Sylvester Stallone has cemented himself among the top action stars in Hollywood thanks to his breakthrough with the Rocky and Rambo franchise. While this breakthrough results from his years of struggle, he went through all odds to gain the success he owns today. Given that he has done outstanding action sequences, many often forget that he too is afraid of something like us.
In a 1980 interview, the action star confessed about getting afraid for his life during a helicopter stunt he filmed for Nighthawks.
Sylvester Stallone Was Scared to Film a Helicopter Stunt for Nighthawks
While working for a helicopter stunt scene in Nighthawks (1981), Sylvester Stallone was hung from a helicopter by a 1/8-inch steel cable, dangling 247 feet in the air on New York’s East River. During the sequence, he had to board a cable car in mid-transit however he was scared for his life one reason involving his fear of heights.
He told Roger Ebert,
“I’ve never been so scared in my life, as when I was dangling from that helicopter. I have a fear of heights that borders on mania. I had to do something like this once in my life.”
He continued,
“So there I was, hanging 250 feet up over the East River, with the wind blowing me back and forth and the constant danger that if the steel cable hit something it could shear in two.”
He was quite scared by the stunt as he saw a guy jumping off the bridge a day before filming who hit the water and “exploded.” Unfortunately, the extreme pressure of the current led his body to break into several pieces. He was quite prepared to meet an unexpected end due to the scary stunt sequence.
Sylvester Stallone Was Prepared to Meet His Hypothetical End in Nighthawks
In the same interview, the Rambo star talked about how the guy’s unfortunate end led him to prepare for the hypothetical ending to escape the tragic conclusion of his life.
He shared,
“If you see the movie and look closely, you’ll see that I’m holding a knife in the scene. My theory was that if I fell, the cable would make me sink unless I could cut the harness loose. After I saw that guy hit the water like it was cement, I changed my plan. The knife was to plunge into my heart a second before I hit.”
Before his second plan, he revealed about a fireboat down below with two divers whom he mistook as lifeguards. However, he revealed that they were there to retrieve the bodies that met their tragic end. Even the actor was no exception. However, he successfully nailed the sequence and continued to star in the action genre, solidifying his action-star status. He has captivated the audience for over five decades.