Game Of Thrones' Jaime And Ned Showdown Nearly Killed Several Stuntmen
Across the eight seasons of "Game of Thrones," there are many moments that are infuriating, most of them intentional. These are the acts of violence and injustice done to characters we love that make us connect even more to those particular characters. In season 1, the major instance of this is when the newly minted king Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) orders the beheading of Ned Stark (Sean Bean). It's a moment that changed not just "Game of Thrones" but television drama as a whole forever. What's interesting about the moment, though, is that it was actually an inevitability that we just wanted to tell ourselves wasn't going to happen.
A few episodes before that, in the appropriately titled fifth episode, "The Wolf and the Lion," there was a moment I'd argue was even more infuriating. Ned and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) have a duel, and as the two men are fighting, one of Jaime's men completely blindsides Ned and stabs him in the leg with a spear, incapacitating him. You know how much of a punk move this is because even Jaime is disgusted by the dishonor of it and punches the guard in the face. Plus, it just abruptly ends what was a pretty good sword fight, so that's disrespectful to action filmmaking.
Not only does this scene drastically alter the trajectory of Ned Stark, but the filming of the scene itself nearly altered the lives of several of the performers in the scene in real life. Scenes with stunts always have their fair share of risks, but sometimes it's only when the major stunts have passed that the true dangers unexpectedly rear their head. In this case, it was because of a horse.
The unpredictability of animals
After the sword fight with Ned Stark, Jaime Lannister is supposed to hop up on his horse and quickly ride off into King's Landing, leaving the injured Ned behind. Well, no matter how trained a horse is, there's still always the possibility that instinct will take over, and its inherent recklessness when it comes to human life will show itself. Co-creator David Benioff recollects the stunt in the book "Inside HBO's Game of Thrones: Seasons 1 & 2" by Bryan Cogman how the horse nearly injured one of the series' leads and, more importantly, took the lives of several stunt performers:
"[Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is] quite skilled at jumping on and off a horse. On one take, at the end of the scene, he leaped onto his horse and the horse freaked out, probably because Jaime's scabbard slapped its side. The horse galloped down the street and nearly stomped on a few dead bodies — actually living stuntmen who almost became dead bodies. Nik had to duck as his horse tried to slam him into the side of the alleyway. I believe that take is in the cut, as it looked appropriately dangerous."
Though Benioff thinks it is, I'm not so sure that take is used, as the horse stands fairly still before taking off down the alleyway, not even coming close to one of the bodies on the ground. There's a fairly common practice when it comes to stunts that, if a stunt person is injured during a take, the filmmakers use that take. Perhaps if someone actually was hurt during this scene then it would've had a better chance of making the final cut. Had the ride looked more dangerous, I think it would've distracted us from connecting with Ned's pain. Character is more important.