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What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened at your job? A boss yelled about a parking space? A coworker who hogged the Keurig for way too long? Annoying, yes -- but at least, unlike these Hollywood stars, your life wasn’t at risk. Today, we’re getting into the harrowing stories of 10 celebrities who almost died making movies. Welcome to Rankworthy, the show where we rank just about everything.
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What's the craziest thing that's ever happened at your job
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A boss yelled at you about a parking space? Coworker who hogged the Keurig for way too long
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Annoying, yes, but at least unlike these Hollywood stars, your life wasn't at risk
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Today, we're getting to the harrowing stories of 10 celebrities who almost died making movies
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Welcome to Rankworthy, the show where we rank just about everything. You know how famous magician Harry Houdini died
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as a result of one of his fate-tempting stunts? That same fate almost befell actor Isla Fisher
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while filming Now You See Me. The movie's about a group of magicians
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who use their skills for heists. In this case, Fisher stole a second chance at life
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In the film, Fisher's character performs a stunt where she is chained underwater and struggles to escape
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In real life, Fisher was chained underwater and struggled to escape. My chain got stuck, she admitted in an interview
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Everyone thought I was acting fabulously. I was actually drowning. No one realized I was actually struggling
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Eventually, the crew realized the mistake and Fisher got out of there safely
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Donald Sutherland is a Hollywood legend. His decades-spanning career includes some of our culture's most famous and game-changing films
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including Don't Look Now, MASH, and Animal House. Plus, his beard looks dope as heck in The Hunger Games
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But in 1970, just when Sutherland's career was getting started, it almost slipped away due to circumstances outside of his control
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Sutherland booked a small role in Kelly's Heroes, a lighthearted World War II romp
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When he arrived in Yugoslavia for day one of shooting, he was immediately taken to the hospital with spinal meningitis
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He later said, Jamie Alexander has made a bold career out of playing mysterious women She the anonymous by design lead of NBC action drama Blindspot And in the Marvel Cinematic Universe she played Sif a stoic and fearsome warrior in the first two Thor films
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Unfortunately for Alexander, one of these MCU stunts almost resulted in her premature endgame
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During filming Thor The Dark World, Alexander slipped on a metal staircase and severely broke her back
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She slipped a disc in her spine, chipped multiple vertebrae, and dislocated her shoulder
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Luckily, she was taken care of immediately. But if you think that Alexander is out of the woods now that her MCU days are over, think again
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She's also sustained countless injuries on Blindspot. Tough-talking Brit Jason Statham helped kickstart the dormant action genre in the late 90s and early 2000s
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giving it a boost of no-frills thrills and smooth brutality in franchises like The Transporter and Crank
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Now, thanks to the Expendables and Fast and the Furious franchises, Statham is a bona fide global superstar
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With all this being said, can he, like, be a bunch more careful while filming, please
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During one typically complicated setup in The Expendables 3, Statham's character was driving a truck when he discovered in the moment that the brakes weren't working
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The truck terrifyingly plunged into the Black Sea. Statham, not wanting to become Expendable himself, performed a real-life act of heroism
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escaping from the trunk and swimming to shore safely. A lucky break for an unlucky break
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For a charming, sweet, family-friendly classic of Hollywood cinema, The Wizard of Oz is full
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of gruesome urban legends and behind-the-scenes chaos. While some of these have been debunked
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like the supposed Munchkin who hanged himself on screen, the Wicked Witch of the West herself did almost die
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while shooting the film. Actor Margaret Hamilton was filming a scene in which her character exited Munchkinland in a burst of fire A trapdoor malfunctioned causing her to become consumed by fire and suffered second and third degree burns to her face and arms
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She took six weeks off from shooting and only came back to set under one condition
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No more fireworks. Pretty reasonable if you ask us. Where they're going, they didn't need roads
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But Michael J. Fox and the crew of Back to the Future trilogy could have used more strenuous safety practices
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Because if the effortlessly charming and watchable Fox suffered critical injuries during one stressful stunt
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no amount of time travel trickery could have caused his picture to fade back into existence
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In Back to the Future Part 3, Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to the Old West for all kinds of cowboy shenanigans
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During one set piece, McFly is sentenced to a hanging. Fox did his own stunt, but accidentally misplaced his hands and wound up actually hanging by the neck
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Everyone thought he was just acting, until he passed out, and then he was immediately rescued
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Charlize Theron is one of our generation's more versatile actors. She rocks the screen as an action icon in titles like Mad Max, Fury Road, and Atomic Blonde
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while also showcasing easy charm and goofiness in comedies like Arrested Development and Longshot
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We should consider ourselves lucky that Theron is able to explore her range, as it almost stopped during one fateful shoot
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In 2005's Aeon Flux, director Karen Kusama's adaptation of the cult MTV animated show
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Theron was shooting a stunt as the title role. She was supposed to do a backflip, but something went wrong on the landing, and she broke her neck
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She was rushed to a Berlin hospital and underwent six weeks of intense physical therapy
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but was well enough to keep working afterwards. Movies are hard to make, like really, absurdly, unnecessarily hard
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Need proof Go check out Heart of Darkness a filmmaker apocalypse to see all the insanity that went into making Francis Ford Coppola Vietnam War masterpiece Apocalypse Now
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Among the many stressful stories is a near-death experience for the film star Martin Sheen
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During one production day, Sheen suffered from a heart attack, and based on where he was
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he had to crawl a quarter mile through the jungle for help. Sheen went to the hospital
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and Coppola worried about his film's funding, lied to his investors, and brought in Sheen's
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brother for wide shots and voiceovers while Sheen recovered. Let's be honest, given Jackie Chan's
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tendencies to perform all of his own death-defying stunts in all of his high-octane martial arts
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movies, it's remarkable that he's only had one truly near-death experience. The actor-director
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martial arts master, and trained opera singer is a consummate professional, but even pros get
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unlucky now and then. While filming 1986's Armor of God, Chan had a relatively simple stunt
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jump from the side of a wall to a tree branch. Chan made the jump, and then the branch cracked
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sending Chan crashing into a rock. He cracked open his skull, and a piece of his bone even
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lodged into his brain. After successful surgery, Chan had a permanent hole and a plastic plug
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placed in his head. If you looked up movie star in the dictionary, you might find a picture of
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George Clooney. In his charm, talent, and commitment to making the world a better place
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Clooney personifies everything grand and golden about Hollywood. And during the filming of perhaps
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his most critically acclaimed role, he was almost shuttled into the great trailer in the sky
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Clooney won Best Supporting Actor for Siriana, but that prize came at a great cost
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Clooney nearly died on an on-set accident where he broke his bat
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Later, Clooney admitted the depth of his struggles. I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, unable to move, having these headaches
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where it feels like you're having a stroke. So maybe, lay off him for Batman and Robin
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