man by incorporating incredible stunts into each movie.
In MI:Ghost Protocol, Tom Cruise scales the outside of the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa, ending with an incredible fulcrum swing and jump into an open window.
In MI: Rogue Nation he hangs off a plane.
In MI:Fallout," performed a HALO jump, in which he jumped out of a plane at a high altitude and free-fell before opening his parachute.
Other famous stunts include Evel Knievel's motorcycle jumps and Jackie Chan's acrobatic fight scenes. Stunt performers such as Dar Robinson, who performed the record-breaking 220-foot freefall in the 1980 movie "The Cannonball Run," and Yakima Canutt, who invented many of the techniques still used in stunt work today, have also made significant contributions to the history of stunts in Hollywood movies.
For a list of some of the best stunts ever performed in Hollywood movies check out this list from Cinefix
One of the best YouTube channels for checking out the best and worst fo Hollywood stunts is Corridor Crew.
Top Gun training/stunts
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