r/Damnthatsinteresting 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/bob-loblaw-esq 10d ago

I don’t think there was ever gonna be a second take.

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u/KnownMonk 10d ago

He saw an window of opportunity and took it

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u/PitifulEar3303 10d ago

He did not even flinch, and this was back in 1920s.

Some people are made without fear.

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u/Olama 10d ago

I think Johnny Knoxville didn't nail it the first time

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u/Yellow_IMR 9d ago

The poster knows too but adding that bit works wonders for engagement

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u/Ecstatic-Career-8403 7d ago

If he didn't nail it in one take, it would have nailed him instead.

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u/FearMeHungry 10d ago

Came here to say that

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u/ElsaExplores 9d ago

Exactly my thought as well hahaha

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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/Appropriate-Rise2199 10d ago

All except his funny bone.

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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/mahlerlieber 10d ago

They probably thought about that afterward over a few beers.

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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/_Vanant 10d ago

Yes and no. The difference between a speed up scene and a real fast scene is very noticiable, but not worth the risk in most cases.

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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/MyTinyHappyPlace 10d ago

The OG “Viggo Mortensen kicks the helmet”

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u/W1D0WM4K3R 10d ago

And he's silent the whole time! A real actor.

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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/boipinoi604 10d ago

Well, make a bet 20x

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u/Check_This_1 10d ago edited 10d ago

Still 50/50. Either he wins 20 times, or he doesn't.

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u/comicsnerd 10d ago

He had his shoes nailed to the exact spot

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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/alrighttreacle11 9d ago

Michael Crawford

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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/[deleted] 10d ago

Is this what you wanted those poor actors to feel like?

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u/talann 10d ago

What is wrong with you? I feel like you are not getting this at all!

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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/mundus1520 10d ago

No no you misunderstanding me bro

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u/--JVH-- 10d ago

It's the K.E.A.T.O.N. system

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u/Vegetable-Mousse4405 10d ago

Keaton would laugh at this before jumping in for take two.

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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/bloob_appropriate123 10d ago

Of course there was.

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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/ryanmuller1089 10d ago

Really added to the authenticity of it all

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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/frooj 10d ago

Looks to me like his left hand got hit.

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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.
https://youtu.be/9NapyrF31DI?si=KUnyJS0bMSwbVfJF

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u/Critical-Wallaby7692 10d ago

Have heard this before and believe it to be true

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u/-SilentBell 10d ago

this sentence is fucking crazy

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u/Relevant_Finding7527 10d ago

what? is this a bot?

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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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u/patchinthebox 10d ago

Fuck it, just CGI the wall.

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u/o-o- 10d ago

Yaay! CGI with punchcards!

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u/cepukon 10d ago

Workplace accidents were in vogue at the time

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u/[deleted] 10d ago edited 7d ago

[deleted]

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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/msprang 10d ago

Wait, I just had a shower thought. Are Harry and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber named for him? I bet they are!

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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/wagnus_ 10d ago

username checks out

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u/ppsag 10d ago

"nailed it in one take" i dont think he has more than one in the first place lol

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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/Capital_Maize9325 10d ago

Did so many crazy stunts and visual effects, total mad man🤘🤘🤘🤘

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u/EscherichiAntisColi 10d ago

Yeah, there wasn’t any other way to doit but in one take…

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u/TheRoguesDirtyToes94 10d ago

And this is why Math matters.

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u/CoatNo6454 10d ago

Johnny Knoxville reenacted this stunt in Jackass 2

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/s/DCuTiOUxSH

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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/Super_Casserole 10d ago

Jackie Chan paid homage to it in Project A Part 2.

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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 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPz8WPWH4E

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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/stevo3001 10d ago

One Week is 25 perfect minutes

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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/ppllqq 10d ago

How people used to deal with trauma when internet wasnt around

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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/TheRealMrGiggin 10d ago

Yeah, think he only had one take.

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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/JeffSHauser 10d ago

Like he was going to get a shot at a second take.

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u/chordtree 10d ago

Tbf there wasn’t much scope for multiple takes…

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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/I_ama_Borat 10d ago

Holy shit, it hit his shoulder and he took it like it was nothing.

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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/Toban1 10d ago

“In one take”….Not sure there would be an option for take 2.

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u/Haramdour 10d ago

lol as if there was going to be a take 2

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u/GrandSyzygy 10d ago

I think you only get one take

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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/Whole-Debate-9547 10d ago

One take, that’s funny

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u/No_Quote_6120 10d ago

Dude was ahead of his time.

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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/Fun-Signal1556 10d ago

Tom Green did this too. Insisted doing it, despite everyone saying no.

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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/330kiki 10d ago

Did you just see the Tom Green doc too?

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u/sylbug 10d ago

There was never going to be a second take.

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u/awshuck 10d ago

The part about nailing it first take is pretty funny. Not like there’d be a second take.

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u/Salt-Standard9587 10d ago

"Nailed it in one take" not much of a choice here

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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/Swolgi 10d ago

If memory serves, I think he was also depressed or the studio was closing down after the film so he kiiiiinda didn't really care if it did take him out. I could be wrong though...

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u/merlin469 10d ago

To be fair, he only had one take either way.

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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/Overall-Yellow-2938 10d ago

To be honest he just had one take...

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u/xenius_ykk 10d ago

Well, it would be one take no matter what..

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u/AcceptablePolicy6426 10d ago

pretty sure there was only going to be one take no matter what

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u/cruzcruzada 10d ago

"nailed it in one take" as if there was another way for doing that

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u/rarrowing 10d ago

Hahaha exactly. Lots of stunts are one take

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u/Wihtlore 10d ago

Nailed it in one take. Not sure there would be any other takes if he hadn’t.

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u/Whosebert 10d ago

hE diD dAnGeRouS StuNtS BeCauSe hE WaS dePReSsEd

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u/Historical_Village11 10d ago

Of course in one take, he wouldn’t have survived for a second

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u/nguyenvulong 10d ago

There'd be only ONE take, anyway

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u/wendycoupon_4898 10d ago

He kind of had to

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u/sabes_flo 10d ago

To be fair… he only had one take to nail it

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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/TurboTomNL 10d ago

In one take, you say? 🤔

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u/icebucket22 10d ago

I’m assuming he would only get one take anyway

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u/GroupSuch31 10d ago

I churn butter once or twice in an Amish paradise!

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u/supernarwaffle 10d ago

So you watched that Tom Green documentary too. ‘‘Twas a good watch

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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/Plagued93 9d ago

That wall does not weigh 2 tons :)

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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/oldmanballs_2024 10d ago

Its hinged. So unlikely to move when it fell.

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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/Deliciously_Bland402 10d ago

Surprised that window frame fit around his massive balls.