6 Actors Who Nearly Died Filming 2015's Biggest Movies

3. Rupert Friend Accidentally Shot Himself In The Head With A Prop Gun - Hitman: Agent 47

The less said about Hitman: Agent 47 the better; all there is to know is that the movie is an adaptation of a video game franchise that isn't even all that relevant anymore, and that it stars actor Rupert Friend as the bald-headed assassin of the title. Despite that, Agent 47 has still raked in $41 million dollars in less than two weeks, which is sort of impressive given how bad the reviews have been. The most interesting thing about the film, though, stems not from the actual narrative but from a near-death incident that took placing during the shoot - one which saw Friend dicing with death when he accidentally shot himself with a blank cartridge. Here's how he tells it:

"You fire blanks, but the guns eject real brass, hot cartridges. They're like 400 degrees... The cartridge ejected, hit the ground, bounced up and cut my head open. It was fine in the end, which I'm amazed about."

In this case, Friend was lucky to have escaped the incident unscathed (and without losing an eye), but people have been known to seriously injure themselves; some have even died through misuse of blank firing guns. Remember what happened to Brandon Lee on the set of The Crow? Thankfully this wasn't anywhere near as tragic, but it could have been.

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.