All language subtitles for Hollywood.Bulldogs.The.Rise.And.Falls.Of.The.Great.British.Stuntman.2021

Downloaded from
YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

[Gong banging]

[Ray Winstone] Have
you ever heard of a man

called bombardier Billy Wells?

Probably not.

But you'd've have seen
him on the big screen.

In fact, you just did.

That's right. There's Billy.

In his prime, he
was a prize fighter,

but in his later years,

he found himself working
in the film industry.

-When I met
bombardier Billy Wells,

he was walking on
a cane as an extra,

sometimes wearing a tuxedo,
sometimes wearing overalls,

whatever the extra's job was.

And he had nothing.
Nothing at all.

Once they finished
doing stunts, that was it.

You were going on until
you were 60 or whatever it is

in this country and got
your old-age pension.

There was no union,
there was no medicare.

Nothing to look after
you at all, so you were out.

And if you got hurt badly,
you were out and gone.

He had nothing.

I did not want to
wind up with nothing.

["Someone's gonna get their head
kicked in tonite" performed by motorhead]

-♪ Well the band is smokin' ♪

♪ and everyone's
feelin' all right ♪

♪ all right ♪

♪ it's a Wednesday night ♪

♪ there's sure
gonna be a fight ♪

♪ a fight ♪

♪ I know somebody's gonna
get their head kicked in tonight! ♪

♪ Well the joint is jumping ♪

♪ everybody's
shoutin' for more ♪

♪ for more ♪

♪ well there's gonna
be a pool of blood ♪

♪ on the dance hall floor ♪

♪ the floor ♪

♪ I know somebody's gonna
get their head kicked in tonight! ♪

♪ We're gonna
pull out the chairs ♪

♪ and tear down the walls ♪

♪ smash up the band
just havin' a ball ♪

♪ me and my buddies
in a physical race ♪

♪ leave the whole dance
floor in a doggone mess ♪

♪ well the cats are smokin' ♪

♪ everyone's feelin' all right ♪

♪ all right ♪

♪ it's a Wednesday night ♪

♪ there's sure
gonna be a fight ♪

♪ a fight ♪

♪ I know somebody's gonna
get their head kicked in tonight! ♪

♪ Oh yeah ♪

♪ we're gonna
pull out the chairs ♪

♪ and tear down the walls ♪

♪ smash up the band
just havin' a ball ♪

♪ me and my buddies
in a physical race ♪

♪ leave the whole dance
floor in a doggone mess ♪

♪ well the joint is jumping ♪

♪ everybody's
shoutin' for more ♪

♪ for more ♪

♪ oh it's gonna be
a pool of blood ♪

♪ on the dance hall floor ♪

♪ the floor ♪

♪ I know somebody's gonna
get their head kicked in tonight! ♪

♪ I know somebody's gonna
get their head kicked in tonight! ♪

[Ray Winstone]
The stunt performer,

the unsung hero
of the silver screen.

For years, these men
and women were a secret.

Paid good money to
make the stars look heroic.

But as cinema got
more sophisticated,

it became harder to
pretend that a mere actor

could pull off such feats.

Nobody knows for sure

who cinema's first
stunt performer was.

But in 1908, an acrobat
was paid to jump off a cliff

for the silent film, the
count of monte cristo.

And so, an occupation was born.

But, what qualities
does a person need

to get in as a stuntman?

- "Unemployable" is a
word that Springs to mind.

Um, all the stunt people
that I've been working with

over the last
nearly 50 years now

in many cases, have such
a diverse series of skills.

But when you try and
harness those into something,

most people go, "that's
not what we're looking for."

It's like when I came out
of the army, and they said,

well, I went for job interviews

and they said, "what
are you good at?"

And I go, "well, I can
drop a grenade in a bucket

at about 30 feet,
eight times out of ten.

And I'm very good with
a light machine gun."

"That's not really
what we're looking for."

-I think you've got to
be a certain person.

You've either got to be
stupid in some respects,

or you've got to be really,

uh, know your own mentality
and your own physical things,

what your abilities are.

-It's something I could do

which put me out there
above others, you know.

I mean, if I got in trouble, I
could fight my way out of it.

I could put my
back against a friend

and punch my way out of a room.

-I was doing stuff
that they couldn't do.

He couldn't do
judo, so I did judo.

He couldn't throw a
punch, so I threw a punch.

He couldn't drive a
car properly, I could.

Not knowing it was a stuntman.
I didn't know the word stuntman.

-You have to do
exactly the opposite

of what you've been
taught all your life to do.

To fall off a horse

is like a pilot jumping out of
a perfectly good aeroplane.

Why would you do it?

Same thing with
a racing car driver.

The last thing they want
to do is get cross-threaded

and smash into a bank
and roll the thing over.

Every natural instinct
and fiber in their body

stops them from
doing it naturally.

-Now it's become a far
more professional thing.

And people say,
when they leave school,

I want to be a stuntman.

And there is a delineated
route to become a stuntman.

But in those days,
it was a question of

picking people out who
could, uh, apply certain skills,

and then they're
making money at it,

and being so prized at it.

-It was the last
thing in the world

I thought would come my way
from my background and so forth.

[♪♪♪]

They did a film
called casino royale

and they wanted someone to
drive this e-type quite quickly.

One of the stuntmen
said, "he's got an e-type,

and he's quite quick."

So, they got me down there
and I put gravel on the road

and skidded the
arse around with it.

[Clears throat] And
the director went,

"that's great. That's
exactly what I want."

[♪♪♪]

[Car tires screeching]

-I think I was talked
into it originally.

Um, I was a helicopter
engineer by trade.

[♪♪♪]

I lived in elstree at the time,

and my parents
got a pub in elstree

and one particular person
used to come in there.

It was Patrick mcgoohan.

[Upbeat music]

And I got on quite well
with him, and he said,

"you're the type of guy
who should do stunts."

-I left school with
my one o-level,

and realized that many
of the things I wanted to do

were not... Actually,
the doors were shut.

And so, um, I joined the
circus, and was an eternal

disappointment to my
mother ever since then.

Other various bits and pieces.

And then my half-sister

had to go to this
company called bapty's.

They were the movie
armorers at the time.

And I've always been...

Had a real interest
in firearms, always.

And she went to the-the
guy that owned it and said,

"my brother would love
to come and work here."

[Sniffles] Bless
him. He said, "okay."

My first film was
the dirty dozen,

as the assistant armorer,

and I didn't know
shit from toothpaste,

you know, but I-I-I
went on the set and i'd

suddenly, I'm in mgm studios,

and I'm meeting all these
stunt guys and thinking,

"yeah, I've got I'd
fancy a little bit of that."

-My father was a
racehorse trainer

and in the early days,
he used to train for a very,

the most famous actor
in the world in his day.

It was Richard Todd.

[♪♪♪]

[Clippety-clop of hooves]

And I talked to him
as a little shy kid

and he'd tell me about
the movies he'd done,

from the dam busters,
to Rob Roy, Robin hood.

And really, that's
where I first got the ideas

of being a stuntman, not
knowing it was a stuntman,

but I'd head up my pony
and gallop up the gallops

and throw myself off it.

Then in '65, we had race horses,

and a very famous horse
stuntman called Jimmy lodge

would come and exercise
the horses with us.

Then he wanted to borrow a horse

for a movie called
arabesque in '65.

I let him have the
horse, and anyway,

he called me the next day
because it was a really good horse,

but a very strong
horse, and he said,

"look, the horse is great, but, you
know, I need somebody to ride it

that can ride properly." So, I
said, "yeah, I'll come and ride it."

[♪♪♪]

[Clippety-clop of hooves]

[Rapid gunshots]

[♪♪♪]

And that got me hooked
into the film business.

-I was about 20 years old.

And I thought... I was working
in a factory in north London,

and I thought, "I can't do
this for the rest of my life.

This is not... there must be
something else to... in life."

So, I knew in those days
that the evening standard,

they had two pages
of situation vacants,

all over the world.

So, I went home,
opened up the pages,

closed my eyes, pointed down.

And when I looked, there
was a little square and it said,

"the London school of
charm requires models."

[♪♪♪]

So then, I got an agent

who did walk-ons on
television, and I did, um, z-cars,

all the TV, BBC TV
stuff and the itv stuff.

But then I got another agent
who was doing, uh, uh, films,

extra work on
films, so I did that.

I joined the faa and
started working on films.

[Ray Winstone] In america,
the role of the stunt performer

was well established.

Since the 1920s, performers
including yakima canutt,

Harvey parry, and Paul malvern,

had been pioneering and
achieving feats on camera,

which were incredible to
watch, but also grounded in

principles of safety
and professionalism.

Even by the 1960s, britain
wasn't quite so advanced.

-If you had your... Your
modern health and safety,

uh, professional come onto
the set as we were in the 1960s,

he would have been
ambulanced off the set

with-with a heart attack.

-It wasn't a stunt
business, then, you know:

It wasn't like it is now.

You know? I mean, they used
to get any Tom, dick and Harry,

used to do stuff like that.

-You could be sitting in the
dressing room as an extra

and an assistant
director come up,

or the stunt
coordinator, and say,

"uh, who wants to
fall down the stairs?

And you'd say, "I do. How much?"

-People would think, "oh,
there's an extra 50 quid

or an extra 20 quid here.

I'll have a go at swinging
off that building on a bell rope

and hope that I
get away with it."

-My mother, bless her, is
92, 93 now coming up. Uh

she did a film
called room to let

where my father, he had
to put her in a wheelchair

and push it down the stairs.

She got 100 pounds for
each time she went down.

She got 300 pounds in 1950.

-A lot of them did
dangerous things

that they didn't know
how dangerous it was

till they actually
got involved in it.

And then, whoa!

-I just used to do it. I was no

there was no knee pads,
shin pads, wherever pads.

I'd just, you know,
get a newspaper,

put on your elbows
in, and that was it.

-My first back-pad was a
piece of foam-backed carpet

which I cut out to
the shape of my back,

put a bit of string
through it, tied it up.

Luxury. Going
down concrete stairs.

-A lot of the guys, um,
that was either doormen,

or part-time villains,
done a bit of crowd work.

You know what I mean?

So they didn't mind getting
bashed up or runnin' around

'cos that's what they was
doing anyway, in real life,

so they become stuntmen legally.

-When I did you only
live twice, which was '66,

there was about 120
of us "stuntmen" on that,

but they were taxi
drivers, bouncers, barmen.

A lot of these guys are
absolute characters, you know.

And you could buy and sell
anything you wanted on the set.

You could buy all your
smoked salmon, your Sherry

and everything for Christmas
'cos it was coming up to Christmas.

They were Wheeler-dealers,
all the east end London boys.

-You know, everyone
got to know everyone else.

Food, whatever the
boys used to make...

Work in the meat market.

They used to go straight
from work in the meat market

straight down to shepperton
or one of elstree, you know,

mgm, and it suddenly
built up like that.

-They enjoyed the social life.

They'd spend their per
diems and all their money

and come home skint.

I mean, that's how stuntmen...
How they were in those days.

Uh, but they had plenty
of nerve. They did.

A lot of them would do

the dangerous bits
and pieces, you know.

-There was also a great
element of professionalism

because there were those guys

who had been doing it
for a number of years.

Quite a lot of them
had been in world war ii

and come out of the
army and everything else,

and had done some
very, very hairy stuff,

and knew what it was

to look after themselves
and behave properly.

-So, you had this basically
group of ex-servicemen

that were working in London,
and they'd get odd days

to go and work as
crowd and extras on films;

and then they wanted
somebody to get through,

knocked through a
window, or fall off a horse

or-or get knocked over by a car.

They'd step forward because
they were hard guys and,

"yeah, that can't be
too bad, you know.

Done worse than
that in the war."

But they obviously had
an aptitude for it as well

and they became
fantastic stunt people.

Some of the best in the
world, admired by everybody.

[Paul Weston] They
could fall down, you know,

and jump around
and play soldiers

because they,
that's what they did.

Uh, others were, um, characters,
boxers, they were wrestlers,

so they were good
character, good heavy faces.

And you knew that, you
know, if they had to have a fight,

it didn't matter whether you
hit them or not, you know.

They-they were big tough guys.

-You can always tell an old film

because you see old
faces in the background,

and you know there's
going to be a fight, you know.

I'll see old films now, then
suddenly you see the old faces.

I haven't seen them
all, but you see,

you know that there's
going to be a fight in there

because of the people
who are in there.

You know what I mean?

So, if they was in
that bar or in that club,

you know it was
going to be off there.

[Upbeat music]

[Ray Winstone]
Perhaps the first real

legends of British stunt work

were this pair of brothers
from south London.

The powells.

-The powells.

Uh, my father, who's nosher,
known as nosher Powell.

[Indistinct chatter]

-Very, very well-known stuntman.

I should say about 6'4",

ex-professional
heavyweight boxer,

used to spar with Ali.

When Muhammad
Ali came over here,

he used to like to
spar with nosher.

[Upbeat music]

-He used to clown
about, you know,

so they used to put him on
last to keep all the people there.

Uh, and he was an
entertainer, a very funny guy.

And then he got
into the film business.

His brother, dinny

[♪♪♪]

He was in the stunt business

[man groans]

[Plates shattering]

-Well, nosher and dinny

were big in the
business when I started.

They were part of the stunt
team in those days, you know.

-Being around the film business

or being around all the boys

that was always
enjoying theirself,

I really, I wanted
to do the same.

I went out on a, I think
it was on a school break;

dad was filming in
Turkey on a film called

you can't win them all

with Tony Curtis and
um, Charles Bronson.

And while I was out
there, I got a little job

off of Jackie Cooper
who was the horsemaster,

doin' a bit of riding around
in the background, you know.

So, it really started there.

-Looks like some other
vultures got here first.

-Yeah.

[Clippety-clop of hooves]

-They're part of the
little mafias of families

that are in not only the
English stunt business,

in the Spanish stunt business,
the American stunt business,

and Chinese stunt business.

Every, it's a very
incestuous business

and families just seem
to grow into it, you know.

Now of course Gary Powell,
Greg's younger brother,

is one of the top
coordinators in the world now.

-So, there was a half and half,

they were-they were some
cowboy stuntmen around

who would hurt themselves
occasionally, badly,

and then you wouldn't
see them again.

And then there was
some of the guys

who were known as stuntmen.

-It was people like Bob Simmons

[suspenseful music]

[Rapid gunshots]

[Man grunts]

-Joe Powell, who's no relation.

-Go forward.

[Rapid gunshots]

[Window glass shattering]

-Um, jock Easton.

[Rapid gunshots]

[Man shouting]

-Both jock Easton and Joe Powell

had both won the Croix
De guerre in the war,

and they were
absolute war heroes.

They were the
beginning of the sas.

-One of my great
heroes, Joe Powell.

I have so much
admiration for him.

-Joe Powell did one of the
greatest stunts ever on-on

the man who would be
king for John Houston,

doubling for Sean Connery.

[Footsteps]

[Bridge rattling]

[Man speaking foreign language]

[Ropes cutting]

-[Inhales] And they had a
whole team of stunt people

from america that
were going to do

this high fall off this bridge

and everything else,
each one, in turn,

got magical diarrhoea
or had a sickness at home

or a toothache or a neck
ache or leg ache, could not do it,

and they all basically
chickened out.

So, in desperation, they
said, "Joe, would you do it?"

I said, "yeah,
of course I will."

-♪ A glorious band,
the chosen few ♪

♪ on whom the spirit came. ♪

[Vic Armstrong] And he went
up there still on the bridge,

wore the real metal helmet.

[Sean Connery] ♪
twelve Valiant saints ♪

♪ their hope they knew ♪

♪ and mocked the
cross and flame ♪

[Sean and Michael] ♪ he met
the tyrant's brandished steel ♪

♪ the lion's gory mane ♪

♪ he bowed his head
his death to feel ♪

[Bridge clattering]

-They flipped the bridge
and he fell nearly 110 feet

down into the boxes.

The thing about the boxes were
they were just built on a ledge,

and if he misses those,
it's another, you know,

a 1,000 feet to the...
To the bottom of the cliff.

And he did it, and came
back up again, "is that all right?

Do you want to go
again?" You know.

George leech was one
of the very early stuntmen.

[Gunshot]

[Man screaming]

[Water splashes]

[Man] [Screaming] Help!

-He started in the early '50s,

doubling for George...
Uh, James Mason.

-He was, um, very intelligent
and-and he was a good performer.

He was a good boxer.

He was, um, he could
set up a good fight

and he knew who
could hold up his hands

and-and-and can do a good fight.

He was a good coordinator
and a nice gentle man.

-Who's the man behind all this?

-I don't know.
[Gunshot]

-I'm not joking, rico.

[Ray Winstone] One of
the most important stuntmen

to emerge in this era is
one of the last from that time

to still be alive today,

ray Austin.

-Drop it.

[Gunshot]

- [Punch thrown]
- [Man groans]

[Suspenseful music]

[Vase shattering]

[Man groans]

[Punches thrown]

[Both men grunting]

-I came out of the army

with what I thought
was a fantastic career

because I was a
physical training instructor.

I went to the London
county council at westminster

to get a, what they call a
pe teacher in those days,

it was called, in a
school in england.

And they said to me,
"great, great, great.

What other subjects
do you teach?"

So, I said, "well,
wait a minute.

I don't s... I'm just
a pt instructor."

"Oh, we do pt in
music, pt in art,

pt in arithmetic, pt in English.

We don't employ
anyone just for pt,"

so I didn't have a job.

I got a job as a chauffeur...
Driver in London.

Cary Grant came over on a visit

and I got designated
to drive him.

There was a little coffee bar,

and Cary and I went
in there one night.

Sat down to have a coffee,

and there were about
three or four yobs in there,

as we called them in
those days, from the area,

and they spotted him,

and they started to
give him a bad time;

one thing and another.

He got up and went to leave,

and I was going
to follow him out.

And as he went to leave,
the guy sitting on the stool

grabbed Cary's arm

to pull him 'round, and
Cary stepped back at it,

so I stepped between
and I hit the guy.

So, we started to be
more than just a driver,

and-and Cary and I became
his sort of man Friday.

We're in Los Angeles, Malibu,

and I had-i had a little rented
house on the beach in Malibu

in those days where we used to
surf, and one thing and another.

And Cary Grant's
stunt double at that time

was a stuntman
called Paul stader.

Great stuntman.

A job with Johnny weissmuller
and all those sort of people.

[Johnny weissmuller
yells like Tarzan]

-And he was sort of
in in the stunt business.

He was the stuntman to know.

I always noticed that
stars, actors, and directors

always were friends
or liked stuntmen.

You know, your Roger
Moores and Sean connerys

always had time to
talk to a stuntman.

They never had time
to talk to extras always

or stand-ins, but
always stuntmen.

A stuntman could
always get to them. So I

thought about it and thought,

"well, if I'm gonna
get in the industry,

that is the way to go, is
to become a stuntman."

So, Paul came to me and he said,

"you want to do a
stunt in a movie?"

So, I said, "yeah."

And it evolved fro-from that,

that I got into
the stunt business

and started doing all
the things, you know,

and then it escalated
from there. I got very lucky.

[Soldiers screaming]

-Come on, cut it out.

[Loud tapping on table]

[Indistinct mutter]

-Burn this for the state.

- [Plates shattering]
- [Loud groaning]

[Man] I doubt that.

[Thrilling music]

-I got very, um,
lucky and clever

because I found out that
I was a good arranger.

So suddenly, I'm
arranging the stunts,

and I'm the one making the
phone calls at night to the stuntmen,

saying, "I want you
tomorrow morning,

so I'll have five
of you tomorrow,"

working out the
fight and doing it.

So, I really took over

and didn't have to do
physical stunts myself

unless it was something
that I particularly wanted to do.

[♪♪♪]

The thing I'm known for
more than anything is kung fu.

I mean, I brought
kung fu to the screen.

No one else did.

[Man] Back up.

[Fingers snapping]

-Give me the gun.

-Back up.

[Fingers snapping]

-Give me the gun.

[Gun thuds]

-I brought kung
fu into the country.

I taught them kung fu, and
we used to fight kung fu,

but I never thought of
doing the high speed.

You can imagine
Diana rigg in that outfit

doing kung fu at high speed.

Oh, boy. She'd have
been incredible doing that.

Those long legs
sticking out there,

going at high speed,
everybody would have loved it.

[Man grunts]

- [Knee thrown]
- [Man grunts]

-Mrs. Peel, you're remarkable.

-He was, um, sort
of an icon for us

because he took it
another stage further.

He started to, um, stay
in-in the camera room

when all the camera
guys had gone,

and he'd go through the lenses
and he'd learn about a camera,

get one of the guys to help him.

He learnt camera.

He learnt, um, all the
departments, what they did.

Um, and he-he learnt his trade.

And so, when he wanted
to... To direct second unit,

um, they allowed him to do it

because they-they
believed in him.

[Ray Winstone] Despite being
one of the greatest stunt performers

of his generation, ray
was keen to use stunt work

as a leg up within the industry.

He used his time on film sets

to learn from
everyone around him

and would progress to
a long career in america

as director of some of the
biggest action TV shows.

-But I got out and
got behind the camera

and became a
director and a writer

and a novelist and so on.

You know, it's a great
life for me, great life.

-He deserves everything

that he's ever achieved
because he's worked at it.

He took it to another level for a
stuntman to be able to become,

um, a film director.

[Ray Winstone] Ray
employed, trained,

and inspired a whole new
generation of performers

who would go on to
completely reshape the trade.

-My father was an actor
cum extra, cum stuntman.

Larry Taylor.

He was a good-looking man
with a gap in his teeth, you know.

Actor.

The biggest thing
he ever did was zulu.

He played a big part in zulu.

[Hughes] Colour-sergeant bourne.

What's that shooting?

[Colour-sergeant]
A rifle, Hughes.

[Hughes] Hey?

-If you're sick in hospital,

I suggest you go and lie down.

-Yes, colour-sergeant.

[Rocky Taylor] He
had the broken neck.

When the building's
burning, he's in there,

trying to get everybody out.

They all collected
all around him.

Said I want you to do judo.

I got to black belt very early

through Dougie Robinson
and Joe Robinson.

[♪♪♪]

[Ray Winstone] Doug
and Joe Robinson

were hugely respected
in the film industry.

It was the Robinson
boys who taught some of

britain's biggest
stars how to fight.

-I got to black belt,
brown belt, black belt.

And, um, came the avengers.

[♪♪♪]

-I'm terribly
sorry, young fella.

[Coins clanking]

All in a good cause.

-Ray Austin, he
gave me my first break

on the avengers.

When I went down,

I-I was-i was down
playing the part of the thug.

[Slap thrown]

[♪♪♪]

[Body thudding]

[Man grunts]

-And there was this scene

where a guy had to
come down the stairs,

flip over onto the table,

jump on the table,
punches him with one foot,

punches him with another,
boom, and he goes down.

And ray said, his
name is Steve songs.

His name was Steve
songs, extra cum stuntman.

He said, "ray, I can't do that."

He said, "what do you mean?"

"No, it's not quite me."

He went, "rocky."

I said, "yeah."
"Can you do this?"

"What?" and ray showed
me, because ray could do it.

Ray said, "can you do
this? On the banister... boom.

On the table... boom, kick,
boom, boom. Bang, bang."

I said, "well, I
think so. Hang on."

At the bottom, he went,
"that's exactly what I want.

Go and get changed."

I said, "what?" "Go
and get changed.

You're now steed's double."

[Statue clanking]

[Swords swishing]

I'm now steed of
the avengers double

from nowhere.

I now got five years'
work on the avengers.

That was my big breakthrough.

Ray Austin, bless him.

-TV shows then,
you had the avengers,

you had the Saint, champions.

It was-it was TV
shows going every day.

They had stunts every day.

-Yeah, I had a great time on TV.

I had two wonderful
years on the avengers

and doing the barons and
the saints and all those.

-Television was
still a little bit in its

[clears throat] Infancy.

And you could go and
perform on television and do it.

But the money was not
the same as it was in films.

And on films, you
got long contracts.

So, you'd be two or three
or four months on the film.

And that was the
thing that it was to get,

was to break the back of that
and be able to get into that.

-We occasionally
got down, okay, uh...

Film stunt guys came down.

And you know, the-the-the
Bob Simmons and Terry yorkes

and they've been away on
movies, and, um you thought,

"wow, I wonder what it's
like to be on a big movie."

-In the early days,
stuntmen didn't want to help.

My generation came
into the business,

they because they
saw it as a threat, so

you had to fend for yourself.

-Gradually, we as young
stunt guys coming in,

um, started to be able to
watch what they were doing.

And sometimes you'd think,

"oh, I wouldn't do it that way."

You'd see a guy, you
know, hurt himself coming off

of a balcony or something
because he didn't fall right.

Yeah. And so we learnt, I
learned by other people's...

Watching other
people that did it well,

and-and some of their mistakes.

-Because I was an
apprentice at rolls Royce

and was into
helicopters and that,

and did my five years
engineering-wise,

it was nothing... you
could come out with ideas

that you used to get on
a... On a set and look at,

uh, a layout to what
they were doing and say,

"well, that ain't gonna
work. We need to do this."

So, I came in at that era,
and I got so much work

I couldn't but of course,

that didn't help the situation
between the old guys and myself,

because they said,
"how come this bastard

is getting all the
work and he's...

He's only been in the
industry five minutes?"

-And there was
a lot of... I mean,

you hear terrible stories

as that, that when
they were doing ivanhoe

in [indistinct]

[Man groans]

[Paul Weston] A
guy went up there to

do a fall off a battlement.

And he put his boxes down
and the mattresses and whatever.

And someone had put some
rocks in on the top of the bed.

If you, they didn't like
you, then you may,

you know, not,
you may get injured.

Um, so yes, so I think it
was tougher in those days

because they were,
they were wrestlers,

and they were
boxers and they were,

um, people from the east end,
from the west end, you know.

Um, they were all
trying to make a living.

They would drive, you
know, down to Spain

if there's a movie in Spain

and just be there and
they would, you know,

work on the film
and sleep in the car.

I mean, there was
no organization.

They just did it to,
because, you know,

they'd earn enough
money out of it

to-to bring some money home.

That was... [Clears throat]

The difficulty that was going
on in terms of paddy Ryan

and-and jock Easton.

Um, Joe Powell and Eddie
Powell, um, they were...

They were doing that because
there was no other way.

That-that's, you know,

that's the way the
business was at that time.

They had no respect other
than, you know, if you get up there,

and you fall off, that's great.

Get a round of applause.

Away you go. They didn't
want any other than that.

And we used to, um,
have to sign blood chits,

which meant that
you forego any, um

you-you take on all the
responsibility of that fall.

If you fell on somebody
and killed them,

you would be sued.

We got our first sort
of, um, guild together,

and we said, "look, we got
to not be extras anymore.

We need to be part of equity
and start to-to get some respect

from the industry, uh,
as stunt performers."

-I think people finally realized

that being a stuntman

did not necessarily
the basic criteria was

being an ex-boxer

with a sort of broken nose and
a cauliflower ear, and he says,

"I'll have a go at that, governor."
There was a lot more to it,

and we were getting
more mechanized,

and people would, you
know, the car, I mean,

bullets had come out,

and the great car chase
had suddenly become,

"mm. Let's have
a little go at that."

[Cars speeding]

[Car tires screeching]

So, you can't do that
kind of stuff with that.

[Ray Winstone] It was
time for things to change.

-We'd done two or
three bonds in england,

and there's people who are
interested in coming over here

and doing more action pictures.

And, you know, they want to,
to, uh, uh, nail down the skills,

which is why those
stunt coordinators

got together with equity.

And the stunt register
was thus formed.

If you had two stunt contracts,

you could come
on the stunt register,

and you were
accepted as a stuntman.

-A lot of the stunt guys
that were established

thought it was, you
know, just a gimmick,

and they didn't want
to pay to go in it.

And they-they thought
it was a silly idea

because they were
already established

in their own little way.

But once we got into equity,
the other guys had to come in.

Either they joined us in
equity, or they weren't,

you know, they weren't insured.

And we started the first
insurance through, um, lloyds.

-And we began
getting proper contracts

which were stunt contracts.

They weren't just a
glorified artist's contract;

they were stunt contracts.

And that was that again
made a big difference

because we'd said we set
our own minimum daily rates

and said, "we will not
perform for less than that.

If you want to go
outside the register

and get somebody who
wants to do it for thruppence,

then that's your business.

But what you will get

when you come to
somebody on the stunt register

is a professional
performer or coordinator,

who's done it before and
expects to be paid correctly

and expects to have a
contract which is enforceable

if either of you step outside
the realm of that contract."

And that's the way
it should be done.

-We came in with
no qualifications.

We were all hypocrites
in the world, you know.

[Laughs] Let's face it.

We dec-decided for the
better of the film business,

if you could form a group, an
organization of some people

that do have qualifications,
or if they haven't,

they work under people
that do have qualifications

and the safety
standards then are higher

because then we have
probationary, intermediate,

and then full members,
so they had to go through

a probationary period
to an intermediate period.

And when they're intermediate,

they could coordinate
their own stunts,

but they couldn't
coordinate for other people.

And then, once they got
enough qualification for that,

then they became
stunt coordinators

which is a totally
logical and sensible

and safe way of doing it.

-So, when they come
in, they're vetted,

so you had a committee who vet
whether they could ride a horse,

whether they could
do a fight scene,

whether they could
handle a sword,

whether they could do a fall,
they could swim. They could dive,

whether they could drive a car,

whether they could
drive a motorbike.

And then we formed a
book called the stunt register.

-Known as the book of lies.

[Upbeat music]

'Cause if one put
a dot by everything,

you know, they
could do everything

and say, "there's a black dot."

So that was commonly
known as the book of lies.

-My ex-partner, Alan Stewart,

did a car jump in
Hong Kong, right?

We had a car transported
there with a bus parked here,

and he goes over, jumps the bus.

And he put [laughs]

One year, he put that picture

of this happening in
the stunt book, right,

and Eddie eddon, god
rest his soul as well,

he put the same picture in in
his column of the same jump.

I'll never forget it.

I've still got the...
That one particular one.

-And it progressed
from there, really,

and it became something of...

Then became something
of a closed shop,

so that we, the stuntmen,
had a kind of monopoly

on doing stunts,
and the producers

only wanted to use
people off the stunt register

unless there was a particular
skill of something, like a...

You know, a trapeze artist
or something you could do,

then fine, but otherwise,

they were encouraged very
much to go on to the stunt register.

So, when you have a, um,
cartel, almost which is, you know,

pretty much what it was, with
the endorsement of the industry,

it's not like we were setting
out being the mafia and all,

or we were going out
threatening people,

but they principally want

would come to
the stunt register.

"Health and safety"
started to creep in,

where the insurance
companies and the producers

wanted to know that
there was actually

a delineated form of
progress for people,

and it made the
whole organization

a great deal more professional.

And as those older
members dropped away,

[clears throat]

Everybody was going to
become a lot more professional.

-It was really getting
technical then.

Special effects were coming
up and-and I found that you

uh, you'd work more
with special effects

than the older guys did,

because the older
guys just didn't do it.

-We're now the groundbreakers,
and moving forward,

on how to fly and how to
shoot upside-down sets,

and wires, and
all sorts of things.

-It was a busy
time, a busy period.

The '70s and '80s
and-and '90s, really.

That was when it all happened.

["Born to raise hell"
performed by motorhead]

[Scatting]

-♪ Listen up here I'll
make it quite clear ♪

♪ I'm gonna put some
boogie in your ear ♪

♪ shake and bop don't you stop ♪

♪ dance like a
maniac until you drop ♪

♪ I don't mind I don't mind ♪

♪ I can run a razor
right up your spine ♪

♪ what are you waiting for? ♪

♪ What do you think
you were created for? ♪

♪ Show us you care ♪

♪ show us you dare ♪

♪ you don't know what
happened if you weren't there ♪

♪ born to raise hell ♪

♪ we know how to do it ♪

♪ and we do it real well ♪

♪ born to raise hell ♪

♪ voodoo medicine ♪

♪ cast my spell ♪

♪ born to raise hell ♪

♪ play that guitar
just like ringin' a bell ♪

♪ Take it or leave it ♪

[Gunfire]

♪ Going for broke ♪

♪ rock 'til you choke ♪

♪ it don't matter if
you drink or smoke ♪

♪ speak through the beat ♪

♪ get up on your feet ♪

♪ sweating like a hound dog ♪

♪ white as a sheet ♪

♪ don't you be scared
don't you be scared ♪

♪ everybody terrified
it don't seem fair ♪

♪ what are you waiting for? ♪

♪ What do you think
you were created for ♪

♪ out of your seat
blind in the heat ♪

♪ do the nasty boogie
mama stomp your feet ♪

♪ born to raise hell
born to raise hell ♪

♪ we know how to do it ♪

♪ and we do it real well ♪

♪ born to raise hell ♪

♪ go back to zero ♪

♪ take a pill and get well ♪

♪ born to raise hell ♪

♪ be a good soldier ♪
- [Bomb exploding]

- [Rapid gunshots]
- ♪ and die where you fell ♪

[Chandelier shattering]

[Perky music]

♪ It's your momma ♪♪

[Lively guitar music]

[Rapid gunshots]

[Body thuds]

-It was just, it was
what we wanted to do.

It was what we were doing.

So naturally, wake up in
the morning, every day,

you'd be up at
five in the morning,

six days a week,
seven days a week.

You'd have a hangover

because you had a party
on the Saturday night.

And then you'd get up and do
design stuff on Sunday afternoon

if you weren't playing
tennis or doing something.

It was just the
way our life was.

-Yeah, it was a good
living. Yeah, absolutely.

And, uh, if, providing you got

on to the-to the
rollercoaster of coordinators.

Once you were on the team,

you just went from
one film to another film.

-And I'd be away for like
six, nine months at a time.

I worked with Stallone. Uh

I've doubled dolph lundgren.

I-I had got into a...

A lot of films like that

where I was
doubling main actors.

[Ray Winstone] Of all the
British stunt performers,

one seemed to stand out
above the rest within the industry.

Vic assumed legendary status
when he became associated with

and would go on to define

perhaps cinema's
greatest action hero.

-My brother was
working on two films.

One was called Hanover street.

And he said, "there's a guy
in there looks just like you."

And then the other one
was force 10 from navarone

in yugoslavia or
somewhere funny.

And I was talking to
him on the phone one day

because you
couldn't, in those days,

you couldn't, didn't have emails

and didn't have skypes
or anything like that.

And he'd phoned home
to mum and dad once,

and I was talking to
him. He said, "here, Vic,

"I'm wor... Got this
actor on this film.

He's a dead ringer
for you, you know.

You should keep an eye on him.

If he, you know, gets famous,

he'd be a good one
for you to double."

"Oh, what's his name?"
He said, "Harrison Ford."

Cut two years later,
1980 or something, '79,

and I kept getting these
calls from David tomblin,

one of the greatest ads
in the world, who we did

Superman, bridge too
far, many, many films with,

fantastic ad. He's saying, "look,
when are you coming back, though?

We've got this actor.
You're-you're a good double for him."

And it was Harrison, which
I didn't know at that time.

I arrived on the set,

and Peter diamond
was the stunt coordinator.

They met me and everything
else. All the stunt guys were there,

hanging 'round the set, and
I was watching them filming

and obviously knew Spielberg
and everything else by this time.

I knew of them.

So, I'm walking away,

and somebody's shouting,
"Harrison" and I ignored him

and "Harrison, Harrison."

And then somebody grabbed me
on the shoulder, spun me around,

and said, "but
you're not Harrison."

And it was Steven Spielberg.

And I went, "no. No, I'm not."

And he went, "and who are
you?" I said, "Vic Armstrong."

He says, "what are
you doing here?" I said,

"I've just arrived last night. I'm
a stuntman. Just got called in."

"You're a stuntman?
Tomblin, David, David.

Look, this guy rates
he's a stuntman.

He looks just like Harrison."

And, um, David said,
"well, this is the guy

I've been telling
you about, Steven.

He's not been available. He's
just arrived now, you know?"

[Gasps] "Oh, okay. Okay, okay."

And that was my introduction
to Steven Spielberg.

And a couple of days later,
dav... Peter diamond said,

"look, you handle the
fight round the flying wing

with big pat roach"
who's an old mate of mine,

I fought pat for years and
years and years in films.

"You handle pat around the

the fight around
the flying wing.

I've got to go and
start the truck chase."

First morning we were there,
again, it was almost lunchtime,

Spielberg had sort of,

didn't really talk to me
much during the day,

but I'm just watching
all the shots.

In those days, you had
to get your... look over

the lens of the camera when
they're doing the punches,

and make sure the punch,
you know, there wasn't a miss

or anything when
they... When they hit.

And one of these punches,

it's just about
lunchtime, and he,

Harrison, threw a punch at,
um, pat roach, and Steven went,

"fantastic. That was
great. That was great.

Okay, next shot's over here."

And I said, "excuse
me, Mr. Spielberg"

and he went, "hm?"

And this was the first
time he was even aware

I was on the set, coordinating.

Um, I said, "I think
that was a miss."

"No, I think it was a hit."

And I said, "i'm-I'm
pretty sure it was a miss."

You know, we have to stand
up and be counted, you know,

so anyway. Okay, we do it again,

and he's a bit sarcastic,
and we did it again.

So you cut to
nearly five days later,

because in those days, they'd
send the rushes back to england,

they'd process and have a look at
them and they'd send them back,

and then they set up a
projector in the lobby of the hotel.

And sure enough,
the shot comes up,

and I'm about three
rows back from Spielberg.

And he watches it and
you see the first one,

and he went, "you're
absolutely right, Vic."

By now we're friends, you know.

"You're absolutely right,
Vic. Yeah, it was a miss."

And the next one
comes, it's on the money.

Cool. I couldn't do
anything wrong after that.

So that was... I-I'd
earned my spurs.

So that was the start
of-of-of Indiana Jones,

which was, to me was fabulous.

[♪♪♪]

-[Mutters] Indiana Jones and
the temple of doom... yeah.

I'm on-on there because
I'm doubling the arch villain.

-Frank is wonderful,

wonderful sense of humor.

And I had him doubling mola ram

on Indiana Jones and
the temple of doom.

I've fought with him on that
hanging stair at the bridge

where, when the bridge is
broken and men are hanging on it.

-Up the top one is
Vic and I, obviously.

But on the 30-foot
ones is Harrison and I.

I've always got on
well with Harrison.

I've worked on about
four or five films with him.

I've been out to
dinner with him.

A lovely man.

And Harrison said,

"I don't want to fight
with him" - the actor.

He said he may not know
where to miss and all that.

So I let frank up there.

Vic said to me, "you
get a thousand pounds

for shaving your hair."

I said, "Vic, you can do
it all day long." [Laughs]

Every week.

[♪♪♪]
[Harrison grunts]

[Vic Armstrong] The
bridge has broken,

men are hanging on
it, and I'm fighting him,

and this guy's falling past us
down into the crocodiles below.

And I'm hanging on the...
On the ladder at the bottom,

nearly gone and-and
frank had to fall off the top,

one of the rungs.

He's trying to escape
one of the rungs breaking.

He falls, goes past me, and
then grabs a rung below me

and we carry on fighting.

[Kate groaning]

[Mola grunting]

-Like an idiot, I put a-a
small harness on here.

And I hooked on there
instead of having it up here.

So, as I let go, the weight
of the body, I turned over.

-And he came by me and
bashed off me and flew past.

And I thought his cable had
snapped because he went so fast

and a bit further
than we'd measured.

-It was so quick.

And the next minute,
Vic is... has grabbed me

because he thinks I'm
going, and we're fighting.

-"For Christ's sake,
frank, are you all right?"

Bang. "Christ, I thought
we'd lost you there."

Bang! And he
kicks me in the nuts.

And I bash him on the

[Vic and frank grunting]

[Kate capshaw] [Shouting] No.

-I think, to be honest, Vic
was more relieved than me

that I'd stopped.

-And it was so funny, I was
worried to death about him

and punching the shit out
of him at the same time.

[Laughing]

-[Yelling] [Indistinct].

[Mola gasps]

[Mola screaming]

-They were just tremendous.

It was very, very
satisfying films to work on.

They're dirty.
They're hard work.

Dirty in as much
as they're dusty

and always in funny situations.

And they're hard work,
very exacting director,

but we gave him what he wanted.

And the sense of
gratification was great from him

and from us, you know.

It was very, very
satisfying films,

and that's what I like doing.

So those first three will be
forever in my happy memory bank.

[Laughs]

[Ray Winstone] Now, Vic
might have been creating heroes,

but the others were
getting to work with theirs.

-Rickson, I said outside.

Now come on!

-That cuts it.

[Punches thrown]

- [John grunts]
- [Glass clanks]

[Ray Winstone] When John
Wayne came over to London

to shoot his action
film brannigan,

he had the cream of
the crop to choose from,

and frank henson
couldn't believe his luck.

-I love John Wayne.

And the first time I did a stunt
with him, he bollocked me.

[Car tires screeching]

Peter said to
me, "your first job

is driving this e-type at him."

And Dougie hickox, the
director, taught me terribly to me,

said, "frank, when you come in,

swing 'round like this,
and then come in."

So eeeehhh.

[♪♪♪]

[Car engine speeding]

Wayne went, "that
looked fucking terrible."

I said, "what do you want?"

Before I started, I
loved him all my life.

He said to come
straight through there.

I said "I'm doing
70 miles an hour."

"You come straight
through there."

Go back in the
car, "fucking nutter."

[Laughs]

[Car engine speeding]

[Rapid gunshots]

Got out, he went...

[punch thrown] Hit me, he
went, "that wasn't bad, kid."

After that we got
on brilliant together.

What he was worried
about, like I understand now,

he wasn't sure which
side I was going to come.

Where he's shooting at me,

and as I go past
is more shooting.

So that was my first
[laughs] tie-tie-up with Wayne.

[Ray Winstone] Having
proven himself to Wayne,

and stunt coordinator
Peter Bryant,

frank was charged
with pulling off

the film's most memorable stunt,

but things didn't
go entirely to plan.

-So, we go up there,

and they're
explaining their point

where the camera's going to be.

And I said in front of all
these police and everyone else,

"you look", I said, "we've
already been on the bridge,

and I've stood on it,

and we can get about
an angle like that."

I said, "when I come
over your bridge,"

I said, 'hopefully I can get up
to about 40, 50 miles an hour.

And that will take me way over.

And I could land about here
and come down the other side."

I said, "and, um, there
should be no damage

to your bridge whatsoever."

So they went outside,
and they came back.

They said, "we
don't particularly mind

if you kill yourself,

but you're not
damaging the bridge.

So, the answer's no." [Laughs]

We closed all the bridge
and what they did allow us,

made a ramp about
six or eight feet.

And I jumped the
car over the ramp

then lifted the bri...
The car up here.

And I drove it
down the other side.

[♪♪♪]

And I jumped it onto the skip,

and then Wayne
gets out of the car

and bang, and so forth.

[♪♪♪]

When they put those
three pieces together,

when you see the film,

it looks like you've
jumped the bridge.

But, you know, you can't...

There's no point
in telling lies,

"I jumped tower
bridge," because I didn't.

But, um, it's how it was
all, and also you couldn't,

because in Wayne's book,

he said, "frank, next
time we'll jump it."

So, you-you couldn't
lie if you wanted to lie.

And the last time I ever met
him I found out it was the same.

I had bright green trousers on.

All things had changed.

No one wore evening
dress and all that.

He went, "fucking hell, is
this in Saint Patrick's night?"

[Laughs]

So that was my... but I had
lots of conversations with him

in between, and, um, some,
once again, you could tell,

and some you can't,
you know. But...

And so I met my
hero, as it were.

[Ray Winstone] While
some of [indistinct] guys

were fulfilling their
action dreams,

rocky found himself
taking a romantic lead.

-Irene papas,
[indistinct] And navarone.

Remember that?

-Spiro.

[Slap thrown]

-What did you do that for?

-To remind you to
write letters occasionally.

[Men laugh]
- I was sitting there.

I was sitting on, sitting
in the desert with her,

and they were shooting
this beautiful film

of her and this baby,

whose mother and father
have been shot or something.

And she was there,
comfort-comforting this baby.

Telling him how
wonderful, and don't worry,

she'll look after
him and all that.

And tears were
running down her eyes

and tears were
running down my eyes.

And I thought she was marvelous.

So when she got
up and walked away,

I said, "Irene, I cried.
You were fabulous."

She went, "what?" I said, "you
made me cry with that scene."

"Oh, thank you. Your
name, is it rocky?"

She went, "oh, rocky,
thank you." "All right."

Cut.

A week later, we were on
a square with our horses

and all the stuff on,
and guns and all that,

and she's over
there, sitting in a chair

and I'm on my horse
and she's going like that,

and I've gone like that.

And ten minutes later, I
get a tap on my shoulder.

Yes, it's her assistant
with a little note,

"yes. Would you care to have
dinner with me this evening?"

[Laughs] So I went
and had dinner.

Cut.

-And because we
were reasonably small,

there were only
about 70 of us then

to distribute out
amongst the good,

you were always working.
You were always busy.

Nobody thought about it.
They just gave you a contract.

And these huge checks
would arrive through the thing

and they-they'd
dent the doormat.

They were enormous
checks, you know.

Great stuff, just
buy another Harley.

[♪♪♪]

-When I was potless,
I had no confidence.

Once I didn't do too
badly, I gained confidence.

-You're friends
but you're-you're...

Huge competitors, you know.

It's an individual
business and, uh,

and it's a freelance business,

and you don't
work, you don't eat,

your family doesn't eat,
so it is... it's cutthroat.

-There's a lot of backstabbing.

There's a lot, a
lot, to get the job.

-You're all fighting
for the same jobs

no matter what size you are.

It's not because you're
6'6", and he's 5'6",

you're not going
for the same jobs.

You are.

So therefore, it goes
down to your ability

to talk somebody
into employing you

or convincing them that
they should employ you

over and above anybody else.

-I'm better than him.

He'll do it. I'll do it.

No, he, i-oh, no. Don't use him.

He's-he's not reliable.

-Yeah. You'd get
up in the morning

and everybody
else in the business

is your competitor
if you're not working.

[Ray Winstone] No
matter how you look at it,

in the whole history
of British stunt work,

there's really only one
name that sums up the guts,

ingenuity, outlandishness,

the sheer swagger of
our homegrown term.

And that name is

-bond.

James Bond.

-Everyone wants to
work on a 007 film.

I think all performers would
love to work on a 007 film.

-007 is the epitome
of a stunt film

for an act-for a stuntman.

I've gone all over the world.

I worked in 70 countries.

Knowing you got a
007, "oh, my god,"

they'd like genuflect
in front of you.

You know, it is the
holy grail of stunts.

-It's the one film
in this country

that says stuntman,

you know, right back
from the beginning.

You know, when
I used to go down,

I was a kid, it was
always stuntmen.

-In the old days, um,
meant weeks of work

prepping, because there
was no postproduction.

So everything was
done in camera. And

we prepped and we prepped,
and we prepped to move,

and we rehearsed
up in the band room

at pinewood.

We used to have trampolines
and various things up there.

And-and we'd work out what
the gags were, whether it was...

Bob, I mean, Bob Simmons,

who was the coordinator
on those early ones

that we used to work on. And

Bob would just say,
"oh, yeah, that's right.

Love it. Yeah,
that'll work. Yeah.

Go on. Carry on. Do your thing."

And alf joined to be teaching us

how to do things a little bit
more seriously, and all that,

and Bob would be just
coming up and supervising.

And-and, uh, if there
was a bit of sword work,

Bob Anderson would
be there teaching us,

you know, a little bit of that.

And we just spent weeks
there. And they were great.

I mean, they
were just fantastic.

They were, um, uh-uh, just
endless weeks of rehearsal

to get it right.

But woe betide,
if you got on there,

and then you didn't get
it right because you...

They'd paid for a few
weeks of rehearsal time,

and you better make damn
sure you're actually ready

to put it on-on camera.

-[Indistinct] Done the fall.

[Bomb exploding]

[Water splashing]

All the submarines, I think I
got killed about seven times

in different outfits in
the same scene on that.

-I did a lot of stuff
for Roger in India,

running through the
jungle, swinging on the rope.

[Rapid gunshots]

[Man] Aw.

-Um, we jumped a
three... Two-Wheeler,

three-Wheeler over a camel.

[Roger] Hang on, James.

[Car engine speeding]

-I was in the back of that

doubling for Roger, running
through the streets for him;

there was lots of running around

because he
couldn't run very well.

So I did most of
that running around.

As it happened, the phone went.

Vic Armstrong,
Barbados, Bahamas:

"Rocky, yeah, can
you fly out tomorrow?"

"Where to?"

"To The Bahamas."

And I thought,
"well, funny enough,

I've just been sacked."

"So, what kind?

What for?" He said,
"you're doubling for Sean."

And there was a scene

where he comes crashing
through the window

[wooded window clattering]

And he strangles
me 'round the neck

-♪ [indistinct] ♪

♪ I know there's danger there ♪

-With a rope.

I think I got killed five times.

In the op... It's the
opening title sequences

of never say never.

I think I got killed five times.

-♪ I know there's danger there ♪

[Rapid gunshots]

- [Punch thrown]
- [Man grunts]

[Man thuds]

-Doubling for Roger, you know,

running along the route up,
the train top on octopussy,

and ducking under Bridges
and diving over pipes.

[Gunshot]

[Roger grunts]
- They were such fun

because Roger
Moore was just a giggle.

I never, I didn't... I worked
on one of the Connery ones

as an armorer, but
not as a stuntman,

but you know, with-with-with
Roger Moore, he was a giggle.

I mean, he would just,
he-he he was a practical joker.

And, uh, it was fun.

Weeks and weeks
and weeks of work,

and then we'd be on the big
set for the exp... you know,

the villain's lair exploding
and all that kind of stuff,

and when we did the,

we did the, uh,
the submarine set,

which is what the
007 stage was built for,

for the spy who loved me.

[Rapid gunshots]

And then, some of us are doing

falls into the water, or things,

and-and rocky did a gag on that

where he drives a mini moke
off the edge into the water.

[Car exploded]

- [Man screams]
- [Water splashing]

-You know, it was freezing cold.

I did one fall into the water

and [indistinct]
did a stair fall,

and all that kind of stuff,
but, you know, it was all

part of the game.
They were just such fun.

-And now, you know, my
street cred's really gone up.

I've done two bonds now,

doubling for the
lead in... in one.

[Crash]

And then, pretty soon
after that, live and let die,

doubled Roger on the fight

with the [indistinct]
in the shark pen.

[Hinges creaking]

-Hold up.

- [Kick thrown]
- [Man grunts]

[Body thuds]

-Now, I got three under
my belt and suddenly,

you start to get into the
premier league, you know.

And there weren't many stunt
people around in those days,

and I was one of
the few young ones.

Uh, the youngest,

I think rocky's a little
bit older than me,

but I'd started just before him.

Rocky, me, Mark
boyle, Martin grace,

Tim condren, bill Weston,

we were the sort of
newcomers in those days,

and, uh, and I had three
bonds under my belt, you know,

plus doubling for the
lead in two of them, so,

you know, you have street
credit and obviously, you work it

and sell it as much
as you can, you know.

[Laughs]

-Octopussy, I had a
part in that as... as,

um, Steven berkoff's driver.

[Car engine revving]

His character was called
orlov, and I was orlov's driver.

And I get shot by
bond and do a stair fall.

[Rapid gunshots]

-It was a great, great
crew to be part of,

and then to be asked to
be the stunt coordinator,

um, was... was wonderful.

License to kill, I, um, I-I
had an American stunt guy,

who was... who
brought all his equipment

and he was going to do
the big fire burn at the end,

um, but I was doubling
Sanchez on the back of the truck

and jumping off, uh, uh, off
the trucks and things like that.

[♪♪♪]

[Punch thrown]

[Man groans]

[Kick thrown]

[Man groans]

[Man grunts]

-So, I was dressed as him
and I was a good double for him.

So I was coordinating,
and a double for Sanchez.

And when... the day
before we were about to do...

We turned the truck down
and it crashed down the rocks,

and the day before we
were about to do the big burn

he said, came to me,
he said, "if I leave tonight,

I can get a job for two months,
but I have to leave tonight."

I said, "okay."

Well, you know, I
know what it's like

when you've got one day's work

and... and it stops you
doing a-a-a few weeks' work.

So, I said, "okay. You go
ahead, leave this stuff here.

I'll do it myself."

Fire jobs are very
dangerous, um, you know.

You can't run away from fire.

You-you have to rehearse,

let them know exactly
what you're gonna do,

and then when you've had
enough, you lay flat on the phone...

On the floor, with
your arms outstretched,

and you don't move, um,

because they can't
catch you if you run.

Um, so you may be
burning but you lay still

while you're burning, and
then they come and put you out.

So, this was a-a
tricky job because, uh,

I was going to be on fire

for I thought about 30
seconds, which is long.

It's a long time.

So, I was on three
minutes of air.

So you get a little air bottle
you put down in your costume

and you have a tube going up

underneath the
mask into your mouth.

So I figured that it'll take
me a minute and a half

to get onto the set, um, and
probably a-a minute for them

to do the wig and...

Hairdressers... they want
every, you know, get it dead right.

And so I said,

"I'm going to have probably,
um, two and a half minutes

before I-I-I do the job."

And just 130 seconds
at the end of it,

to be, to be got out.

So, I got on the set, I got...

[clears throat] A
minute and a half,

they're messing around,
so they then gel me up,

and they say, "okay, stand
by," and I'm on there [inhaling]

I figured I'd have done
about a minute and a half,

just over [clears throat]

And he said, "turn over,
and... Hold on, hold on, hold it.

Problem with the camera."

So, i'm, [inhaling] "Sure.
Hurry up, hurry up."

Timothy Dalton
sitting opposite me,

and he's got to
pretend to light me

and then run
when I catch on fire.

So, we're standing now,
and I'm going [inhales]

"Come on, come on," and
he said, "okay, and action."

[Bond breathing heavily]

-You could have had everything.

-Don't you want to know why?

-He set me alight,
boof, I go up.

And as I go up, I
go, [Blowing] Nothing.

So I think, "don't panic."

It was like sucking up treacle.

It was like [inhaling]

"See, if you can just blow
the tube, clear the tube..."

so I blew the tube,
and [inhales] I had air.

So then I could do the job.

So I-I was on fire. I
couldn't see anything.

But I'd rehearsed with the boys

I would fall down onto my knees,

get up, move forward,
feel the side of the truck.

Then on the floor,

I had rocks so I could
feel it with my feet.

And I could get in
position and then fall over.

I was out of air.

When I hit the
floor, I was out of air.

And then they were putting
the flame bars up behind me,

and it was like the
whole place blew up.

Lucky enough they
came in very quickly,

and took the mask off and I was

but when I stood up and they're
shaking my hand and saying,

"oh great, shot, wonderful."

That's when I was burning.

The hand... heat transference
through the costume.

The first costume had gone,

the fire suit had been
burned all the way up the back,

but the heat transference
going through the costume

was suddenly on me, I was going

[groaning]

But I was... I was
feeling the heat then.

-And the highlight of bond
for me is being a ninja in 1966,

and it's 65 quid a week, to

the last bond I did,
which is die another day,

I think the boat
chase and all that stuff.

Spending, you know,
15-20 mill, whatever it was,

millions of dollars and pounds,

doing that boat chase, and
it was all the other chases,

and coming up with
ideas and directing it

and, you know,
editing it with the editors

and inventing it.

I'm very, very proud
of that, you know.

So they're the highlights.

-There... there are some
hairy ones you do. But

you've given yourself
to the industry.

-It scares the life out
of you a lot of times.

You know, I did a
hundred-foot fall for

Mark boyle on
the final conflict.

[♪♪♪]

[Horse galloping]

[Horse neighing]

And you're standing
there on the viaduct

looking down, and the
airbag looks about this big,

and you know you're
gonna be doing, you know,

70, 80 miles an
hour when you hit it.

You better be in
the right position,

but you also got to
look like a falling body.

You can't be a
swan diver you know

[horse neighing]

[Man screaming]

[Water splashing]

-I think, "Whoo,
why am I doing this?"

[Laughs]

-If you've got any
sense, there's fear.

The stuntmen, or
so-called stuntmen who say,

"I'm fearless, I
will do anything,"

and they're not
worried about it,

they're the ones that you
want to stay away from,

and don't do stunts with.

You don't say, "I'm fearless."

You stand on the
edge, you look at it,

you check everything
out before you do it.

-Fear. Fear is... is the edge

that's... that's about
judgment and everything.

And it's a question
of-of channeling that,

to do that and not being
overwhelmed by the fear.

Because the moment you
get overwhelmed by the fear,

you're... you're...
You're knackered.

Your sphincter is going
half-crown, sixpence

every time any of us
work if it's a tricky job.

But you... you over...
You overcome that,

or you learn to say no.

But if you learn to say no
more than two or three times,

when there's no
good reason for it,

then you kind of go,

"mm. Okay, well, I don't
think... I'd rather not be

put in the position where
I've got him on the set

and he's gonna say
no, so I won't use him."

And then they kind of

you don't see them
very much after that.

But I wouldn't ridicule anybody

who admits that
his time has come

or that his bottle
is not what it was.

-You've got to be
conscious of fear.

You got to be aware of it.

Otherwise, you're
gonna hurt someone,

someone's going
to get hurt badly.

-The most important thing
is that you do it yourself.

Your... you're number one,

and you go out and
you know the risks.

And the risks are,
you're going to get hurt.

-The director's got his way,

he's got his film
he wants to make.

He obviously wants
to make the best film

that ever has been done.

He gets hold of
the first assistant,

the art department,
gets them all there.

He wants the greatest sets.

He wants to, you know, a-a
stunt coordinator to come in,

and give him the best,
most spectacular stunts.

You know, and... and... and
which we all want to try and do.

But sometimes you
have to, you know,

he has to bend a little
way to-to make that work.

They've got to look after us
like we want to look after them.

[Ray Winstone] One
director, who, it could be said,

did not look after his crew,
was this chap. Michael winner.

-I'm just wondering whether
you're a little insensitive.

-I don't see
anything wrong today

in showing what goes
on in life. It was not done.

-But it isn't like that in life.

I'm sorry, Mr. Winner.
- No, you don't know.

- It just isn't.
- You've never been raped.

-Have you ever asked me?

-Well, [chuckles]
Have you been raped?

-Never liked him. He
was a horrible man.

-He got his stuff done but
he used to terrorize people.

-Michael was
probably the only one

that I diss in my book. [Laughs]

Yeah, I did have a run-in
with him on the big sleep.

He was doing things
which only a bully would do.

-I used to see him on the set.

And he used to have
this 15-, 16-year-old,

learning to be in
the industry boy.

And he used to
click his fingers.

[Snaps fingers]
That was for a script.

[Fingers snapping twice]
That was for a cigar.

[Fingers snapping
thrice] That's for a light.

And it was just
pathetic to see it.

-I mean, a lot of people
like him for what he is,

but he is... he was rude.

-I was doing a film
called revolution

with Eddie Stacy,

and we came back
from cornwall somewhere

or down in Plymouth; Plymouth.

And I had a phone call from
Mark boyle to come down,

on a film called death wish 3.

-You're letting me loose?

-I'm letting you loose.

[Yelling]

[Rapid gunshots]

-And I'm on it for
about two weeks,

I think; Odd days here
and odd days there.

[♪♪♪]

And driving a motorbike,

I had to drive a motorbike,
crashed it, as I said,

done bits and pieces.

Got shot, went down
some stairs, got on fire.

All different gags
that were in the film.

One shot where I come

tearing down a road and
they put a wire across,

take me off the bike, the
bike crashes and all that.

All that was going on.

And then I walk in one day,
Michael winner and Mark boyle

standing there looking
at this building to the left.

And I could hear
Michael winner say,

"he'll do it. Rocky."

I went, "what?" He said, "yeah.

We want someone to
come off of that building.

It's on fire, and we
need someone to jump."

Yeah.

I'm... "sure. I'll
have a go at it."

I didn't know that two
people had turned it down

before... before I went up.

So, I go up with Mark
boyle, up to the roof,

and look 'round, look down.

He said, "we'll put boxes
down there, put a car, dig a hole,

put the boxes there.

We'll hide the
camera behind the car.

You'll be over there.

Flames come up.

You'll come to the
edge of the building.

And the flames go up.

As you jump, the
flames go up behind you.

It engulfs."

"I mean, yeah.

Sounds fine to me."

-Winner's on one
of his bad days,

uh, and rocky's up there.

Johnny Evans, special effects.

Um, and John always
does what the director says.

If he says, turn up...
Turn up the flames,"

John would turn up the flames.

-I'm standing there,
and I could hear,

"turn over."

I turn over. "Light
the building."

They lit the building.

And before I knew where I was,

the building wasn't
just a little bit aflame.

It was 17 feet, 20 feet high.

The flames just come
up like a bomb; It blew up.

Winner flicked up the
switch. I'll never forget it.

-And all I could hear
was winner going,

"rocky, where are you? Rocky?

Come on, rocky. Where's rocky?"

I gotta... I gotta go.

I know... I know that over
there where the boxes are.

They're over there.

If I can get through
them flames, and drop,

I could land on the
boxes, and hopefully,

everything will be alright.

But it was very, very, very hot.

So I put my hands to my face,

I covered my face.

And I ran to the wall.

Coming down, I could
see it was a foot away

the edge of the boxes.

[♪♪♪]

-If he hadn't of
pushed off as hard

he'd have made the rig, totally.

But because he...

To get through the flame,
he pushed that bit harder,

half of him went into the rig
and the other half stayed out.

So he split himself in two.

And it didn't need to happen,

but it didn't need the
flames put up any more.

[Rocky Taylor] I
broke my pelvis,

my back, I have a burnt...

My face is all blistered,
my hands are all blistered.

So, I was in traction
for, uh, for three weeks

where they had to
put a bolt through here,

and a wire coming up here.

And pull this bit every
day, with weights on,

pulling it down,
to get it level.

Mr. Winner then
came into the hospital,

followed by five
or six newspapers.

He laid next to me.

And he whispered in my ear,

"don't think you
can sue me, rocky,

because you can't
get away with it."

And he's got people
taking photographs of him

lying next to me,
cuddling me, saying

what a wonderful
man I was and all that.

I'm now, you know,
40 years of age,

just had a terrible accident
at the peak of my career.

Gone.

And it... it ruined, you know,

that film ruined
my life completely.

-I've done some heavy
stunts on the movies.

I've... I've coordinated

and there've been very
little accidents if any.

The only one that we did have
was with Richard hammatt was,

I had him doubling for
Superman on Superman III.

And we had a Russian swing.

-I was playing, um, Clark Kent,
and it was an evil Superman.

Christopher was
the evil Superman.

[Kent] Aw, aw.

[Superman] Come on, chicken!

I'm gonna get you.

Been on my nerves
for a long time.

[Kent grunts]

-He throws me
in the car crusher.

-You always wanted to fly, Kent.

Now's your chance.

-O-On the Russian swing,

you... you have somebody
behind you on this like a seesaw

and you stand on one end.

And when you get to your height,

where... to the
trajectory you want,

then you go off and you
get flown 35 feet, 40 feet.

He just slightly mistimed it,

and went straight up,
and came straight down.

-I was turned to look down,

I'm on... There's
a stack of cars,

all these American
cars in a stack,

and the airbag's
a bit further out

because I'd gone
higher up. I went...

"I'm not going to
reach the airbag."

So I turned, and as I started
to go over onto my back,

I thought, "I'm not going
to get right on the bag,

I'm gonna lose kind
of catch my head,

I'll be on the edge of the bag."

So, I came down between
the bag and the cars

and took it on this shoulder.

It snapped all the
ribs off on this side.

They went through the
lung, punctured the lung,

and I had to get rid of the
blood in the... in the lung.

So [laughs] my...
my face is like that.

That's what the
doctor was doing.

Anyway, I did.

I got to discharge
myself out of hospital and

I was back at work.

-We were filming in Greece
for Pete brayham, sky riders,

it was called sky riders.

[Lively music]

And what occurred is, they
were going to do one explosion

what came out about 60
feet there and land there,

and we were going
to run forward,

and the second one would
come and explode over us.

[Suspenseful music]

[Bomb exploded]

But this first explosion
went over our heads

and it landed on the crew.

I think 13 of them got burned.

But the... I think he... He
was the boom operator,

quite a big guy.

He was the most burnt.

So I ran after him and I got
him, and it was all alight here,

and I've lived with this
ever [Indistinct] in my life,

and we all had shorts on.

And this is all alight.

So I tried to tear it off.

I started jumping on him

and trying to get
him on the ground.

And I've lived with
it the rest of my life.

I didn't save him.

Then I think the producer
got him on the ground.

But he died five days later.

And it's come back
to the same point.

You live with your mistakes.

And you arch yourself
to your mistakes

and... and there... there it is.

-I hate it. I don't like it.

I have to be
responsible, it's my job.

But I worry about them,

you know, but
we've got a job to do.

And I need them to, you know,
fall over as hard as possible

to look like they've been
shot or blown up, you know,

but it's not a... you know,
I have to sign off on that,

and I really... I've been hurt.

And I know at some stages,
they are going to get a knock

or bruise or whatever.

But to be responsible
for that, it's not very nice.

Um, you know, I've had
one serious injury on a film,

and I would really never
want to do that again.

You know, it's... it's
not a nice feeling at all,

because it lives
with you forever.

And I had a really hard
time for months and months

after that injury
that they sustained.

But, you know, uh, that was...
That was the name of the game

and that's what we all
signed up to do, you know.

No one put a gun to
my head or his head,

to do what he done, and
he... David willingly done it.

Unfortunately, it didn't
work out that well,

and poor David's
ended up in a wheelchair

for the rest of his life.

Um, and I sort of carry
that guilt that I was the one

who said "action" on that...
On that particular rehearsal.

[Ray Winstone] Greg
was the stunt coordinator

on all the Harry Potter films.

During rehearsal
on the final film,

Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double,

David Holmes,

sustained an injury
with a devastating result.

-He just did a
jerk-back, you know,

which we've done
that... On Harry Potter,

every day was there a
jerk-back, you know, wand

you know, expelliarmus,

a flick and a
swish, stuff like that.

It was a jerk-back, you know,
that he just landed wrong on.

It's just... it's just one of
those things that happens.

You don't want
it to happen at all.

Not even if you
had a worst enemy,

you wouldn't want
that to happen.

And especially to David who i...

He'd come into it
as a kid like I did,

doing it, and then I
brought him in on Potter,

of course he doubled
for Daniel Radcliffe,

and poor sod ended
up in a wheelchair.

-Do you stop shooting,
or do you carry on?

Everyone straight
away, you say no,

we can't carry on or whatever.

But you have to.

There's no there's
nothing you can do for him.

There's nothing,
you... you know,

everything's being done for him.

You may feel, you know,
that out of respect or whatever,

you w... you wouldn't
want to carry on,

but the producers
are right, you know.

You've just got to
get back in there

and do it and then
you just carry on. Um

I'm sure... with fatalities
that happen around the world,

I'm sure, you know, it must
affect the crew very badly.

But what do you do?
Where do you... you know?

Do you stop or do you...

And how long do you
stop for, you know?

It's... it's far better to
just carry on with your job

and knowing that they're
being taken care of.

-The low parts have
been away from the family.

The family pay for it.

-I missed the kids because
I was traveling a lot.

When in the early days, you
just went where the money was

or where the work was.

So yeah, you know, they... I
think they missed me as well,

as much as I missed them.

But in those days, you-you...
That's where the money was.

That's where the work was, so.

-I think they knew
that it's my job

and I'm a professional and I
know what I'm doing, hopefully.

So they had confidence
in me, i'm sure

but it's like someone
driving a lorry,

"dad, be careful
today," you know

I'm sure they did worry. But, uh

where are we now?

[Laughs]

-So, they're the
worst things of it,

I think, not seeing your
kids and everything else.

You see them, you know, the
best you can and everything else.

And there's obviously...
That's the worst thing, yeah.

-So I think the industry's
changed an awful lot,

an awful lot.

And a lot of the craft is gone,
because most of the stunts now

are done on the green screen.

You can do it and
get away with it.

-Everything's different
now, uh, uh, you know, the

you-you-you're working on sets

while I'm not there
maybe, you know.

You're riding horses that
you're sitting on a box.

They can put the horse on after.

It's... it's, you know,
it's as simple as that.

You could be driving a car at a
hundred mile an hour in a chase,

or the actor can.

He's... he's not doing it,
but they put him in there,

or put the car 'round...

It's... it's amazing
what they do today.

-You could do the
greatest stunt in the world,

and people think, "oh,
yeah, it was missing cg.

That was, uh, you know."

And yet they see
a cg thing and go,

"oh, you were fantastic."
And then, "yeah."

You put the costume on
and walked into the shot

and the rest is all cg.

You know, it's, uh,
i-it is depressing.

But i... you know, everything
goes round in a circle,

certainly in the film game.

And you can't knock cg.

I think you can just knock
the people that use it too much,

overuse it and abuse it,

but it is a wonderful thing
and it's the type of films

people want to go and see.

-I'm not knocking cgi, because
they do a very good job.

I mean, you've got marvel,

you've got DC
doing all this stuff.

I mean, good stuff, great stuff.

But I think the live action

beats any of that stuff
hands down, personally.

-Nowadays, you get
specialists in to do the jobs.

I... fast and furious,

I worked on fast and
furious, which was great.

I mean, any... Any
stuntman in the world

want to work on
fast and furious.

And when I got the opportunity

through Greg to work
on it, I was over the moon.

Unfortunately, I didn't
get into the position

doing the fast-driving stuff,

because he got specialists in,
which was a bit downer for me

and a bit downer
for some of the boys

because we could all drive.

I can drive as well as them.

But he wanted rally drivers

and people that
do it for a living,

which is understandable.

But a bit of a kick up the
old balls for us, you know.

-When I started, you...
you were characters.

You were brought in from extras,

and if you were able to do
something that was great.

Then you do stair falls,
then you start doing stunts.

Um, but we weren't necessarily
trained in anything particular.

So, we learned to do
those sorts of things.

And we, and... got away
with it all these years.

I wouldn't have got in
today in what they do.

Uh, um, none of the earlier
stunt guys would have done.

They... they are just
tremendous athletes.

They have really perfected
the art of-of stunting.

-They're a lot different
now, you know.

Lot of... Different
type of people.

The guys that are
coming in today,

a lot smaller in stature
because there's the big guys

struggle to get through the,
uh, all the gymnastic stuff

they have to do

because physically not...
It's hard work for them.

Uh younger

I don't think some
of them necessarily

think about the
stunt work so much.

I think they like the money,

which is nice,
which is important.

But, you know, it's
a lot of us on the first

we just... We all
like a pound note,

and... and we want that,

but the job's always
been important to us.

-I do think the characters
have disappeared

that were the Ken buckles,

Bob Simmons, George leeches

absolute... paddy Ryans...

Absolute incredible
natural stunt people.

-It's not as nice now

because there's so
much money involved now.

You know what I mean?
People sit and they're...

They're doing that at
lunchtime in the afternoon.

Where years ago, you'd
be pulling tricks on the guys,

you'd be doing
the three-man lift,

you'd be hitting them
over the head with spoons,

throwing wardrobes over
each other, tripping them up.

It don't happen so much
now, and it was a laugh then.

[Indistinct] It's... We
still have a laugh now.

But, you know, when you
go into the dressing room,

everyone used to be
gambling or reading the paper,

or doing some work there.

They all sit there now,
they're tapping away.

See how much money
they got in their accounts.

[Laughs]

[Interviewer] What
age are you now?

-What a no-good bastard.

Er, 82.

-Seventy-seven.

-I'm 72 now.

-Well, I miss, at my age,

being able to do
what I could do.

And when I'm over
with my children,

or my great-grandchildren,

they say, "oh, granddad,
show us what you do."

Yeah, well, it hurts a little
bit now if I do it, you know.

The bones... I don't
want to take that chance,

wind up with a hip replacement.

-I have a lot of...
A new pair of knees

and a new shoulder, so
you don't get up, you know.

You fall over.

It takes you like ten
minutes to get up now.

Years ago, I'd do
whatever you want,

but now that just
takes too long,

and the bruises
last a lot longer.

-And I don't miss
performing at all.

It was a means to an end.

And again, I had the brains
to get out while I was still fit,

you know, and I could feel
the reactions weren't there

on the last crusade.

It was there on the last
crusade, that I thought,

"nah, I've had too
many racehorses

that you have given one
race too many," you know.

Dave bickers is my guru.

Dave bickers, he was one of
the smartest people I've ever met

in the business.

I got him into the business;
He was a motorcycle racer,

and he became my
engineer and designer.

And... and he was
one of those guys

that had so much common sense.

And he said to me
when we were rehearsing,

he said, "Vic, I always want
to stop before the last one."

[Mutters] "What do you
mean, stop before the last one?"

Then the penny dropped.

Because it's like, um,
it's like that, you know

"watch this. I'll just
give you one more.

You watch this." And that's
always the one you hurt yourself on.

Of course it's the last one,
because you've broken your leg

or had a crash or something's
gone wrong with it, you know.

[Laughs] And it made
so much sense to me.

And I've told everybody
around the world.

You know, you rehearse
things, rehearse things.

"Let's do one more," and,

"yeah, get ready."
You know, you do it.

And it's not quite right,
and so it's "get ready" again.

And people are going,
"okay," we get ready,

and I said, "okay, and that's
a wrap. We're not doing it."

"What do you mean?" And I was,
quote, stopped before the last one.

-You don't leave the industry.

The industry leaves you.

And that's what
happens with stuntmen.

-The phone never rings anymore.

I don't mind because as I say,

I can make money somewhere else,

or I'll have something
else to keep me busy,

and so forth and so forth.

So that doesn't ring anymore.

-If the phone stops,
then you're retired.

Well, at the moment, it's
only twinkling. It's twinkling.

That's the problem
at the moment.

The financials.

Coming in this industry, you
know, you get good money,

and then you're out of work.

You get good money,
you're out of work,

you get good money,
you're out of work.

And that's how
it's been all my life.

And people always
used to say to me,

"put some money away
for a rainy day, rock."

"Yeah. What rainy day?"

It never happened,
that rainy day,

and it's started
pouring down now.

You understand?
And it's too late.

When it's too late,
what do you do?

-It's time to live a life now.

All that running around
all over the world,

getting paid, was nice,

I've got to say.

But it's a young man's
game now, I think.

-Why wouldn't you keep going?

I mean, it's just... it's fun.

You're getting paid for
playing cowboys and Indians,

and you're getting paid well,
and as long as, you know,

and-and... if i'm in a
zimmer frame one day,

and they say, "we want you to
do a zimmer frame fall," I'll go,

"I'm your boy. I'll
have a go at it."

-In the, um, force awakens,

I doubled for, um,
Max-Max Von sydow,

uh, in the opening sequence
when he gets cut in half.

[Suspenseful music]

Uh, skyfall.
Spectre and skyfall.

Um, and since then,

I've done the mummy
with Tom Cruise in London.

Star wars, um, rogue
one, I played a part of

the... one of the
engineers getting shot.

- Fire!
- [Rapid gunshots]

-Transformers: The last knight.

I'm in the next star wars,

I'm just getting
blown up in that.

But as long as I can do it,

and I'm comfortable
with it, I'll do it.

I just... i don't... obviously
won't do anything

that I think my old body
is not capable of doing,

or it would make
me look silly doing,

so a little bit dignity
in old age is good.

-I mean, without,
being a stunt performer

going into the stunt industry

which took me into
the film industry,

I would not be sitting here
now as a elderly gentleman,

director, writer,
novelist, producer

without the stunt business.

The stunt business
took me into the industry

and gave me every
break I ever had.

-I met some great
people like Wayne,

Harrison Ford, Larry Olivier.

I enjoyed it. And
I'm pleased my son

and that maybe my
grandson is gonna follow me.

And I hope they have
the fun that I have.

-I've got some personal
stresses that drive me mad, but

I am happy.

-I wouldn't change any of it.

Not one bit.

-I wish I could do it again.

I wouldn't change it.

I'll save some of
me money, though.

[Laughs]

-I love the business,
and I hate the business,

but I love it more
than I hate it.

You know, a great friend
of mine, Terry Leonard,

who used to double Harrison
with us on raiders as well,

he did the stuff under
the bus, under the truck,

which I can't claim
credit for, he did that.

But he always used to say to me,

"Vic, at the end of
this game, business,

all you got is memories,
friends and eight by tens."

And he's so right.

Eight by tens being
the photographs,

memories and friends.

-If I drop dead now
and they nail the lid on,

all I've got left
is the memories

and the memories have
been absolutely fantastic.

Because all the,
everything around here,

the motorbikes and the
house and everything,

we're just guardians of those
things, we don't own those.

Those have nothing to
do with anything really.

It's what you've seen,
what you've done,

the people that you've met,
the people that you've enjoyed,

or helped or whatever,

it-it-it-it's about the journey.

Um, and when the flag, you
know, drops and, you know,

they put you in the box,

that's all that's left there.

And so, I consider
myself extremely fortunate,

extremely fortunate.

And those occasions when I
have had near-death experiences,

and there've been
three or four of them, um

were times when I
thought, "well, it is what it is."

-[Exhales deeply] I can't
believe half of what I done

when I look back and
I think the situations...

And-and the things that we just,

"yeah, we can do
that. Yeah. Okay."

Unbelievable.

Now I'm very happy,

I'm very proud
of what I've done.

[Inhales deeply] Yeah.
It's always one more film.

Just do one more
film and then I'll quit,

just before the
last one [laughs].

[Ray Winstone]
So, there they are.

The British bulldogs that
took Hollywood by storm.

You might not have
recognized their faces before,

but maybe you'll
look out for them

next time you stick
on an old movie.

And remember that for
every time someone fell,

jumped, crashed,

punched, kicked, stabbed,
swung or got blown up,

there was someone like this

putting themselves
on the line for it.

And having a bloody good time.

["Houses that you lived in"
performed by the family machine]

♪ Houses that you lived in ♪

♪ remember you today ♪

♪ the car you drove away in ♪

♪ you're sad because
you changed ♪

♪ oh, don't leave
me far behind ♪

♪ this is how you say goodbye ♪

♪ the songs you
used to sing her ♪

♪ will never fade away ♪

♪ the fields you
walk [indistinct] ♪

♪ Were aching just to say ♪

♪ oh, don't leave
me far behind ♪

♪ you will live
and you will die ♪

♪ it's easy when you make it ♪

♪ it's easy when you break it ♪

♪ to leave your
[Indistinct] remind ♪

♪ hey ♪

♪ haah ♪

♪ hey ♪

♪ haaah ♪

♪ hey ♪

♪ haaah ♪

["The stuntman"
performed by Pete ivatts]

♪ Rough around the edges
not known for our looks ♪

♪ we jump from high ledges ♪

♪ get knocked down by trucks ♪

♪ it's a risky old life, but at
least it's the life we choose ♪

♪ you don't see our names
up there with the stars ♪

♪ but it says on the screen ♪

♪ when they're
crashing their cars ♪

♪ we work hard on the stunts ♪

♪ then we work
hard on the booze ♪

♪ they ask the impossible ♪

♪ put you through hell
but you give it a go ♪

♪ 'cause they're
payin' you well ♪

♪ it's dodgy at times ♪

♪ but it's better
than nine to five ♪

♪ we didn't have green
screens to fake our effects ♪

♪ we jumped off of rooftops
got blown up in wrecks ♪

♪ you had to be fit and put
up with a sprain or a break ♪

♪ you work it all out ♪

♪ break it down into bits ♪

♪ and try to cut out
the worst of the risks ♪

♪ and hope you could get
it all done in only one take ♪

♪ we're all independent ♪

♪ we set our own rates ♪

♪ we work for ourselves
but we still need our mates ♪

♪ we rely on each other to make
sure you come home at night ♪

♪ you're never quite
sure how long it'll last ♪

♪ so you work even with
both your legs in a cast ♪

♪ old stuntmen don't quit ♪

♪ just work harder
on getting it right ♪

♪ and when you call time
cause your body says no ♪

♪ and there's no fuel left
when the green light says go ♪

♪ you can sit in a
pub with your mates ♪

♪ and not have to fight ♪

♪ yes the stunts can be tough ♪

♪ but a stuntman's
life is all right ♪

[♪♪♪]