10 More Movie Special Effects Nobody Believed

The 1928 silent comedy Steamboat Bill, Jr. features surely the single most iconic stunt ever performed by the legendary Buster Keaton, when the facade of a house appears to fall on top of him, only for the facade's open window to spare Keaton from being crushed.

It's an indelible image for sure, but even if you're well aware of Keaton's historic penchant for pulling off mind-bogglingly dangerous stunts that even Tom Cruise wouldn't get the sign-off for, you still couldn't be blamed for assuming some trickery was afoot here.

Perhaps the facade was made of lighter material which wouldn't cause Keaton serious harm if it hit him, or perhaps a clever editing trick - maybe a double exposure of the film negative - was employed to fake the insane stunt.

But no, Keaton indeed did it for real. The facade genuinely weighed two tons and would've likely killed him instantly had the stunt gone wrong, with Keaton's margin for error being just a few inches of space. Wild isn't even the word.