Five terribly cursed movie sets
The tragic accident that occurred on the set of 'Rust,' is nothing new. Comparisons were instantly made to 'The Crow' and the unfortunate shooting that led to Brandon Lee's death.
But filmmaking can be a dangerous business and there are many more incidents similar to these two. Here is a list of some of the craziest film set tragedies and accidents. Not all are as heartbreaking but they are equally fascinating to read.
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
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The Twilight Zone set accident remains one of the most brutal and tragic incidents in cinema history. On the last day of filming, a helicopter crash instantly decapitated actor Vic Morrow and child actor Myca Dinh Le. The wreckage also crushed child actor Renee Shin-Yi Chen.
Morrow was playing a racist man transported back during the Vietnam War where he had to put aside his bigotry to save two children from an advancing US army. On the night of the accident, Morrow was meant to carry the two children out of a village while being pursued by a helicopter. The accident occurred when the special effects detonation was set off too close to the helicopter. The damage caused it to instantly plummet onto the actors below.
The following criminal action against those responsible lasted nearly a decade. Proceedings found that director John Landis was negligent and ignored taking health and safety precautions. Landis, Warner Bros and four others were tried and later acquitted on manslaughter charges.
Still, the silver lining of this tragedy was that it kickstarted a behind the scenes revolution. New safety protocols and regulations were adopted with the union and guild's help.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
When it came to Apocalypse Now, the question was not what went wrong, it is what didn't go wrong.
Actors were changed multiple times, even Coppola himself was a replacement for George Lucas. Two months after filming finally began in the Philippines, a typhoon had hit, effectively leading to a three month hiatus. Afterwards when filming began once more, Martin Sheen, the lead actor, suffered from a heart attack. Around that same time, Coppola himself, at the prospect of financial ruin had an epileptic seizure and a nervous breakdown, and threatened to commit suicide.
Another catastrophe occurred when Marlon Brando finally arrived on set 300 pounds overweight and completely unprepared. Coppola scrapped Brando's costumes which couldn't fit his massive size and reworked his shooting angles and used shadows to distract from his weight.
But perhaps the craziest story and there are many which are not mentioned here, is the grave robbing. When the producer began investigating rumours of dead bodies on set, he discovered a row of cadavers in the prop store. It turned out that the bodies were procured from a grave robber. Afterwards, police arrived on set and seized the crew's passports. The bodies were then disposed of. In the end, extras were used as props not real cadavers.
Roar (1981)
The plot of Roar was simple. It followed Hank, a naturalist who lived in a nature preserve with big cats. The film was shot in Shambala Preserve, California. The set was destroyed by two wildfires and a flood during production.
But the true horror was faced by the cast, who narrowly escaped shooting with their lives. They were frequently attacked by the animals. Out of a 140 person crew, it was estimated that at least 70 were injured during filming. As a result, filming took five years to complete.
The whole saga can be summed up well by Roar's title card in the re-release: "No animals were harmed during the making of 'Roar.' But 70 members of the cast and crew were."
Aguirre, The Wrath of God 1972 and Fitzcarraldo 1982
While all of Werner Herzog's films could have made the list, it was these two films with Klaus Kinski that took the final slot.
Kinski was notoriously difficult to work with. But his tremendous on-screen performances made him a necessary evil. Still, it meant production was frequently troubled by his antics. Kinski and Herzog clashed all the time.
Things were so bad during the filming of Aguirre, the Wrath of God, that the natives of the Peruvian area they were filming on offered to kill Kinski for Herzog. Although the offer was considered, Herzog ultimately rejected it. Afterwards, however, Herzog threatened to shoot Kinski and then himself if Kinski did not finish a scene.
It was not the only time guns were involved during filming. In one incident, Kinski, annoyed by the noise the crew were making, fired three shots. One shot blew off an extra's finger.
The filming of Fitzcarraldo was similarly plagued with deaths and injuries. Several indigenous extras had been injured, even killed during production. Two planes crashed and there was an incident where a worker on set was bitten by a venomous snake. To save his life, the worker cut off his own foot with a chainsaw on the spot.
Further issues arose when Herzog began clashing with the local Aguaruna people after he began constructing on their land. Angered by his behaviour, the tribe burned down the film set and shot an actor through the neck with an arrow.
