It’s easy to forget after Han Solo’s death in Star Wars: The Force Awakens that Star Wars: The Force Awakens almost killed Harrison Ford. During the filming of the well-received sci-fi blockbuster, the then-71-year-old actor was caught in a very expensive, fully operational hydraulic door that broke his tibia, fibula and dislocated his ankle. Ford was airlifted to a hospital and rejoined the cast and crew two weeks later, but the injuries lingered, and an investigation into the incident well over a year. Now, finally, the ruling has come down, and the production company of The Force Awakens was fined just under $2 million by British courts for violating workplace safety rules.
Ford recalled the violent experience on the Jonathan Ross show, and it was a semi-ode to the good ‘ol days when a leg couldn’t be crushed under a space pirate’s hallway door:
“In the original film, if there had been a door, it would have been closed with a pulley and a stage hand just closing it. But now we had lots of money and technology and so they built a fucking great hydraulic door which closed at light speed.”
It’s concerning to think that a massive hydraulic door that’s capable of crushing grown humans exist on an active film set. Hopefully, lessons were learned and Mark Hamill (or the guy who plays Chewbacca) are nowhere near any functioning space doors.
(Via i09)
