8 Movies That Put Their Extras Through Hell
6. Extras Were Stung By Scorpions And Bitten By Snakes - The Ten Commandments
Cecil B. DeMille wanted his films to be lush, extravagant, and thrilling - and considering that this is his second appearance on our list (with one more to go), he clearly didn't mind putting some extras in harm's way to get there!
His 1956 drama The Ten Commandments was no different, with countless extras suffering some pretty nasty injuries throughout the course of production.
In one incident, the director used ten wingless aeroplanes to generate a real sandstorm, which caused a nearby extra to trip in his efforts to escape the blast. Doesn't sound too bad at first, but unfortunately, this extra happened to be carrying a burning torch - and when he fell, he set the girl in front of him on fire.
To make this sequence even more of a nightmare to film, an unforeseen side effect of the man-made sandstorm was that it disturbed nearby critters like scorpions and snakes. These scorpions then proceeded to bite many of the extras working on the scene, and one particularly unlucky sod was nibbled by an Egyptian cobra - a creature whose venom has the potential to kill.