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If you love a good action movie, you've probably witnessed some pretty wild scenes. A guy jumps from a high-rise building, gets up and starts running; a soldier gets shot in his stomach, pulls out the bullet and slaps some gauze on the wound; a couple gets flung out of their home during an explosion and casually sits up to survey the damage.
It sometimes seems as if Hollywood would like us to believe that we're all invincible. But that's far from the truth. Someone asked, "What injury is commonly shrugged off as a minor flesh wound in the movies but is completely fatal in real life?" and many of the answers prove why you should never take medical advice from the big screen.
Bored Panda has put together a list of the best ones for anyone who needs a reminder that life is not a movie. We also explore some cases where real injuries have happened on movie sets. You'll find that between the images.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Ship wreck scenes where the character goes unconscious, but eventually “wakes up” washed up on a beach. In the real world that’s known a drowning and is 100% fatal…Especially in a violent ocean storm.
Megalodon Meg 9 hours ago
They're always in the middle of a violent ocean, no land in sight, and just get gently placed on a beach 😆
There's a reason stunt doubles exist. They're highly trained professionals who perform high-risk or physically demanding action sequences like car crashes, high falls, or complex fight scenes on behalf of a main actor. But even with stunt doubles stepping in, accidents and even fatalities still occur in the motion picture industry.
There were 152 catastrophic incidents (fatalities or serious injuries) reported on film sets between 2002 to 2024. That's according to data released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). 32 people passed away during this period due to accidents in the motion picture industry, 22 of them on film sets.
RELATED:
#2
CPR.
You are NOT okay after that, if it was effective enough to save your life.
Analysis by Los Angeles-based personal injury lawyers Rose, Klein & Marias reveals that most movie set fatalities were as a result of falls from ladders, catwalks, balconies and the likes. Motor vehicle crashes during filming and stunt-related accidents are also claiming lives. Less frequent causes include toxic exposure, fire, shooting incidents, and heart attacks.
According to the law firm, those with job titles categorized as “Laborers, except construction” are most at risk, followed by “actors and directors” and “artists, performers and related workers.”
#4
Anyone falling off a building and then getting up to continue chasing is full of [it].
TerminalVector:
Just land on some bags of trash, you'll be fine. We all know people don't throw away things that are solid or sharp.
marianne eliza 7 hours ago
Or land on an awning that doesn't tear. But if it does, there's always a second or third awning below.
#5
Gunshots...of all things.
Heretic_Red:
My partner and I were just joking about this the other day! We especially noticed that if the plot calls for a character to get a non-fatal GSW they’ll usually take a shot to the shoulder, then grit their teeth, wrap their arm in a sling or something and say “I’m fine” before carrying on with their mission.
Now maybe it wouldn’t be immediately fatal but that’s a section of the body with a major joint, tendons, muscles, blood vessels; all of which would be absolutely shredded. Bare minimum you’re passing out from pain (let alone blood loss).
Peptuck:
On of the more realistic depictions of surviving a gunshot wound comes in the Extraction movies. At the end of the first movie, the main character gets shot by a sniper and falls off a bridge into a river. In the second movie, he's shown being recovered from the river and barely stabilized and shipped off to a hospital.
He then spends months in the hospital in a coma and then rehab, relearning how to walk, and even after he gets done he has to basically retire to a cabin in the countryside to continue to recover, and then when he gets his next mission he has to spend months going through intense physical training to get back all of the muscle he'd lost over the previous months of recovery.
#6
In Prometheus, one character has to undergo an emergency abdominal surgery after discovering a deadly alien worm growing inside her abdomen. The procedure cuts through multiple layers of skin, muscle, and tissue. Minutes later, the character in question is sprinting, climbing, jumping, fighting for their life, and even taking blows to the stomach as if nothing happened.
As someone who's had abdominal surgery, that scene almost completely took me out of the movie. I could barely stand up without assistance for days. Forget running, jumping, or getting punched in the abdomen.
I get that it’s a sci-fi movies, but it was absurd. The alien was believable compared to her recovery time.
Laborers, also known set workers, are often responsible for things like setting up production equipment, installing and moving props, and rigging and dismantling heavy equipment such as scaffolding, platforms, and backdrops.
"Compared to other job duties, this puts them at a unique risk for serious film set accidents like slips, falls, and crushing injuries," warns the legal firm.
#7
Sliced palms. Whenever people in movies need to draw blood in a quick situation, they take any blade available and slice across their entire palm. Then they wrap it with a strip of dirty fabric and go about using their hand like normal as if being a hand surgeon isn’t a whole surgical specialty.
#8
Not an injury per se, but childbirth in popular media is never portrayed as the bloody, wet, complicated (and sometimes weird) experience it is in reality.
Gingersnap In Iowa 10 hours ago
I think 🤔 if it was portrayed realistically the birth rate would be close to zero.
#9
Getting hit over the head.
LGBT-Barbie-Cookout:
Concussions and losing conciousness are super bad for you!
Like months to years to never of recovery in some cases
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 hours ago
Yeah, I look at "lol head injury!!" scenes in movies very, very differently now after my dad's accident (fell off of a ladder and sustained a catastrophic brain injury.) I also give movies the side-eye if an older character gets badly hurt (especially a head injury) and then is fine the next day, just a little bruised. I know firsthand that older people do NOT recover from brain injuries as well or as frequently as younger people do. There's no guaranteed recovery if you're young, of course, but usually you've got a better chance at recovery.
The report notes that movie set injuries and fatalities have decreased since 2021, "perhaps due to increased scrutiny on the industry."
2021 was the year the world woke to the horrifying news that Alec Baldwin had fatally shot a cinematographer, and injured a director while rehearsing a scene on the film set of the movie Rust. According to media reports, Baldwin's prop gun fired a live round.
"The film's armourer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2024," reports the BBC. A criminal charges against the Baldwin was dismissed but he could now face a civil trial later this year.
#10
Catching someone who's falling at speed, especially by one arm. Either they're going to pull you down with them, or everyone is getting an arm dislocated at best. If your chest is halfway off, chances are good for some broken ribs. Might not be always be fatal, but definitely isn't minor.
#11
**Dislocating your shoulder.**
I dislocated mine for the first time playing hockey in March. I’m still like barely more than functional, even after weekly PT and daily exercises.
I had NO idea. There’s no way you just pop that žback in and you’re ready to fight. You’re not an action figure. If your arm pops out of its socket, you’re seriously messed up.
Ace 5 hours ago
I have very loose 'hyperextensible' shoulder joints, such that I can actually pull it out of the socket at will, just by flexing some muscles, and without any ill effect from it. I have, twice in my life, damaged one shoulder in a ski accident, where it's dislocated and then relocated. Very painful, took a week or so to regain normal function.
#12
Getting stabbed. Movies make it look like an inconvenience. In real life, a single stab wound can change everything in minutes.
CharleyNobody:
Had a patient years ago who got stabbed in the abdomen at a dance (a church dance, no less). It was a brawl over a woman. The guy was gobsmacked, “Man, I dint know like…when you get stabbe*d…you can’t run*!”
He watched too many tv shows.
Despite being highly trained in their line of work, even stunt doubles aren't immune to serious injuries and even fatalities.
David Holmes was Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double throughout the entire Harry Potter series. But tragedy struck in 2009. Holmes was working on a flying scene for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 when he was knocked into a wall by a staged explosion.
The stunt double was rushed to hospital, where doctors discovered he'd broken his neck and that the damage was irreversible. The incident left Holmes tetraplegic and in a wheelchair. He is paralyzed in both legs and arms.
#13
Injuries caused by Kevin McCallister’s booby traps.
Donnicton:
That one scene with the nail on the stairs - besides being deeply uncomfortable to watch - is also a "go straight to the emergency room" situation.
#14
Breaking bones. My gf had 3 of her toes broken and it took 10 weeks before she could walk somewhat normally again.
Falling of a 3 story building, landing on a car (probably shattering multiple bones in your body) and just getting up and walking away? Nah buddy, that car is your coffin now.
#15
Gut injuries. They’re painful, you bleed out, the contamination of your abdominal cavity by feces and gut fauna guarantee immediate and severe infection. Often major organs like kidney or liver get hit. It can take agonizing hours or days to d*e from a bullet to the gut, and during that time you’re painfully incapacitated.
But the action hero who takes a bullet to the gut wraps it up and keeps fighting as if it’s a minor injury.
Roman Arendt 10 hours ago (edited)
You don't understand. It's all about the bullet. You just need a no-nonsense bädass woman (preferably of colour) with a mysterious background who digs in for the bullet with a small knife (the kind we could get out of gumball machines). Then you'll be fine. But for a fast recovery, it's imperative that you have intercourse afterwards.
Former stunt double Heidi Von Beltz suffered a similar fate in 1981 at the age of 24. She was working as Farrah Fawcett's stunt double in The Cannonball Run.
"The film relied on heavy stunt work, as it was about an illegal auto race from sea to shining sea," reports How Stuff Works. "During a driving scene in which Heidi was doubling for Farrah, the car she was riding in was involved in an accident. The vehicle was mangled, and Heidi was left inside fighting for her life."
Von Beltz was left paralyzed. She passed away in 2015, after more than three decades as a quadriplegic.
#16
If something hits you with enough force to send you flying that is ER at minimum.
SwimmingBoot:
I literally fell on the ground from only around 4 feet high, right on my back and no head hitting the ground thankfully because I was wearing a backpack that put distance between my head and the ground, and I could not breathe from that little fall for what felt like forever. The next day my whole back was soo terribly angry at me. 4 weeks later my ribs in the front finally stopped hurting all the time!
#17
Fights. If ppl fought like that irl they’d be d**d.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 8 hours ago
I'm always amused - and then annoyed - when a fistfight scene drags on for several minutes in a movie/show. Yeah, fingers would be broken (at minimum!) after a few seconds with as hard as the characters are punching each other XD
#18
Punching glass. That can mess you up real bad.
Specific-Morning-985:
There was a video of this roided out dude who punched through a glass window in Portland and severed his artery. Bled out so quickly.
Some Hollywood actors choose to push themselves to their limits while filming. George Clooney, for example, won as Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a CIA operative in Syriana. But the role didn't come without pain and suffering.
"While filming the scene in which Clooney’s character is tied to a chair and tortured, the chair is thrown backwards to the ground," reports How Stuff Works. "The impact caused Clooney to hit his head and hurt his back, but it was thought to be only a minor injury at the time."
#19
Losing your arms and legs in a fight using broadswords.
#20
GSW to the leg. There is a lot of major blood vessels that if not controlled via a tourniquet, will send you “vertically packing”.
mgsbigdog:
Both in movies and in Monday morning quarterbacking on shootings there's always the "just shoot him in the leg." Like the femoral artery won't just kill you in seconds if it gets nicked.
#21
"WE HAVE TO GET THE BULLET OUT"
No, no you don't. In fact it's almost always better to leave it in. It's already in, it isn't doing more harm by being in there, and you'll definitely cause more harm taking it out.
Also, Hollywood seems to think pretty much any cut will stop bleeding if you just slap some gauze on it. I had a small cut from a very, very sharp knife on my finger once. Bled through multiple bandaid. Gauze. After two hours, we had to cauterize it (meaning Burn it closed).
It turned out Clooney's injury was not minor. He revealed that shortly after the incident, he began suffering from crippling headaches. Clooney reportedly started depending on alcohol to get through the pain, and underwent several surgeries.
"Still, Clooney lives with pain from the injury to this day and it’s actually prevented him from accepting certain roles, such as Napoleon Solo in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which eventually went to Henry Cavill," How Stuff Works reports.
#23
Removing objects from puncture wounds outside of a medical setting. When you remove the object, you take away the thing that was putting pressure on all the blood vessels, etc inside of the wound. More bleeding and damage instead of less.
#24
An explosion that knocks you over, never mind one that throws you.
nereidfreak:
James Bond has this happen to him in 007: First Light. It's pretty early in the game, so not really a spoiler, but he essentially has a bomb explode damn near in his face and is just knocked unconscious.
#25
Arrows. They mess you up.
sentone:
I love how they always just snap the stick off and continue on like nothing happened.
#26
Falling down the stairs. They do a little roll hop right up and carry on running. Falling down stairs is not a parkour stunt in real life.
#27
TBI/Severe concussion: I spent a month learning how to walk, talk, balance, think, etc. Still working on those 6mo post injury, suffered Severe and Profound hearing loss, my brain doesn't make new memories reliably- and there's no way for me to know if it is or isn't. I was a weird kid who read the dictionary and thesaurus very young, big vocabulary, spoke 4 languages well enough for conversation and work, now i can barely speak English and get stuck using 'it sucks' and 'it totally sucks' so often it's nauseating when I reread something I wrote. Have a degree in audio engineering and music production- can't remember how to play piano, which notes are which keys, can't recall what a certain note sounds like.. I hate this, my head hasn't stopped ringing, it was 2 different tones at first, now it's just one constant tone that fluctuates in intensity and tremolo effect, I do things out of order- butter bread before roasting, multi-step tasks- I can't remember what the 3rd step is.. used to cook nice meals now they're likely to burn or taste [bad] because some step or ingredient was forgotten. A PB&J goes like this: slice of bread, spread peanut butter on it, lid on peanut butter, go to get jam, take jam out of fridge, get a soda, go out back and water the tomatoes, check the greenhouse...hours later find a full room temp soda open on the counter and wonder why's the jam out? Feeling hungry, I drink the soda... I can't stand the way brain is now. It totally [sucks].
#28
Indoor gun battles. I'm not talking about bullets. But after a couple people empty mags at each other across a room, neither of them will hear anything. You could walk up behind them in chain mail and they wouldn't know. Nevermind following someone or listening for footsteps. You're deaf. For hours. Partially forever. People way underestimate how loud guns are.
Norm Gilmore 5 hours ago
There's a scene from The Sopranos where an assassîn shoots the person sitting next to him in a car and almost screams from the noise..
#29
Touching a live wire. Some sparks, maybe flying through the room, then a funny haircut and back to your day ? Nope, I don't think so.
Ace 4 hours ago
Loads or people have experienced this in real life, but on domestic systems, particularly if it's the US 110v standard, there aren't even sparks or flying across the room. Something big enough (i.e. much higher voltage without normal domestic current-based protection) to throw you across the room, yeah, most times that would k**l you.
#31
Falling from a tall building onto a car.
#34
The kind of fall that has you slapping down onto a marble or stone floor.
The wizard fight in Fellowship of the Rings comes to mind.
#36
Whenever action takes place in wild environments like rainforests or the mountains and the actors get all cut up and just wrap a dirty piece of fabric over it. In the wild infection happens quick.
#37
Being branded with a branding iron.
While maybe not always fatal, it CAN be if it's deep enough and gets infected.
There are so many videos on the Internet of idiots getting branded. But we never learn what happens afterward.
#38
Getting shot in the stomach is not something you can just walk off, it’s a pretty serious injury that will k**l you if blood pools on your abdomen.
#40
Jumping off of, or out of moving vehicles. Yeah you can roll I guess but if you've tried it without experience you'll know it's not really that easy/intuitive. Smacked my head on the road when I was 13 after I got physically forced off of a mean friend of a (also mean) friend's modded golf cart (going 25-35mph). Tried to roll but the ground was hard and unforgiving.
#41
Getting shot in the shoulder area apparently. I’ve heard it’s damnn near a death sentence in real life.
#42
Waking up from a coma to be thrust into a new Situation is pretty common.
If you fall into a coma, and stay unconscious for more than a few weeks, you most probably will never wake up again. Like, the chance is so low, anyone that wakes up after being in a coma for more than a year is regarded as a statistical anomaly. There have been only 11 recorded people that woke up from years-long comas.
Miss Tinker 10 hours ago
And it’s not like they just get up & start walking, then not long after start a major revenge k*****g spree… Quentin Tarantino I’m looking at you!!
#43
Hitting someone with a bear bottle hard enough to shatter it.
Those things are specifically engineered not to shatter in very bumpy transit. People who get hit with them often find themselves with intracranial obstructions made of their own skull fragments.
They do not survive without lasting consequences.
#44
Getting hit or thrown by a monster or object so hard that you get lifted fully off of the ground and across the room.
You always hear about people making fun of that trope where the overpowered villain has the hero in their clutches and just throws them into a wall instead of crushing them but realistically most people would be too injured to move at best.
The biggest example that I can think of is in one of the animated Resident Evil movies where a Tyrant throws Leon like 50 feet into a concrete pillar. Like that would completely k**l you.
Becky Samuel 1 hour ago
That sort of acceleration/deceleration is so dangerous that 'pull-back' stunts (where the stunt man wears a harness and is pulled sharply backwards into a wall) are no longer performed at all. They were finally banned after Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double in the Harry Potter franchise was paralysed for life.
#45
Not that common in movies, but a completely untreated femur fracture will k**l you. The breakage of the bone itself won't k**l you, but the powerful leg muscles moving sharp bone fragments this close to a major artery is a bit of a messy situation.
Before traction splints were a thing, cutting the leg off altogether was a much safer option.
#46
Acl and meniscus tear. Seems small but, ruins walking if uncared for.
Ace 4 hours ago
Two completely different problems, symptoms and prognosis vary considerably. I skied (I'm an instructor) for 13 years unaware of a completely snapped ACL. Yes, it had cause more meniscus damage and osteoarthritis during that time, so I don't recommend it - get it sorted - but the point is that sometimes, as with me, you can indeed be out skiing as normal the very next day. I did have it looked at in resort, after I'd skied home with just mild discomfort, the doc didn't spot any major damage but said I should be fine to ski, just to avoid walking up or down stairs 🤷♀️
#47
A punctured lung. In movies people get hit in the chest, grunt a bit, and keep going, but that can turn life threatening very quickly without treatment.
Ace 4 hours ago
Broken ribs can often result in a collapsed lung ( it takes a lot, usually an external wound, to actually puncture one) and yes, would be very serious if untreated, also very painful, unable to breath, feels like your chest is full of water, largely because it is. Inserting the left-side drain while I was in hospital after an accident mentioned above was almost as painful as the original accident. The first drain on the side where all the ribs had multiple breaks was put in while I was still under morphine or general anaesthetic, so I didn't know much about it until I woke up with a tube sticking out of my chest.
#48
Any stab wound to the abdomen.
Movies show it constantly.
Hero gets stabbed in the side.
Grimaces for one scene.
Back to fighting in the next.
Here's what actually happens.
The abdomen contains your
intestines, liver, kidneys,
major blood vessels, and stomach.
A knife that penetrates 4 inches
into your abdomen has touched
at least three of those things.
The immediate problem
isn't blood loss.
It's what spills out.
Your intestines contain
bacteria that your body
normally keeps completely
contained.
The moment a blade
punctures the intestinal wall —
that bacteria enters
your abdominal cavity.
What follows is called
peritonitis.
Your entire abdominal lining
becomes infected.
Within 12-24 hours —
fever, excruciating pain,
organ failure beginning.
Without immediate surgery —
within 48-72 hours —
you are d**d.
And this is the "clean" version.
If the blade touches
your descending aorta —
the major artery running
through your abdomen —
You have approximately
3 minutes.
The hero who gets stabbed
and drives himself to safety?
He drove to his funeral.
He just didn't know it yet.
#49
Every single thing that happened in The Furious.
Sledgehammer to the spleen - 2 minutes recovery time.
Broken glass versus bare feet - one foot soak and all healed up.
#50
Stamina. People don’t fight for long.
Norm Gilmore 5 hours ago
Have you never seen Peter Griffin fight the Chicken in Family Guy? :-)
#51
Rotted teeth.
Nice_Passage1099:
Don't neglect your dental hygiene, folks.
I've known two people now who died from rotten teeth / oral abscesses. One the bacteria migrated to their heart and ate a hole in the aortic artery. Crazy stuff.
What do you think ?
Tobias Reaper 7 hours ago
Rocky 3 when he is letting Clubber Lang punch and is just shrugging them off in reality its fight over either by knock out or the ref stopping because he is no longer protecting himself. Rocky 5 does a good job of showing the consequences but realistically that fight would have been over
Tobias Reaper 7 hours ago
Rocky 3 when he is letting Clubber Lang punch and is just shrugging them off in reality its fight over either by knock out or the ref stopping because he is no longer protecting himself. Rocky 5 does a good job of showing the consequences but realistically that fight would have been over
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