Subscribe to ListverseTop 10 Memorable Movie Stunts
- Published May 2, 2008 - 83 Comments
As a kid I loved movies and I also loved to get into fake fights with my friends and jump my stingray bike over anything that was in the way. So naturally I had a good time writing this list. Sadly with the advancement of Special effects (CGI) Future memorable stunts are becoming more infrequent. Just keep in mind all of you Listversers that the criteria for this list is “most memorable” and is not the degree of difficulty of the stunt.
This French futuristic film is not well known but has received quite a bit of attention because of the great stunt work and for it’s depiction of parkour which means the aim of moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, using only the abilities of the human body.
Butch Cassidy: Then you jump first.
Sundance Kid: No, I said.
Butch Cassidy: What’s the matter with you?
Sundance Kid: I can’t swim.
Butch Cassidy: Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you.
Even though Newman and Reford’s stuntmen did the river jump off of a construction crane at the studio’s Century Ranch by Century Lake it is still a memorable stunt. The crane was obscured by a matte painting of the cliffs.
OK… I don’t care how many times they tested & measured this out it still took a lot of guts for Buster Keaton to stand in that one spot and wait for a house to collapse around him.
This is a very short clip so even if you are at work or (on your lunch break of course) with slow Internet speed you can at lest see this one before you go home and watch the rest.
I knew if I didn’t include this in the list I would be tarred & feathered. How can anybody forget this famous 65-foot jump for freedom over a barbed-wire fence? This might not look like much after we are so accustomed to daredevil jumps over busses and cars on those sissy bikes but keep in mind this stunt was done on a 400- pound ’62 Triumph. The stunt man was Bud Ekins. Elkins & McQueen both shared a passion for motorcycle racing and were good friends.
When making a stunt list you have to include Jackie Chan. I was never a fan of your typical martial arts film but Jackie Chan approaches his films with more of a tongue and cheek attitude so I do enjoy some of his movies. Chan actually paid homage to Harold Lloyd ala hanging on a clock in a movie called Project A and also paid homage to Buster Keaton ala a house collapsing around him (see 
in the move Project A II. This is a pretty neat stunt at the end of this clip by Chan from the movie Police Story.
One of John Wayne’s first movies featured some of the most dangerous stunt sequences ever filmed. I can’t imagine anyone attempting these stunts today. This guy positions himself while being dragged going full speed hanging onto the front horse of the stagecoach and then lets go and somehow is not trampled to death and then manages to go directly between the stagecoach wheels as it passes over him. He also doubled for Wayne where he is jumping from horse to horse. These stunts were performed by Yakima Canutt, one of the greatest and most respected stuntmen to this day.
So many Bond Stunts so little time. Here is my favorite. This stunt combines down hill skiing, bullets flying out of ski poles and a Union Jack parachute. I ask you what could be more Bondish and memorable than that?
Harold Lloyd was famous for doing his own stunts. In this very famous scene he climbs & hangs on a building with some funny interferences along the way and with only 3 fingers on his right hand to boot. Harold Lloyd was a true original. Unfortunately the person who loaded this clip on to youtube has disabled embedding (I have no idea why some people do this – it is incredibly annoying!) To watch the clip, go here [opens in a new window].
This is one of my favorite chase sequences with some great stunts along the way.
The famous under the truck stunt was performed by Vic Armstrong and was inspired by Stunt man Yakima Canutt. (See 5) Believe it or not Spielberg did not direct this particular scene. The second unit just followed his storyboard but he did direct the close-ups of Harrison Ford later on.
I just had to put Ben Hur in the number one spot. This stunt occurs about half way through the famous Chariot race when Judah Ben Hur is forced to the inside part of the track and has no place to go but strait towards the wreckage of a downed chariot. The stunt was performed by Joe Canutt who is launched over the front of his chariot and just barely hangs on to the front as he climbs back up. This was not planned when they designed the stunt which makes this stunt even cooler and more memorable.
Contributor: Blogball
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:41 am
Got to remember the ladies and give an honourable mention to Kill Bill’s Zoe Bell (Xena, Catwomen & latterly Death Proof).
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:45 am
Perfect list. This is one where I’d actually seen all o them before, so it made a better impression. Great, great job.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:47 am
Rusty: indeed! And she is a kiwi too!
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:48 am
warrrreagl: I must confess that I have not seen a few of them – but I will definitely check out the French one (number 10).
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:02 am
While your criteria is “most memorable”, number 9 stunt is neither memorable nor difficult.
Now this is STUNT
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:06 am
Great list jfrater. I will have to check out the few movies on here I haven’t yet seen.
I’m surprised not to see the famous fight scene from The Protector on here though.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:11 am
number ten should have ranked much higher (imo).unbelievable stunts.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:14 am
I agree with Rusty, Zoe doing Ship’s Mast was pretty cool.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:30 am
What about Sharky’s Machine?
Wiki: “At 220 feet, the stunt from Atlanta’s Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel still holds up as the highest free-fall stunt ever performed from a building for a commercially-released film. The stuntman was the legendary Dar Robinson.”
BTW, a Sharky’s Machine remake is in production and schedulked for release this year.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:53 am
The problem with Sharky’s Machine is that the half of the stunt is a dummy and the viewer can tell it’s a dummy.
Dar Robinson should be on the list for another stunt though. In the movie “Stick” he used the first “Decelerator Cable” in a movie. They filmed the stunt from the top down so when the stuntman let go of the balcony you see below him and there isn’t an air mat and you see people running away. Remember this was before CGI and when they showed the stunt on the trailer for TV, I shit my pants!
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:54 am
Great list. Finally a movie list where I’ve seen most of the films!
I think there are two types of stunts:
(a) The ones that look amazing in film thanks to expensive rigs, camera placement, editing, and visual effects; and
(b) The ones where actors actually risk their lives and look impressive without the need for camera angle tricks or editing. In other words, real life-defying stunts.
I personally prefer the second type, because you’re impressed solely by the fact that they must calculate their moves exactly or they’ll get hurt or even die; whereas in the first case, stuntmen replace the actual actors, there’s less risk, and you’re impressed because of the visuals of the film rather than the stunt itself.
That’s why I love Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton. They never used stuntmen to replace them, and yet they’ve risked their lives in impressive ways. (Thus I would complain about them not being higher… but I’m not going to!
)
While Steamboat Bill Jr.’s scene is a timeless classic, I think the (very long) stunts in the train from The General are also memorable, funny, and very exciting.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:01 am
Honorable Mention: In the original (black and white)version of “The Thing”. They had a fire gag where they through gasoline on the thing a couple of times in a small room and they don’t cut between the throws. That stunt for an old movie was way before its time.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:21 am
What about the sinking of the USS Nevada in Tora Tora Tora?
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:06 am
Forget number 9 – add something for transporter series!
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:27 am
Yeah, Indiana Jones better have been on here, or I would have been pissed.
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:43 am
Great List! Nothing like sweaty palm vertigo first thing in the morning. The Harold Lloyd clip gets me every time.
I agree with Kreachure, I prefer the ones where the bodies actually take the beatings. I read/saw somewhere that Jackie Chan actually got zapped and broke some vertebrae at the end of that particular action sequence.
Rusty; Great job mentioning Zoe Bell. I was very impressed with her in the Grindhouse feature Death Proof. Her acting was pretty OK too. She is buff, I have like a girl crush.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:05 am
look at the indian in the background of number 5 between 6:30 and 6:50
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
I think these are fine so I cant protest their inclusion, but I think Rusty got it right with his comment. There have been so many fine stunts by females perhaps someone should do up a list. (maybe if no one mentions wanting to do one by the end of the day, I could)
I loved Michelle Yeoh in SuperCop (Police Story 3)and
Zoe Bell is amazing in Death Proof, and if you get the dvd watch the special features, it just furthured my appreciation for what Tarantino does.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
You should have just done all of Buster Keaton’s stunts together and then made him number one!
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:25 am
Thanks for the comments everybody. I guess I really should have included a woman on the list. Now I feel like a chauvinist pig.
For what it’s worth I thought about including Corrie Jansen. She did a 182 feet leap off of a cliff, in the movie Conan the Barbarian (freefall record for a woman) But I didn’t know about her until I started researching all of these other stunts so I didn’t think it was memorable enough. My apologies to the ladies.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:28 am
While the stunts using horses may seem dangerous for the humans, it is nothing compared to what the horses had to endure, including losing their lives.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
Really predictable list. Just because some movies are considered classics by the largely biased movie journalism industry, doesn’t mean the stunts in them are classic.
Death Proof should definetly be in here.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
Zoe Bell is cool and all, but she is annoying as all hell.
I almost walked out of Death Proof when she didnt die
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 am
Hey, where’s that free running chase between Craig & Sébastien Foucan in Casino Royale?
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
Great list. Thanks for mentioning DISTRICT 13. I loved that opening chase scene, it should get you off the hook with flgh #24, who just cited another great example of parkour.
I’ve got no argument with Blogball’s #1 stunt, although you could make a case that the 1925 version was better. The producer paid the winners of the chariot race cash incentives and one stuntman wasn’t as lucky as the guy in the ‘58 version.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:37 am
Romerozombie, I was going for most memorable. So if the movie is memorable the stunt incorporated into it has a better chance to be memorable as well. If a professional stunt person mad a list of the best stunts I’m sure it would be different than this one. I made the list from the average movegoer’s point of view.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
Login issues should now be resolved.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:53 am
Yay!
Wait, what login issues?
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
@ Romerozombie #22 :
When I saw the title for this list, I immediately thought of the chariot scene in Ben Hur…
I would say that the title “Memorable” fits quite well.
The movie’s greatness can impact a particular stunt scene’s memorability, I believe.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
What about james bond live and let die when he jumped the boat over land for a world record. When I think movie stunts this is what I think of.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I thought the ship’s mast scene from Death Proof was really memorable. These you can’t watch a movie WIHTOUT CGI and special effects, so DR was really refreshing, and for that reason memorable for me.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
How do you not have ‘Hooper’ on this list? the collapsing smoke stack miss alone was worthy.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
WHOA WHOA WHOA!!! Where is the Barrel-roll from “Man with the Golden Gun”. They had just one shot with that and it was the first movie EVER to do that type of stunt. It was amazing, and it was over a river.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
this is list fails for not having ANY tony jaa movies, all his stuff is 100% stunts and definately the best action stunts done in modern day, id like to see any of the ppl on this list SLIDE under a moving truck or dive thru a roll of barb wire
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I think the differnce between not showing martial artits as much as, they are actually well trained in the way of doing said stunts. Not to say they are not amazing at all, because tony jaa movies are actually damn good stunt wise.
though i think of it as a larger accomplisment for someone who is an actor who is not formally trained to take hits/falls/rough and tumble, etc, to be in their own stunts, why they are higher on the list.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Cool! I was actually thinking of D B13! when I clicked on the feed!! The story is kind of dumb but the action sequences make up for it! JF make sure you watch it, in French if you can understand!
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Mmm… am I crazy, or was there a scene in one of the Rush Hour movies where Jackie Chan slides down a line of lights just like that? Are the Rush Hour movies American Police Story knockoffs? Or was it just a stunt they wanted to do again cause it looks cool and they figured English speaking audiences wouldn’t know? Or am I nuts and there isn’t a stunt like that at all in Rush Hour…
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
ive only seen the ben hur stunt and thats only because of school
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
What about the chase in the opening of Casino Royale?
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
District B13!!!
I love that movie!
Oh man, the subtitles on the French version are so funny.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:51 am
Relatively new but that Thai kick boxer from Ong Bak should be here.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:30 am
revolver: I’ll agree with that, Tony Jaa’s fight scenes are amazing. On one of the other lists there’s that scene where he runs up the stairs beating up everything. None of them are real stunts though, more just incredible feats of human strength and agility.
This is a real stunt!
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 am
7: The Great Escape is a movie that everyone should see at some stage.
3: Wow, simply amazing.
2: Indie’s way and attitude to dealing with germans was one of the things that made him cool and it comes across well in his action sequences
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Great list. You can actually see a stuntman get killed in that chariot race in Ben Hur. I used to hear that his family allowed them to keep it in.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
flywheel: that is an urban legend
Snopes clears it up here:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/benhur.asp
May 4th, 2008 at 5:29 am
If you want stunt death, goes for Howard Hugh’s Hell’s Angels.
May 4th, 2008 at 5:29 am
How about the world record bunjee jump off the dam ledge in that bond movie, was it “the world is not enough” or “goldeneye”?
Jackie Chan is the master of stunts, not for doing the stunts but for coordinating them. He is the stunt director for most of his movies. That fight scene in Shanghai Noon with the boxes and the umbrella, very fun, very creative, very cool.
I believe at least one Bruce Lee fight need to be in there as well.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Those are really great stunts. I especially love that scene from the Spy Who Loved Me.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:27 am
should be more jackie here, hist stunts are always “real”.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:27 am
that parkour scene is amazing. the two that i would add have already been mentioned, tony jaa in his race up the stairs kicking everything’s ass on the way, and the chase scene from the beginning of casino royale.
i have never really liked chan because i didn’t like all the tongue in cheek stuff. however, that clip above is amazing. wow, that guy is talented.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:08 am
The French move at #10 is produced and co-written by acclaimed filmmaker Luc Bessonl andisted on Netflix as “District B13″. It’s also available for rental…after I’m done with it.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
District B13 is an awesome movie! I’d watch it again just to see him move like that!
Jackie Chan is always great.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I believe the Stagecoach stunt (#5) was recreated in the Mel Gibson movie, Maverick.
I agree with anybody who said that Tony Jaa stunts could have been included on this list.
Great list, btw.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110478/trivia
second from the bottom.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
The Stagecoach stunt (#5) was recreated in the Mel Gibson movie Maverick.
From imdb.com: In the stagecoach chase sequence, stuntman ‘Mic Rodgers ‘ (double for ‘Mel Gibson’ ) had to go under the coach and get up at the back. This is a direct nod to Yakima Canutt’s similar stunt in Stagecoach (1939). Coincidentally, second unit director ‘Terry Leonard’ , a former stuntman himself, performed this in the truck chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Great list, btw.
May 5th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Anyone else notice the wilhelm scream in the Raiders of the Lost Ark clip?
May 6th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Ummm – i’m pretty sure that that account of the “Sharky’s Machine” high-fall gag is wrong; according to reports at the time and an acquaintance who knew the head of the crew handling the sirbag rigging for it, the gag was actually doneout the back of the Regency Hyatt hotel, across the street.
There’s no place to rig an airbag at the Peachtree Plaza, really.
Whle Robinson’s cable-rig gag in “Stick” *is* impressive, the fall that opens “Lethal Weapon” is, to me, a lot more memorable, with the camera following the stuntwoman down until just a fraction of a second before she lands on the parked car below; and it’s not a matte effect. There was a canvas painted with the cars stretched over the air bag, which the camera saw as if the actual cars were thee.
As to vehicle stunts, the final jump in “Gone in 60 Seconds” (the original) is incredible (and left director/star/stuntman “Toby” Halicki with compressed vertebrae that affected the way he walked the rest of his life), but the unplanned – and potentially tragic – moment in the same film where one of the drivers misses his mark and the resulting contact between vehicles sends Halicki in “Eleanr” straight into a real light pole – at about the 6:40 mark in this clip: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_YDpgFKcUeM
According to his wife, Halicki was knocked unconscious, and his first words on regaining consciousness were “Did we get coverage?”
May 6th, 2008 at 4:41 am
What about Rollerball (the origonal 1975 version, not that other piece of crap).
Come on, the stunts were so good, that this was the first film ever to include the stunt people in the credits…
May 6th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Nice list for the 65+ year old crowd. Just so you know, not all movies made within the last 25 years suck.
This list blows.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:30 am
A good stunt has to be part of the story, not just an effect that makes you say “wow”. For that reason, I would include the freeway chase sequence in “To Live And Die In LA,” which shows how desperate not only Chance is, but the criminals he is willing to cross the line to catch.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Buster Keaton is the man! You could make an entire top ten list just of his awesome stunts!
great list!
May 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Anything Burt Lancaster did in his action movies, when he was young! He was an acrobat, before he was a movie star, and liked to do his own stunts, whenever possible!
May 6th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Joe Canutt to Charlton Heston: “You just stay in the chariot, Chuck, I’ll make sure you win the race.”
May 6th, 2008 at 11:24 am
this list is awful. what’s with all the lame old stunts? yawn.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
poseidon adventure-1972-man falling from table into light.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
how about the guy flipping over the motorcycles from the Road Warrior?
I always thought that was one of the best stunts ever
May 6th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I can’t believe noone’s mentioned the stunt from ‘The Road Warrior’ where the guy on the motorcycle gets launched into the air then hits something, only then starting to pinwheel end over end.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
If I’m not mistaken, an actor in District 13 played a role in Live Free or Die Hard (possibly Cyril Raffaelli?). I think he flew the helicopter that Bruce Willis blew up with the car. Anyone know if they are one in the same?
May 6th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
It’s interesting to note the various cheerleading factions: kung fu, parkour, driving. Myself, I favour driving stunts – it’s one thing to make your body do an amazing flip, it’s another to make your body make a 2-ton car do an amazing flip.
A great stunt that comes to mind are the racing scenes in “Grand Prix”, or more accurately, the helicopter flying that was required to film the racing scenes. Some think that John Frankenheimer outdid “Grand Prix” with “Ronin”, but I disagree. As Frankenheimer himself said, you simply couldn’t film the same scenes today – no one would allow (or insure)the risks.
Another great stunt was the bridge blowing up in “The Wild Bunch”. 5 horsemen were on the bridge when the dynamite went off, plunging them into a river that was raging harder than it should have been. Again, no way you’d ever be able or crazy enough to film that today.
To the deep thinkers complaining of the aged choices of the film stunts: you didn’t give any examples of more current choices. The problem is that more and more stunts are simulated with CGI and green screens. But you probably thought “The Perfect Storm” scenes were real…
May 6th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Joke list, can think of better stunts from movies in the past 2 years. Just because a movie is old it doesn’t make it good, especially stunts in old movies. You wanna really shock someone make a list that isnt purposfully nostalgic, not only does it take away from the list it makes you look like idiots. The chances of this post being posted by this assclown site is slim to none but hey i understand some people cant deal with criticizm.LMAO you need to hire someone who actually knows what there talking about or someone who wasnt born before 1980.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I’m curious as to why the stunt from the beginning of Cliffhanger was not on the list. I’m referring to the one where the guy transfers from one airborne airplane to another airplane suspended on a cable between them. Sure the movie was pretty stupid and whatnot, but that stunt took some serious guts.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
wth happend to the parkour scene at the start of casino royale
May 12th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Today on Korean tv I saw a movie that might have starred Tony Jaa – if not him, then someone very much like him. It was set in Sydney. It was dubbed into Korean, so I couldn’t get any information. There was one stunt in particular where the camera followed him in and out of an old Sydney tram carriage as he fought off about 6 attackers in a row. (Why don’t the bad guys ever attack all at once?)
Does anyone know the movie I’m talking about?
May 12th, 2008 at 4:12 am
I’ll answer my own question. The movie I saw was Tom-Yum-Goong, indeed starring Tony Jaa. There is a clip at http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=BQUPHYqUico&feature=related. Watch for the single take at 1.38.
May 26th, 2008 at 6:41 am
I would also count ‘The Train’ with burt lancaster, many stunts in that are done in one take, by lancaster himself
June 30th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I know it had to be CGI, but I remember watching a scene in “The Fugitive” where Harrison Ford jumps off of a bus just as it gets blown away by a train. When this happened, I actually shouted out in amazement, “What a stunt!” before realizing that everyone else in the theatre did not need or appreciate my commentary.
I applaud the recognition of Harold Lloyd’s stunts, and I have to add that Harry Houdini did some amazing movie stunt scenes at real locations such as Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon.
And speaking of the grand Canyon, I have to give some credit to an Imax film called, I think, “Flyers” which features a skydiver-jumps-out-of-one-plane-climbs-in-another-stunt. The stunt itself has been done several times, but this one featured a wonderfully staged shot. Picture the Grand Canyon in front of you on an Imax screen, now drop a man – life-sized – out of the top of the frame and let him tumble down through the frame with only a distant whish of wind as the sound for the shot. A gimmick, I know, but an effective gimmick.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Jackie chan should be #1 he has a lot of scary scenes no one does it like him
December 24th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Holy Crap! Jackie Chan is insane! I always forget and never appreciate just how awesome that guy is. Other two kick-ass Chan flicks full of mind-boggling stunts. Supercop and Operation Condor. Jackie Chan classics.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:40 am
simply one word…WOW
February 10th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
ROMZ1 IS HECTIIK
April 29th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Why are the Police Story and District 13 stunts so low on the list? They deserve to at least be in the top 3 in my opinion.
And why aren’t any of Tony Jaa’s incredible stunts in Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong mentioned either?
August 29th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
did the smokey and the bandit trans am ever drive underneath a semi trailer….or just hide between them? Can’t find anything.
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:33 am
guess you could have a list only containing Jackie Chan movies.