Stunts are an integral part of many movies. Beyond just the action genre, stunts and their coordination are featured in far more films than you might assume, and they can be essential. Starting with the 2028 ceremony, the Academy Awards will finally recognize stunt design in a long-overdue category. While that’s progress, it doesn’t correct the many years of film stunts and the stunt people who put their lives on the line for our entertainment, who have gone unrecognized. The number of astounding stunts that have been performed on film is so large that you could fill out a dozen lists with them. In the interest of keeping things simple, it’s easier just to focus on some of the most fearless.
Most cinematic stunts are inherently fearless on some level, but several go so far above and beyond the level of safety and sanity that you begin to seriously question if those who performed them were born without a functioning amygdala. From the silent era to martial arts classics to modern spy thrillers, there’s seemingly no limit to what stunt performers and stars like Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise will put themselves through for our entertainment. These are six of the most fearless action stunts in movie history, ranked.
The Crocodile Run in ‘Live and Let Die’ (1973)
Roger Moore‘s first appearance as James Bond in Live and Let Die quickly established the cheekier tone that would define his tenure as the character. That tone extends to many of the stunts in the movie, none more so than when Bond finds himself confronted with a float of crocodiles. Instead of using some highly specific gadget or tangling with the crocodiles, Bond runs across the backs of the ravenous reptiles. It’s both incredibly silly and incredibly fearless, since the crocodiles were not the result of some Hollywood fakery and were, in fact, living, breathing animals.
This stunt was the brainchild of stunt performer and crocodile farm owner Ross Kananga, whom the producers met while scouting locations for the film and also named the film’s villain after him. After suggesting the stunt, Kananga was also conscripted by the producers to perform it as well. The stunt reportedly took five takes to accomplish, during one of which a crocodile managed to snap at Kananga’s heel, ripping his costume and causing him to need stitches. While that pain was temporary, the stunt will live on forever as one of the most memorable of the entire Bond franchise.
The Bull in ‘Jackass Forever’ (2022)
The Jackass crew has been putting their bodies on the line in the name of juvenile humor for over two decades, blurring the line between fearlessness and abject stupidity, and the world of entertainment is better for it. Any number of the stunts performed in the four feature films they’ve produced could easily be listed here, but it’s hard to beat anyone who willingly puts themselves in front of a charging bull. Jackass performer and de facto leader Johnny Knoxville has often been cited as the most fearless of the group by the other members, thanks to his unwavering commitment to capture the most compelling footage no matter what the cost.
For Jackass Forever, Knoxville, who was fifty years old during the filming, outdid even himself by taking the full force of a charging bull while comically dressed as a magician. The hit spun Knoxville vertically, much to the stunned silence of those who witnessed it. It knocked Knoxville unconscious and gave him several broken bones as well as a fairly serious concussion. Knoxville later said it was one of the worst hits he’d ever taken, and the footage speaks for itself. Thankfully, Knoxville recently announced he was retiring from performing stunts, citing health concerns, which will probably allow his doctor to sleep better at night.
The Plane Stunt in ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ (2016)
One performer who it seemed would never retire from stuntwork is Tom Cruise, who used his Mission: Impossible franchise to fund his most outrageous stunts. From climbing the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol to performing a HALO jump in Fallout, every film in the franchise upped the ante for how much death Cruise could defy. If there’s one stunt that feels particularly fearless, if for no other reason than Cruise being completely out of control and at the mercy of the elements for it, it’s Ethan Hunt hanging from the outside of a cargo plane as it takes off from the beginning of Rogue Nation. It’s a literal elevation of the Mission: Impossible franchise and Cruise’s commitment to entertainment.
The iconic shot was accomplished across eight separate takes, where Cruise was harnessed to the side of the plane for safety while it climbed to 5,000 feet. Regardless of the safety precautions taken, at the end of the day, Cruise’s body was being subjected to unimaginable forces, and any equipment failure would have undoubtedly meant curtains for the star. It’s an absolutely audacious stunt, and one that feels all the more authentic for how little enhancement was given to it in post-production. Outside of some digital removal or wiring and rigging, the stunt appears exactly as it was shot.
The Ship’s Mast in ‘Death Proof’ (2007)
For his half of the double feature Grindhouse, Quentin Tarantino made a slasher movie where the killer’s weapon of choice is a car. As a throwback to ’70s car chase movies like Vanishing Point, Tarantino wanted his film, Death Proof, to be similarly devoid of CGI or other modern effects technology. The car stunts are all done for real, including the climactic chase sequence where stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell dangles precariously from the hood of a 1970 Dodge Challenger. Bell is playing a fictional version of herself in the film, which was written for her after Tarantino had worked with her on Kill Bill, where she doubled for Uma Thurman, and she performed the stunt herself.
In the film’s narrative, Bell convinces her stunt driver friend to perform what is referred to as a Ship’s Mast, where Bell hangs on to the hood of the car while it’s driven at high speed with nothing but a couple of belts to keep her in place. That stunt becomes even more death-defying as Kurt Russell‘s killer Stuntman Mike attempts to run the Challenger off the road, and Bell hangs on for dear life. As an homage to the undoubtedly unsafe stunt practices of the low-budget grindhouse movies of the ’70s, the stuntwork in Death Proof feels suitably dangerous, and Bell is as fearless as they come.
The Building Slide in ‘Who Am I?’ (1998)
If there’s one performer whose stuntwork outdoes that of Knoxville, Cruise, and Bell, it’s Jackie Chan. Throughout his long career in film, Chan has performed all his own stunts, which include sliding down a pole covered in lights and crashing through glass in Police Story and crawling across hot coals in Drunken Master II. Still, nothing compares to the utter fearlessness of the building slide stunt in his underrated spy thriller Who Am I? Playing a secret agent with amnesia, the majority of the film’s runtime involves Chan fleeing from various operatives out to kill him and uncovering the mystery of why, which leads to a confrontation in a skyscraper from which he escapes by sliding down the exterior of the building.
Filmed at the architecturally distinct Willemswerf building in Rotterdam, which features a slanted section, Chan performed the stunt supposedly without any wires or safety net. It might be an urban myth, but the fact remains that Chan performed the stunt himself. There’s nothing more to it than that; just a fearless man sliding down the outside of a building without any safety measures whatsoever. It’s what separates Chan from so many others, and why, in a more sensible era of stuntwork, his will always be impossible to replicate.
The Falling House in ‘Steamboat Bill, Jr.’ (1928)
It’s hard to beat the classics, and when it comes to classic stunts, Buster Keaton is the best of the best. Whether it’s falling onto a moving train in The General or being dragged by a speeding streetcar in Daydream, Keaton didn’t so much defy death as he openly mocked it. Never was that mockery more flagrant than in the signature stunt from Steamboat Bill, Jr., where Keaton stands blissfully unaware in front of a house as its entire front falls around him. It’s both hilarious and harrowing, making you laugh in spite of the imminent danger.
The facade of the house weighed two tons, and the attic window section, which provided the safe spot for Keaton to avoid its crushing weight, left only mere inches of clearance. The sequence has been paid homage to and repeated by a number of stunt performers over the years, including Knoxville and Chan, but the original is still the most dangerous and Keaton the most fearless performer in movie history.
