10 Insane Reasons Movies Were Nearly Shut Down
2. Apocalypse Now - Tropical Diseases, A Heart Attack, Nervous Breakdowns, And More
On just about every online list detailing the movies that were nearly impossible to make, Apocalypse Now often sits at the top.
The director once said, "We were in the jungle. We had too much money. We had too much equipment. And little by little, we went insane." The crew was often plagued with various tropical diseases, and as a result, production slowed to a snail's pace.
That nearly killed the movie, but so did Francis Ford Coppola's nervous breakdowns on set.
Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack, which nearly killed the actor, but he powered through. Unfortunately, he was dealing with alcohol addiction and some serious mental health problems, and reportedly told his friends, "I don't know if I'm going to live through this."
Add to that the fact that Marlon Brando was a nightmare to work with -- he wouldn't memorize or read a single line of dialogue and showed up to film massively overweight. Nearly 1,000 people were put on hold while Brando learned his lines, but all of that's just the beginning of the Apocalypse Now nightmare.
The set was literally littered with dead bodies thanks to a grave-robbing set designer, and the helicopters used in production were taken back by the Philippines government to fight Ferdinand Marcos' war against anti-government rebels.
Somehow, after all that, Coppola managed to finish Apocalypse Now.