Who doesn’t experience a rush of adrenaline while watching an action movie? Whenever we experience a great chase, jump, or blast, we can’t help but bite our nails. However, you would be even more shocked to learn that the stunts you just watched on screen were actually real. Yes, some stunts are performed by real stuntmen and not by computers or other stuntmen. Some actors love the rush of performing their own stunts just as much as anyone else. Even at 50 years old or in the days before CGI, some actors display admirable physical prowess.Here is a list of the top ten actors who have pulled off their own stunts in films, from Tom Cruise to Angelina Jolie. But the price of wearing the badge of honour is paid in broken bones, burns, and occasionally even the threat of death. These actors do not frighten people off despite these risks. Many even assert that it exhilarates them to do so. We should watch the actors who do their own stunts.
1. Jackie Chan
The fact that this Hong Kong actor is at the top of the list is not surprising. Jackie has likely performed all of the aforementioned tricks and added to them. The actor who performs his own stunts while still alive is Jackie, according to Guinness World Records. The most well-known of his riskiest stunts are his fighting scenes. But these risk-taking actions have resulted in horrifying wounds, burns, broken bones, and numerous surgeries.Jakie’s stunts seem almost unbelievable. Jackie has repeatedly hung from buildings and billboards in addition to snowboarding from a mountain into a helicopter. When he slid down from a pole surrounded by electrical lights, it was one of his riskiest stunts. Even severe burns resulted from that stunt.
2. Jason Statham
In addition to Vin Diseal, Jason Statham is the leading actor in car-related thrillers and action films. His well-known action thrillers include “Expendable,” “Death Race,” and “Transporter.” And the majority of the actor’s stunts were done for the movies. Some of these stunts have even threatened the actor’s life. When performing his stunts, he has broken bones and ligaments.Despite being outnumbered, Joson has managed to land his parachute on a truck’s roof, avoid oncoming traffic, and fight his way to safety. He admitted to Vulture in 2015 that one of the stunts he performed for “Expendables 3” nearly cost him his life. He was travelling at an absurd speed behind a truck when the brakes failed, causing him to crash into the Black Sea. In addition to pulling off his own stunts, Jason enjoys rock climbing.
3. Tom Cruise
One of the many things on Tom Cruise’s “I Can Do This” list is performing his own stunts. Tom can be described as the prototypical adrenal junkie because, despite what the actor claims, he actually enjoys performing in stunt scenes. Tom has run along the Burj Khalifa’s walls, the world’s tallest building, healed his breath underwater for six minutes, and most importantly, healed onto an aeroplane as it took off during his thirty-year acting career.The movie with the most daring stunts performed by the actor is “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.” He performed his Burj Khalifa stunt there. He battled above a moving train and escaped from sixteen tonnes of water in the 1996 film Mission Impossible. Despite being 60 years old, the actor insists on doing all of his own stunts.
4. Buster Keaton
The Great Stone Face, as Buster Keaton was affectionately referred to, was an American actor from the 1920s. He became well-known for keeping a grim expression while engaging in risky stunts in his silent films. Certainly, there were no significant technological advances during the 1920s. Keaton was forced to perform all of his own stunts. Additionally, he maintained an unaffected expression while filming the stunts.In the course of filming one such stunt involving a water tower, Keaton even broke his neck. This was the culmination of a significant bill of fractures and bruising. In “Steamboat Bill Jr.” (1928), Keaton had weighed tonnes to miss him. Through all the scenes involving jumping from a house or a car chase, Keaton maintained his composure. Along with Charlie Chaplin, he could be regarded as one of the first actors to pull off their own stunts.
5. Tony Jaa
Thai martial artist Tony Jaa also works as an actor, stuntman, action choreographer, and director. He rose to fame thanks to his fight scene in “Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior” from 2003. His quick and agile movements gained him recognition on a global scale. His trousers even caught fire later in the film. Tony eventually began working in Hollywood. He made several significant franchise appearances, including “XXX: Return of Xander Cage,” “Furious 7,” and “Never Back Down: No Surrender.”Tony starred in the significant action thriller “Tom-Yum-Goong.” Even the title “The Protector” was used for the American release of the film. Jackie Chan, a Chinese superstar and Tony’s hero, was soon drawn to Tony. In “Rush Hour 3,” it was requested that he collaborate with Jackie. Due to a schedule conflict with another movie, he was unable to do so.
6. Harrison Ford
Hollywood’s legendary actor Harrison Ford is known for roles in the Blade Runner and Indiana Jones series of films. Furthermore, Ford retains full credit for the stunts carried out in his action-thriller films. He jumped from the path of a speeding train in “The Fugitive” (1993), and he dangled from a helicopter in “Clear and Present Danger” (1994). Ford refused to allow a stuntman to play his part, even in the 20th century when CGIs were not widely used.Ford did indeed fall short of the absurdly quick car in the 1981 film ‘Raiders of the Ark’. The fact that Ford asked to film the majority of his stunts on his own for “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull” (2008) is what further astounds the audience. At the time, the was 66 years old.
7. Matt Damon
Most people are familiar with Matt Damon’s stunts from the Bourne series, which won him an Oscar. Matt was seen in the “Bourne” series jumping off windows, crashing into cars, and engaging in thrilling fight scenes. When playing Jason Bourne, Matt displayed nimble physical prowess. But the actor found the underwater stunt in 2004’s “The Bourne Supremacy” to be too much.Matt performed the movie’s underwater stunt without using an oxygen mask. Evidently, Matt had a stunt coordinator and a diving instructor to assist him with his underwater movements. However, Matt was unable to sleep that night after shooting the scene. He admits, “That night I woke up probably four times gasping for breath, thinking I was drowning,” according to Express. It was awful.”
8. Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig assumed responsibility for performing many of the stunts when he agreed to play the part of the new British spy James Bond. Daniel is the one who is driving the ridiculously fast cars during chase scenes, jumping off roofs, and riding a mother cycle on top of houses. In the James Bond series, Daniel has crossed a crane to approach a collapsing train despite his fear of heights.However, while carrying out his stunts, Daniel has sustained lacerations, broken bones, and even a severed fingertip. After several takes, the stunts are not as simple and sophisticated as the spy makes them appear. Therefore, it is recommended that you avoid performing them at home.
9. Angelina Jolie
She is not a sensitive princess, despite her attractive appearance. The only female on this list is the badass Angelina Jolie. In the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, her adrenal addiction was first mentioned. Hollywood insiders concur that she would make a great female James Bond because of both her iconic air and her guts to perform her own stunts.’Wanted’ (2008) and ‘Salt’ (2010) both feature numerous of her unbelievable stunts. In “Wanted,” we see her shooting while hanging from a car’s cracked windscreen and jumping over trains. Her most well-known stunt is from the movie “Salt,” in which she leaps from a bridge onto a truck’s roof.
10. Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen is an actor, director, and producer from Hong Kong. He did, however, begin his career as a stuntman. Donnie is skilled in many different martial arts, including jiu-jitsu and Taekwondo. He made numerous appearances in fight scenes for films like “Once Upon A Time In China II,” “Tiger Cage,” “Legend of the Wolf,” and others at the start of his acting career. His fight scenes are either computer-edited or performed by a third party. His stunts are real, and occasionally they happen so quickly that the eye cannot keep up.One of the top stuntmen in Hong Kong, Donnie has even choreographed numerous fight scenes. He has won a number of accolades for action choreography. For instance, the Taurus World Stunt Awards, Golden Horse Awards, and Hong Kong Film Awards. Later, he even appeared in American films like “Ip Man,” “XXX: Return of Xandar Cage,” “Mulan” (2020), and others as a leading actor. He will even make an appearance in the upcoming “John Wick 4” film.