8. A House (Almost) Falls On Buster Keaton - Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Buster Keaton performed his share of astounding stunts throughout his career, though the one for which he is best known involves him standing in the street, when an entire building collapses on him, with the attic window forming a perfect hole for Keaton's body, leaving him barely unscathed. There are no visual tricks here; Keaton did the stunt himself with a 2-ton house collapsing around him, and had his calculations been incorrect by even just a few inches, he would have been crushed by a mound of bricks. So infamous was the stunt that rumours have persisted that Keaton was suicidal while prepping it, and many of the crew refused to watch it being filmed for fear that he would not survive. As it turned out, it went off without a hitch, and Keaton's straight-faced stare is the sign of a man with grapefruit-sized cojones.