8 Movies That Put Their Extras Through Hell

Speaking of disasters, it's hard to believe that 1982's Fitzcarraldo even made it to the screen, considering its tumultuous production.

Over a thousand extras were roped in to work on the film, in which an enormous 320-ton steamship was carried over a hill, for real, without the use of CGI or special effects. As you can imagine, that was a pretty difficult task to pull off, and many members of the cast and crew pushed their bodies to the limit in order to get it done.

Several extras died after catching diseases, likely as a result of the remote jungle environments the film was shot in. A further five people were critically injured - and one paralysed - in the aftermath of two separate plane crashes. The production was even attacked by local tribespeople, resulting in one man taking an arrow to the neck, and his wife requiring eight hours of surgery after being hit in the stomach.

Oh, and that's not all: a Peruvian logger was bitten by a deadly snake, so he chopped off his leg with a chainsaw to stop the spread of its venom.

Like Noah's Ark, Fitzcarraldo is an impressive film that simply wasn't worth the trouble it took to make it. 40 years on, it remains one of the most dangerous film sets in the history of cinema.