The time Mel Gibson nearly died on set

When it comes to shooting action sequences, the business can be a dangerous game. We have all heard the horror stories that happen on set during elaborate death-defining stunts. Overall, these kinds of daredevil set pieces are performed by card-carrying professionals and not the most incredibly expensive and lucrative assets of the production, the movie star. However, that wasn’t the case for Mel Gibson, who says he was nearly killed while shooting one of his projects.

In 1995, Gibson starred and directed his 13th central biopic and action-ward drama, Braveheart. Gibson portrayed William Wallace, the famous Scottish warrior and rebel who leads a clan to battle King Edward I of England to free his country and seek revenge for his murdered wife.

The film features several bloody and epic battle scenes that are based on true-life battles of the era. To pull this off, Gibson employed ex-military from the Irish Army as soldiers and warriors for the fighting sequences.

Speaking to Empire, Gibson said he had a particular vision for those scenes, “I’ve seen a lot of these battle movies, and they just turn into mush,” said the star. “I broke it down to archers and horses and hand-to-hand and who had the high ground and the low ground, everybody was clearly delineated, even though it was often the same bunch of people playing different parts.”

However, Gibson’s dedication to recreating the battle scenes as accurately as possible almost backfired as the seat nearly became a war casualty himself. During a number of scenes, Gibson is on horseback, and the horse he was riding would often rear up with the actors on top of it. The problem came when sometimes the horse would lose balance, and fall backward and land onto the actor below.

“There was a horse that nearly killed me. He had a good trick where he did this whole rear-up thing, but he’d also fall backwards, which is a problem if you’ve fallen off first and you’re behind him,” said Gibson. “He did that to me. My stunt double ran in and pulled me out of the way just as the horse fell.”

It was a narrow escape that could have ended far worse if it weren’t for the crew around him. Yet, amid the countless close calls and the chaotic filming of gory battle sequences, Gibson casually remarked that the overall toll on the cast amounted to “a broken ankle, a hangnail, and a busted nose.”

The on-set incident is yet another reminder of the perilous situations actors and directors are willing to put themselves in to tell their stories. Braveheart turned out to be a successful endeavour for the director and star, as the film was a hit at the box office and was awarded an Academy Award for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’.