All language subtitles for ReSolved s01e09 Brandon Lee.eng

- Brandon Lee is
the son of Bruce Lee,

who was a
Chinese-American kung fu star.

Brandon was on the
cusp of superstardom.

- Brandon was
shooting "The Crow"

in which he starred
as an undead rock star.

- Final scene in
"The Crow," action.

He pulls the trigger,
the blank fires.

- Let me say, first of
all, I don't think anybody

should ever get
hurt on a film set.

I mean, I'm a professional.

The stunt men are professionals.

That's what movie
magic is all about.

- He's actually been shot.

- The medical examiner
is actually stunned

to find a .44 caliber bullet
lodged near Brandon's spine.

- How did that bullet get there?
- Is it nefarious?

Is this potentially
a criminal act?

Is this just straight
up negligence

leading to an accidental death?

- Brandon Lee's death was
classified as an accident.

But a lot of his fans believe
there's more to the story.

- How does somebody get
shot and killed on a movie set

with all these safety
protocols in place?

The theory is that the
Triads loaded that weapon

that shot Brandon Lee.

When you look back
on it, in hindsight,

it's like, wow, the
set was really cursed.

- 911 emergency.

- The official narrative
doesn't tell the whole story.

- But you really have
to look at everything.

Do you still have to go
down that rabbit hole,

still have to go down that path.

- When a celebrity dies,
the search for answers

moves online and the
truth may be one click away.

In 1993, Actor Brendan
Lee is just coming

into his own in Hollywood,

and for the first time
stepping out from

under the shadow of
his legendary father,

action movie icon Bruce Lee.

For 28-year-old Brandon,
acting is in his blood.

But it's not until
May of that year

that he finally
gets his big break.

- My name is Bridget
Baiss, and I am a journalist.

I'm also the author
of "The Crow:

The Story Behind the Film."

In '93, he was cast in his
dream role, "The Crow."

Brandon saw this
as his opportunity

to break into Hollywood as
a leading man with a project

could be really groundbreaking.

And he was very excited
about making a movie

that would be showcasing
his acting talent.

- But with only a
week left of filming,

Brandon's career is cut short

when he is
accidentally killed on set.

- Approximately 9:00
A.M. this morning,

an autopsy was performed on
the body of actor Brandon Lee

at Onslow Memorial Hospital
in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

The detectives are proceeding
with the investigation.

- And while the investigation
begins, friends and family

are left scrambling to figure
out what really happened,

how a life so full of promise
could end so abruptly.

- Brandon Lee was the son
of martial artist and film actor

and also martial
arts guru, in a sense,

Bruce Lee.

Brandon's father,
Bruce, tragically died

while making a
movie in Hong Kong

when he was just eight.

When he was were pre-teen,

he went to the same
martial arts school

that his father
started in Los Angeles.

He was there being
taught by people

who had worked with his father,

seeing pictures of
his father on the walls.

One of his early
teachers said it was...

It was really traumatic for him.

- But while Brandon Lee
yearns to be his own person,

his martial arts skills
and his movie star looks

make him a natural to pick
up where his father left off.

- Brandon started
his career, actually,

in a Hong Kong film
"Legacy of Rage."

It was largely a
martial arts role,

but that he saw as a
way to start in films.

And then shortly
after that, he did

"Showdown in Little
Tokyo" with Dolph Lundgren.

- Then in 1993, Brandon
lands his first leading role

in the film adaptation
of the already

wildly popular graphic
novel "The Crow."

- It was an exceptional film
made in exceptional ways.

Equally exceptional, I think,

is all of the
sequence of events,

many of them
innocuous and unrelated,

that culminated in the
tragedy of Brandon Lee's death.

- Less than 24
hours after his death,

an official autopsy is released.

The cause of death is listed as a
gunshot wound to the abdomen.

But now, 30 years later,

questions about what
really happened that fatal day

on the set of "The
Crow" still remain.

- Even though Brandon Lee's
death occurred before the Internet

was really a thing,

it resurfaced in a big
way after the fatal shooting

on the set of "Rust"
involving Alec Baldwin.

- In October 2021,

a prop gun used
by Baldwin misfired,

killing the film's
cinematographer

and injuring the director.

- A ton of people
dove into that story

and came up with Brandon Lee's

mysterious death decades before.

That set off a whole new
round of conspiracy theories.

My name is Justin Ling.

I'm an investigative journalist.

I worked for "Foreign Policy,"
"The Guardian," Wired,"

a whole bunch of
major publications

covering misinformation,

national security,
conspiracy theories,

and a whole
bunch of other stuff.

- There's a lot of
talk on the Internet.

It's not so much
chatter in the sense, like,

it's not happening in between
two users on some Web forum.

It's it's happening on,
like, conspiracy blogs.

It's happening in books
that people have written.

My name is Deanna Thompson.

I have a degree in
information technology.

I've been in the tech
world for over 20 years.

I am an analyst by day
and a Web sleuth by night.

I have this, like,
neurodivergent quests

for fairness and justice.

Online, people are
investigating the possibility

that Brandon's
death was a mafia hit.

They're also looking at
the idea that there was

a Lee family curse
that has been plaguing

the Lee family for generations.

- Generational curse or not,

it's clear that
something very bad

went down on the set that day.

A lot of people
look at this and say,

how could a blank kill someone?

- That question ignites
many conspiracies online.

And the deeper the dive, the
stranger, and darker they get.

- Some of the theories
around Brandon's death

get pretty out there.

Some of the crew members
reported seeing ninjas

in the rafters of the studio
immediately prior to his death.

Robert Lee, Bruce's brother,

actually told The
Washington Post in 1993

that, "I don't know
if our family is curse,

but I'm seriously
starting to think about it.

It seems like a
never ending story."

One of the best ways to
separate good information

from total nonsense is to look

at who's actually
making the claims.

Are they an expert?

Do they have a
stake in the story?

Do they even have any knowledge
what they're talking about?

Do they have the
evidence, the actual proof

to back up their claims?

And if no, go check out
somebody who actually does know

what they're talking about.

Do they agree or are
they calling it bullshit?

I've been digging into
this and there are definitely

some red flags here.

There has got to
be more to this story

than what's on the
official narrative.

- It's clear just
from the outset

that there were
safety violations

that went on in
terms of this weapon.

I teach forensics in criminal
justice at the university level.

I head up our university's
volunteer cold case team,

and I'm a true crime author.

Inevitably, because
I was in the Army,

I was trained on various
firearms through the years.

- The crew is preparing
for the key scene in the film

when Lee's character is killed

and before resurrecting
as The Crow.

- So on March 31, 1993,

Lee is in Wilmington, North
Carolina, shooting "The Crow."

That day, Lee was supposed
to be shooting a scene

where he walks through a door

and is immediately
shot multiple times

by another character
played by Michael Massee.

Massee is about 15 feet
away with a .44 Magnum.

- They rehearse the scene.

Stunt coordinator came in, okay.

Brandon, you know,
rehearsed it a couple of times.

He was going to fall forward
after the blank was fired.

Everybody's ready to go.

They call action.

The character of
Funboy whips around

when he hears the door open.

- Just like in rehearsal,
Michael Massee

raises the gun at Lee
and pulls the trigger.

But everyone who
was watching noticed

that instead of the
choreography they had rehearsed

before Brandon falling forward,

Brandon fell backwards
against the wall

and kind of slid down the wall.

- And they initially think
he's kind of like joking around.

- Several people told
me it felt like an eternity.

- And finally they realize, oh,
my God, he's not getting up.

- This was not a prank.

- The medic quickly realized
that the he had been penetrated

by some sort of a projectile,

and he asked the costume
person who was there.

He said, "Was this intentional?"

And the costume
person said, "No."

- Paramedics arrive
and rush Lee to hospital

where he undergoes a
marathon five-hour surgery

to try and repair
the internal damage

that's been caused by the
accidental misfire of the gun.

- Ambulance got
there, they pumped him

full of fluids and
they gave him blood.

Enough for, like, five
people in the course

of the different surgeries
to try to stop the bleeding.

- But it's too late.

At 1:03 P.M. on March 31, 1993,

Brandon Lee is pronounced
dead at the age of 28.

- It appears that Wilmington
police seized the footage

and that they introduced
that into evidence.

- I'm Dr. Michael
Arntfield. I'm a professor

and criminologist at
Western University

where I founded the
Cold Case Society.

As an investigator, in
terms of narrowing down

what exactly happened,

you're going to have to
consult a firearms expert

who can explain how this
could happen to determine

whether this was a criminal act

or whether it's just a
series of tragic events.

- The Hanover County medical
examiner, Leon Andrews,

conducted an autopsy
on Brandon Lee's body,

and he was actually stunned
to find a .44 caliber bullet

lodged near Brandon's spine.

- There were blanks in that
gun. How could there be a bullet?

Those were 100% blanks for sure.

- The autopsy concluded that
Lee died of a single gunshot

wound to the abdomen.

When they performed the autopsy,

they actually found
a piece of the bullet

lodged in one of his
vertebrae in his spine.

- The twist to this theory,

there were several people
in the chain of events

who had an effect on the
outcome and on Brendan's death.

- What chance in a billion

can it be that all
of the mistakes

made could have culminated
in this tragic accident

if somebody had just done
one little thing different?

- Brandon's death sent
shockwaves through the film industry.

How does somebody get
shot and killed on a movie set

with all these safety
protocols in place?

- And if some of these
theories are correct,

then this was a planned hit.

- If investigators
reasonably thought

that this was an
act of foul play,

they would have to
ask who gains from this.

Who would want Mr. Lee dead?

- "The Crow" was supposed
to be the triumphant launch

of Brandon Lee's career.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't
live to see its release.

On March 31, 1993,
Brandon Lee dies on set.

Within hours of his death,
fans worldwide start to question

how a man shot with a
blank round could die.

Speculation begins
to spread that his death

was not an accident,
but a carefully

orchestrated conspiracy
to commit murder.

- If some of these
theories are correct

and this was a planned hit,

someone did a very
good job of covering it up.

- If investigators
reasonably thought

that this was an
act of foul play,

they would have to
ask who gains from this.

Who would want Mr. Lee dead?

- One of the most popular
theories in online chat rooms

is that both
Brandon and his dad,

Bruce, were targeted by
Triads, the Chinese mafia.

- I know there's rumors
that from the rafters

there was a Chinese
mafia trying to get rid of him

because there was a
grudge because of his father.

- And that sent me down
this huge rabbit hole of, okay,

was Bruce actually in
danger in some way?

The theory is that Bruce Lee,

because the autopsy
said died for misadventure,

was secretly
murdered by the Triads.

- The Triads are an
organized crime syndicate

who have ties to the
film and entertainment

industry in Hong Kong.

- My name is Jay Albanese.

I am a criminologist.

I study organized
crime and corruption.

It's been speculated
that Bruce Lee's death

was due to relationships with
the Triads that had gone bad.

There are those who believe
that Bruce Lee's transition

from making films in
Asia for an Asian audience

and making money
for people there

that that revenue
stream would end

once Bruce Lee's
career started taking off

and Hollywood was pursuing
him to make Hollywood movies

and that this was a
motive behind his death.

- Organized crime in China

is often referred to
as the Chinese triad,

but triad is more of just
like an umbrella term

for organized crime in general.

It's not just one
specific group.

Word is that members of
organized crime syndicates

had infiltrated the
Hong Kong film industry

and were using it
to launder money.

- You know, they kind of
control the game in China

when somebody is doing
a production in China.

I'm imagining like, you know,
you would have to pay the Triads

a fee to film in
certain locations

and they would
provide security of some,

you know, typical
Mafioso stuff, right?

What if there are
some sort of, like,

Chinese kind of, like,
revenge rule, right?

Like, we're going to kill you

and all of the sons
that come after you.

- The Triads have a
notorious and bloody history

within the Hong
Kong film industry.

They are known
to threaten, kidnap,

torture and murder producers

and actors who do not comply
with their extortion demands.

- Bruce Lee reportedly
wanted no part of that activity

and wanted no connection to it.

So the theory goes that
Chinese organized crime

actually had him murdered.

- In 1973, Bruce Lee
mysteriously died.

And back then, there was
speculation that he was killed.

And people looked
at his mistress

and people harassed her
for years and years to come.

But then the thing
that really took off

was that he was killed
by the Chinese mafia.

Fast forward to Brandon Lee.

So, Brandon Lee also
filmed movies in Hong Kong,

so that production would
have been, you know,

giving money to the Triads
as part of filming in Hong Kong.

Well, Brandon also
was filming in America

and doing things in America.

- And therefore maybe the
Chinese organized crime syndicate

had Brandon murdered as well.

- So the theory is that because
they had been filming for

so many days in a row and
the crew was just so tired...

that the Triads loaded that
weapon with a real bullet

that shot Brandon Lee.

- When you pass away
young unexpectedly,

there's this mystique around it.

- Bruce Lee actually made
a comment at some point

that he didn't think Brandon
was going to live very long,

that he actually thought
he would die at a young age.

So did he have some
sort of premonition?

And if so, where did
that come from and why?

I mean, it's a
bizarre coincidence.

- "The Crow" was said to be
Brandon Lee's breakout role,

the kind that turns a
relatively unknown actor

into a household name.

But during filming,
Lee mysteriously meets

his character's
fate when he dies

by a gunshot wound
to the stomach.

As online investigators
look into the case,

the story about a Lee
family curse rears its head

and is spread across
all forms of media,

including blogs, podcasts
and YouTube channels.

- All you have to do is
plug in how did Brandon Lee

die in Google,

you're going to find a
lot of people speculating

that the entire family has
been visited by a curse

that has killed
both father and son.

So the origin of this idea
that the Lee family was cursed

starts with Brandon's
grandmother, Bruce Lee's mom.

She lost a child not
long after his birth

for reasons that remain unclear.

It convinced her that the
males in her family were cursed.

Bruce Lee's mother was
so convinced of this curse

that she started referring
to him as Bruce Xi Feng,

meaning little Phoenix,

the idea being that giving
him a feminine name

might help him
escape that curse.

- So, Bruce Lee in 1973
died, like, rather suddenly.

It's reported that he
died from a drug allergy.

- Brandon was just eight
years old when his dad died,

and there's actually
a lot of speculation

surrounding Bruce Lee's death,

even though it's been
decades since then.

But the official line
is that Bruce Lee died

because he had this pressure
that built up on his brain.

- The problem is that the
medical examiner said he died

due to misadventure.

So that led to speculation

on what happened to Bruce Lee.

- Of course, when an
icon dies before their time,

the conspiracy theories will
endure long after they are gone.

Brandon's heartbreaking death

and the unexpected
death of his father 20 years

earlier helped cement the
idea of a Lee family curse.

- The conspiracy theories have
been around since Bruce Lee died

while making a movie in China.

- There's a website called
Unexplained Mysteries,

and this website is a
bunch of conspiracy theories

about all kinds
of different things.

They talk about the similarities

between Bruce Lee's death
and Brandon Lee's death

and why there's no way
it's a coincidence, alright?

- For one, they were both
born in the Year of the Dragon.

They both died relatively young.

Brandon in his late 20s,
Bruce in his early 30s.

- When you pass away
young unexpectedly,

there's this mystique around it.

- Supposedly, Bruce Lee
even predicted his own death,

claiming that he would only
live to be half his father's age.

His father died at 64
and Bruce Lee died at 32.

- Bruce Lee actually made
a comment at some point

that he didn't think Brandon
was going to live very long,

that he actually thought
he would die at a young age.

So, did he have some
sort of premonition?

And if so, where did
that come from and why?

- In his biopic,
there's even a scene

where his son Brandon is
being chased by a demonic spirit.

- I think some of the
parallels that exist

between Bruce Lee's death
and Brandon Lee's death

probably hold people's attention
to two tragedies in one family.

- The most astonishing parallel

is within a scene
from Bruce's final film.

- So in the fall of 1972, Bruce
Lee was shooting the movie

that he wrote,
directed and starred in

he called a "Game of Death."

- Like, there's a scene
where Bruce Lee's character

is filming a movie.

And in the movie he's
filming, his character

accidently get
shot for real on set.

So it's like foretelling what's
going to happen to his son.

- And the irony is that
Bruce Lee's character

in that movie is
actually an actor on a set

and is supposed to get
shot, but shot with blanks.

The storyline of the movie
is that one of those blanks

actually gets replaced
with a life bullet

and he gets shot and
killed for real on the set.

- Conspiracy theorists
believe it is not just

an eerie coincidence.

Instead, the scene
is a premonition

that Brandon Lee's death
was destined to happen

at the hands of the
Lee family curse.

Many people have
picked up on the fact

that one of Bruce Lee's
movies that he himself wrote

became basically a predictor
of how his son would die.

- It's incredibly ironic
looking back on that movie.

I mean, it's a
bizarre coincidence.

- Those who believe in
things like demonic curses

tend to also be on the lookout
for really ominous coincidences

or eerie foreshadowing

or even premonitions
about one's own death.

So all of this stuff really
adds to the idea that there

is something supernatural
about the Lees' deaths.

- In "The Crow," Brandon
plays Eric Draven,

a man who was murdered,
but comes back to life to avenge

the brutal killing
of his fiancée.

- This scene is like
the pivotal scene

where the character is killed
in the beginning of the movie

and then he's
resurrected as The Crow

and the rest of
the plot unfolds.

- Sadly, Brandon Lee does
not resurrect like his character

in the film, but the intrigue

surrounding his death lives
on and continues to fascinate.

- Given that "The Crow"
is such a cult classic,

there's many people
who are still obsessed

with how Brenda Lee died.

- And Brandon Lee is actually
shot when his character is shot.

When you add up those
pieces, it's remarkable.

- After Lee's passing,
the supernatural storyline

in the film bleeds into
conspiracy theories online

about the making of the movie.

As the production of "The
Crow" comes under scrutiny,

more tales of bad
omens come to light.

And while some theories
point to a family curse,

others believe the
film itself is cursed.

- "The Crow" started
pre-production in Los Angeles,

and they did get a phone
call to the production offices

saying that you should not make
this movie, this anonymous call.

This this will be
very, very bad.

- Then the biggest
hurricane to hit North Carolina

in years rips through the set.

- Everybody's evacuated.

People have to go
away from the beach.

Roofs are coming off
houses and everything

they had set up in
the cement factory

was just decimated

and then they had
to set up again.

So that was a rough,
rough, rough evening.

- The anonymous phone call
starts to make sense, and theories

about the film set itself being
coerced begin to take hold.

- One of the
producers on the film

recounted a story to me that,
again, took on significance.

The producer was
sitting in his office

and Brandon Lee waved to him

and he said he was on the
phone talking to somebody

and he said, "It's weird.

Brandon still has several
days left on the set,

but he just waved at me.

It seemed like he
was saying goodbye."

- I think what's interesting
with Brandon Lee's death

is the number of things that
had to go wrong on set that day

in order for that gun to fire
and shoot and kill the star.

- The set of "The
Crow" is undeniably

haunted by misfortune.

But as Internet investigators
examine the days and weeks

leading up to the shooting,

it becomes increasingly
clear that Brandon Lee's death

is less mystery and
more incompetence.

- When I first started learning
more about Brandon's case,

it became immediately apparent

that there was negligence
involved in his death.

- I think what's interesting
about Brandon Lee's death

is the number of things that
had to go wrong on set that day

in order for that gun to fire
and shoot and kill the star.

A lot of people looking
at this would ask,

how can a blank kill someone?

- So while some theories
online point to a Lee family curse,

rumors about several mishaps
on the set of "The Crow"

start to come to light.

- From the very beginning,
"The Crow" seemed

plagued by bad luck.

- On the first day of filming,
one of the crew got second

and third degree burns
after a live wire caught fire.

- A carpenter on the
backlot of Krakow Studios

was up on a cherry picker
right next to power lines,

and sadly, he was lit on fire
and he was seriously burned.

- By day three, prop
trucks randomly combusted.

One stunt man fell and
broke several of his ribs.

Another point a crew
member got so irate

that he drove his car through
part of the soundstage.

One crew member would later
say that nothing ever seemed to go

right when they were
shooting "The Crow."

On top of just the
mishaps during filming,

"The Crow" was also way behind
schedule and way over budget.

- People were getting
sick left and right

because they were
shooting long hours.

They were working nights,
and it was extremely cold.

- While filming a scene where
Brandon Lee's character crashes

through the door of a pawnshop,

the actor suffered several cuts
on his body from the prop glass.

- You look back on it
in hindsight, it's like,

wow, this set was really cursed.

- But many cyber sleuths
believe it goes beyond any

kind of curse, and the
root cause of the issues

on set comes down
to the production.

- So they're shooting
50 days in a row.

The crew at this point,

they have eight
days left of shooting.

- The script calls
for a prop gun

and a single blank to be fired.

On a movie set, the
person responsible

for gun safety is
called an armorer.

- My name is Dave Brown,
and I'm a professional

firearms instructor.

And also in the film industry,

I'm what we call it in armorer.

An armorer is the person on film

sets who handles the firearms.

They're the ones
who hand the firearm

directly to the cast member.

But the most important
job of the armorer

is the safety of the set.

There's never live
ammunition on set.

It's not allowed. It just
simply wouldn't exist.

- The first mistake,
in my opinion,

that was made on
the set of "The Crow"

is that live ammo was
introduced to the set.

- At one point, a stunt
coordinator discovered

a box of .44 Magnum
ammunition on set,

and apparently the golden
rule of filming is never,

ever have live
ammunition on set.

- The weapons expert
saw this box of live ammo

and he immediately
confiscated it

and put it in the
trunk of his car

where the box stayed
for the next two weeks.

- In another shocking
breach of safety protocol,

the crew also decide to make
their own dummy cartridges.

- Mistake number two, the
crew took the live rounds

and they modified them.

- They simply
went to a gun store.

They bought a box of cartridges

and they found a way
to knock out the bullet.

- The crew on set believe
that modifying live bullets

by knocking out the gunpowder
is enough to create a safe round.

- This is what we
call a bullet puller.

It simply works off the inertia.

Hit it hard, it will
cause the bullet

to fly out the end of the case.

And here is what we
have, an empty case.

A bullet and gunpowder

because they obviously
don't need the gunpowder.

The gunpowder would
have simply been discarded.

Insert the bullet
back into the case.

And now they have what
they think is a dummy cartridge.

- So in theory, it's safe
because there's no gunpowder

that will ignite and
create the gases

that push the bullet
down the barrel of the gun.

- What they don't realize is
that the primer is still in place,

the primer is still intact
and the primer is still live.

- So because the
primer still active,

there's not going to be a sound
because there's no gunpowder

but there is going
to be a spark,

and that spark
is going to propel

whatever bullet is in
that chamber forward.

- So now they're inserting what
they think is a dummy cartridge,

six of them into
all the chambers.

Somebody said, I'm making
my own dummy cartridge.

I would just say, "Thank
you very much for coming.

Please go home.

I don't want you
anywhere near my set."

- Both dummy cartridges
and blanks were used

during the making of "The Crow."

- It's very important that that
expert can tell the difference

between a blank, a dummy
cartridge and live ammunition.

A blank is a case that
contains gunpowder

designed to create a big, bright
flash at the end of the barrel.

A dummy cartridge
is sort of the opposite.

It's a case that has
a bullet in the end,

but the case itself is
completely empty of gunpowder.

But that primer also has
to be either missing entirely,

or you're going to have
a fake primer in the back,

something that's
completely inert.

- With a live
primer still attached.

The crew has actually
created an armed cartridge,

another in a series of
mistakes made on set

that ultimately lead to tragedy.

- So about two weeks
prior to Lee's death,

they accidentally lodged one
of the bullets inside the barrel.

- They pull out the same
firearm, load the blank in it,

hand it to the actor and say

point it directly
at Brandon Lee.

They could have pointed
that firearm a good three

or four feet off to the
side of Brandon Lee.

Even one foot, even six
inches, would have saved his life.

- Immediately
following Lee's death,

conspiracies began to circulate.

But as police investigate,

it becomes apparent
that the real cause

is a series of preventable
mistakes made on set.

- The tragedy of Brandon
Lee started two weeks

before the shot
was actually fired,

and it began with the fact

that they were sending
the firearms expert home.

- It appears that the reason the
weapons expert was sent home

early is because the
production wasn't planning to film

the scene of Brandon
walking through the door with

and getting shot
by the intruder.

- Actors and the
production staff often told me

that things did change.

Yes, there was a script,
but it was evolving.

Originally, the script had
called for him to be stabbed.

- And then they
changed their mind.

They decided, let's
use the revolver,

let's fire a gunshot.

- The director wanted
the full flash bang

so that there's enough
power to get a really loud

and bright flash from
the barrel of the gun.

- So they had a Smith and Wesson
model 2944 Magnum revolver.

And in that particular scene,
they wanted to fire the blank,

and he was going to be on
camera, as well as the gun

that was firing, well,
would all be on camera.

And that was
basically the scene.

It was very, very simple
scene, one gunshot.

The risk then on the film
set itself would be the blanks.

When we're firing
blanks, can be potentially

dangerous at very short range.

So one of the things
I always tell crew

and I always tell the cast
is distance is your friend.

If you need to fire a
gunshot at a very close range,

don't have the
actor in the scene,

which is by far the most
common way of shooting

a blank on a film set.

So, what went wrong
during the scene?

Number one, sending
the firearms expert home.

Number two, there was a bullet

still in the barrel that
nobody could see,

nobody realized was there.

So they should have
checked the barrel

for obstructions before
they loaded the blank.

That's common, common practice.

And then to me, the
number one biggest fatal thing

that they did at the very end

of this long chain of
contributing factors

don't point it directly
at Brandon Lee.

And they could have pointed
that firearm a good three

or four feet off to the
side of Brandon Lee.

Even one foot, even six
inches would have saved his life.

- After the prop gun was fired,

no one on set knew
what had hit him.

- He was supposed to
come into his apartment.

There was a couple of
people in the apartment

that were attacking, and
he was going to come in

with a bag of groceries
and he was going to be shot.

- Lee is supposed
to activate a squib

inside a grocery
bag he's holding.

Now, a squib, in movie parlance,

is basically a small
explosive charge

meant to simulate
the striking of a bullet.

So the grocery bag
was supposed to explode

after he fired the revolver.

- I actually suspect
that when Brandon

was taken to the hospital
that they initially thought

the damage or the
injury was because

of whatever fake explosive
was in that grocery bag.

- The investigation was difficult
because you're confronted

by a situation in
which there's an actor

that's been fatally
shot with a real bullet.

So your first initial impression
is somebody must have loaded

a live cartridge
and fired it at them.

And they were confronted
by the fact, well, this is a blank.

How could a blank fatally
kill somebody at that distance?

It took months to determine

that chain of events
that led to this.

I was talking to some
other professional firearms

instructors, and we
started comparing notes

on how could this
possibly have happened,

knowing live ammunition
would never be allowed on set,

knowing that he had
been struck by a real bullet.

And we all came to the
conclusion that it was

what we call a primer pop.

And we kind of looked
at each other and we said,

primer pop, yes.

A primer pop is
simply a cartridge

that was incorrectly loaded.

When you pull the trigger,

that firing pin is going
to strike that primer.

But the primer has enough
energy just in the flame

to push that bullet maybe
an inch or two forward.

- So on the set, while they were
firing off some of the primers,

the pressure
pushed a live bullet

into the barrel of the gun.

- So the bullet
would have ended up

completely invisible
to everybody.

Hammer it out of there.
It's stuck in there so tight.

Now, end of that day,
they simply took the firearm,

a different props
assistant was unloading it.

They didn't remark on the fact

that now they've got
five dummy cartridges

and one empty case because
they weren't the person

who loaded it
in the first place.

So they thought that was
normal, put the firearm away,

didn't clean it,
didn't check it.

- Although no one was injured,

the gun was now more
dangerous than ever.

- Let's bring this
forward two weeks.

They want to do the
scene with Brandon Lee

actually being
shot with the blank.

So they pull out the same
firearm, load the blank in it,

hand it to the actor and say

point it directly at Brandon Lee

when he comes through that door.

- While shooting
that scene, the blank

dislodged the very real bullet,

shooting it out of the barrel

and hitting Brandon
Lee in the stomach.

- And unfortunately, we
have a live bullet in the barrel.

We have a blank in the revolver.

The two connect, and that's
ultimately what killed Brandon.

- The bullet struck
him with enough force

that ultimately
would prove fatal.

He fell down.

The crew didn't realize
for the first few seconds

that he'd actually been shot.

This was the watershed event.

This is what caused the
film industry to really stop

and take a look
at itself and say

we need to be
doing things better.

And that's why this was
such a significant event

for everybody in
the film industry.

30 years later, they're
still talking about it.

I was working with an
actor named Robin Williams

we're all very familiar with.

On our very last day
of working together,

he looked at me and he said,

"Every single time you
show me the firearm,

you show me that it's empty,

and you always pull
the trigger eight times."

And he said, "There's
only six chambers.

Why do you pull the
trigger eight times?"

And I said, "The
first six trigger pulls,

those six are for you.

The seventh one is for me
because I'm a perfectionist,

and the eighth one
is for Brandon Lee."

- On March 31, 1993, the
onset shooting of Brandon Lee

brings a shocking end
to what may have been

a long, promising career.

And while theories
of a mafia hit

and curses swirl
around the online world,

the answer to what happened
seems much more likely

to be rooted in the real world.

- And there is plenty
of blame to go around.

- Who's responsible
for Brandon Lee's death?

- Here's the thing.

If an organized crime
syndicate wants a person dead,

there's a lot less complicated
ways to go about it.

Could they have
had an infiltrator

that ensured a projectile
was left in this weapon

when shot at Brandon?

No... way.

- Let's talk about
that Lee family curse.

There's a more
likely explanation

for Brandon Lee's death,
other than his family is cursed.

Let's start by looking
at the movies set.

- Was this an act of sabotage

or is this criminal
negligence causing death?

Or is this just
straight up negligence

leading to an accidental death?

Is it nefarious?

Is this potentially
a criminal act?

Or is it something else?

If this was considered
seriously at the time

to be an act of foul play?

I mean, this is
tremendously elaborate.

This is like super
villain type of stuff.

- I don't understand how somebody
could not have cleared that gun

before giving it to
Michael Massee.

Somebody hands me a gun.

I am going to check the barrel.

- If you don't follow
safety protocols,

if you don't check the weaponry,

if you do have live ammunition
on set, someone could die.

And that's what happened.

- The North Carolina D.A.
ultimately ruled that he felt

the death was due to
negligence and not foul play,

meaning there was no intent
on behalf of anybody on the side

to actually kill Brandon,
and therefore no criminal

charges were ever brought.

The production
company of "The Crow"

was fined $77,000 for
workplace violations.

- Two months after
shutting down production,

"The Crow" resumes filming.

Lee's fiancée, Eliza
Hutton, gives her blessing,

telling the L.A. Times,
"Brandon told me that he thought

the film was his
finest performance yet.

I know he would have
wanted it to be completed."

- Producers ultimately chose
to finish the film "The Crow,"

but that decision was
obviously controversial.

- And there was a lot of mixed
feelings from the cast and crew.

You know, it was a tragedy,
but not too long after,

there was a consensus that
they wanted to finish the film.

They decided that it
would be an homage

to Brandon's performance,

which was so
charismatic, so brilliant.

So he poured so
much of his heart,

and all of them had poured
it into creating this film.

They thought he would
want it to be finished.

- There were a handful of
scenes that still needed to be shot

after Brandon Lee passed.

- They came back
and shot the rest of it

with the help of
some very early CGI.

- They all were
absolutely gung-ho,

and the film ended
up being released.

- The film did get released,

but only after another
incident almost doomed it again.

- In January 1994, "The
Crow" was finally completed.

All that was left was
for the laboratory

to make the first print.

It just so happens the same
day they were supposed to do that

was the infamous
Northridge earthquake.

It shook Los Angeles at
6.2 on the Richter scale

and actually destroyed
that first print of "The Crow."

Now, they managed
to salvage the movie,

but it was very close to
destroying the movie for good.

- Three decades, nearly
after the production in '93,

and there's still a fascination
with "The Crow," the movie,

not only for the tragic accident

that happened on the
set with Brandon Lee,

but because the film itself
was stylistically remarkable

and the first one of its kind.

- The film did very well.

And even today, it's
kind of like a cult classic.

- There's been several sequels,

but the original
film to this point

has grossed over $100 million.

It's an evergreen classic.

The character The Crow

has continued to
inspire new generations.

- I think that is part of
the legacy of "The Crow"

is that Brandon, this guy was
like on the cusp of stardom.

You see how eloquent he
speaks and how handsome he is

and how excited he was to
be doing what he was doing

and how much he loved
his dad and whatnot.

He was like on the
cusp of stardom.

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