Raiders Of The Lost Ark's Flying Wing Nearly Shattered Harrison Ford's Knee
Long before Tom Cruise snapped his ankle in half jumping from rooftop to rooftop while making "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," Harrison Ford was putting his body on the line for our entertainment.
There's a long history of lead actors getting injured on movie sets while trying to capture something truly amazing for the viewing audience. Silent star Wallace Reid was famously injured in a train stunt gone wrong in 1919's "The Valley of the Giants" to the point where he ended up addicted to his pain management treatment (at that time the options were morphine or to just grin and bear it). That addiction would end up prematurely killing the young cinema star.
The point is Hollywood has a long history of stars putting their physical health on the line for the good of the picture and one notable incident that isn't talked about nearly as much as it should be is the time Harrison Ford almost got run over by a dang airplane while filming "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Well, I said "almost," but he did get run over by the plane, just not to the point where it permanently injured him.
Ford's leg was saved by blistering heat and the quick thinking of the crew
While filming the scene where's boxing the big, tough Nazi mechanic (played by Pat Roach) underneath the moving Flying Wing plane, Ford mistimed a roll-out of the way of the plane's wheel and the actor got pinned. He tells the story in an '80s interview with Prevue Magazine, which was later republished in Harrison Ford: A Biography.
"I go down and start to roll away, and my foot slips right under the rolling 'plane's tire. Everybody was yelling "Stop! Stop!" while the tire crawled up my leg. Luckily the brakes worked — inches before my knee was crushed — but I was pinned to the sand. I'm not normally a worrier, I know they're not going to kill the main character in a 20-million-dollar film. I also know Indy wouldn't look good with a peg leg. I was a lot more careful about stunt work after that!"
This wasn't a small fake plane made out of foam board and string, mind you. Ford did sustain an injury because of this, tearing a ligament in his left leg, but thanks to the quick action of the crew and the blisteringly hot day softening the rubber of the plane's tire he was able to escape with minimal damage done to his body.
He wouldn't be so lucky when it came to filming "The Force Awakens" three decades later when that same left leg would get trapped in a hydraulic door on the Millennium Falcon set, causing a bad break that took him out of commission for a couple of months.
Ford's Indiana Jones injuries don't end with 'Raiders'
It should be noted that Ford's Indiana Jones injuries don't end with this near miss while filming "Raiders of the Lost Ark." For the second installment, "Temple of Doom," Ford got into the best shape of his life and it shows. That Indy is sturdy, I tell ya'. That didn't save his poor back, though. He ended up getting a herniated disc that required surgery during that film's production thanks to ... of all things ... riding an elephant.
No elaborate stunt caused this injury, but it did take him out of commission for a chunk of shooting. It was only because his stunt double, Vic Armstrong, looked so much like Ford that the production was able to keep rolling while its star recovered from invasive back surgery. If you closely watch the fight he has with that huge Thuggee slave master (once again played by Pat Roach, the same guy who played the German Mechanic in "Raiders") you'll notice how often Indy's face is concealed and how much Steven Spielberg uses close up reaction shots of Ford's face to hide the fact that he had to sit out almost the entirety of that action sequence. Even when Ford came back, he did so by enduring a huge amount of discomfort and pain.
So, give it up for Harrison Ford who risks his life and limb both on and off screen because he's a total badass and the world of cinema is all the better for it.