Major accidents that happened on the set of a film

In the summer of 1982, an on-set accident on "The Twilight Zone" movie changed the way films were made.

Actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed when a helicopter fell from the sky. Renee Shin-Yi Chen was crushed, and Morrow and Myca Dinh Le were killed by the blade of the chopper. "I'll keep you safe, kids. I promise. Nothing will hurt you, I swear to God," was the line Morrow was meant to deliver but would never get to. The fatal crash led to civil and criminal cases against the filmmakers that went on for nearly a decade. Not only had they been violating child laws, but Le and Chen's parents testified that they were never told there would be helicopters or explosives on set. Director John Landis, along with one of the movie's producers, production manager, explosives specialist, and the helicopter pilot (who survived the crash) were all acquitted of manslaughter charges in the mid-'80s.

While Landis continued to make films, changes did come in the industry. Warner Bros. ice president John Silvia founded a committee to create safety standards called the Safety Bulletins for all aspects of the filmmaking industry.

Art Scholl, a stunt pilot whose work included aerial stunt work and photography, worked on films like "The Right Stuff," "Iron Eagle," and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."

While working on the 1986 film "Top Gun," Scholl was filming backdrop scenes while in his Pitts S-2 camera plane. He found that he couldn't maintain altitude after a flat spin. The plane plunged into the Pacific Ocean and Scholl's body was never recovered. After their investigation of the 1985 accident, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Scholl was likely experiencing spatial disorientation, a condition where pilots cannot discern their orientation, altitude, or speed in relation to other points of reference.

Thirty years after his death, Scholl's wife told the Daily Mail that she's still unsure what exactly transpired. "He took his work very seriously. He planned carefully—he wouldn't go out and break rules or anything. So on 'Top Gun' I just don't know what happened," she said. "It was a massive shock to me. A lot of people in the industry and in aviation in general were surprised."

In a scenario that echoes the tragic accident on the set of "Rust," Brandon Lee, son of martial arts expert Bruce Lee, died on the set of the 1994 film "The Crow." Lee was filming a scene where the character he played was shot. The prop gun hadn't been properly cleaned, and when actor Michael Masse fired the gun, debris from a blank cartridge hit Lee in the chest. The actor was rushed to the hospital where he bled to death. Lee's shots for the film were completed with his stunt double and CGI effects. They shot the film in North Carolina, so it did not have to adhere to the union standards in Hollywood.

No charges were filed against Masse, but Lee's mother sued "The Crow" filmmakers and settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In the wake of Hutchins' death, Brandon Lee's sister Susan, a fellow actor and martial artist, told Agence France-Presse, "Mandatory gun safety training [should be required] for the actor so that they can check the guns themselves and know how to use them appropriately. … It shouldn't happen again."

George Clooney sustained multiple injuries in 2005 on the set of "Syriana." "There was this scene where I was taped to a chair and getting beaten up, and we did quite a few takes. The chair was kicked over and I hit my head," Clooney said when he spoke about the accident to NPR. "I tore my dura, which is the wrap around my spine, which holds in spinal fluid." Clooney said he "knew immediately" how dire the situation was. "I thought I'd had a stroke. It was like a train horn going off in your head and you can't see and you can't stand," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012. He also later told Rolling Stone that the headaches became so intense he considered taking his own life. After several surgeries, he found relief and went on to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for "Syriana."

The 2008 film "The Dark Knight" was dedicated to the memory of Heath Ledger who died of an accidental overdose during the editing of the film and to a crew member who died in an on-set accident. Special effects technician Conway Wickliffe—who had also worked on "Die Another Day" and "Batman Begins"—was rehearsing a scene when the accident happened.

Wickliffe was riding in the passenger seat of a Nissan 4X4 behind the Batmobile. His head was hanging out of the vehicle to film a scene and he was not wearing a seatbelt when the car failed to turn properly, crashing into a tree at 20 miles per hour. Special effects expert Christopher Corbould, who was in charge on set, was cleared of any wrongdoing.

On the first day of filming the 2014 film "Midnight Rider: The Gregg Allman Story," a horrible accident killed 27-year-old camera assistant Sarah Jones and injured other crew members. The crew was filming in Georgia on active railroad tracks. Jones didn't have enough time to clear the area after she was given a one-minute warning to do so, and was hit by an oncoming train. The film's director, Randall Miller, served a year in prison for trespassing and involuntary manslaughter. He was also sentenced to 10 years of probation, which forbids him from taking on any jobs where he is responsible for others' safety, like directing. Jones' death resulted in an industrywide reckoning on safety standards and launched "Safety for Sarah," a non-profit started in her memory meant to foster on-set safety awareness.

While filming the third installment in the "Maze Runner" series in 2016, lead actor Dylan O'Brien suffered several injuries, including fractured orbital sockets and cheekbones, as well as a concussion and multiple lacerations. While performing a stunt in which he moved from the top of one car to the top of another, O'Brien was dragged under a vehicle.

His injuries were far more serious than they originally seemed—production on the film was pushed back for a year to allow for O'Brien to make a full recovery. "Maze Runner: The Death Cure" was eventually released on Jan. 26, 2018, but looking back on that time, O'Brien said he wasn't sure he'd be able to finish the film or act again. "I was really struggling," he told Bustle in 2022. "It's a really strange thing to have so much of my identity be my career and then have this thing happen to me where I was convinced that I couldn't do it anymore. I was just like, 'I can't ever imagine being on another set.'"

A series of accidents occurred during the filming of the 2016 movie "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter," and the worst one left crew member Ricardo Cornelius dead. A car that was not secured slid off a platform and pinned Cornelius against a wall. Then, Milla Jovovich's stunt double, Olivia Jackson, collided with a metal camera arm that didn't function the way it was supposed to. The accident caused multiple injuries. The worst forced the amputation of her left arm. Years later, The Hollywood Reporter also revealed that a previously undisclosed incident injured another crewmember, who tore a ligament and never returned to set.

Actor Letitia Wright was injured in a stunt rig accident on set in August of 2021 during the filming of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." Her injuries included a concussion and a fractured shoulder. Wright was hospitalized with injuries that were thought to be minor at the time. In November, production on the film halted to give her more time to heal. Her shoulder injury was actually a critical shoulder fracture. Production resumed in January 2022 and the movie was eventually released in November of that same year. "I'm still processing it," Wright told Variety about the accident upon the film's release. "I'm still working through it in therapy. It was really traumatic."

On the set of the Western "Rust" in 2021, a prop gun killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. Alec Baldwin was holding the prop gun during a rehearsal when it accidentally discharged. The accident led to the filing of multiple lawsuits and an FBI investigation. In early 2024, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found to have loaded live rounds into the prop gun that ultimately killed Hutchins. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger, and the involuntary manslaughter case against him was dismissed in July 2024.