Buzz
Extreme sports may not be for everyone, but there are those who crave the rush of the ocean so much that they pay to dive with sharks. Others opt for the ultimate skyward thrill, leaping from a plane with gravity pulling them toward a near-certain demise, only to be saved by a delicate parachute.
For those of us who prefer our jaw-dropping stunts on the big screen, here are ten of the wildest skydiving sequences ever crafted by Hollywood. *Spoiler Alert*
10. Deadpool 2
Our beloved antihero assembles a ragtag team of misfits, with an unforgettable cameo from Brad Pitt. While still aboard the aircraft, Deadpool is warned by the charmingly named Peter that the wind conditions are far too fierce for a safe landing. This proves to be eerily accurate as the group is torn apart by awkward descents and painful crashes.
As the team jumps from the plane, they form a standard skydiving position known as Tracking. What begins as a relatively smooth descent quickly descends into chaos. The wind tosses them around like lottery balls in a dryer, leading to most of them meeting their exaggerated, violent fates. Ironically, the scene plays out exactly as one might expect when battling strong winds mid-jump.
9. Get Smart
Agent Maxwell Smart, portrayed by Steve Carell—a quirky mix of Agent 47 from *Hitman* and Michael Scarn—once again proves he's a master of ridiculous decisions. After a series of unfortunate and painful mishaps, he gets ejected from a plane mid-flight, parachute-less and with his hands bound. As Carell plummets through the sky, the true hero, Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), manages to suit up with a parachute and dive after him, spotting him among the clouds.
Enter the villain, who sabotages the chute, sending them into even more danger. Anne comes up with a plan to escape the villain’s grip by kissing him, causing him to fall to his death. This allows her to deploy her reserve chute and save the day. Men. *rolls eyes*
8. Mission Impossible: Fallout
Tom Cruise is famous for performing his own stunts, and while not everyone may be a fan of this approach, there's no denying the sheer coolness of being your own stuntman. Whether it’s leaping across buildings and breaking an ankle or the insane freefall stunt he pulled off as Ethan Hunt in *Mission: Impossible – Fallout*, Cruise never holds back.
The jump starts without any CGI, and you can tell. To pull it off, they created a custom face-lit, oxygen-providing suit made from parts of a C17 aircraft, allowing Tom to leap from over 20,000 feet. When lightning strikes Ethan’s friend, the scene transforms into a race against time, space, and a very real chance of causing a panic among viewers. Ethan scrambles to resupply his friend’s oxygen before flipping him over so he can deploy his chute, all while having just a few seconds to release his own.
7. Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
If you ever come across a list of iconic movie stunts, the Angels are sure to be on it, and skydiving is no exception. The opening sequence introduces LL Cool J, who strolls into first class and orders a scotch, blended and neat. Without missing a beat, he and his target exchange coded words, followed by a handful of diamonds. LL asks to see the bomb—not Lucy Liu’s backside, but an actual explosive device that somehow made it on board post-9/11.
LL springs into action, hoisting the terrorist from his seat and out of the emergency exit (which, by the way, is physically impossible while the cabin is pressurized). Then comes the classic ‘no chute, freefall, catch up, and hold on’ stunt—one of Hollywood’s oldest tricks. They land safely on a boat piloted by Cameron Diaz in a summery outfit. The Angels share a smile and a laugh, and then LL Cool J reveals that he’s none other than Drew Barrymore herself. Sneaky move, Drew.
6. Point Break
In what some consider Keanu Reeves' breakout film, the bank robbers take a thrilling plunge into the open sky, leaving Agent Utah (Reeves) stranded on the plane without a parachute. As you might have guessed, Keanu takes the plunge without a parachute, diving straight out of the airplane after the criminals—plummeting headfirst with no protection, fully swept up in the intensity of the moment.
Thanks to a stroke of luck, he manages to spot his targets—unaware that they’re being chased—floating toward Earth. He grabs hold of one in a tense standoff involving the ground and a gun, playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Finally, Keanu gives in, pulling the parachute just in time to save their lives. Winded and possibly nursing broken bones, they survive the fall and live to fight another day.
5. Godzilla
Godzilla, the iconic kaiju, has been terrorizing the world since the 1950s, and the 2014 adaptation is no different. As these massive titans clash, a group of American soldiers attempts a desperate maneuver that could determine their survival—or the fate of the agitated giant—flying high above the clouds in the clear sky.
The men ignite their flares and smoke signals, performing what is known as a 'high altitude, low opening' or HALO jump. They descend into a chaotic and perilous world where monsters roam, and people must either flee, fight, or lament that they may never be able to keep up with the Kardashians.
4. Along Came Polly
Though not strictly skydiving, this scene showcases a base jump off a building in Los Angeles. Although the story takes place in New York, securing base jump permits in NY is notoriously difficult, so the scene was filmed in LA. Interestingly, the comedic elements of this jump are actually grounded in a more realistic portrayal of base jumping.
Apart from the obvious flaw of his pack lacking a chute—a detail any experienced jumper would notice—this jump follows the standard procedure. The unfortunate tree landing leads to a broken coccyx, a detail communicated via walkie-talkie, which adds to the authenticity since base jumpers often stay in contact post-jump through two-way radios or, more recently, cellphones.
3. The A-Team
After being branded enemies of the state, the indomitable team led by Col. John 'Hannibal' Smith is relentlessly pursued by attack drones, and their aircraft is shot down. Seeking refuge in a tank, they watch their damaged plane explode, using three parachutes to gently float to the ground. Unfortunately, their luck runs out when they are spotted and attacked once more. Bradley Cooper, playing Face, emerges from the tank and shoots down a few drones with the mounted weapon before two parachutes are destroyed, sending the tank plummeting back toward Earth with only one parachute left to save them.
Hannibal notices a body of water and comes up with a brilliant plan to steer the tank toward it rather than crash into a mountain, using the turret’s momentum to propel the vehicle forward. After firing a few shots, they crash into a Swiss lake and narrowly survive. It's one of the most thrilling and adrenaline-packed sequences—while not exactly realistic, it's undeniably entertaining. All part of a typical day’s work for the A-Team.
2. Furious 7
After six sequels, you know the stunts are bound to become more over-the-top. Furious 7 is filled with outrageous explosions, high-speed drifts, and, yes, skydiving cars. That’s right, cars skydiving. The crew drives their cars out of a cargo plane over the mountains of Azerbaijan and calmly floats down to the ground.
The film makes one major error—it makes cargo airdrops look deceptively simple. The U.S. Army has invested immense effort into developing methods for effectively dropping cargo without it getting damaged, spinning out of control, or missing its target. Despite this, it's often still easier to land the plane and unload directly on the ground. There's no mechanism that allows for perfectly precise airdrops with GPS coordinates, and there's no invention that would make me more proud of the gang from the first film achieving their goals.
1. Goldeneye
James Bond has been getting himself into all sorts of dangerous escapades long before many of us were born. In Goldeneye, he speeds his motorcycle off a cliff in an attempt to catch up with a plane in freefall. The stunt was actually performed by a skilled stuntman named B.J. Worth, who flawlessly carried out the sequence until Bond reaches the plane and boards it.
The stunt, known as plane swapping, has been performed by professionals where a jumper exits one plane and enters another mid-air, all while tethered to a parachute for safety, much like a determined monkey clinging to its handler. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/sport/red-bull-plane-swap-skydiving-luke-andy-aikins-spt-intl-cmd/index.html
