According to accounts in a new book by author and Empire editor Nick de Semlyen, the crew of the 1988 movie Die Hard feared that Bruce Willis had been killed in a botched stunt on set. The book, titled The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, And Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings Of Carnage, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the action heroes of the 1980s and ’90s.
In an excerpt from the book, de Semlyen recounts the worries on the set of Die Hard, which ultimately launched Willis’s A-list career. During an early scene in the movie, Willis’s character had to jump off a ledge and onto a safety air bag while large bags of gasoline were detonated, creating a fireball behind him. The scene was shot early in production in case Willis became incapacitated or worse, allowing time for a recast.
Willis prepared for the stunt by wearing only a pair of black trousers and having a white firehose looped around his midriff, while a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun hung from a strap around his neck. A protective gel was also applied to his exposed skin to prevent him from catching on fire.
“As he waited, rubbing his hands together and wearing only a pair of black trousers, a white firehose was looped around his bare midriff, a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun hung via a strap from his neck, and a viscous gel slathered over his exposed skin.”
After the jump, Willis recalls that the crew members rushed over to him not to congratulate him, but to check if he was still alive. He had narrowly missed landing on the safety air bag, causing concern among the crew.
In other news, Willis has recently been celebrated by his wife, Emma Heming Willis, and his ex-wife, Demi Moore, with touching tributes on Father’s Day. Willis was diagnosed with dementia in 2022, and his family announced his retirement from acting as he battled aphasia. They later revealed that his condition had progressed to frontotemporal dementia.
Heming Willis expressed her deep appreciation and respect for Bruce as a father in an Instagram post, accompanied by a photo of him with their 11-year-old daughter. Moore, who was married to Willis for 13 years, shared her own tribute on Instagram, expressing gratitude to him for their three daughters.
