3 Unbelievable Setbacks Behind The Scenes

By: Keith Mitchell w/Chestpoundfilms

Under the sweltering sun, Achilles stands before a giant.

Boagrius, a man towering nearly a foot above his comrades, awaits eagerly. The lust for blood fills the air.

Crows circle overhead as the faces of thousands of battle-weary soldiers watch anxiously. All of their lives now depend on the outcome of this fight...

Boagrius roars, psyching up the crowd behind him. It doesn’t faze the approaching Achilles. He’s unshaken, unsheathing his sword as he paces toward the giant in confidence.

The warrior lunges his spear, instantly penetrating the shield of Achilles.

But he’s still pacing.

The giant hurls a second spear, hoping to spike Achilles mid-stride.

But Achilles dodges swiftly, dashing towards the giant with the readiness of his blade. It’s as if he’s unstoppable, a lion pursuing it's kill.

Out of desperation, Boagrius raises his sword in a final attempt...

But he’s far too late.

Achilles leaps forward, thrusting his blade deeply into the chest of the giant. He’s defeated, toppling to the ground as Achilles- or Brad Pitt lands to his feet.

Something’s wrong though. As the crowd cheers, a sharp pain shoots up the young star's leg. The director yells, "Cut!"

Achilles has torn his …Achilles tendon.

It’s not uncommon for injuries to happen on set. It’s not uncommon for elements outside the director’s control to completely ruin the production schedule.

After all, setbacks are a very common thing. But today Chestpoundfilms' film blog, examines the most extreme stories. Three unbelievable setbacks behind the scenes.

1. Hurricane on the Set

The movie Troy, 2004, came with a price tag of over $150 million. With 1,250 extras, months of shoots in several locations, as well as a recreated city of Troy itself, the movie was definitely aiming high.

The director, Wolfgang Petersen, wanted the most authentic shots as opposed to CGI ones. He felt it would add to the realism.

Unfortunately, the film was also plagued with setbacks. Not only did the leading star, Brad Pitt suffer a leg injury, but the set was hit TWICE by hurricanes.

Hurricane “Marty” completely destroyed the set, ruining the wall built for Troy and wrecking the homes of the crew, including Brad Pitt’s. The entire 400 ft wall of Troy had to be rebuilt.

Many crew members had to live in shelters during the rest of the production. At one point, things became so dire, six security members, hired to protect the set, were arrested for stealing equipment – talk about irony.

2. Angel Dust For Dinner

Titanic, the $200 million film was completely unheard of at the time. What started as a diving excursion purely out of personal interest, turned to a massive movie that forced director, James Cameron to push his creativity to the limit.

One setback the film production suffered from, came in the most unlikely way. The crew behind “Romeo and Juliet on a boat,” in the words of James Cameron, was once drugged with PCP behind the scenes.

As they celebrated with a lobster chowder dinner one night, suddenly members began falling mysteriously ill. It was suspected that someone had spiked the main course as an act of revenge on Cameron.

A report from Sabotage Times, describes it as such:

"A brush with particularly potent lobster chowder very nearly upset the entire production. No one’s quite sure who spiked the post-shoot party main course with PCP, although fingers were pointed at two chefs Cameron had fired.

The effect, however, was truly devastating: 'People started laughing out loud,' remembers Bill Paxton, aka explorer Brock Lovett.

'Others started crying. It was total Bedlam. Just as I was starting to wonder what was happening, I started feeling weird.'

'There were people rolling around, completely out of it,' continues Lewis Abernathy who played one of Lovett’s sidekicks.

'Some of them said they were seeing streaks and psychedelics. I thought it was food poisoning.'

A dodgy crustacean couldn’t account for what James Cameron was experiencing, though.

Bill Paxton: 'Jim had one eye completely red, like the Terminator’s eyes—no pupil, no iris, just red. The other eye looked like he’d been sniffing glue since the age of four.'

Fortunately, 24 hours later, Cameron and the other 80 crew members affected were released from hospital."

3. Lightning Strikes the Set

Jim Caviezel was originally approached by Mel Gibson to do a surfing film. It was a front. But if things had ended there, who knows where Caviezel and Mel would be today.

Caviezel was greeted by Mel’s producing assistant, where they breifly talked about the film, in what probably sounded like the male version of Blue Crush.

Then abruptly, Mel walked into the room- presenting a story that completely shifted things in a biblical direction, The Passion of the Christ.

The day after Caviezel accepted the role of Jesus, he received a phone call from Mel. The director was actually trying to persuade Jim, to drop out of the part.

As ludicrous as it sounds, Mel explained to Jim, “I want you to be aware of what you are going to go through. You may never work again.”

From that point forward, the 33 year old actor with the initials of J.C. would find himself involved in one of the most life changing roles he’s ever taken.

The movie was difficult on Caviezel. At one point he suffered pneumonia and a lung infection during shooting. Another time he dislocated his shoulder during a scene where he was carrying the cross.

During the scourging scene, he suffered a 14 inch gash from 'accidentally' being whipped during the shooting. Following the event, Caviezel described his usage of the profane tongue to feeling like "Satan at that moment."

The most ironic incident was during the Sermon on the Mount. During the shooting of the scene Caviezel and John Mikalini, were both struck by lightning bolts.

Caviezel describes it:

JIM CAVIEZEL: I was lit up like a Christmas tree! I was doing the Sermon on the Mount. I knew it was going to hit me about four seconds before it happened. I thought, "I'm going to get hit." And when it happened, I saw the extras grab the ground.

What they saw was fire coming out the right and left side of my head. Illumination around the whole body. And during the shot they said, "Do you have it on camera?"

What happened was Mel had said, "Action" and the cameras were panning to me and here is where this light just flashed. And by the time the cameras got to me, I hear Mel screaming out, "What the heck happened to his hair?" I looked like I went to see Don King's hair stylist.

Five minutes after I got hit, Jon Mikalini, an assistant, walks over and says are you okay? And then he got hit. The difference was that they saw the bolt come down and hit Jon; they didn't see that when I was standing there. All I felt was this giant tremendous slap on my ears and a few seconds of a pink, red static infront of my eyes.

Despite the problems on set, The Passion of the Christ went to become one of the highest grossing R rated films ever made.

Setbacks can be frustrating. They can occur when you least expect it and completely overturn the progress of a film's production. But sometimes you have to ask yourself- things could be worse right?