Dark Side of Movie Making: 50 Disturbing Set Mishaps

While filming "X-Men: Origins Wolverine," Hugh Jackman had to run down a hallway naked with prop claws attached to his fists. As he turned the corner, he faced every woman on the production staff waving dollar bills. Instinctively, he shielded his groin and accidentally cut himself with the claws.

2. Prolonged use of Mystique's blue body paint in the X-Men movies caused Rebecca Romijn's vomit to turn blue. She threw up on Hugh Jackman after shooting tequila during their final scenes together in "X-Men."

3. The prosthetic makeup Jim Carrey wore for the Grinch took about 8 hours to apply. Carrey felt so horribly confined and uncomfortable in the latex skin that he needed counseling from a CIA agent who taught him torture-resistance techniques.

4. During the filming of "Poltergeist" (1982), the clown doll nearly killed Robbie Freeling due to an animatronic error when the clown's arm constricted too tightly around his neck. When the actor started protesting that he couldn't breathe, Spielberg thought he was improvising.

5. A measurement error necessitated the modification of the Seven of Nine costume from Star Trek. The bad fit cut off the blood supply from her carotid artery, causing her to pass out twice and require medical intervention. The costume was modified to prevent it from happening again.

Michael J. Fox was accidentally hanged for real, becoming unconscious while filming "Back to the Future Part III."

7. Isla Fisher almost drowned during the filming of "Now You See Me." While performing an underwater stunt for the film, she had to give the impression of being in distress, but when Isla's chains became entangled for real, she began to genuinely panic, and everyone thought it was just very good acting.

8. During the filming of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double, who had doubled for him for the first six Harry Potter movies, suffered an accident that has left him paralyzed.

9. Charlie the goat, who played Black Philip in the 2015 movie "The Witch," was so problematic on set that numerous intended scenes had to be dropped from filming. The violent and uncooperative billy goat tormented the cast and crew and sent one actor to the hospital with a dislodged tendon.

10. On the set of "Kill Bill," Uma Thurman was in a serious car crash because director Quentin Tarantino insisted she perform her own driving stunts. Thurman knew the car wasn't safe, but Tarantino insisted, and she caved. Thurman permanently damaged her neck and her knee.

Actress Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch of the East) was badly burned while filming "The Wizard of Oz." After being hospitalized, she returned to the set but refused to do any scenes involving fire, so her stunt double took her place in a scene riding a prop that spewed smoke, which exploded and injured her as well.

12. Jonah Hill had to be hospitalized while filming "The Wolf of Wall Street" because he snorted too much fake cocaine.

13. Bruce Willis is partially deaf in his left ear due to the loud explosions and gunfire he had to endure while filming "Die Hard." Willis said, "Due to an accident on the first 'Die Hard,' I suffer two-thirds partial hearing loss in my left ear and have a tendency to say, 'Whaaa?'"

14. Steve Martin has a ringing in his ear called tinnitus, which he acquired while filming a pistol-shooting scene for the film "Three Amigos" in 1986. He was quoted as saying, "You just get used to it, or you go insane."

15. While filming "The Blues Brothers," Dan Aykroyd saved Carrie Fisher by performing the Heimlich maneuver on her while she was choking on a Brussels sprout.

While filming "Monty Python & The Holy Grail" (1975), Graham Chapman developed delirium tremens (DTs) from a lack of alcohol on set. DTs can be fatal even with treatment and typically only affect habitual drinkers who consume 0.5L of liquor or 7-8 pints of beer daily for 10 years or more.

17. While filming "The Passion of the Christ," Jim Caviezel, the actor who played Jesus, was struck by lightning along with the assistant director, who was struck twice.

18. The Rock accidentally knocked out Michael Clarke Duncan while filming a fight scene for "The Scorpion King" and had a custom Rolex made as an apology gift. However, he liked the watch so much that he kept it for himself.

19. While performing the role of Achilles in the film "Troy," Brad Pitt damaged his Achilles tendon so badly that production was delayed for several weeks.

20. Japanese actor Kenpachiro Satsuma suffered appendicitis while playing Godzilla. Doctors had to operate while he was still wearing the Godzilla costume because it would have taken too long to get him out of the suit.

While filming "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas," Benicio Del Toro got so into the character of Dr. Gonzo that he would burn himself with cigarettes because that's what the real Oscar Zeta Acosta did.

22. Some of the actors playing zombies in 1978's "Dawn of the Dead" were drunk, regularly going to a nearby bar while they waited for filming to begin. Some even jumped on a golf cart and crashed it into a pillar, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

23. While filming "The African Queen" in the Congo, everyone on the crew became very ill with dysentery from drinking the water, except Humphrey Bogart, who only drank whiskey.

24. Actress Tippi Hedren was traumatized while filming Hitchcock's "The Birds." She was told that mechanical birds would be used during the famous bedroom scene, but instead, she endured five days of prop men flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens, and crows at her. One of the birds gouged her cheek and just missed her eye.

25. Sylvester Stallone broke his neck while filming a fight scene for "The Expendables," which required the insertion of a metal plate. Stallone kept telling Stone Cold Steve Austin to hit him harder during their fight scene, and Austin ended up accidentally breaking Stallone's neck.