8 Movies That Put Their Extras Through Hell

2. Three Extras Drowned Under 600,000 Gallons Of Water - Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark 1928 flood scene
Warner Bros. Pictures

Nowadays, it's easy to create torrents of water using CGI, but back in 1928, such a luxury obviously wasn't available.

While filming the climactic flood scene in his movie Noah's Ark, director Michael Curtiz was forced to use hundreds of thousands of gallons of the stuff, turning the production of this disaster movie into something of a disaster itself.

While watching this scene, you can see all the extras panicking and scrambling for safety. It looks pretty darn realistic, and that's because not all of them were acting: the sheer volume of water was so overwhelming that there was a very real risk of death for those involved. Three extras are said to have drowned, while many more suffered serious injuries - including a leg that needed to be amputated.

Still, throughout everything, Curtiz kept his cameras rolling, even going so far as to shout directions at the sea of terrified people in front of him.

The only good to come out of this biblical screw-up was that Hollywood promptly created new safety regulations for movie stunts. The scene may look great on film, but it came at a cost that simply wasn't worth it.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!