Action movies have always had a unique way of landing large audiences with the pure spectacle that they bring to the big screen. Many of them rely on effects, while others bring a balance to the effects, story, and characters. The ones that do this right are the ones that maintain a legacy.
Bruce Willis is an action legend, and his time in the Die Hard franchise has been amazing to see. Willis has played John McClane to perfection and has made millions while doing so. He has also gotten seriously injured and has lost some hearing as a result.
Let’s take a look back and see what caused Bruce Willis to lose some hearing back when he was filming Die Hard.
It Happened While Filming ‘Die Hard’
As one of the most legendary action actors of all time, Bruce Willis has been featured in major projects for decades now. While Willis can do a little bit of everything on the big screen, there is just something special that happens when he gears up to to save the day. However, these movies also put him in harms way, and thanks to an accident while filming Die Hard, Willis sustained permanent hearing loss.
While filming Die Hard, Willis wound up popping off a round from a gun in close quarters. This, in turn, caused a lot of lasting problems for the actor in way of his hearing being severely diminished.
When speaking about his current level of hearing, Willis said, “Due to an accident on the first Die Hard, I suffer two-thirds partial hearing loss in my left ear and have a tendency to say, 'Whaaa?'”
Not only has Willis himself noted that his hearing has been a problem since the incident, but so has his family.
His daughter, Rumer, said, “I think part of the problem is sometimes he can't hear ... because he shot a gun off next to his ear when he was doing Die Hard a long time ago, so he has partial hearing loss in his ears.”
The injury caused a lasting problem, but it went into making something much bigger than anyone was expecting.
The Film Was A Huge Success
Released back in 1988, Die Hard became one of the biggest films of the year and one of the greatest films of the entire decade. On top of that, this movie is still considered one of the greatest action movies ever made, though the debate about it being a Christmas movie will wage on forever.
Willis could not have been better as John McClane in the movie, and the rest of the cast, including the amazing Alan Rickman, all played their roles to perfection. Sure, the movie had the added benefit of being based on a novel, but it was able to stand on its own and turn into a true triumph upon its debut.
Let’s just put it this way, this film is so beloved that it was selected for preservation and was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the U.S. Library of Congress, ultimately being selected for the National Film Registry.
Thanks to the first movie being a huge success, an entire franchise was born, which, in turn, made Willis a lot of money. It also placed him in harms way more times than he would care to think about.
He’s Had Other Film Injuries
In 2002, Willis wound up sustaining an injury while working on Tears of the Sun. After being struck by a projectile during a pyrotechnics stunt, Willis wound up having “extreme mental, physical and emotional pain.” Willis even went as far as taking up a lawsuit against the studio for the incident.
Another injury took place back in 2007. Willis was working on Live Free or Die Hard, and during filming, he wound up getting into an accident. According to Access, Willis was kicked in the forehead during a fight scene. Ultimately, Willis was just sent home for the day after seeing a doctor and did not incur any lifelong injuries from the incident.
There are other injuries that the star has dealt with, just proving that making a movie is not an easy feat for anyone. Sure, there are stunt performers to take on the larger things, but actors still need to get their hands dirty, which can lead to some unsavory situations and lifelong injures in extreme cases.
Bruce Willis’ John McClane may have a huge legacy on the big screen, but we’d imagine that the actor would like to be able to hear again.