Action Stunts

Forget the stunt doubles, these actors prefer to do their own tricks during filming. They put their lives in harm’s way for the sake of an awesome scene—and we love them for it.

1. Daniel Craig as Bond, James Bond: When Craig was cast in Quantum of Solace in 2008, he was faced with performing most of his own stunts. The mother of these stunts was a leap from a three-story building onto a moving bus—a big feat for someone with a fear of heights. Had Craig missed his cue or jumped too soon the auditions for the James Bond role would have reopened.
2. Matt Damon as Jason Bourne: The star of the Bourne trilogy (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum) also does most of his own stunts. Despite his fear of drowning, he was in multiple scenes in the water and a scene where he jumps off of a bridge. Damon also performed in all of the car crash stunts of the series.
3. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman: In Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, Bale performed all of the kicking, punching, and running stunts himself. Compared to his role as Dieter Dengler in Rescue Dawn when he swung from a helicopter in midair, the fight scenes were minor risks.
4. Jackie Chan as every character he plays: In Project A he injured his neck after hanging and falling from a clock tower, in Police Story and Police Story 2 he nearly paralyzed himself and got 2^nd degree burns from sliding down a giant pole covered in lights and jumping from the top of a moving bus through a window. In Winners and Sinners he slung from car to car in a high speed roller skate chase. In Armor of God he jumped onto a hot air balloon and cracked his head open. In First Strike and SuperCop he jumped to and from helicopters. While all the listed stunts were extremely dangerous, his 21 story slide down a building in Holland in Who am I was perhaps his most dangerous stunt of all time.
5. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt: In Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise saved the realistic aspect of the film by performing his own stunts instead of the initially planned stuntman. He did extreme rock climbing, dodged moving trucks, and got bombarded with 16 tons of water and shattered glass.