8 Movie Set Tantrums That Put People's Lives In Danger

6. Francis Ford Coppola Versus Everyone On The Set Of Apocalypse Now

If you've seen Apocalypse Now, you can probably easily imagine what a nightmare that film was to make. And if you've seen Hearts Of Darkness, the 'making of' documentary created from interviews with the cast and crew and footage shot by Eleanor Coppola, you'll know that it was far, far worse in reality than most can imagine. And most of that was down to Francis Ford Coppola. Heading into the Philippines - where there was an actual civil war in progress - to film his Vietnam movie that didn't have an ending yet, Coppola had too much money, too many crew members and not enough actors who could survive his extreme methods of directing. Original star Harvey Keitel left the production after the two had their differences, and his replacement Martin Sheen was battling alcoholism while filming. The infamous scene in his hotel room in which Sheen really cuts his hand open on a mirror was done under cruel direction from Coppola, but that's not even the worst part. Sheen famously suffered a heart attack on set due to the stress of it all and had to walk a quarter of a mile before he found medical assistance, but Coppola reported back to the studio that all the actor had suffered from was 'heat exhaustion'. Over the year that the production filmed in the Philippines (they were only supposed to be there for 3-4 months), it's astounding that nobody was killed under Coppola's maniacal leadership.