10 On-Set Injuries that Made It Into The Final Movie

1. Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Django Unchained' (2012)

The Scene: We're at Calvin Candy's house, and it's time for dinner. But Candy is turning the tide on our heroes and showing his true colors. In a fit of rage, he slams his hand on the dining table.

The Injury: DiCaprio slammed his hand directly onto a real glass goblet, which shattered and cut his palm. Without breaking character, he continued the scene. And in the movie, you can see his hand dripping with real blood. He even used the bloody hand to smear on the face of a terrified Kerry Washington, which is kind of gross. Tarantino loved the intensity so much that this take is the one you see in the movie.

2. Viggo Mortensen in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' (2002)

The Scene: Aragorn (Mortensen) thinks Merry and Pippin have died after finding a pile of smoldering Orc bodies. In his anguish, he lets out a cry and kicks a heavy Orc helmet across the field.

The Injury: This was the first DVD special features I devoured. Mortensen kicked the helmet with such force that he broke two of his toes. The blood-curdling scream of agony he lets out is entirely real thanks to the injury. Director Peter Jackson kept the take because it fit perfectly.

3. Martin Sheen in 'Apocalypse Now' (1979)

The Scene: In the film's opening scene, a drunken and unstable Captain Willard (Sheen) is alone in a Saigon hotel room. He's going crazy and losing his mind being away from the war. He stares at himself in a mirror before punching it.

The Injury: Sheen actually got drunk for this scene. In that frame of mind, he punches the mirror, smashing it and cutting his thumb pretty bad. He smeared his real blood all over his face while continuing the scene. And Coppola kept it because it was so wild.

4. Channing Tatum in 'Foxcatcher' (2014)

The Scene: Tatum plays Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz, who is trying to make weight and coming down off some drugs. He has a moment of intense self-loathing in his hotel room after a bad loss and smashes a mirror with his head.

The Injury: Tatum legit smashed his head into the mirror three times with such force that he broke the mirror and cut his forehead open. The blood trickling down his face is real, and his dazed reaction is genuine.

5. Ellen Burstyn in 'The Exorcist' (1973)

The Scene: Possessed Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) slaps her mother (Burstyn), and then throws her across the room.

The Injury: So, this is more like a stunt gone wrong. Burstyn was attached to a wire that was pulled by a crew member. After rehearsing, she told director William Friedkin the pull was too hard. Rumor has it, for the take, he secretly told the crew member to pull her even harder, to get the effect he wanted. Burstyn was slammed to the floor and landed on her coccyx. She had a permanent spinal injury after that. Her scream of agony is the one used in the film.

6. Margaret Hamilton in 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939)

The Scene: The Wicked Witch of the West (Hamilton) makes a fiery exit from Munchkinland in a cloud of red smoke and flames.

The Injury: This is why on-set safety and tests are so important. A trap door was supposed to lower Hamilton to safety before the pyrotechnics went off, but it malfunctioned, and the flames erupted while she was still on stage. This was really dangerous and caused second-degree burns to her face and third-degree burns to her hand. The take used in the movie cuts away just a fraction of a second after she is engulfed in real fire.

7. Sylvester Stallone in 'First Blood' (1982)

The Scene: While being pursued, John Rambo (Stallone) makes a desperate leap from a high cliff into a grove of trees.

The Injury: Stallone did the jump himself and landed on a tree branch. It broke one of his ribs. The shot of him hitting the tree and the genuine grunt he lets out made it into the final version.

8. Jackie Chan in 'Rumble in the Bronx' (1995)

The Scene: While chasing villains across a parking lot, Chan's character makes a running leap onto another building.

The Injury: Chan mistimed the jump, and hit the other building hard. He broke his ankle. The actual take of the failed jump and injury is in the movie. Chan famously wore a special sock painted to look like a sneaker over his cast to continue filming.

9. Daniel Craig in 'Casino Royale' (2006)

The Scene: In one of his first fight scenes as the new James Bond, Daniel Craig gets into a visceral bathroom brawl in Prague.

The Injury: During the chaotic fight choreography, Craig took an elbow to the face that knocked his two front teeth out. The fight sequence in the final film includes the moments directly leading up to and after the real, tooth-shattering impact.

10. Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' (2018)

The Scene: During a chase across London rooftops, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) must make a high-stakes leap from one building to another to continue his pursuit.

The Injury: I mean, we had to include something from Tom Cruise on this list. While performing the stunt himself, Cruise fell short of the landing and slammed his foot and ankle into the side of the concrete building. He audibly broke his ankle on impact. That's in the movie, and so is Cruise pulling himself up onto the roof and limping towards the camera to finish the shot.

Summing It All Up 

Making movies can feel and be high stakes, but no one should be hurt while doing it. Accidents happen, and we roll with it, but like I said up top, we should always be conscious of safety on set.