10 Movie Scenes Shot For Real

1993's classic Sylvester Stallone-starring thriller Cliffhanger opens with a jaw-dropping heist sequence, in which a gang of international thieves attempt to steal $100 million in uncirculated bills by literally sending them down a zipline from one plane to another, complete with the thieves themselves.

Audiences would be totally forgiven for assuming that the shot of a terrorist sliding from one plane to another was simply composited in post-production.

However, it was actually the result of the costliest aerial stunt ever performed at the time. A stunt so insane, in fact, that the film's insurance company refused to insure a stunt performer to do it.

Ultimately, stuntman Simon Crane was paid a cool $1 million - reportedly taken out of Stallone's own salary - to perform an entirely practical "aerial transfer" at 15,000 feet.

The stunt was dangerous enough to be illegal in Europe where the movie was mostly shot, and so the production had to return to the U.S. to complete it.

Crane later recounted that the stunt very nearly went fatally wrong, as he misjudged his approach and slid past the second plane's door, almost getting sucked into the engine as a result.

He then had to quickly pull his parachute in order to escape, hence why we never actually see him land in the second plane in the movie - albeit disguised by clever editing.