The Director Of XXX Had To Rein In Vin Diesel's Reckless Stunts
American action movies produced during the early 2000s were a whole other breed. "xXx" followed in the wake of spy flicks like "Die Another Day" that wanted to appear more trendy to younger audiences, in addition to being one of the most eyebrow-raising movie titles to come across your browser history. Here Vin Diesel plays the appropriately named Xander Cage, an extreme sports stuntman turned secret agent with an affinity for breaking the rules and trying to look cool while doing it. If you've ever wondered what James Bond on Monster Energy would look like, "xXx" has you covered.
As a fascinating time capsule of its era, "xXx" boasts an impressive demonstration of practical stunts that are still pretty incredible to watch, even if the film itself leaves a lot to be desired. "xXx" never quite took off in the same way that "Fast and Furious" did though, despite launching two sequels. Diesel even performed most of his own stunts, which lead director Rob Cohen, who has since been accused of sexual assault by one of the film's stars, Asia Argento, to worry about his safety (via promotional interview):
"I was very ambitious about doing the stunts, and it wasn't uncommon for Rob to say, you know, after I tried to get as close as I could to doing this stunt, Rob coming over like, "What are you doing Vin? We've got stunt guys here for that, no you can't do it." "Oh come on Rob." "Vinnie." "Rob." "Vinnie."
But there was one stunt in particular that shook Cohen when he saw Diesel perform it.
Diesel took a headfirst dive into the snow
In the film's second half, Xander is being chased by a group of goons on snowmobiles, all while a tremendous CG avalanche is quickly swallowing them up. According to a promotional interview, when Cohen was filming the sequence in Austria, Diesel wanted to keep pushing how far he could take the stunt, which ultimately led the "Riddick" star to take a bit of a tumble:
"There were times in Austria, in the snowboarding, that he wanted to do higher and higher jumps. And he took one big jump for the rail slide on the halfway house with the avalanche chasing him, and he came off the other side and planted his head, like, vertically into the snow. And he was, like, not moving. "Oh my god, did he break his neck, or at worst did he scratch his face?"
With the array of responsibilities on a director's mind, the last thing you want to think about is your lead star meeting a fatal end on set, but thankfully Diesel made it out okay.
"xXx" is currently streaming on HBO Max.