TOP 5: HILARIOUSLY OBVIOUS STUNT DOUBLES

Stunt doubles are among Hollywood’s most unsung heroes, and unless you’re Tom Cruise, odds are you’ve got a preferred performer who does all the hard hard work for you, while taking none of the glory. If all goes to plan, these performers are never seen by the audience, and the fact that you’re watching Vic Armstrong and not Harrison Ford goes by completely unnoticed. But on the odd occasion, these faces make it into the final product, and completely take you out of the movie.

What follows is a countdown of some of cinema’s famous examples of stunt doubles mugs mistakenly ending up in the finished film. Some are subtle, others glaringly obvious, but all are most certainly not supposed to be noticed…until now!

5

The Mummy Returns (2001)

mummyIn this blink and you’ll miss it moment, our heroes Rick and Evie O’Connell experience a near death drowning following their attempted theft of the bracelet of Anubis. Trouble is, neither Brendan Fraser nor Rachel Weisz decided to show up for the scene, instead passing the reigns to their respective stunt doubles, who get the chance to share a touching moment on screen before quickly exiting stage left. How generous of the actors to sacrifice valuable screen time, so their doubles could be hit by a wall of water take after take.

4

Face/Off (1997)FACE OFF

Its somewhat ironic that a film about changing ones appearance features so many shots of faces that clearly don’t belong to either John Travolta or Nicolas Cage. The extended speed boat chase that occurs towards the end of the John Woo’s 90s auctioner may feature some truly impressive stunt work, but a lot of the hard work is undone by the fact that none of the money shots feature actors that bear any resemblance to their A-list counterparts. If there was a prize for sheer frequency of obvious stunt double shots, this scene would win hands down and faces off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGifZGteFv8

3

The Princess Bride (1987)

princess 2

The Princess Bride featured the work of legendary movie swordsman and stuntman Bob Anderson in one of his many great screen performances. But even legends make mistakes, and in this case Bob’s mistake was choosing to stand in for Robin Wright during one of the film’s most pivotal scenes. So instead of being swept up in the romance of the princess following her darling Westley down a hill, we’re instead struck by the image of what looks like a pirate dressed up in drag whose wig looks like its one tumble away from falling off.

2

Moonraker (1979)bond

If we wanted to be really brutal, Bond would’ve occupied every entry in our countdown, such is the nature of the series many practical and dangerous stunts. But if we had to pick a scene from one film in the Bond canon, it would be this skydiving sequence from Moonraker, which was clearly filmed while Roger Moore was off holidaying in the Bahamas for a week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G4zT2X8MT0

1

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

t2

There must of been a point halfway through filming this chase scene where director James Cameron just went “Fuck it! Lets not worry about continuity, just shoot!” Not only do the actors in the scene bear little resemblance to their screen counterparts (especially in Edward Furlong’s case) but the sheer length of the shots in which the stunt doubles are visible would be obvious to even the most unobservant moviegoer. Maybe it was Cameron’s way of rewarding his stunt performers for all their hard work, or maybe he just thought he’d be able to manipulate their faces in post production. Either way, the scene certainly made it hard for the world’s biggest action star to brag about doing his own stunts in future.

That’s all folks! What stunt doubles stood out and made you hit the pause button? Let us know in the comments section below.

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