Cinema would not be the same without stuntmen and women. Most of the time, when the world sees movie stars leaping from great heights, engaging in combat, and crashing through glass, it is actually another person with years of training performing the stunts. But every so often, ordinary people find themselves thrust into the same sort of far-fetched situations that stunt performers face in their jobs.
Most of the time, these situations end in tragedy, but some people occasionally survive them through luck and will. Those who do often end up with crazy stories that they will be telling for the rest of their lives. Some even achieve a brief period of local or national fame. Here are ten of the most absurd stories of ordinary people who accidentally ended up performing movie-style stunts.
Related: Ten Comic Book Superheroes Based on Real People
10 Fighting off a Bear
Woman recovering from bear attack in Leavenworth | FOX 13 Seattle
The typical advice for surviving a bear encounter is to make oneself appear large and threatening by waving arms, clapping, and shouting. However, this only works if the bear is seen approaching. For one woman walking her dog in the town of Leavenworth, Washington, back in 2022, this was not possible. In an incredibly unlikely turn of events—there had been only 19 harmful encounters and one fatal one with a bear in the entire state since 1970—she was ambushed by a fully-grown black bear.
It charged at her before she had the chance to try and scare it away and knocked her to the ground. Fortunately for her, but unfortunately for the bear, she instinctively chose to fight back. Although some say that playing dead is a good strategy for surviving a bear attack, this only really works if the bear is defending something, such as its cubs. In this case, the woman punched it right on the nose. This turned out to be the right strategy as the bear stopped attacking, and she escaped with non-life-threatening injuries.[1]
9 Punching a Gunman to Save a Princess
1974 attempt to kidnap Princess Anne.
Ronnie Russell was a manager at a cleaning firm just trying to get home one evening in March 1974 when his car was held up on the Mall—the lengthy tree-lined road that leads to Buckingham Palace in London. He thought it was a road rage incident but soon realized that something much more serious was happening. The road was blocked by a man named Ian Ball, who had jumped out of his car armed with two revolvers and approached another car. Inside the car was Princess Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, who Ball planned to kidnap.
Ball shot her royal protection officer, chauffeur, and a police constable, and he might have succeeded had it not been for two things. One was Anne’s personal bravery, telling Ball “not bloody likely” when he ordered her at gunpoint to leave her car. His other mistake was holding up Ronnie Russell. Russell was not only a cleaner but also a 6-foot-2-inch (1.88-meter) tall heavyweight boxer. He rushed and punched Ball twice as hard as he could, flooring the gunman and allowing Anne to escape. He later received a medal and was personally thanked by the queen.[2]
8 Confronting Knife-Wielding Terrorists with Bare Hands
London Bridge Hero Describes Fighting Off Three Knife-Wielding Terrorists | Good Morning Britain
It was also in London that a 47-year-old father called Roy Larner found himself in a fight with very poor odds. He had been enjoying a meal at the Black and Blue steakhouse in Borough Market on June 3, 2017, when three terrorists armed with knives burst through the door. They had already driven a van along the sidewalk of London Bridge, resulting in several injuries and deaths. When they reached Borough Market, they left their van and began attacking customers inside pubs and restaurants with knives.
Despite their weapons and fake suicide vests, Larner confronted the attackers with a cry of “I’m Millwall”—a reference to his favorite soccer team, whose fans have a well-established reputation for violence and hooliganism. Although Larner was unarmed, he took on the attackers, grabbing and swinging them around. This allowed the rest of the diners time to make their way to the back of the restaurant.
Larner survived even after being slashed and stabbed multiple times, including in the neck. His bravery earned him the nickname the “Lion of London Bridge” and a medal.[3]
7 Jumping a Bus over the Tower Bridge Gap
That Time a Bus Jumped Tower Bridge
Stunt performers are also used when scripts call for car chases and other dangerous driving stunts, like when two cars jump over a raised bridge in 2 Fast 2 Furious. Surprisingly, that scene may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. A similar feat was once achieved on London’s Tower Bridge, not by a stunt performer, though, but by a bus driver with a bus full of passengers.
It happened in December 1952, when—without warning—the southern part of the bridge began to rise while the bus was driving across it. The driver, Albert Gunter, had only a split second to weigh his options. He decided that the risk of stopping the bus was greater than speeding up and going for the jump. He figured that if he stopped the bus and nobody saw it in time, it could have toppled into the river.
Instead, he floored the accelerator, and the bus successfully traversed the gap. However, it landed hard enough to result in a couple of injuries. Albert Gunter was rewarded with money, a vacation, and an invitation for his children to attend a party hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London.[4]
6 Escaping a Fire like a Ninja
Albert Gunter is not the only person on this list with the courage to cross a gap at a deadly height. Curtis Reissig, a 56-year-old construction worker, was also able to perform some impressive aerial maneuvers to save his own life in 2014. Alerted of a fire at the Houston apartment complex where he was working, Reissig grabbed a fire extinguisher and went up to the roof to try and fight it. This turned out to be a bad decision, and by the time he had made his way back onto the fifth floor, the flames had spread, and smoke was everywhere.
Reissig found his way onto a balcony, but with the flames close behind him, he urgently needed to find a way down. Firefighters had arrived, but Reissig saw that their ladder would not reach him before the fire did, so he decided to try and swing onto the balcony below. Miraculously, he pulled off the death-defying feat. On the fourth-floor balcony, Reissig then had to climb across the two-foot gap between the balcony and the fire crew’s ladder. Almost as soon as he had made it, the building collapsed behind him.[5]
5 Scaling a Burning Building to Save Mom
Philadelphia man scales apartment building on fire
According to one of the firefighters who rescued him, the technical term for what Curtis Reissig did is “S