Jason Statham has been one of the great icons of action cinema since the beginning of the century, and he is still active today. After rising to fame with Transporter, Statham made a name for himself in Hollywood by performing many of his own stunts, and has gone on to collaborate with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Expendables franchise. It was precisely while filming the third installment of the saga that he had a potentially fatal accident. The unfortunate episode made Statham reflect deeply on his life and career.
The accident during the filming of ‘The Expendables 3’ that made Jason Statham appreciate his life much more
In several interviews throughout his career, Jason Statham has talked about how he had a near-death experience during the filming of ‘The Expendables 3’ (2014). According to the actor, while filming a sequence in which he was driving a truck heading straight for the sea, the brakes failed and he crashed through a wall, causing the vehicle to fall into the water. But the worst was yet to come: the truck was submerged several meters deep, and when Statham tried to get out through one of the windows, the holster of one of his weapons got caught. Fortunately, despite the monumental scare, the actor managed to get out unharmed and on his own.
“It was a very, very horrible experience. It was a complete recalibration of everything. Since that day, I really appreciate life and being able to walk on my own two feet. I think we all need a similar experience, one that makes you rethink everything,” Statham revealed. For the actor, this potentially catastrophic incident changed his life and made him begin to appreciate more aspects that many of us take for granted, such as enjoying good health, as well as reflecting on how a single unfortunate moment can have catastrophic consequences. “My survival instinct saved me,” he said in a separate interview.
During the premiere of The Expendables 3 in 2014, Sylvester Stallone commented on the incident, saying that Statham was saved precisely because of his past as a professional swimmer. “If anyone else had been involved in the accident with the truck, they would have died, because we were all wearing heavy boots and lots of weapon belts. But Jason was able to save himself because he’s an Olympic-level swimmer,” he said of his co-star, recalling his participation as a member of the British national swimming team during the 1980s and 1990s.
In short, although Jason Statham has continued to surprise us with all kinds of stunts in films such as ‘Beekeeper’ (2024) and ‘A Working Man’ (2025), the incident that occurred during the filming of ‘The Expendables 3’ made him change his mind. In the years since, it has not been disclosed what measures he has implemented to make the filming of his new projects safer, but one thing is clear: if he has continued to perform his own stunts, it is because he has had every assurance that he can continue doing what he does best, which is taking down the bad guys in spectacular fashion.
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