25 best movie stunts ever

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

When he’s not jumping on sofas, Tom Cruise likes to jump off buildings. His commitment to performing his own stunts borders on the lunatic – for the fourth instalment in the Mission: Impossible series, he climbs and leaps about on the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – the world’s tallest building. Yes, he’s wearing a harness, but can you see any other A-list stars doing that instead of resorting to the crutch of CGI?

Steamboat Bill Jr (1928)

During Steamboat Bill Jr’s infamous tornado scene (1:44 in the video), the front of a house falls down on top of Buster Keaton – but he’s standing in exactly the right place for the open upstairs window to save him. Back in the days of the silent movies, they did stunts for real; Keaton had to stand on a precise mark or risk being crushed to death. That’s an actual house falling down, not a lightweight facade.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

The undoubted highlight of Raiders of the Lost Ark is the truck chase, in which Indiana Jones does battle with an entire truck full of German soldiers before being thrown out the windscreen, dragged along behind the truck, crawling back along its side and wresting control from the driver. In all, the sequence featured over 50 stunts and 13 stuntmen, filming over 5 weeks for a total of 6 minutes footage.

And then Spielberg went and ruined it by dropping an out-of-place CGI shot into a recent TV version of the film. Fortunately, he’s since come to his senses and the original, untouched movie will be released on Blu-ray.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The new Batman film kicks off with a bang – in the opening sequence, masked terrorist Bane hijacks a plane by plucking it out of the air with another, bigger plane.

The stunt’s pretty clearly inspired by the pre-titles sequence of Timothy Dalton Bond film License to Kill. Between that and Inception’s mountain base raid paying homage to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it’s surely only a matter of time before Christopher Nolan helms a Bond film.

The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)

Roger Moore’s James Bond gets another entry in the list with this jaw-dropping stunt – 007 leaps a broken bridge in his AMC Hornet, tracing a perfect corkscrew in the air. The stunt was performed by stunt driver “Bumps” Willett, and was actually engineered by Cornell University scientists using then-state-of-the-art IBM computers. Do a barrel roll!

District 13 (2004)

If you’re the founder of ‘parkour’ David Belle, you too would want to show off your leaping and landing talents in an elaborate chase scene across a Parisian estate. He and his co-stars hurl themselves through windows at swinging ropes and dance across rooftops without wires or CGI. Makes Spider-Man look overly cautious.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

We’d shout ‘Aw shit!’ if we were in the Sundance Kid’s position – not only is he stuck up on a cliff with his fellow outlaw Butch Cassidy but they’re about to jump into the rapids to escape their pursuers. And he can’t swim. Newman and Redford had a little help from two stuntmen (the actors landed on a mattress) but the real drop into the gorge in Colorado was a respectable 30 feet.

Cliffhanger (1993)

Sly Stallone paid $1m out of his own pocket for stunt man Simon Crane to slide between two planes at 15,000 feet – making it the most expensive aerial stunt ever. Funnily enough, though he managed it perfectly he couldn’t get inside the second plane so the end result is down to clever editing. You won’t be seeing this kind of stunt in European art-house anytime soon, it’s illegal on this continent.

Ben-Hur (1959)

It cost a million bucks (about US$7.5m today) and 78 horses (still 78 horses) to put together the classic chariot race finale to Ben-Hur. Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd had to learn to charioteering for the scene, but it was a stuntman who nearly came a cropper when the sequence demanded a chariot jump over another. The original script for Ben-Hur describes the epic scene in just three words: the chariot race.

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Running around hurling himself through windows is just another day at the office for Jason Bourne. Less so for the cameraman who had to follow him to capture the jump shot seen at 01:05.

The Great Escape (1963)

Although Steve McQueen was no stranger to two-wheeled thrills, he gave over the saddle to stuntman Bud Ekins for the climactic jump towards the end of The Great Escape. The big wuss.

Death Proof (2007)

So impressed was Quentin Tarantino with Uma Thurman’s Kill Bill stunt double, Zoe Bell, he cast her in a leading role for his next film. The part? Clinging on to the bonnet of a speeding Dodge Challenger. Naturally. This sequence also made our 25 best movie car chases feature – it’s that good.

Rumble in the Bronx (1995)

Our nether regions retracted slightly when watching Jackie Chan leap from a parking lot roof over onto a fire escape on the opposite side of a road. Refusing wires and only being able to see the landing spot until the jump itself, Chan nailed the stunt first time without injury, though he broke his ankle jumping onto a hovercraft later on. Who cares about the cheesy slow-mo multi-angle replays? In this case they’re totally justified.

Police Story III: Supercop (1992)

Driving a dirt bike alongside a train before leaping off a ramp directly onto its roof then rolling off as it crashes into the dust below? No big deal. At least for Michelle Yeoh it’s not. Not bad for an actress who – allegedly – hadn’t ridden a motorbike before appearing in the film.

Ong-Bak (2003)

Tony Jaa’s legs must be infused with industrial strength elastic. There’s no other explanation we can offer up as to how on earth he’s able to vault over the roof of moving cars (or split sliding under them for that matter), as well as back and front flipping his way through hordes of enemies and jumping through hoops of barbed wire. Thanks Tony, now we feel utterly inadequate.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Forget CGI. The unforgettable semi-truck flip in the Dark Knight was completely real, driver and all. A driver-operated canon-like contraption on the trailer blasted a two-tonne steel battering ram against the pavement to flip the truck, resulting in an awe-inspiring cacophony of crushed steel and twisted metal. The stunt was actually practiced on an airstrip to ensure that the truck flipped straight, lest the buildings on either side be decimated with an off centre crash.

GoldenEye (1996)

The eye-watering plummet off the neck-strainingly high dam at the beginning of Golden Eye is definitely not suitable for those with a fear of heights. Shot at the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland, the 220m (750ft) bungee jump is regarded as one of the best movie stunts of al time and set a record for the highest bungee jump off a fixed structure. If you’re adventurous (read, utterly insane) you too can have a brush with death at the very same dam. Good luck with the travel insurance.

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

In John Huston’s 1975 epic, Sean Connery’s character is (spoilers!) put to death by being forced to walk to the middle of a rickety rope bridge over a massive gorge – and then having the ropes cut. Stuntman Joe Powell actually plummeted a daunting 80 feet with only some cardboard boxes to break his fall. What’s particularly unnerving is that the boxes were placed unsettlingly close to a ravine – missing it would have meant certain death. Huston even mentioned to Michael Caine that it was the “darnedest stunt he’d ever seen.”

Hooper (1978)

Loosely based on the life of director Hal Needham, Hooper paid tribute to the great stuntmen of the business. In one climactic scene, stuntman A.J. Bakunas jumped from a helicopter at a whopping, world-record-breaking 232 feet onto an air bag. If you take into account that the old-school air bags would lift you 30 feet into the air if not precisely hit, it makes the feat all the more impressive.

Sharky’s Machine (1981)

At 220 feet, the jump performed by the legendary Dar Robinson still holds up as the highest wireless free-fall stunt from a building in a commercially released film. The above video shows a behind-the-scenes look at the plummet, but unfortunately only the very beginning was used in the film, and the rest replaced by an obviously noticeable lifeless dummy. It’s a shame because this guy knew how to fall in style.

Armour of God (1986)

After all the broken bones and death-defying jumps over the years, the one thing that brought Jackie Chan closest to death’s door was a flimsy tree branch. Not satisfied with the first take, Jackie’s second attempt follows a terrible accident from what should have been a simple stunt. It left him with a permanent hole in his head and he became partially deaf in one ear.

Stagecoach (1939)

Legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt was a pioneer in the field of leaping off of things. One of his most notable and dangerous stunts was during the electrifying horse chase scene in Stagecoach. Here you can see him jump from horse to horse as he tries to grab the reins, before getting shot and falling beneath the carriage – all at a full paced gallop. This is probably the most dangerous stunt ever attempted. Ever.