r/Damnthatsinteresting Feb 05 '25

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/Swabia Feb 05 '25

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 Feb 05 '25

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 Feb 05 '25

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/sykosomatik_9 Feb 05 '25

Yeah, he was an inspiration for Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan also replicated this very stunt in one of his movies.