Action Stunts

Before computer imaging technology took care of all the crazy stunts for the actors, daredevil stuntmen completed the dangerous stunts that made for one heck of a viewing experience. Here are the top 10 highest rated movie stunts of all time.

1. GoldenEye (1995): James Bond’s character, played by Pierce Brosnan with the help of stuntman extraordinaire Wayne Michaels, opens the film by bungee jumping 750 feet off of a Switzerland dam. The longest jump of all time, Michaels managed to execute it flawlessly and shoot a piton gun at the end—all in one take.
2. Ben Hur (1959): During the famous chariot race, Charlton Heston’s stunt double Joe Canutt is thrown from the front of his chariot and manages to cling on and climb back up. The final stunt was completely unplanned, making it even more nerve racking and crazy to watch.
3. The Spy who Loved Me (1977): Stuntman Rick Sylvester performs the ultimate James Bond stunt when he speed ski’s his way out of a Soviet attack using his ski poles as guns before flying off a cliff and using his Union Jack parachute to safely land, all before the opening credits.
4. Police Story (1985): Jackie Chan fights off enemies with his well choreographed fight moves before lunging onto a pole wrapped in Christmas lights for 100 feet then crashing through wood and glass before landing on the hard tile dislocating his pelvis and fracturing some vertebrae. This stunt rivals his 21 story vertical slide down a building in Who am I (1998).
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): This impressive Indiana Jones stunt was started by Harrison Ford himself but finished by professional stuntman Terry Leonard. During the stunt, Leonard was dragged beneath a truck by a bullwhip before regaining the driver position of the truck. Surprisingly, director Steven Spielberg only directed a fraction of the stunt.
6. Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928): Buster Keaton went out with a bang in his last indie film. After being dragged around by a cyclone, Keaton stands up as a house collapses around him. The real wall that fell on top of him was impeccably measured to ensure the space where Keaton was standing would remain unscathed.
7. Safety Last! (1923): Harold Lloyd decides to scale a building to attract business to the department store where he works. He ends up dangerously hanging from the hands of a clock tower—a scene copied by Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future (to pay tribute) and also mimicked by Jackie Chan in Project A.
8. Stagecoach (1939): This John Ford western featured some of the most dangerous stunts of all time.  In the thrilling sequence, ex-rodeo cowboy and arguably the first famous stuntman, Yakima Canutt, doubles for John Wayne as he jumps from his horse to a full speed six horse team pulling a stagecoach being attacked by Indians. He is then shot at and falls, forced to be dragged beneath the six horses and stagecoach and avoid being trampled.