# Hugh Jackman injured during Oprah flying stunt



## mudmx1 (Dec 14, 2010)

IT was meant to be the grand entrance of all entrances - but Hugh Jackman's flying fox swoop into the Oprah Show took a painful turn.
Jackman was nearing the stage of the Oprah House when his leg struck a studio light – forcing a piece of debris into his eye.
Winfrey rushed to Jackman’s aid, with the Wolverrine star making light of his injury.
"Bono was meant to do this but they couldn’t afford the insurance,’’ Jackman told the 6000-strong audience.
"That was too much fun. It was okay until the end’’.
A medic treated Jackman on stage before stealing a hug from the Aussie star.
"I’ve never been hugged by a paramedic,’’ Jackman laughed before placing an icepack on his eye.
His whole body shook and when he abseiled onto the stage, he had hit his head. With his children watching in the audience and visibly upset, Jackman had blood from a cut above his right eye.

"Let's get some ice otherwise its going to swell," said Oprah while wiping his head. After a few minutes treatment, Jackman was back on stage and making light of it.
He said he hadn't pulled the brake hard enough. "That was so much fun until the end," he said

the video: YouTube - Jackman hurt during Oprah show stunt

Read more: Hugh Jackman hurt in Oprah stunt | News.com.au


----------



## len (Dec 14, 2010)

He can be seen having a glass of vino around the :35 mark. Because everyone knows the best cure for head injuries is Australian Merlot.


----------



## Chris15 (Dec 14, 2010)

Hugh ain't drinking no Merlot.
The clip continues that he had Oprah tasting Grange. Grange is a Shiraz with a touch of Cab Sav and is THE red wine of choice down here. Depending on the vintage, that glass of wine is probably about 200 bucks worth for a cheap vintage and up to several thousand bucks worth if it was a prized vintage. Let's just say it's no Jacob's Creek


----------



## Footer (Dec 14, 2010)

Chris15 said:


> Hugh ain't drinking no Merlot.
> The clip continues that he had Oprah tasting Grange. Grange is a Shiraz with a touch of Cab Sav and is THE red wine of choice down here. Depending on the vintage, that glass of wine is probably about 200 bucks worth for a cheap vintage and up to several thousand bucks worth if it was a prized vintage. Let's just say it's no Jacob's Creek


 
What! You guys don't just sit around and drink Little Penguin and wash it down with Fosters while grilling shrimp over hot coals and slaying crocks? 

That stop would have hurt a good amount. He was moving at a pretty high click when he stopped. Looks to be a simple zip line.


----------



## gafftaper (Dec 14, 2010)

I just turned on the bat signal for What Rigger?. He works with similar devices all the time. So it would be very interesting to get his take on how the mechanism works, what went wrong, and how it could be done safer.


----------



## Sony (Dec 14, 2010)

From what the article said Jackman was controlling his own speed and neglected to hit the brakes hard enough. Seems like this was a clear case of user error unless there was some failure with the carriage which it doesn't seem like.


----------



## MNicolai (Dec 14, 2010)

Sony said:


> From what the article said Jackman was controlling his own speed and neglected to hit the brakes hard enough. Seems like this was a clear case of user error unless there was some failure with the carriage which it doesn't seem like.


 
Let's not get carried away and presume no one was at fault other than Hugh. If he did not clearly understand when and how to apply the brake, someone insufficiently trained him prior to the stunt. If he hit a lighting fixture, someone also placed a lighting fixture unacceptably close to the path of the line.

Claiming "user error" is fine for PR purposes, but had he wound up in the hospital or more seriously injured, that explanation wouldn't fly.


----------



## Van (Dec 14, 2010)

Holy Crap! He was Flying! < moving real fast that is.> Who put that light there? and why was it so close to his path? Everything on a flying rig setup should be well out of potential range of impact. Speed wasn't really the factor here, proximity to objects was.


----------



## DuckJordan (Dec 14, 2010)

It was most likely thought up day of the show, and probably not very well planned. Its an unfortunate accident and while placing the blame is good for deciding who to sue, its definitely a bunch of peoples faults. Who said it was the light guy's problem its quite possible they weren't notified, and who said its the riggers problem, its also just as possible that he was told by the star himself that he had been trained to do it, and in the rush didn't make 100%.

So instead of jumping on the blame train, lets look at how this could have been avoided or done differently.


----------



## Van (Dec 14, 2010)

Duck have you ever worked in, or with an Austrailian Production crew ? OC requires them to do a 'Risk asessment' for everything in on or around the stage. If there is a cable run your risk asessment must include a listing of any and all possible accidents that might occour as a result of that cable lying there, in addition at least two ways to minimize the possibility of harm occourring in the first place. Something like a zip line over the stage is not a 'Last minute add' . The 'Blame Game' is quite often the first step in discovering how to avoid having the same issue ocour again.


----------



## DuckJordan (Dec 14, 2010)

Van said:


> Duck have you ever worked in, or with an Austrailian Production crew ? OC requires them to do a 'Risk asessment' for everything in on or around the stage. If there is a cable run your risk asessment must include a listing of any and all possible accidents that might occour as a result of that cable lying there, in addition at least two ways to minimize the possibility of harm occourring in the first place. Something like a zip line over the stage is not a 'Last minute add' . The 'Blame Game' is quite often the first step in discovering how to avoid having the same issue ocour again.


 

But was it an austrailian crew that put it together?


----------



## Van (Dec 14, 2010)

Were they in Australia ? Then I guaranttee it was an Aussie crew. Or there was a Aussie crewman for every American there. They actualy support their Labor force, down under.


----------



## Van (Dec 14, 2010)

Oh, and, Who in the Heck let's an Actor be incharge of their own descent speed ? THAT is Crazy !


----------



## gafftaper (Dec 14, 2010)

Yeah this was filmed down under in front of The Sidney Oprah house (temporarily renamed for the day ). 


> He claimed that the response from the audience caused him to lose his concentration and hit the brake a second too late, "That was so much fun - until the end," he said. "I came down waving to everyone, looking over Sydney Harbour, saw my dad, the kids and you, went to pull the brake and then boing."


Sounds like he was in total control which is probably a bad idea for a one off stunt. I also have to agree that you don't just set something up like this at the last second, that's a "well planed" stunt. Check out this video from an Aussie news report. He's on that zip line for a long distance. Also note that the local reaction is laughter! Oh you crazy Aussies! 


Best of all the reporter on the scene is named Hughsie. It's good to see things worked out well for him.


----------



## What Rigger? (Dec 14, 2010)

I'm late running out the door to a million things, but I could NOT let this pass without shooting off a reply (and my mouth) before jetting out to get the kiddo.

At first glimpse, yes, it looks like Logan...uh, I mean Mr. Jackman didn't get on the brake hard enough/early enough.

I've worked with a rig VERY similar to this and might have had a few "late stops" (ahem) myself. (Derek, I'm referring to the slide at Dueling Pirates from the top of the mast to the audience, FYI). God, it's embarassing. 

Also, this is NOT the first time that Oprah and ziplines have equalled less-than-stellar results: (semi-language warning: Vajayjay)
YouTube - vajayjay

Let this be another lesson that it can all go wrong REAL quick when you're moving people through the air. More later!


----------



## gafftaper (Dec 14, 2010)

My guess is, they didn't have time to rehearse this, but he's Wolverine, he's done lots of stunts so he's happy to do a "simple" zipline. He got out of his limo, they put on the harness, and said pull the break when you pass point "x". He was having too much fun, didn't pull the break, and got going so fast he swung up into the lights when he did finally come to a stop. 

Whatrigger? mentioned getting going to fast on his own once or twice, but that was part of a well rehearsed show, not a one off with no rehearsal. In my experience doing Peter Pan last year, we cut several tricks because our flight director felt it wasn't safe to attempt them with our short rehearsal schedule. Seems to me that the simple answer here is whomever set up the flight shouldn't have let him be in charge of his own break without a proper rehearsal.


----------



## Chris15 (Dec 14, 2010)

To echo what Van said, there would have been risk assessments done. What Van experienced with STC is a fraction of what you need when mounting a production at the Opera House. They regularly have Workcover (think OSHA down here) visit to show people how OH&S is done properly.

You also don't get onto the sails of the house without a fair bit of paperwork. Funny, I thought there was an unusual perturbance on the Bennelong sail last night on the train over the bridge. I thought it was camera platform, it seems it was fly rig instead.

Remember too folks that here in Australia we don't instantly turn to the question of who we can sue. Something like this will be covered under a workers compensation policy somewhere and so having to sue to recover costs isn't as necessary as it may be for you guys on the states...

Oh and I GUARANTEE this was not a last minute add on. The stage Oprah was on is a temporary stage and there is no way in hell ESS would have allowed the fly rig to be anchored to the grid without having known about it and done the load analysis to cope with a fair few kN of force pulling the grid in one direction... I'd be interested to know whether it was Pollards or Showtech who rigged it, chances are it's Pollards in Sydney. I doubt it would be the SOH rigging dept, good as they are, human flight is not in their normal expertise and they are smart enough to know that...


----------



## What Rigger? (Dec 16, 2010)

DuckJordan said:


> It was most likely thought up day of the show, and probably not very well planned. Its an unfortunate accident and while placing the blame is good for deciding who to sue, its definitely a bunch of peoples faults. Who said it was the light guy's problem its quite possible they weren't notified, and who said its the riggers problem, its also just as possible that he was told by the star himself that he had been trained to do it, and in the rush didn't make 100%.
> 
> So instead of jumping on the blame train, lets look at how this could have been avoided or done differently.


 
Nothing like this gets thought up "day of". You can't just pull a rig like that ...wait for it...out of thin air! Besides, the amount of pre-production legwork would require way more lead in time than rolling in at 5a.m. and going..."Hey! I know! Let's do a zip line!"


----------



## What Rigger? (Dec 16, 2010)

Chris15 said:


> To echo what Van said, there would have been risk assessments done. What Van experienced with STC is a fraction of what you need when mounting a production at the Opera House. They regularly have Workcover (think OSHA down here) visit to show people how OH&S is done properly.
> 
> You also don't get onto the sails of the house without a fair bit of paperwork. Funny, I thought there was an unusual perturbance on the Bennelong sail last night on the train over the bridge. I thought it was camera platform, it seems it was fly rig instead.
> 
> ...


 
Chris, you're awesome. Couldn't have said it better myself. But I think I just did say it again below...dang.


----------



## What Rigger? (Dec 16, 2010)

gafftaper said:


> My guess is, they didn't have time to rehearse this, but he's Wolverine, he's done lots of stunts so he's happy to do a "simple" zipline. He got out of his limo, they put on the harness, and said pull the break when you pass point "x". He was having too much fun, didn't pull the break, and got going so fast he swung up into the lights when he did finally come to a stop.
> 
> Whatrigger? mentioned getting going to fast on his own once or twice, but that was part of a well rehearsed show, not a one off with no rehearsal. In my experience doing Peter Pan last year, we cut several tricks because our flight director felt it wasn't safe to attempt them with our short rehearsal schedule. Seems to me that the simple answer here is whomever set up the flight shouldn't have let him be in charge of his own break without a proper rehearsal.


 
Who says I was properly rehearsed??? Do you have any idea the stupid things I did all. the. time. ten years ago???


----------



## gafftaper (Dec 17, 2010)

What Rigger? said:


> Who says I was properly rehearsed??? Do you have any idea the stupid things I did all. the. time. ten years ago???


 
Sounds like you need to start a "things you should never do" blog!


----------



## maccalder (Dec 17, 2010)

Showtech did the rigging (or was at least heavily involved) - the rigger that is visible in that clip is Tiny Good (founder of Showtech).

Personally, I would have thought that a non-user operated safety brake would have been put in (something which triggers at a set distance from the end of the line), and that there would have been some rubber on the end of the zip-line to catch the runner and slow him at the end as well (cushion the blow as it were) as well as a rigger playing catcher. That said, I was not there and don't know the exact circumstances. One can only wait and see what WorkSafe come back with when the investigation is done.


----------



## What Rigger? (Dec 18, 2010)

gafftaper said:


> Sounds like you need to start a "things you should never do" blog!


 
This is a legit idea....let me chew on it and make sure I don't violate TOS. 
Wow...I've actually got a LOT of those kinds of stories. Sad.


----------



## Sony (Dec 18, 2010)

What Rigger? said:


> Wow...I've actually got a LOT of those kinds of stories. Sad.



I think virtually everyone does...I know I do.

I actually think this is a great idea. As thy say "Those who do not learn history, are bound to repeat it." or something like that


----------



## What Rigger? (Dec 18, 2010)

Now THIS is how you do it. I've seen photo/vid of the MONSTER shock-absorber/stoppers at the end of these things. Dear Lord...
YouTube - BOOTLEG CANYON FLIGHTLINES #1

But I still think this is the top. Pardon the pun.
Jumping off the Stratosphere. 850 feet to the ground at 40mph on a HUMONGOUS descender.
YouTube - #124 jump off the stratosphere SKYJUMP LAS VEGAS

Lordy, I do miss Vegas.


----------



## gafftaper (Dec 19, 2010)

I didn't know you could jump ALL the way down the Stratosphere, I would have totaly done that at LDI. That looks Flippin' Sweet. 

Hey, there should be a zip line that takes you from the top of the Stratosphere to the pool at Mandaly Bay!


----------



## What Rigger? (Dec 20, 2010)

I don't normally endorse this, but...oh, who am I fooling? I was reading my _wife's_ copy of the new People magazine (Best of 2010, Sandra B on the cover) and on page 15 is a gi-normous photo of HJ on the rig, brake lever in hand, looking like he is having WAY too much fun. The rig looks totally bomber, so I will have to agree he was having too much of a good time and didn't get on the brake early/hard enough.

It happens in drag racing too. But that's why there are parachutes above 150 mph.


----------



## ruinexplorer (Dec 22, 2010)

gafftaper said:


> I didn't know you could jump ALL the way down the Stratosphere, I would have totaly done that at LDI. That looks Flippin' Sweet.
> 
> Hey, there should be a zip line that takes you from the top of the Stratosphere to the pool at Mandaly Bay!



Not that far, but you can do the Freemont Street Experience on a zip line. If you want something more scenic, you could try the one in Boulder City by the same group.


----------

