9 Insane Movie Stunts You Shouldn’t Try at Home4

By Joy Williams, May 05, 2011 in Pop Culture

9 Insane Movie Stunts You Shouldn’t Try at Home

By Joy Williams

Emulating Jackass star Johnny Knoxville in your back yard might sound like fun, but some things are best left to Hollywood and special effects experts. Sure, you could light fireworks out of you’re butt, garner millions of views across the Internet and get featured in a Weezer video, but that’s only the best-case scenario. What’s likely to happen is that your 15 million hits of hopeful fame actually become 15 hours in the emergency room to repair your nether regions while your buddies email pictures of your sore bum to friends and family.

So the next time you’re challenged to go gold prospecting in the jagged hills of California, leave it up to the professionals – like the Brits from the series Boxtick America, who bumble through an audience-generated “bucket list” of dangerous, embarrassing and otherwise quintessentially American experiences. In the meantime, if you’re looking to get your fix of ill-fated shenanigans and stunts, like those you see in the movies and on television, just sit back in the comfort of your home and watch the real professionals risk their lives.

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1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: The Cliff-Jump Stunt

Paul Newman and Robert Redford, two handsome lawbreakers on the run, find themselves at the edge of a cliff with nowhere to go… but down. The scene is memorable for Redford’s “I can’t swim” line. But remember: when they jumped, it was fake and a crew was there to catch them.

2. Ben Hur: The Chariot Race Stunt

This scene makes everyone’s “best stunts” list. It’s a stellar, edge-of-your-chair moment with Charlton Heston as Ben Hur forced onto the racetrack, climbing magnificently back onto his chariot. According to legend, this was an unplanned scene handled remarkably well by Heston’s stuntman. Once again, you are not, and you do not have, a stuntman. Don’t even think about it.

3. Raiders Of The Lost Ark: The Truck Stunt

In this scene, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, as represented by a professional stuntman, is thrown in front of a truck moving at top speed. Using only his whip, he is able to hang on for dear life and reclaim control of the vehicle. Leave this one to the experts and Stephen Spielberg.

4. Stagecoach: The Horse-to-Horse Stunt

This one is self-explanatory. Watch a stuntman leap from horse to horse in this John Ford classic. This stunt should not even be attempted on a carnival carousel.

READ: 13 Most Badass Moments of John Wayne’s Career

5. Speed: The Airborne Bus Stunt

A careening bus under threat of bomb explosion takes a flying leap across a highway construction gap. Special effects were used to heighten the intensity, but the bus did, in fact, drive off a ramp to make the 50-foot jump. If you’re looking for a challenge, ride a city bus during rush-hour on a hot day. That’s all the danger you’ll need.

6. GoldenEye: The Bungee Jump Stunt

This stunt is a favorite within the James Bond franchise as well as with film fans. It was voted best movie stunt of 2002 by Sky Movies, and for good reason: it features the Pierce Brosnan-era Bond taking a 700-foot bungee plunge over a dam. The stunt remains a history-maker not only because of its sheer audacity, but also because there was almost nothing to protect the stuntman from a gruesome death. If you’re crazy enough to pay the price to go to Switzerland to visit the actual dam, there is a company there that will throw you over the side for a fee. Godspeed.

READ: 12 Things You Didn’t Know About James Bond

7. The Great Escape: The Barbed-Wire Fence Stunt

This is one of the best-known and most widely recognized movie stunts from another classic film. Steve McQueen’s stunt double and friend, Bud Ekins, rides a Triumph motorcycle toward a 12-foot-high, 65-foot jump over a barbed-wire fence, attempting to escape from a German P.O.W. camp. Unfortunately, he fails to make a second jump to freedom. If Steve McQueen can’t make that jump, no one can. Well, maybe Chuck Norris.

8. Mission Impossible 4: The Dubai Tower Stunt

Tom Cruise was suspended by safety wires from the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai, for the filming of Mission Impossible 4. Cruise is well known for performing his own stunts, and this film had him hanging from the world’s tallest skyscraper for a chase scene. Star or not, hanging from a skyscraper is never a good idea. Neither is jumping up and down on a couch (see #3). As a general rule, stay away from anything Tom Cruise does.

9. Jackie Chan Movies: All Stunts

This is very simple. Don’t attempt anything you see in a Jackie Chan film, including Rumble In The Bronx, Supercop, Police Story and many others. Chan is a fearless, trained martial arts expert who has willingly suffered many broken bones in lieu of a stunt double. You are not Jackie Chan.

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Watch more episodes of three Brits fulfilling American fantasies in BOXTICK AMERICA

Joy Williams is a freelance writer and interviewer who works in the entertainment industry. She holds a degree in English from an East Coast university.