10 Movie Moments More Terrifying When You Know The Truth

3. Brendan Fraser Nearly Choked To Death In The Hanging Sequence - The Mummy

Henry Cavill
Universal

While nowadays the chances of an actor genuinely having the life choked out of them for the sake of a decent looking take are somewhat slimmer, the same could not be said when it came time for the Rick O'Connell star to hang from a rope in the first Mummy adventure.

With director Stephen Sommers not really feeling Brendan Fraser's first close-up attempts at selling the idea of his character legitimately struggling for his life as he just about survived a hanging, he soon called for the tension to be taken up on the rope for the following take.

What could go wrong, eh?

The George of the Jungle thespian actually soon found himself on the receiving end of the hanging rope being taken up twice, and it wasn't long before the actor genuinely passed out thanks to not being able to keep himself upright on his tippy-toes.

And while Sommers would go on record to claim that it was actually his leading man's fault for trying to make the moment feel as legit as possible, either way, the finished shot used in the movie was the one that actually saw Fraser lose consciousness.

As the actor put it, "they had to cut away, because moments later, I was out of it.”

Contributor
Contributor

Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...