Movie Scenes That Actually Killed Stunt Actors
By Mia Tucker
Another film in a long line that saw deadly helicopter crashes during production, "Hired to Kill" is — like "Delta Force II" — a low-budget action movie from 1990, this one starring Brian Thompson, Oliver Reed, and George Kennedy. Thompson plays a mercenary who poses as a photographer when he's hired to rescue a freedom fighter being held behind enemy lines. During filming the year before the movie hit theaters, a helicopter being used to shoot a mid-air scene crashed, injuring the pilot and several others, and killing a stunt actor.
The actor, Clint Carpenter, had been a regular stuntman on the kid's action series "V.R. Troopers," and was riding with a pair of fellow stuntmen. While performing what was later described as a "routine fly-by," moving across the camera's field of vision — set up on a rooftop — the vehicle attempted to make a tight turn. For unexplained reasons, the helicopter failed to achieve the turn and crashed into a group of trees, killing Carpenter, who was pronounced dead before he even made it to a nearby hospital.
Passengers Michael Kane, pilot Marc Wolff, and stunt coordinator Mark Cuttin (along with a third unknown stuntman) all sustained injuries. Though they suffered broken ribs, a leg fracture, and a punctured lung among them, they were able to escape with their lives.
