6 Actors Who Nearly Died Filming 2014's Biggest Movies

4. Mark Wahlberg Almost Wasn't A Lone Survivor When He Was Nearly Blown To Hell

Lone Survivor was based on the true story recounted in the book of the same name, with the subtitle The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10. It told of the time a team of Navy SEALs in Afghanistan caught behind enemy lines, facing more than more than a hundred Taliban warriors. The book's author, Marcus Luttrell, was the titular lone survivor of the clash, with his remaining three comrades - along with SEALs and eight Army special operations soldiers who came by helicopter to rescue them - all killed by the Taliban. It's a harrowing story of violence and death, with a true-to-life tension that director Peter Berg did a decent job of translating into a film. Mark Wahlberg starred as Luttrell, with the remaining members of the squad rounded out by Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster. Shot on location in New Mexico, the film was almost as dangerous as the environment that the real-life Navy SEALs found themselves in, with multiple crew members (including a handful of stuntmen) and Wahlberg himself almost carking it during filming. "We didn't have cables or green screens or pads - we had us and our doubles and we just went out there and tried to make it as realistic as possible. The bar and standards were set pretty high from the get go," said the actor of how the film was shot. One of those practical effects involved a mortar going off, which they imitated by actually setting of flipping mortars. One of which Berg decided to, on the third take, detonate directly in front of the Wahlberg's face without telling him, in order to get a realistic response. He very nearly also got the realistic effects of having a mortar going off in someone's face ie death.