The Firehose Scene In Stephen King's Carrie Caused A Serious, Real-Life Injury
"Carrie" is the book that put Stephen King on the map. When King wrote it, he was struggling financially, eking out a living selling short stories and teaching high school. Then he sat down to write what was first a short story that turned into a novella that turned into a novel. The novel was "Carrie," the story of a bullied teenage girl with telekinesis. The book wasn't a blockbuster when it was published in hardcover, but by the time it hit paperback, it flew off the shelves and King was on his way to becoming one of the best-selling novelists of all time. Sure enough, Hollywood came calling. The book was published in 1974, and by 1976, Brian De Palma's dreamy film adaptation arrived in theaters, starring Sissy Spacek as poor, doomed Carrie White, a girl who is tormented by pretty much everyone, including her Bible-loving mother (played by Piper Laurie) and her classmates.
Like the book, the film was a hit, both critically and commercially. It even landed Oscar nominations for both Spacek and Laurie. These days, King fans hail it as one of the best adaptations of his books. It's certainly one of the most stylish, with De Palma using every trick he knows to ramp up King's prose. Of course, anyone who knows anything about "Carrie" knows the film's big, violent climax. Even if you haven't seen the movie or read the book, you likely know how things turn out: the bullies dump pig's blood on Carrie's head at the prom and Carrie goes berserk and kills everyone with her mind powers. As it turns out, shooting that big ending resulted in a real-life injury for one of the film's cast members.
P.J. Soles was injured by the firehose in Carrie
Before P. J. Soles was Lynda, aka the girl who says "Totally!" a lot in John Carpenter's "Halloween," she played Norma in Brian De Palma's "Carrie." Norma, who, like a modern-day MAGA nut is recognized by her red baseball hat, is one of the mean girls who makes Carrie's life hell. All of the bullies who torment Carrie get their violent comeuppance during the film's grand finale, where Carrie unleashes her full powers at the prom. Carrie pulls out all the stops, using her mind powers to smash, stomp, burn, and blast everyone who dared laugh at her, including Norma, who is dispatched by being sprayed with an out-of-control firehose.
To create the memorable moment, Soles was really sprayed with a real firehose. And if you've ever seen a firehose at work, you know those suckers are powerful. This isn't the trickle of a hose in your garden, it's a full-force blast. While speaking with Chiller Theatre Magazine (via Cult Oddities), Soles revealed that the force of the hose was so powerful that it resulted in injury. "They had a firehose that kind of 'extinguished' me, and the fireman that was manning it wouldn't do it because he said it was too powerful," Soles said, adding:
"The stunt coordinator did it, and he was just whacking that thing around. In fact, it went in my ear and broke my eardrum, which was weird, because I fainted right away. They used that in the movie, and that's actually real. I lost my equilibrium, and I just fell over! They thought I was acting, but when it was over and they saw I wasn't getting up, I was like, 'God, my ear is killing me! What happened?' They took me right away to the doctor. He asked how I did it, and I said, 'With a firehose!'"
Thankfully Soles wasn't further injured by the stunt, and now the moment has been immortalized forever in the film.