A stunt is an unusual and difficult physical feat or an act requiring a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually on television, theaters, or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer generated imageryspecial effects, these effects were limited to the use of models, false perspective and other in-camera effects, unless the creator could find someone willing to jump from car to car or hang from the edge of a skyscraper: the stunt performer or stunt double.
Types of stunt effects
Practical effects
One of the most-frequently used practical stunts is stage combat. Although contact is normally avoided, many elements of stage combat, such as sword fighting, martial arts, and acrobatics required contact between performers in order to facilitate the creation of a particular effect, such as noise or physical interaction. Stunt performances are highly choreographed and may be rigorously rehearsed for hours, days and sometimes weeks before a performance. Seasoned professionals will commonly treat a performance as if they have never done it before, since the risks in stunt work are high, every move and position must be correct to reduce risk of injury from accidents. Examples of practical effects include tripping and falling down, high jumps, extreme sporting moves, acrobatics and high diving, spins, gainer falls, "suicide backflips," and other martial arts stunts. Stunt airbags, large deep airbags that may be the size of a small swimming pool, are typically used by professional stunt performers to cushion their landings from staged falls from heights.
Mechanical effects
A physical stunt is usually performed with help of mechanics. For example, if the plot requires the hero to jump to a high place, the film crew could put the actor in a special harness, and use aircraft high tension wire to pull him up. Piano wire is sometimes used to fly objects, but an actor is never suspended from it as it is brittle and can break under shock impacts. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a kung-fu film that was heavily reliant on wire stunts.
Vehicular stunts
Performers of vehicular stunts require extensive training and may employ specially adapted vehicles. Stunts can be as simple as a handbrake turn, also known as the bootleg turn, or as advanced as car chases, jumps and crashes involving dozens of vehicles. Rémy Julienne is a well known pioneering automotive stunt performer and coordinator. Another well known vehicular stunt specialist is Englishman Ian Walton, who was the helicopter stunt pilot and stunt designer for many 1980s films, notably the Bond filmNever Say Never Again. A Guinness Book of World Records holder stunt driver, Bobby Ore, performed in numerous movies and events and holds a World Record for longest distance driven on two wheels in a London double decker bus. Streetbike stunts, also known as "stunting" gained widespread popularity in the early 2000s and continues to grow. It is based on wheelies but now goes much further than that.
Computer-generated effects
In the late 20th century stunt men were often placed in dangerous situations less and less as filmmakers turned to relatively inexpensive computer graphics effects using harnesses, fans, blue- or green screens, and a huge array of other devices and digital effects. The Matrix is an example for a film that extensively "enhanced" real stunts through CGI post production. The Lord of the Rings film series and the Star Wars prequel films often display stunts that are entirely computer generated. Examples of computer-generated effects include face replacement and wire removal.
In 1982, Jackie Chan began experimenting with elaborate stunt action sequences in Dragon Lord, which featured a pyramid fight scene that holds the record for the most takes required for a single scene, with 2900 takes, and the final fight scene where he performs various stunts, including one where he does a back flip off a loft and falls to the lower ground. In 1983, Project A saw the official formation of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and added elaborate, dangerous stunts to the fights and typical slapstick humor. Police Story contained many large-scale action scenes, including an opening sequence featuring a car chase through a shanty town, Chan stopping a double-decker bus with his service revolver and a climactic fight scene in a shopping mall. This final scene earned the film the nickname "Glass Story" by the crew, due to the huge number of panes of sugar glass that were broken. During a stunt in this last scene, in which Chan slides down a pole from several stories up, the lights covering the pole had heated it considerably, resulting in Chan suffering second-degree burns, particularly to his hands, as well as a back injury and dislocation of his pelvis upon landing. Chan performed similarly elaborate stunts in numerous other films, such as several Police Story sequels, Project A Part II, the Armor of God series, Dragons Forever, Drunken Master II, Rumble in the Bronx, and the Rush Hour series, among others. Other Hong Kong action movie stars who became known for performing elaborate stunts include Chan's Peking Opera School friends Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, as well as "girls with guns" stars such as Michelle Yeoh and Moon Lee. Other Asian cinema stars also known for performing elaborate stunts including Thai actor Tony Jaa, Indonesian actors Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, and Indian actors Jayan, Akshay Kumar, Vidyut Jammwal and Tiger Shroff.
Stunts that have gone wrong
Stunt-based television shows
Reality competition television shows such as Fear Factor and Going Straight have required contestants to complete stunts to win prize money.
Recognition of stunt performers
Films such as Hooper and The Stunt Man and the 1980s television show The Fall Guy sought to raise the profile of the stunt performer and debunk the myth that film stars perform all their own stunts. Noted stunt coordinators Hal Needham, Craig R. Baxley, and Vic Armstrong went on to direct the action films The Cannonball Run, Action Jackson, and Joshua Tree. Vic Armstrong became the first stuntman to win both an Academy Award and a BAFTA award. But the status of stuntmen in Hollywood is still low; despite the fact that few films of any genre or type could be made without them, stunt performers are still seen as working mainly in action films. Repeated campaigns for a "Best Stunts" Academy Award have been rejected. In 2001, the first "World Stunt Awards" were presented in Los Angeles by actor Alec Baldwin. The event had A-list stars presenting the statues to Hollywood's unsung heroes. Arnold Schwarzenegger was presented with the first "Lifetime Achievement" award. He presented the awards in 2001. The awards show hands out eight awards: Best Fight, Best Fire Stunt, Best High Work, Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Man, Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman, Best Speciality Stunt, Best Work with a Vehicle and Best Stunt Coordinator and/or 2nd Unit Director.
Equality in stunts
In past Hollywood films it was common for men to double for women and White American stunt performers to double for African-American performers. Veteran stunt man Dave Sharpe, a man of shorter than average height, often doubled for women in film serials of the 1930s and '40s. It is now against union rules for stunt performers to double an actor of a different gender or race unless the stunt is so dangerous that there are no other volunteers, for example when B.J. Worth doubled for the black Jamaican actress Grace Jones who parachuted off the Eiffel Tower in A View to a Kill. The rise of action heroines like Angelina Jolie and African-American stars like Will Smith has offered wider opportunities for stunt performers from diverse backgrounds.
The future of stuntwork
A backlash against dangerous stunts following the fatal 42 foot backward fall of Sonja Davis off a building on the set of Vampire in Brooklyn, coinciding with developments in computer-generated imagery that make such stunts unnecessary threatens to reduce stunt performers to the status of body doubles. And yet a backlash against films that resemble video games could lead to a resurrection in pure stuntwork. Films such as The Matrix and have shown how CGI and stunts can be integrated for maximum effect. But—if for no other reason than safety—it is doubtful that the records established by Hooper and Sharky's Machine will be broken anytime soon. A new subgenre of eastern martial arts films exists which emphasize the actors performing their own stunts, deliberately using wide angles and unbroken shots to show each stunt in its entirety. Examples of actors doing their own stunts include Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa.
