The Two Stunts Sylvester Stallone Says Could Have Easily Killed Him

Sylvester Stallone has frequently pushed the outside of the envelope when it comes to doing his own stunts. He subjected himself to tremendous punishment in all of the "Rocky" movies (which required him to get in the ring), even landing himself in an intensive care unit for eight days during production on "Rocky IV" after taking a punch in the chest from Dolph Lundgren that caused his heart to swell. He also broke several ribs and messed up his back after falling off a cliff onto tree branches while filming "First Blood." And he sang country music in "Rhinestone."

Stallone has always challenged himself physically and has maintained a remarkably robust physique into his late 70s. But now that he's on the cusp of turning 80, it's probably safe to say that he's done with the aforementioned on-set daredevilry. He seems quite comfortable being a badass capo in the Paramount+ series "Tulsa King." Now is the time to reflect on all the wild risks he took to entertain us over the last 50 years ... and wonder if he maybe pushed himself a little too far on occasion.

In an interview with GQ, Stallone opened up about the two most dangerous stunts he ever did, both of which he performed while filming his 1993 dystopian action-satire "Demolition Man." He doesn't regret doing either of them, but he has admitted that one, in particular, was "crazy."

In "Demolition Man," there's a scene where Wesley Snipes' diabolical Simon Phoenix gets Stallone's John Spartan stuck in the grasp of a giant metal claw. Judging from Spartan's facial expressions, this contraption inflicts severe pain on our hero. It also wasn't a party for Stallone. As he told GQ, "Sometimes, the hydraulics would go sideways, and the strength of those metal claws would tear you up." Fortunately, Sly managed to keep himself in one piece.

The other stunt that made Stallone panic was the sequence where Spartan is frozen. You'd think director Marco Brambilla and his crew would've been keen to make this stunt completely and totally fail-safe, but, according to Sly, this wasn't the case. Per Stallone:

"[T]hey put me in this round tub, thick plexiglass, you couldn't break it with a sledgehammer. They started pouring in warm oil, and it's filling up to [just under his nose], and it's supposed to cut. If it goes longer than 30 seconds, it's gonna go [over his nose], and you can't get out because the lid was bolted on. I had a couple of fellas that were sitting there with sledgehammers and hatchets, and I go, now that the scene was over, 'Why don't you try to open it?' Of course, they hit it 20 times and couldn't crack it."

I can't imagine the Screen Actors Guild would've approved of this, but, having been a fan of Stallone's for most of my life, I'm not surprised he committed himself to this utterly perilous stunt. He's always favored roles where he's an underdog protagonist who comes out on top through sheer tenacity. And given that I think the Taco Bell-inflected "Demolition Man" is one of his most underrated movies, I'm thankful that he jeopardized his well-being for my enjoyment.