Actors Who Got Seriously Injured on the Set

Big action scenes look effortless on screen, but the risk behind them is very real. From mistimed stunts to freak on-set accidents, plenty of performers have paid a painful price while doing their jobs. The stories below aren’t about bravado—they’re about what actually happened, how productions responded, and what changed afterward.

Here are ten male actors whose on-set injuries were serious enough to halt shoots, trigger investigations, or leave lasting damage. Each entry focuses on the facts of the incident, the medical outcome, and any concrete impact on filming or safety.

Tom Cruise

During a rooftop chase for ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’, Tom Cruise smashed into a building on a leap between structures and broke his ankle. Paramount confirmed filming went on hiatus while he recovered, and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie later explained that the shot where Cruise limps away is the real take captured when the injury occurred.

Despite the injury, the production kept the footage in the finished film and reorganized the schedule around Cruise’s rehabilitation before he returned to complete additional scenes in London and Norway. Reports at the time described a weeks-long pause and a staged restart geared to protect his ankle while still meeting the planned release date.

Jackie Chan

While filming ‘Armour of God’ in what was then Yugoslavia, Jackie Chan missed a tree branch during a jump and fell, fracturing his skull. He underwent emergency surgery, later speaking openly about the skull fracture and the lasting effects, including hearing loss and a small depression on his head.

Chan returned to set after recovering, but he has repeatedly cited the ‘Armour of God’ accident as the closest he came to dying on a movie. Accounts and retrospectives note that the production adapted to his recovery and that the incident became a pivotal example cited in discussions of stunt safety on Hong Kong and international shoots.

Harrison Ford

On the ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ set at Pinewood Studios, a hydraulically powered door on the Millennium Falcon pinned Harrison Ford, breaking his leg. The U.K.’s Health and Safety Executive said the door’s drive system had power comparable to the weight of a small car, and Ford was airlifted to hospital for treatment.

Prosecutors brought a case over safety failures; the production company Foodles Production (UK) Ltd pleaded guilty, and a judge later imposed a £1.6 million fine. Court filings described the incident as “foreseeable,” and evidence emphasized shortcomings in emergency safeguards around the door mechanism.

Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig injured his knee filming a fight sequence for ‘Spectre’ and underwent arthroscopic surgery during a scheduled production break. Producers said he would rejoin the shoot at Pinewood once the procedure was complete, and reports confirmed he quickly returned to set.

Earlier coverage also documented a brief pause after a sprain during location work, with the Bond unit adjusting its plan so scenes could continue around Craig’s recovery. Across the shoot, official updates consistently framed the procedure as minor and the schedule impacts as managed.

George Clooney

While filming an interrogation scene for ‘Syriana’, George Clooney suffered a severe spinal injury when a chair was knocked over, tearing the dura mater and causing a cerebrospinal-fluid leak. He later described symptoms including debilitating headaches and CSF leaking from his nose.

Clooney required medical intervention and has discussed the incident’s long tail in interviews, noting further treatment years later. Profiles have tied the on-set trauma to a period of intense pain that forced him off work and into extended recovery before he resumed projects.

Sylvester Stallone

During a staged bout for ‘Rocky IV’, Sylvester Stallone absorbed a heavy blow to the chest from co-star Dolph Lundgren that led to heart swelling and a dangerous spike in blood pressure. He was transported to intensive care and kept under observation before returning to complete the fight sequence.

Stallone has since detailed the medical response and where the punch appears in the finished film. Coverage of the documentary material about the production corroborates that the hospitalization followed the hit and that the team reassembled after his discharge to finish the climactic scenes.

Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Mortensen broke two toes kicking an orc helmet during a scene in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’. The painful take remained in the film, and documentation of the production notes the injury among several sustained during the trilogy’s demanding shoot.

Production materials describe how the unit adjusted around multiple cast injuries during Rohan sequences, with Mortensen’s real injury captured on camera and used because it matched the moment’s intensity. The incident is widely cited in official and retrospective accounts of the trilogy’s filming.

Dylan O’Brien

Dylan O’Brien was seriously hurt performing a vehicular stunt on ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ when he was pulled from one moving vehicle and struck by another, sustaining facial fractures, a concussion, and lacerations. The studio suspended filming indefinitely to allow for his recovery.

Interviews and later reporting describe reconstructive work and a long rehab before he returned to continue his career, with the accident prompting schedule resets and safety reassessments on the production. O’Brien has since spoken about how the incident changed his approach to set work.

Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Renner fractured his right elbow and left wrist while shooting a stunt for ‘Tag’. Accounts from the production explain that certain scenes used digital effects to cover his medical casts so filming could continue while he healed.

Subsequent pieces about the movie’s post-production highlight how visual-effects teams replaced the casts in select shots and how the stunt rig’s failure caused the fall that led to both injuries early in the schedule.

Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis has long said that an on-set weapons scene for ‘Die Hard’ left him with permanent partial hearing loss in one ear. In a published Q&A, he attributed “two-thirds partial hearing loss” in his left ear to an accident during the shoot.

Trade and film outlets have repeatedly referenced that statement when documenting the movie’s punishing practical effects, noting that the damage persisted well after filming ended and became a known factor in his life and work.

Tell us which on-set injury stories surprised you most—and share any others we should add—in the comments.