The History of Hollywood Stunts

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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The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray."

The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray."

-proverb

“Der mentsh trakht un got lakht” is an old Yiddish adage that translates to Man plans and God laughs.

I mention these because it’s been a week since I posted.  I want this blog to be a frequent bts look at life as a writer and producer and consistency is a key part of that. Unfortunately, the universe had other ideas.

On Sunday I went down hard with a 24-hour bug. It wasn’t that I felt so terrible (tho I didn’t feel great), but I was very tired.  Ask anyone who knows me and I am rarely tired and don’t need quite as much sleep as most.

But sleep is what I did, most of Sunday and half of Monday, MLK Day.

By the afternoon I started to feel better tho by then my stomach was a little topsy turvy. I did what work I could editing one chapter in “The Double” (Eddie Ankin Book One). Then, editing a couple of videos for YouTube and social media that I had previously shot.  I got those posted and called it a day.

Unfortunately, that night my middle daughter caught what I had and woke up sick on Tuesday. So, what I planned  to be a full day spent working while watching my son, was also spent caring for my under-the-weather little girl.  To paraphrase Maxamillian Schell from The Freshman, “Carmine said one….but there are two.”

At least I avoided the Komodo dragon.

By this morning the middle child was on the road to wellville, but not surprisingly my eldest and my youngest were now sick with the same cold.

So, rather than much writing, editing, or filming, I’ve been hopping to and fro taking care of the whole family today.

Which…while thankless at times…is the greatest job in the world (hard and exhausting…but great)

On the writing front, I am revising a few chapters of “The Double” leading up to the final showdown to be sure the story flows and the tension is ratcheted up before the climax. So I worked on that in fits and starts throughout the day.

Late last night,  I spent a couple of hours revising the outline for a horror film I am writing on spec. Then I watched The Last of Us and went to bed

The Last of Us pilot episode is really really good.

I wrote a script a couple of years ago for a producer at Netflix called HIDE BEHINDS based on a camp ghost story I heard while a camper at Camp Winaukee (yes, Winaukee like the ship gunner who gave Christopher Walken the watch in Pulp Fiction which Walken wore up his ass all those years before giving it to young Butch (Bruce Willis). Or maybe the camp was named after an American Indian tribe. One or the other. But I digress…)

Nothing came of that script but I also never shopped it anywhere else because I was busy at the time with other projects. But, I figure that HIDE BEHINDS, along with this new script, will hopefully be a double barrel blast of terror when sent to Hollywood producers, directors, and actors.

As for today, the only real thing I’ve gotten to is this blog post which I started writing about 28 minutes ago when all three children blessedly fell asleep for much needed naps.

Going forward, I plan to bring a production mindset to all my work and responsibilities. Rather than trying to multitask writing, filming, editing, or marketing, never mind advertising, developing, producing, plus family time, I am going to dedicate each day fully to one thing (okay two things because apparently it is illegal in some states to neglect your children…What’s that? It’s illegal in all states?  Good to know.)

Next week, I am shifting to a full-on batch mentality:

-Writing days.

-Production days (shoot and edit).

-Marketing days

In television production when you shoot more than one episode at a time (to save time, money, or for logistics) it’s called double-boarding episodes. 

The schedule is broken down by scenes that can be shot at the same time, even if they may appear in different episodes. 

Often, a single director will double-board episodes so that there isn’t the same time spent transitioning between episodic directors.

In Game of Thrones for instance a director who shot the big battle sequence that spans two or three episodes may not be the credited director on all three. However, they (along with second-unit directors) did shoot scenes that appeared in other episodes.

Batching is kinda the online video equivalent and has become something of a mentality in the “rise-and-grind” world we all supposedly live in. Personally, the only rising and grinding I do is for coffee.

With that said, I hope all of you are healthy and remain so throughout 2023 (with wealthy and wise soon to follow). More to come this week.

MEDIA MONEY: INFLATION STILL A PROBLEM AS PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE.

CPI Increased .3% again that beat expectations. Almost all the forecast were for either .4 or .5. This is one of the lowest increases in CPI in recent months but obviously still an increase. To get a number like 8.3% only slightly lower than last month’s unbelievably high inflation numbers, is not exactly something to write home about.

Which means settle in for some more 50 BP rate hikes.

Looking a little closer at the numbers the real problem is this slight drop in the number is largely due to the lower gas prices we got last month. To quote a popular movie, “information that would have been useful to me yesterday. That’s because gas prices (as an impact on inflation) is based on where prices were a few weeks ago when gas prices dipped slightly. Since then gas prices have risen again and now sit at their highest price. This means inflation has likely not peaked as some people have been speculating.

Why is this relevant?

Because when everything costs more due to inflation (because the purchasing power of each dollar doesn’t go as far) it means that businesses cannot invest in growth the way they might have otherwise.

This means less hiring. It means less expansion. And from a very Hollywood perspective, it means every film and tv production is now that much more expensive.

To quote the Dude, “that’s a bummer, man.”

For some additional context, along with falling (now rising) gas prices, air travel appears to be the driver of the bad 8.3% inflation number. Last summer was the original Covid peak and then we actually started seeing CPI go down briefly but now when we look at the number as a breakdown we see that are crazy increases in the cost of things.

(All of the numbers are weighted by the Fed according to the impact on the overall CPI.)

Food index increased .9% which is technically outside of core CPI but that’s a significant increase for families. It’s worth reminding everyone reading this that CPI or Core consumer prices, excludes volatile food and energy items. Of course, consumers don't eat or drive based on “core” prices, and food prices are up 9.4% over the last year.

Major grocery store groups increase in to see increase in this increase of the month

The price of eggs up 10.3% month over month. Margarine up 7.1%. Those are some high numbers for goods outside of core CPI.

Men’s and boys apparel down slightly. Women’s apparel down slightly. Toddler apparel down 2.74%. Sewing machines and fabric supplies down 4.6% Guess that’s good for the costume departments. In travel: Hotels are up 3.4%. Car and truck rental 2.4%. Airline fares went up 21.9% in a month! That’s a huge increase! I wonder if that’s due to the riding gas prices? I know airlines tend to lock in future prices on jet fuel futures months out, but I’m guessing that is part of the impact. Along with a return to travel by people around the world, and a desire to get out and go places after two years of lockdowns. The prices of air travel is starting to reflect some of that demand. That’s going to cost each out-of-town production (which most are) a pretty penny to the budget bottom line.

Perhaps had California’s Governor Gavin Newsom done more to increase the tax credits in his home state of California at the beginning of the pandemic it would have resulted in more shows and movies being filmed here in California. Which, given the recent call by the WGA to not have productions in states that have laws that the unions/guilds apparently disagree with (I must have missed the consensus votes), also create complications, considering over half the states in the union likely have laws that the Hollywood guilds and some of their more vocal members disagree with. But again, this is just one more example of the shortsightedness of the rhetoric that results in so many of these flawed policies which have a direct impact on so many of California’s core industries, and the people who work in them.

Polling data that inflation and rising prices is what people are most concerned with. Not a bad time for some Hollywood escapism. But looking at the Oscars this past year, you have to wonder if Hollywood is still in the escapism business.

Had there been a stronger focus on the fiscal integrity of the state, along with support for one of America’s most important industries based here in Cali from our Governor and elected leaders, then perhaps we’d be better situated than we are now on all fronts. Bringing film and television production closer to home which would’ve maybe made it easier to keep productions going at full steam during the pandemic, instead of having to endure on-and-off shut-downs (one or two at least prompted by mistaken PCR test results, according to one studio head and one producer I spoke with). But I guess all that would be asking too much of Newsom. Instead, all that good gov stimulus cash (which is what largely kept California from defaulting on its liabilities) went to all manner of frivolous expenditures led by Newsom’s wildly progressive policies, leaving one of California’s major homegrown industries out in the cold.

So, now what we’re looking at is yet another year of what amounts to an added “tax” on every single production that the past two years came in the form of the additional Covid safety measure costs, and now in the form of skyrocketing inflation.

Looking at these numbers I wonder about the old adage that show business is recession-proof.

For a while, at the start of the pandemic with the spike in streaming numbers and the increase in our spending on home entertainment, I thought it looked like that might still be the case albeit in a different form. Instead of going to the movies for escapism, people we’re staying home watching Netflix and chilling. However, since the release of Netflix’s 200,000 subscriber loss and the tanking of their share price (their earnings call was yesterday; more to come on that), I’m not so sure that we can still say that Hollywood is recession-proof.

But back to the rising inflation — what will it mean for an industry looking to recover from the past two years of Covid? Well, for one thing, it means that on top of the Covid “tax” on productions last two years in the form of safety measures, amounting to roughly a 20-25% increase in budgets, plus the dollars falling purchasing power due to rising inflation, this poses yet another challenge for Hollywood.

The slap heard round the World

Why the 2022 Oscars is a harbinger for Hollywood

Hollywood used to be America’s greatest cultural export. It was one of the things that made America so well regarded in the world, and such a sought after place to visit, and to make a life. So much so that people would be willing to risk their own just to come here. A large part of that was the image of America projected by Hollywood (a town founded by immigrant Jews by the way. Just in case you get your history from the Academy Museum which all but cut us out of our own story).

So, when during last night’s Academy Awards Will Smith, one of Hollywood‘s leading men, acts out in as immoral and gutless a way as the worst detractors of hollywood accuse movie stars of behaving, it’s a moment to take note of. A seismic shift in an industry already off balance. The Oscars used to mean something. Now they’re a punchline. No pun intended. After last night..fughettaboutit. 

For what used to be one of America’s most important industries on what used to be one of television’s biggest nights (from people whose job it is to literally put on a show), it’s an unbelievable (unforgivable) squandering of potential especially at a time when the premium on live tv events is extraordinarily high. 

It’s time for a return to form. It’s time for those of us who love movies (and tv) to make the best versions. Its time for stars who know what it means to be movie stars to get the leading roles. It’s time for those of us who recognize and respect a movie’s ability to tell a story that entertains, amazes and transports, not just an audience, but an entire world, into a cinematic dream in which we all share, if only for a couple of hours, to take the helm. Whether you’re a movie star, a writer, director, producer, agent, executive — we’re all in the same boat—and last night it sprung another big hole. 

So here’s a little reality check, and some much needed reorientation towards gratitude for our collective good fortunes to work in this business…we are not special. However, we have been given an incredibly special opportunity, a golden one: the chance to make movies. The people who made the movies used to understand that. Sadly, that is no longer the case. The pomp and the circumstance has been replaced with puddle deep virtue, contempt for the audience (aka the customer), and antics you expect to see on a daytime talk show. That’s why movies have become what they are, and hollywood is in the state it is. Those same attitudes contributed to the disgraceful display by Will Smith last night who maddeningly could do what he did, go back to his seat, and then twenty minutes later see a theater full of his co-workers and mine give him an award and a standing ovation. This is how you get Harvey Weinstein. 

This is how you kill an industry.

It’s time to get back to basics.