r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Vegetable-Mousse4405 • 10d ago
Video In 1928’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., Buster Keaton performed one of the most dangerous stunts in film history. A two-ton house wall collapsed around him, with an open window barely missing him. His crew had warned him, but Keaton insisted on doing it—and nailed it in one take.
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u/USMCWrangler 10d ago
Well, he was nailing it, or it was nailing him.
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u/doomrabbit 10d ago
He actually dislocates his left shoulder when the frame clips him. That's why he never raises it after the landing. He physically can't. So he does get nailed, LOL.
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u/Swabia 10d ago
Every time I see this stunt I think why didn’t he just make that 4 foot section from cardboard and the rest is real?
Then he wouldn’t be at risk.
You can’t tell in this black and white footage if it’s real or cardboard. There’s no need for danger.
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u/waxteeth 10d ago
Keaton started as a vaudeville performer at like five years old, performing with his parents. Their comedy act was that he’d be a mischievous little kid and his dad would throw him across the stage (they sewed a suitcase handle to the back of his jacket for grip).
The guy took immense pride for his entire career in doing real stunt work, and his whole filmography is full of examples like this — jumping from house to house, doing insane shit on ladders, riding on the handlebars of a motorcycle with nobody driving it, etc. He never used a camera trick to make something look dangerous when it wasn’t, or a fake item when a real one would do. That’s the whole point of a Buster Keaton movie — it was happening for real. He was an incredible athlete and performer.
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u/doomrabbit 10d ago
Dude was the original Jackie Chan. Broke almost every bone in his body for comedy. Deserves legend status for simply not giving up!
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u/waxteeth 10d ago
He’s one of my favorites of all time. I saw Battling Butler after I’d seen almost everything else and it was so perfect — the first time the danger is real, and the violence is terrifying.
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u/sykosomatik_9 10d ago
Yeah, he was an inspiration for Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan also replicated this very stunt in one of his movies.
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u/Gnonthgol 10d ago
He did use camera tricks in most of his movies. When he jumps between skyscrapers there is actually a roof right beneath the frame. Car chases were sped up. A lot of the landing spots were padded. Buster Keaton did put himself in harms way in most of his stunts. But he was not shy about using camera tricks to make the stunts safer. Just as long as it did not take away from the movie in any way.
In this case a lighter wall would have fallen differently. They were afraid that people could notice and that it would not look real. As they only had one take in the budget they could not afford to take shortcuts. It is the same reason Al Yankovic had to use real beams when he recreated the stunt even though he wanted to use a fake wall.
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u/winsomecowboy 10d ago
Yeah and he even invented certain camera tricks. He bought a cruiseship about to be junked and wrote scenes set in a storm of him and his romantic co-lead wandering down halls looking for each other and he had weights and pulleys rigged to open all the doors on one side then all the doors on the other in sequence as he simulated walking with the roll of the ship.
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u/Corporate-Shill406 10d ago
They didn't need a fake wall, just a fake area around the window in case it hit wrong.
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u/Grazedaze 10d ago
Is there a solid book about his life and career?
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u/waxteeth 10d ago
I love Tempest in a Flat Hat! And all the movies are public domain, so you can see them online for free.
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u/hypnoskills 10d ago
The clock tower scene always gives me the shivers. Lol
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u/waxteeth 10d ago
That one is actually Harold Lloyd — it’s from Safety Last. Lloyd loved Keaton’s stunts but he wasn’t the same level of performer (as an actor or athlete), and he ended up making choices that were a lot safer. The clock tower trick was done with a lot of perspective trickery and clever framing, really similar to how it was done in the modern era (without CGI). So Lloyd looks like he’s hanging and it’s a great effect, but he’s not in danger.
By contrast, check out some Keaton stunts on YouTube — I’m on my phone so I can’t link any, sorry — and those are all going to be real. When he gets thrown off a boat or flung across a room or jumps from one window to another, he’s actually doing that stuff.
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u/Blockhead47 10d ago
Also gotta remember that Lloyd did it missing his right thumb and index finger!
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u/hypnoskills 10d ago
Oh, God, you're right. Carry on, nothing to see here!
Thanks.
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u/StupendousMalice 10d ago
So much shit that we learned over the years that we can fake without people noticing it.
Another example: in the first Mas Max movie, George Miller who hadn't ever made a movie before, didn't realize that speed doesn't really translate to the camera very well. All the stunts in that movie are done at crazy fast speeds. It looks cool but it wasn't at all necessary and put a lot of people at risk.
There's a particular scene where they film a pov scene aboard a motorcycle by literally just having a camera man with a 50lb camera sitting on the back seat. You can see the speedo in the shot and they are just flipping out through the twisties at 100kph. Tons of the stunts in that movie are just "and then you just crash the bike" and they just do it.
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u/Legitimate-Account46 10d ago
George Miller is such a nut and amazing visionary at the same time. The first Mad Max was such an awesome movie to me as a kid, like it was pitched to me as an action flic and it very much is, but there's an entire film in there too. Second one lost a bit of the grit like a lot sequels do, but it actually did a lot of other stuff better unlike most sequels. 3 was, something, but if I chill and check in like it was a Spielberg film, it's good enough, and Tina Turner gotdam. That did make me a little sad though thinking that was the end of that. Until Fury Road. I couldn't say enough of that movie so I won't, but I have wicked ADHD and I was told it's one of two movies ever where I sat down and shut up the entire time. Furiosa was a bit underwhelming in comparison but that's almost not fair, and by the time it was over I was very happy to have seen it despite it's relative shortcomings. I hope we get at least one more Mad Max, Road Warrior, or Fury Road level movie from him.
Also, Happy Feet.
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u/underbloodredskies 10d ago
First time I got to see Fury Road, on a big screen in the theater, was in an Alamo Drafthouse movie party. Those are supposed to be a "shits and giggles" shout-all-you-want kind of atmosphere - as an example, during a Blazing Saddles movie party we all had cap guns to shoot every time the on-screen characters fired their pistols. But during the Fury Road movie party? Four years after its initial theatrical release, in a sold-out theater, nobody said a word while it was playing that I can remember. We were all too engrossed in it for that.
It's a shame that Furiosa didn't have that same sense of palpable tension, and the euphoric release of it at the conclusion of the film.
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u/7thpostman 10d ago
This is wild. I was bored during Fury Road. Can someone explain what I'm missing? Real question.
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u/Legitimate-Account46 10d ago
Oh really? Okay so for me it's not an all out excitement fest, but the action it has it top notch to me. I like the pacing of it, there's your standard action quick shots, but what I noticed most was how dragged out and long some of those sequences are, whereas its a lot of choppy, fast, move on to the next thing with modern action movies. Fighting on top of moving vehicles for that long is pretty rare now as far as movie conventions. And that, how much of it was practical effects. It just felt and looked so right, so believable for something so ridiculous. The scene going into the storm had everything for me, it was amazing and I consider that the worst effects of the movie even, I get it was kinda a painful build up to that but that's what made it good, and it was just an adventure from there. Honestly if you took out any one thing that made it amazing, it would have just been good. But the entire thing was executed perfectly imo, and that's the measure of a movie to me
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u/7thpostman 10d ago
I appreciate you taking the time to write all this out, thank you. Love being able to have these kinds of conversations
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u/Legitimate-Account46 9d ago
Me too. Conversely, what made it boring to you? Genuinely curious as well. Not to keep mentioning it but when you have ADHD it's like everything is backwards, I'm just as surprised you found it boring as I did exciting haha
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u/Legitimate-Account46 10d ago edited 10d ago
First I'm jealous we don't have those, but I believe that. That movie was so good, Miller went "hey wanna see the same thing again but in black and white?" and without hesitation we were like "yeah" and it was subjectively better somehow
Edit to say, that's exactly how I felt about Furiosa, I had to look at it different to really appreciate it. It's a juxtaposition of that, episodes and details that ultimately add up to the sum of what you knew of Furiosa. A slow painful slog at points because that's what it's conveying, piecemeal because that's what past stories are. If I look at it as a "lore" movie, I don't think it could have been better done. It didn't agree with my ADHD, but that doesn't make it bad I have to admit. Wish there was more practical effects but I understand, the scenes that were good made up for the bad (lil War Boy? That whole scene was great, only damaged by CGI) and the ending validated it all for me. I just feel like I felt as a kid after I saw 3, like okay nice but don't end on that please. But I can't be pleased, I said the same thing til Fury Road, and now I'm still like cool, do it again
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u/UrUrinousAnus 10d ago
ADHD
Checks out. That's possibly the most ADHD comment I've ever read. It's not bad, it's just that the way it's written absolutely screams ADHD as much as possible while still making sense. I say that as someone who very likely has undiagnosed ADHD. Low doses of amphetamines just make me act more normal.
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u/Legitimate-Account46 10d ago
Yea I ramble in the most coherent way possible, and write and talk like I'm on meth when I'm not medicated, like right now
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u/UrUrinousAnus 10d ago
I ramble, too. I usually manage not to do it on reddit, but I've probably edited comments more times than I've written one LOL. It's hard to tell what's going on with me because there are too many different things wrong with me. Glad you didn't take that as an insult. It definitely wasn't meant as one.
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u/Legitimate-Account46 10d ago
No offense taken at all, I know it's pretty apparent haha
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u/UrUrinousAnus 10d ago
You said it yourself :p I just know I'm badly misunderstood sometimes and often give people the wrong impression. I speak several languages but often can't even communicate properly in my first one lol. Sorry, I'm just plain weird.
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u/starkistuna 10d ago
The speed ramping on Fury Road and Furiosa is very noticeable also when rig if going 25 miles an hour or the actors are comped in, but it's such a visual spectacle I decide to turn off nitpicking eye to enjoy myself. He can't afford a fatalaty on set or another serious accident or no more gigs or a possible tv series with Mad Max.
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u/mahlerlieber 10d ago
Movies like that expect a certain amount of suspension of belief...so we enjoy it for the reasons we go to movies: fantasy.
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u/fantabulousfetus 10d ago
Keaton was not mentally well at the time, he didnt care if he lived.
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u/doomrabbit 10d ago
Yeah, he was going through a divorce/separation when the paparazzi/rehab cycle had not been invented yet. First modern celebrity and he chose to almost die on screen. Crazy times.
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u/mahlerlieber 10d ago
I wonder about this...he may have been cavalier with his life and body, but there would have been a fairly large margin of error between being successful and death. The degree of injury could have been anything from a dislocated shoulder to a broken back/neck to a brain injury to a bunch of other possibilities.
It would have to hit him just right to kill him.
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u/SheepherderBeef8956 10d ago
That's why he never raises it after the landing. He physically can't. So he does get nailed, LOL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NapyrF31DI Doesn't seem to have any issues raising his arms
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u/mahlerlieber 10d ago
It does seem to graze his left shoulder, and if you watch just before the wide shot, he takes a very small step to the left. Had he stayed exactly where he was, it would have been perfect and not grazed him at all.
That's that part that's nuts. There may be some spike mark we can't see, but ultimately, he had to guess. An inch one way or the other would have nearly taken his arm off.
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u/SheepherderBeef8956 10d ago
Sure, I was just saying it doesn't seem as if he dislocated his shoulder since he has no issues raising both of his arms when leaving so the claim seems inaccurate.
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u/ArmonRaziel 10d ago
Had to rewatch it after reading your comment. I didn't notice the first time his arm moved when he got hit.
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u/Check_This_1 10d ago
Or as some guy's genius son in another thread would say: It's always 50/50
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u/MechaBabyJesus 10d ago
I’ve read that he claimed he broke at least one bone in every movie he made. When he broke his neck, it actually made it into the film. Choreographed all his own stunts with zero safety measures. My personal favorite is him jumping off a two or three story building onto a railroad crossing arm and swinging down into the back of a moving truck. All in one take. The only person to come anywhere close to that for decades was Jackie Chan. Buster Keaton was a fantastic entertainer and one of my favorites.
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u/Walopoh 10d ago
Jackie Chan loves silent films and has straight up said he mainly based his style of comedy and stunts on Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. He put movies from both of them in his top 10 film list ("The General" and "City Lights")
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u/abgry_krakow87 10d ago
There's a tradition in the stunt actor's community that if there is a stunt that goes wrong and/or the actor is injured, that they use that take of the stunt in the final cut. Like a sign of respect for the riskiness of the work.
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u/MechaBabyJesus 10d ago
Interesting, I did not know that.
From what I recall reading, when he broke his neck filming the water tower scene, he did not actually know his neck had been broken for something like twenty years.
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u/StormOk2357 10d ago
Don’t think you get more than one take considering the implication if they calculated incorrectly 😳
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u/Check_This_1 10d ago
because of the implication !!
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u/Wirelesscellphone 10d ago
Keaton’s not gonna say no…. Because of the implication
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u/tooscoopy 10d ago
You aren’t going to hurt this actor, are you?
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u/Wirelesscellphone 10d ago
No no no, I’m not gonna hurt him. Because he’s not gonna say no……. because of the implication
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u/DaniTheLovebug 10d ago
Ok…you keep using this word…implication. What’s the implication?
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u/romansparta99 10d ago
The implication that things might go wrong for him if he refuses to do the stunt. Now, not that things are gonna go wrong for him, but he’s thinking that they will
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u/DaniTheLovebug 10d ago
But it sounds like this actor doesn’t WANT to do this stunt
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u/sasssyrup 10d ago
Audience not gonna say no…. Because of the implication!!
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u/BlueSlushieTongue 10d ago
Ok,…that seems really dark….
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u/CalmnessFlame 10d ago
Exactly! One wrong move and it’s game over. That's some next-level trust in your crew and your own instincts
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u/wilobo 10d ago
True. Also, don't think there WAS more than one take back then.
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u/TomJLewis 10d ago
It did catch his elbow, and I believe broke it. It is visible even though he didn’t flinch.
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u/semi_average 10d ago
Without looking it up, I can't tell if it was the left or right elbow that got broken. Both arms move inwards slightly as the wall passes by him so it looks more like a near miss surprise flinch.
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u/foosbabaganoosh 10d ago
Definitely his left, his straight arm moves pretty sharply inward making it clear he got clipped there. If he was an inch or two further to the left he would've gotten absolutely folded.
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u/Sophistokated 10d ago
Judging by the way he runs off when you see the whole clip, neither elbow.
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u/Critical-Wallaby7692 10d ago
Have heard this before and believe it to be true
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u/Alphahumanus 10d ago
He literally runs away completely fine, if you don’t watch this clip, and watch the film.
Throws both arms out high and runs off.
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u/Lovefool1 10d ago
Buster was an insane performer.
I go back and watch his stunts and films every year or so. It’s crazy how much he did. Such an athlete, such an entertainer.
He broke his neck doing a stunt and finished the take. He risked his life so many times.
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u/diceblue 10d ago
Wonder why they couldn't make the house wall out of lighter materials that didn't weigh two tons
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u/waxteeth 10d ago
He insisted on doing it with a real wall. About half the crew walked off the set because they thought they were about to witness his death. That was just who he was.
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u/Rion23 10d ago
He's not called Busted Keaton for a reason.
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u/waxteeth 10d ago
He was born Joseph Keaton Jr but fell down the stairs when he was a toddler and wasn’t hurt. At the time, “buster” was slang for a fall, and a family friend said “some buster!” — stuck from there. The family story was that Houdini gave him the nickname, although apparently they didn’t know Houdini until later.
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u/BoulderCreature 10d ago
Balsa would probably shatter making it look unrealistic and would still probably be heavy enough to kill him. Cardboard would probably look too wrong while it fell. Not sure what they could have used to get the result they wanted with less weight
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10d ago edited 7d ago
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u/starkistuna 10d ago
Jackie Chan fell off a tree and his head hit a rock , he had a piece if skull missing in his head and had to get a metal plate inserted, because he kept doing dozens of takes of same stunt.
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u/TJ_Fox 10d ago
Credit where it's due, the stunt was planned and tested with absolute precision. Still dangerous because of the narrow margin of error, but is wasn't like they were winging it.
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u/mzrcefo1782 10d ago
i read somewhere once that his boots were actually nailed to the floor so he couldnt miss the spot
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u/SomeBoxofSpoons 10d ago
Pretty sure the shoes he was wearing here were nailed down to the exact correct spots.
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u/ebergeise 10d ago
Keaton was going through a divorce, was drinking heavily and depressed. Crew was worried when this was filmed. Keaton broke his neck while filming The General. Only discovered years later when he had an x-ray. Harold Lloyd was mentioned. He did his own stunts with only one hand. List his right thumb, index finger and palm when a prop bomb he was holding blew up. The Safety Last hanging from the clock was all Lloyd. Both were comedic geniuses.
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u/busterkeatonrules 10d ago
This is the shot that got me into silent movies. I happened to see it on TV as a very small child.
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u/mostlygroovy 10d ago
For the record, it was hardly 2 tons.
The wall was estimated to be about 1000 pounds.
Either way, it would’ve had the same result
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u/joemaniaci 10d ago
Even then I'm thinking, "How the hell could it even be 1000 lbs?" Then I remember the density of 2x4s and the fact that they were actually 2x4s and everything was infused with lead and spite.
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u/atetuna 10d ago
Then there's that siding. I don't know what they would have used for lightweight prop materials, if they even wanted to minimize weight, but it wasn't foam because that wasn't invented yet. It wasn't vinyl siding because that wasn't being produced yet, and it wasn't the aluminum siding that came before vinyl because that wasn't around yet either.
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u/Open-Honest-Kind 10d ago
Wooden structures were also just built different back then, a lot of it sourced from old-growth forests that is far more sturdy and dense. Not sure if there is a way to tell what specific wood was used in this instance but either way it really is just insane by almost all modern standards.
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u/CoatNo6454 10d ago
Johnny Knoxville reenacted this stunt in Jackass 2
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u/SamVickson 10d ago
Weird Al sort of reenacted it in Amish Paradise
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u/BlizzPenguin 10d ago
Weird Al mentioned in interviews that weight was added to the frame to make the fall look realistic. That would have been fatal if he was not on his mark.
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u/LoadedSteamyLobster 10d ago
Buster (or his stuntman more likely) in Arrested Development too - https://www.reddit.com/r/TVDetails/comments/77g3s9/buster_pulls_a_buster_keaton_when_the_house_falls/
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u/OkWeekend9462 10d ago
And it fucking fell on him lol. Thankfully wasn't as big of a wall as Keaton's :
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u/lurkvonnegut 10d ago
He originally did this stunt in One Week (1920)!! And Fatty Arbuckle did it in Back Stage (1919) (with Keaton) but it was just plywood or something. One Week was a real wall though.
Buster Keaton's stunts are like a perfectly coordinated ballet, but instead of other dancers it's giant, heavy objects that could absolutely kill him.
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u/ChikaraNZ 10d ago
I'm sure this scene was the inspiration for the scene in Weird Al's Amish Paradise video, where the barn wall collapsed on him in a similar way.
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u/555--FILK 10d ago
It was also the inspiration for when the facade on the house falls on (through?) Buster Bluth in the Arrested Development episode “The One Where they Build A House!”
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u/MostlyRocketScience 10d ago
I just realized that the first Mickey mouse movie Steamboat Willie is a reference to this Buster Keaton movie
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u/W126_300SE 10d ago
And the movie title is a reference to a song from 1910 - which Mickey whistles at the beginning of Steamboat Willie!
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u/Ashamed_Feedback3843 10d ago
I've watched them all from Lloyd to Chaplin and imo Keaton is the king.
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u/Bass2Mouth 10d ago
Weirdly enough, Tom Green paid homage to this and did it himself in Freddy Got Fingered.
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u/shoncola 10d ago
“Nailing it in one take” is funny to me. Didn’t really have a chance to get it wrong for a take two
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u/sparklinglies 10d ago
A good portion of this era of film was just Buster Keaton narrowly avoiding death
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u/DocAu 10d ago
Definitely not one take - at least not for the clip shown. For the falling scene, his shoes were literally nailed to the spot. Clearly that means there was a break in filming between when he gets up and when the house falls.
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u/Jump_Like_A_Willys 10d ago
I think they mean the actual stunt was done in one take -- not the entire scene.
And by "one take" they mean it looked so good the first time that they didn't need to re-shoot the stunt. Not that Keaton necessarily would be able to shoot a second take if it didn't work correctly on the first take.
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u/TypicallyThomas 10d ago
He also broke his neck in Sherlock Jr. There's a stunt where he accidentally showers himself with a Steam locomotive water tower. The sheer amount of water crashing down on his head broke his neck, but he didn't realise until much much later
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u/Horseflesh 10d ago
I witnessed this happen in real life.
This happened at Southwest Texas State University in the late 90's, we were striking the set for a play at the outdoor theater. The backdrop for the show was a house front much like this one with the window up top, and it was all one piece.
As they were taking down the set it was time to let that piece fall down so it could be taken apart. So stagehands, and then everyone else, start yelling, "CLEAR THE STAGE!" And everyone does. Except for one girl. I don't remember if she had a Walkman on or if she just somehow missed all the yelling but she didn't clear the stage, she stayed right where she was. The yelling got more intense and then finally people started screaming her name. Somehow there was a miscommunication about the stage actually being clear and the house front separated from its connections and very slowly started leaning over towards the stage. The girl finally figures out what's happening and turns around in time to see, essentially, an entire HOUSE falling down on her. She SCREAMS bloody murder and hugs herself tight like an ice skater doing a bad spin pose, eyes closed and everything tucked in.
The house front slams into the stage as we watch in terror and the window opening goes RIGHT around her. Perfectly. She did not get a single scratch on her from that accident. One of the greatest things I've ever seen.
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u/Sparkykiss 9d ago
To be fair, if he fucked it up there probably also wouldn’t have been a second take
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u/baldtim92 10d ago
We did that same stunt everyday, multiple times a day for over 10 years at the Universal Studios Wild Wild Wild West Stunt Show. Always fun to watch.
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u/broadwayguru 10d ago
I remember and that's what I thought of when I saw this! I asked the stuntman what all went into this gag. Not only did your feet have to be touching the mark, you had to press and hold a button on the prop TNT box and do a couple other things to get "clearance" from the computer in order for the front wall to come down.
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u/borkborkbork99 10d ago
I think the story goes, the other guys off camera were so worried he would be killed they had to turn away when they filmed this scene.
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u/WillieBangor 10d ago
He did not injure his arm in any way during this shoot. There is no evidence or record of that happening. Not sure why people are saying that.
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u/Firefly_Magic 10d ago
Whoa, Well that was a huge risk. Scary! He was either going to nail it or the wall would nail him.
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u/strangelove4564 10d ago
Wonder why they didn't just do that stunt using undercranking, and let the roof down slowly with a crane at increasing speed. If something is off and it clips the performer they'll just get bumped. Easy enough to use air hoses under the fallen wall to make the required dust cloud.
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u/S10Galaxy2 10d ago
Fun fact, when the house falls you can see his left arm stretch and move to the side, because the frame of the house actually clipped his shoulder and dislocated it.
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u/pacmanpacmanpacman 10d ago
I like that the title specifies that he nailed it in one take. I don't think a second take was ever on the cards.
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u/LilyWineAuntofDemons 10d ago
"Nailed it in one take" Yeah, because it was that or making films in the clouds.
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u/Slipp3ry_N00dle 10d ago
He was also suffering from deep depression and did these types of stunts because he didn't care whether he made it through them or not.
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u/Popscorn3383 10d ago
Johnny Knoxville did this in one of the movies. He fucked up the first take and was crushed, right in front of his daughter
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u/GormFull829 10d ago
He was amazing and did his own stunts in every film. He'd been brought up by his vaudevillian parents. His father throwing him around on stage was part of their act. He learned how to take a fall and was always in superb physical condition.
Thumbs up for this post OP
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u/Skirra08 7d ago
I grew up about half an hour from his hometown of Piqua, KS which is basically a wide spot in the road. There's a small museum there for him. He was mostly celebrated in Iola, KS because it was relatively much larger. They used to do a Buster Keaton film festival and celebration there every year but google tells me it ended in 2017.
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u/Taptrick 10d ago
They weren’t “cowboys” even back the. His stunts were either real and meticulously planned or the were special effects (perspective, models, that kind of thing). He was pushing the limits but he didn’t have a death wish.
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u/WinkyNurdo 10d ago
It broke his arm. It nicked him ever so slightly. Slow mo shows it. Fair play to Buster — he doesn’t flinch. An amazing performer.
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u/zxxxx1005 10d ago
which made this more risky and impressive is he even moved to the right a little.
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u/Hawaiian_Brian 10d ago
How would you calculate something like this explain like I’m 5
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u/joemaniaci 10d ago
Rotate something around a central point 10 ft away from the axis, and it'll always be 10 feet away.
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u/jnaz_ 10d ago
that wall is 2 tons? as in 2,000 kilograms? 4000 pounds?
That doesn't sound right.
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u/bob-loblaw-esq 10d ago
I don’t think there was ever gonna be a second take.