Stars Who Survived A Near-Death Experience And Lived To Tell The Tale
Whether they meet a grim fate in a campy slasher flick or succumb to some horrifying epidemic in a zombie film, actors face all sorts of perilous situations up on the big screen. Thankfully, we all know these dangers are fictional — and we take solace in the fact that they're safe once the cameras stop rolling. Or are they? While actors likely have months to rehearse for their scary scenes, in real life, nothing can prepare someone for an actual near-death experience. And this is something that plenty of Hollywood's biggest names know all too well.
Jaimie Alexander
Jaimie Alexander nearly lost her life when she slipped while filming a stunt for Thor: The Dark World. Lady Sif takes part in a number of high-action scenes in the Marvel Universe's eighth installment — most of which end in a cinematic dusting-off.
Her character is based on a Norse goddess, after all! Unfortunately, her fall from a high metal staircase resulted in some very real injuries. "It was raining, it was dark outside, it was like 5 in the morning — and I went down a metal staircase and slipped," she told The New York Post.
"Something feels wrong"
She dislocated her shoulder, tore her rhomboid, chipped several vertebrae, and slipped a disk in her spine. Alexander told MTV that the next morning saw the real issues, however. She said, "I got in a car to back go to the hospital because I said 'something feels wrong.'"
"I went paralyzed in my right leg and my right hand," she continued. And after a week in the hospital and months of physical rehabilitation, she thankfully made a full recovery.
Travis Barker
In 2008 the Blink-182 drummer was involved in a plane crash on the runway that nearly cost him his life. Travis was flying in a private craft from Columbia, South Carolina, to Los Angeles along with his assistant, security guard, and his best friend Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein.
Before the ill-fated flight had even taken off, though, Travis and his family reportedly experienced a number of bad omens. His daughter, for example, had a seemingly unexplainable emotional outburst before he was due to travel.
Eerie premonitions
"[Alabama] was hysterically crying that she didn’t want me to fly that day. She said, ‘The roof is going to come off’ and I was like, ‘What happened? Was there an earthquake this morning? What triggered this?’ She just kept screaming it and crying it,” the drummer opened up in an interview with Larry King.
And Travis' daughter's — as well as his own — bad feelings would go on to come true. After an emergency during take-off, Travis became engulfed in flames after exiting into the fuel-filled jet. He escaped the crash, though four others lost their lives that day.