Whether it was suffering broken bones, nearly drowning, or waking up in a hospital wondering how they got there, these actors gave til it hurt to create some truly memorable scenes in movie history. While we don’t want them to ever get hurt, it’s hard not to admire the commitment to the craft.

1. The Wicked Witch of the West Went up in flames Filming The Wizard of Oz! (1939)

Photo Credit: IcePop

There’s being hot, and then there’s being Margaret Hamilton hot. Thanks to a trap-door malfunction, she suffered third degree burns when filming the Wicked Witch exit scene. She found herself  fully exposed to a pyrotechnic device that was going off and almost burnt to a crisp!

2. Meryl Streep almost drowned as well during the filming of The River Wild (1994)

Photo Credit: FanPop

”I remember sinking down to the bottom with this powerful and freezing water pulling me in deeper.” For Streep, that was what drowning felt like, but she still says today that they needed to get the shot. She was just supposed to paddle the raft, but the river went wild and Streep had to be fished out by a rescue kayaker.

3. Brendan Fraser almost got killed filming the Mummy (1999)

Photo Credit: YouTube

When filming a hanging scene, something went terribly wrong.  The noose used during the shoot didn’t match the one used by the stuntman. Fraser figured he could just hold his breath and power through the shot. For almost 18 seconds, Fraser was out of it. Even though he was standing on a board, when they upped the tension, he was actually being hanged briefly!

4. Sean Astin had to be choppered off the set filming The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Photo Credit: Cinema Blend

“I’m running at a dead sprint and I get in, and as my right foot lands about two feet in the water, just this huge, sharp pain. I grabbed on to the boat and I just looked down and just… It hurt so bad.” Astin stepped on a shard of glass that went straight through his foot. Peter Jackson had to have him flown in a chopper to the nearest hospital 90 minutes away.

5. Isla Fisher almost died performing a magic trick filming Now You See Me (2013)

Photo Credit: IMDB

While filming a scene in which she was chained in a tank filled with water, the props went wrong. Fisher was supposed to be able to pop free of the chains holding her anytime she needed to. One set worked as designed, and the other didn’t. As a result, Fisher was literally drowning, and everyone just thought she was an amazing actress. Eventually, a few crew members caught on and freed her.

6. Robert Pattinson busted his butt filming Twilight (2008)

Photo Credit: Film Beat

Okay, he didn’t actually bust his butt, but he almost tore his glute and that’s still pretty bad. It was bad enough that he confided to MTV that he needed butt massages from a physiotherapist to get through filming. Talk about your job literally being a pain in the butt…

7. Sylvester Stallone needed 5 days in an ICU to recover from filming Rocky IV (1985)

Photo Credit: IFC

In his quest to create the most realistic boxing match he could, Stallone told Dolph Lundgren to wail on him as hard as he could and try to knock him out. He said that Lundgren hit him so hard that his heart was against his ribs, the way it would be if he was literally hit by a truck!

8. Linda Hamilton went partially deaf filming Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Photo Credit: GameSpot

Hamilton learned an important lesson about hearing protection when she forgot to use any in the elevator scene. “I fell to my knees in pain. I thought I’d been shot. The noise was so intense, so extreme, I’ll never forget it.” Like a pro, she got up from her knees, and finished off the scene.

9. Daniel Craig gave his all filming Quantum of Solace (2008)

Photo Credit: YouTube

Craig didn’t actually give his all, but he did give the tip of his finger when he accidentally sliced it off.  “I was bleeding a lot. I had to get it cauterized. Filming stopped and everybody went, ‘Oh my God! He sliced the end of his finger off!’ They went looking for it but couldn’t find it.” That’s a hardcore James Bond!

10. Jim Caviezel was struck by lightning filming The Passion of the Christ (2004)

Photo Credit: Vox

Nature actually scored a two-for-one as Caviezel and assistant director Jan Michelini were hit by different forks of the same lightning bolt. It was the second time Michelini had been hit by lightning! Call it bad luck or a sign, but that is some freaky stuff.

11. Harrison Ford and J.J. Abrams got laid up with broken bones filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Photo Credit: Variety

If you ever wondered whether the Millennium Falcon gets mad, question answered! It took vengeance on the cast and crew, breaking Ford’s ankle and Abrams’ back. In fairness, the hydraulic door on it tried to hurt almost everyone. It’s like Abrams told Jimmy Fallon, hydraulic doors can’t really be picked up if they don’t want to be. Ouch!

12. Channing Tatum used his head as a stud finder filming Foxcatcher (2014)

Tatum didn’t use his head to find the sexy kind of studs central casting sends over, he used it to almost find the kind that hold up walls. He was supposed to hit a prop mirror with his head and be done with it, but Tatum never goes half-speed. He hit the mirror with his head until he literally went through the wall. “I missed the stud by about four inches. I was lucky. But the cut on my head was real.”

Photo Credit: CinemaBlend

13. Cary Elwes got knocked out cold by a sword filming The Princess Bride (1987)

Photo Credit: Giphy

Elwes found out that even a small tap on the noggin from a big, heavy sword can be hazardous to your health. “I woke up in the hospital with stitches being sewn into my forehead.” That’s the danger you face when you don’t use rubber swords on set. The knockout scene looked so good, though, that it ended up being used in the film. Thankfully for Elwes, they didn’t need to get the shot from another angle.

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George A. Romero’s 1968 masterpiece Night of the Living Dead is a landmark of modern cinema. Without it, we may not have recent hits like 28 Days Later or The Walking Dead

Night of the Living Dead turns 50 this year, and in honor of the low-budget masterpiece that changed the face of horror films, here are some facts about the film.

1. The original ideas were quite different

Photo Credit: Janus Films

Imagine this: the original idea for Night of the Living Dead was for the film to be an alien comedy. In 1967, Romero, writer John A. Russo, and actor Rudy Rucci all worked at a commercial film company in Pittsburgh called Latent Image. The three men thought they should try their hand at making a feature film.

Russo suggested a film about hot-rodding teenage aliens that visit Earth and cause trouble with the help of a pet from outer space. That idea wouldn’t work due to budget constraints, so Russo came up with an idea about a runaway boy who stumbles upon a field of corpses under glass that were rotting and would be consumed by aliens. Romero liked the flesh-eating angle but ditched the rest.

2. Romero was heavily inspired by I Am Legend

Romero admitted that he basically “ripped off” Richard Matheson’s horror novel I Am Legend, combining it with the flesh-eating angle that Russo had come up with. Romero came up with about 40 pages that Russo loved, including the opening in the cemetery, and then went to work on the script that would eventually become Night of the Living Dead.

3. Everything, including the blood, was made on the cheap

Photo Credit: Janus Films

Night of the Living Dead was made for less than $150,000, so everything needed to be done cheaply. This included the blood for the film. Because the film was shot in black and white, red ink and chocolate syrup were both used for blood onscreen. In the scene where Kyra Schon ate her father’s corpse, they used leftover crew lunches of hamburgers and meatball sandwiches smeared with chocolate syrup.

4. An error caused the film to be in the public domain

The film is in the public domain, but only because of a big mistake. The film’s distributors wanted to release it under the title Night of the Flesh Eaters. There was a 1964 film called The Flesh Eaters, and lawyers associated with that film threatened to sue.

The title ended up being changed to Night of the Living Dead. Editors did not add copyright notices to the beginning or end credits of the film, so, even though Romero and his team have fought in court, the film remains in the public domain.

5. Romero and Russo made cameos

Director Romero and writer Russo both appear in Night of the Living Dead. Russo played a zombie that got hit with a tire iron and Romero portrayed a reporter in the Washington, D.C. scenes.

6. One actor fought against an alternative ending

Photo Credit: Janus Films

Duane Jones played Ben, the African-American hero of the film. Ben survives the night but is shot dead by a posse and tossed into a fire. Jones fought against a happier ending.

Jones said: “I convinced George that the black community would rather see me dead than saved, after all that had gone on, in a corny and symbolically confusing way. The heroes never die in American movies. The jolt of that, and the double jolt of the hero being black seemed like a double-barreled whammy.”

7. Fire!

Three people set themselves on fire during the making of the film. The infamous cemetery zombie, played by actor Bill Hinzman, and writer John A. Russo both volunteered to be set on fire to make the zombie attack scenes more realistic. Both of their fire scenes went according to plan.

One unexpected fire occurred when a crew member named Gary Streiner added more fuel to a chair that needed to be set on fire for a scene. A hot ember ended up in his gas can and set Streiner on fire. He was not seriously hurt.

8. Duane Jones rewrote his own dialogue

Photo Credit: Janus Films

The character of Ben was originally written as a truck driver with a rough personality, but Jones revised his dialogue to reflect how he felt the character should be played.

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