The 22 greatest movie stunts ever, ranked
From Buster Keaton to Jackie Chan to, of course, Tom Cruise, here's our rundown of the most death defying acts of cinematic insanity
Film Lists William Canfield Jr
When it comes to the art of motion picture making, stunt work is one of the industry’s most important yet unsung crafts. Indeed, stunt people have been fighting for their own Oscar category for years. And, seeing how they’ve been putting their lives at great risk for our entertainment pleasure since the dawn of movies, they deserve it. Audiences love to be dazzled and experience something they’ve never seen before. That’s been true since Frank Hanaway fell off a horse in 1903’s The Great Train Robbery and the Keystone Kops pratfell their way to immortality in the 1910’s, forcing viewers to consider what was real and what was a matter of perspective and camera trickery.
We’ve seen shifts over the decades in terms of what audiences respond to, be it genres, actors, or tone. But one thing has remained consistent; viewers have always been wowed by a dangerous-looking car chase, fight scene, free fall, or occasional chariot race, and then wondered, “Was that done for real?” Even in the age of digital effects, audiences have been enamored by the idea of highly trained stunt men and women performing incredible feats of the body and mind to achieve the seemingly impossible, all for the glory of film. With Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part 1 finally here—and Tom Cruise ready to confirm his status as the most indestructible A-lister in motion picture history—The A.V. Club decided to rank the greatest stunts in motion picture history based on difficulty, “wow” factor, and the impact the stunt had on the audience and the future of filmmaking. So fasten your seat belts, you’re in for a bumpy slideshow.
56 Comments
Really? Not one Mad Max? They had to have a doctor on set at all times for those! Granted, he was the director, but still.
The making-of videos from those movies are incredible. Just the guy in Fury Road riding his motorcycle down a 500-foot cliff face should rank, and it’s not even the most exciting stunt in the movie.
I was disappointed to find that the Blu Ray set I got of the original three films didn’t have any special features. The Road Warrior is one of the most “How Did This Get Made (positive)“ movies ever.
I think Miller was just out in the desert doing whatever the hell he wanted and no one noticed. I mean that movie came out in 1982 with 100% practical effects, all of them completely psychotic.
Yeah but like how did they pull it off? How did nobody die?
Fair question. Luck, presumably.
Hey, don’t forget that Tony Hale recreated Buster Keaton’s house fall on “Arrested Development,” although I bet there were a lot more safety precautions in place when “Arrested Development” did it.
half of the embedded videos aren’t working, you might want to check that
Iron Monkey or GTFO.
Seriously. Fighting on top of wooden poles. On fire.Tai Chi Master (not sure if it was 1 or 2) with the benches is also a big one.
It may not be the first film that comes to mind for stunts but shootout to Bruce Campbell for his performance in Evil Dead 2. My man spends the entire runtime kicking his own ass and hurling his body through walls, furniture, windows, and down stairs (headfirst). You can just tell it was utterly exhausting to film just by looking at him as the night progresses. Doing all that while nailing the physical comedy is a joy to watch, him and Raimi were working on another level
The original Gone in 60 Seconds (not the Nic Cage garbage) should be on here, but I’ll be damned if I can decide exactly one part in that awesomeness.Also I don’t know if it’s a stunt, but there’s a bad old movie called “Blood Freak” where a guy with a wooden leg has his leg cut off. It’s surprisingly good for a very bad (but entertaining) film.
1-16 Pick a Jackie Chan Movie17-22 Here’s some other ones, we guess
There really are some bonus point that I have to give Chan’s and his stunt team’s work. The stunts are incredibly innovative, but they’re also making things happen with a guerilla approach (despite the big budgets) of just trial-and-error and with limited tools at their disposal. So many examples: They used lots of piles of cardboard boxes as landing pads, for example; Chan skydove onto a balloon with not as much prep as you’d hope; the clock tower drop looked to involve just trying it a few times. It’s part of the excitement when watching it that he wasn’t training for months (at least not always) to do the movie’s highlighted stunt.
I like the ones where they just literally do the stunt, no matter how dangerous. “Ok so we need to figure out a way to jump a motorcycle onto a moving train.”“Um, we’re going to jump a motorcycle onto a moving train.”
“Yeah, we should probably teach Michelle how to ride a motorcycle though.”
Speaking of motorcycles, how is there not a single Road Warrior or Fury Road stunt on this list??
Flatmate of mine had a video of Jackie going through some of his stunt locations in Hong Kong.He was on some massive…not cliff, per se, but more like a massive rock roll-of on the side of a mountain.He pulls out a red rubber ball.“Here is what happen if it go bad.”And he drops the ball, and gleefully bounces over the lip and down into the abyss below.He was not smiling.
Cardboard boxes isn’t just a “whatever we had at our disposal” thing though. They’re widely used whatever the budget, because as long as they’re stacked correctly, they have the right levels of strength and give for a safe landing.
Dunno if the cardboard box thing was their invention (could certainly have been), but it’s become pretty standard now.
Keaton’s wife had decided to divorce him, so that kind of played into his disregard for his life.That shot was on the bank of the Sacramento River, in Old Sacramento, for what it’s worth. That had at least one airplane turbine to create wind.
There was a time where the Indy riding behind the car on his whip was a big deal and they showed clips of it all the time and the making of it.
The Buster Keaton wall drop should be #1. And Mad Max: Fury Road should definitely be on this list.
We can drop one or two of Tom Cruise’s or even Jackie Chan’s stunts and open this up to both Fury Road and the final chase in the Road Warrior. Both have incredible action sequences which are more than just the car chases involved.
The parachute exchange sequence in Moonraker deserves a nod. Buster Keaton building fall at #1; Ben Hur at #2 (although the lines are blurring between best stunt and best action sequence, or the truck battle from The Road Warrior should be here, too). And Jackie Chan, pretty much everything.
The Raid and the Raid II have some incredible stunt work. The car chase in II is a masterpiece.
The GoldenEye entry should be a two-fer with the motorcycle jump. I’m impressed by Cruise’s jump, but that stuntman did it thirty years ago — seven times.
Also, I’m sad that the AMC rotating jump isn’t here. It’s not as spectacular as a stomach-dropping parachute plummet, but it’s nonetheless impressive.
Also, I’m sad that the AMC rotating jump isn’t here. It’s not as spectacular as a stomach-dropping parachute plummet, but it’s nonetheless impressive.Yeah, it’s impressive as hell. Shame about the slide whistle.It’s the first computer-simulated stunt.
It’s an all-time classic piece of work, from the pioneering computer-designed ramp to the execution itself, but that goddamn slide whistle keeps it off the best-of lists.
It’s true. I’ve seen a fan remix replacing it with the Bond theme — not well, but it does show how great it could have been.
All of the horrifically cartoonish crap that happened in those Roger Moore-era Bond movies makes it hard to take any part of his tenure as 007 with anything beyond dismissiveness. And that sucks, because it literally wasted Christopher Walken as a villain using a god damn blimp as a getaway vehicle.
Why is every lead story in my AV Club daily emails a slideshow?
I remember opening day of ‘Dark Knight Rises’ being simultaneously thrilled by the action and saying, “Oh, yeah. You really can’t understand a damn thing he’s saying.”
People often forget the Maverick movie stunt where the stunt performer jumped up the pairs of horses to the front of the team of horses to take control of the carriage. It was real, it was insane, and is legendary.
I’m a little surprised nothing from the Fast movies made the list, not gonna lie. Of course, they’ve (Tokyo) drifted away from practical stuff more and more so I get it, but I mean, the scene in Furious 7 when they parachute the cars out of planes, ending with Paul Walker’s fight with Tony Jaa and then having to run up the side of the bus was almost entirely practical. That, for me, feels like it should at least be in the argument.
Buster Keaton not at #1 is fucking silly. Shame on you.Where’s the finale of Hooper? That tower fall during the car chase shoot is pretty remarkable.
The Buster Keaton building drop is my favorite of these, mostly because….Two tons! If a part of the frame had hit him he would have been seriously hurt or killed. Even back then I’m sure they had the technology to make the facade lighter, or guide it with cables, or something. Not sure why they didn’t – in a hurry and on a budget I guess. Anyway – man, you can practically feel that building hit the ground, and that makes it worthwhile….
I wish I were out of the greys…His wife Natalie Talmadge (sp? name? — I’m going by memory) had had enough of his alcoholism and whatever else and had decided to divorce him. As far as I know, this stunt was already planned, but apparently he was taking precautions and measuring things out carefully (you can see a cable on the facade and a member of the crew dashing off the set if you look at the ground floor stage left window); still he had a certain amount of despair and disregard for his life at the time, supposedly.
The Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon tree fight is one of my favorite cinematic moments.
Have we so quickly forgotten about the Barrel Of Monkeys sequence from Iron Man 3? I couldn’t say what I’d drop to squeeze it in, but it has a place on any list.
everything before they get to the water is greenscreened and cgi. the rest here were a LOT more practical.
Too bad the Burj Khalifa clip is incomplete – the second half of it is almost unwatchable for someone who suffers from acrophobia like myself!!! An amazing piece of filmmaking.
I appreciate you all having the good taste to not put any Matrix crap on here.
I was expecting Toby Halicki in Gone In 60 Seconds. One-man army Halicki drove, made his own stunts AND paid for all the 70+vehicles wrecked in the movie he financed out of his own pocket.
I expected Mad Max: Fury Road to make the list. Real vehicles and real practical stunts.
I normally hate this slideshow shit, but this was a worthwhile list.
Some runners-up:The “Bridge Rescue” scene in True Lies“Boarding the Bus” in Speed – Reeves did it himself, because apparently the stunt crew said it was too dangerous.The “Ship’s Mast” scene in Death ProofAnd the things they did with trains in silent movies:
Very good point. How do you not included the Ship’s Mast scene from Deathproof?
This slideshow makes me miss Tom Breihan’s A History of Violence (and other excellent recurring columns) on AVC.
This list is suspect without the train stuff from “The General.” Bonkers stunts.
MI may have some great stunts, but they’re all shit films. Also. Tom Cruise is a cult leader who’s Cult (Scientology) is heavily involved in human trafficking.
Guy Norris broke his femur during a motorcycle stunt from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Dude flips end over end.
I forgot how magnificent that Crouching Tiger fight scene is.
“But 20 years after Stagecoach, he topped himself. Find out how later on this list.”This reads a lot darker in the UK.
Kind of surprised The General didn’t make the list.
cars are missing here. Mad Max 2 is quite mad with the danger of the stunts, the original “Fast and the Furious” is absolute mayhem, and the opening of “Final Destination 2″ is the most impressive piece of stunt work I have ever watched – the editing has a lot to do here though.