Jason Statham is no stranger to tackling dangerous stunts in his career. Over the years, we have seen him roll out of cars, avoid explosions, and even fight a giant shark. However, there was one big scene in a certain film that almost put the star out of commission for good – the 2014 action movie The Expendables 3.
Directed by Patrick Hughes, the Expendables 3 follows a group of tough mercenaries as they battle it out against the cruel arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). According to Business Insider, Statham, who has been a firm fixture in all the entries in the action franchise so far, while filming the flick, took an unexpected and very dangerous dive into the Black Sea.
During an action scene, the star was told to drive a three-ton truck at high speed. However, when the breaks of the vehicle suddenly stopped, the truck hurdled itself into the sea nearby, with Statham still strapped in behind the driver’s seat. Luckily the star, who previously competed as a professional diver for England, managed to surface and swim to safety without any injuries.
Statham’s co-stars have also expressed how lucky the actor was to have made it out of the incident unscathed. Speaking to press at the film’s London premiere back in 2014, Sylvester Stallone recounted the scary ordeal.
“Luckily, we had taken the doors off before. If anyone else had been in that truck, we would have been dead because we were all wearing heavy boots and gun belts,” Stallone explained. “We would have drowned. But because Jason is an Olympic-quality diver, he got out of it.”
For more high stakes and serious stunts, here are our guides to the Fast and Furious movies and the best thriller movies of all time.