Unfortunately, film stunts cost a lot of money, and botched attempts and problematic ones cost a lot of money, which is precisely why some are actually included in final films, but there are few cases where footage leading up to a fatality has been used in a released film. That can be said of under-rated Vin Diesel actioner xXx, which had seen the tragic death of one renowned stuntman during filming. Well known stuntman and skydiver Harry O'Connor was killed while performing a stunt in place of Diesel where he was pulled along by a boat at high speed on a hang-glider on set in Prague. He was supposed to rappel down the line and land on a submarine, but he hit a pillar of the Palacky bridge and died with serious injuries. Unfortunately, the accident lent a sinister, chilling edge to a statement made by Rob Cohen ahead of production to The Wall Street Journal in 2002, in an article detailing the release of The Fast & The Furious on DVD when he spoke of heading into production on xXx:
"This time, he wants to be even bolder in capturing moments of drama on the set, especially the crew's reaction to the film's progressively more daring stunts. "I want to capture the night when couldn't do it, when he was too afraid to do it," he says."
The final film included O'Connor's first, successful attempt. Quentin Tarantino later presented O'Connor's widow with a posthumous Best Overall Stunt by a Man Award at the 3rd Annual Taurus World Stunt Awards.
