{"id":14656,"date":"2025-11-21T03:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=14656"},"modified":"2025-11-21T03:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:01:15","slug":"inside-the-terrifying-warm-oil-scene-that-almost-drowned-sylvester-stallone-and-the-1985-dolph-lundgren-punch-he-says-nearly-stopped-his-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=14656","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Terrifying \u2018Warm Oil\u2019 Scene That Almost Drowned Sylvester Stallone\u2014And the 1985 Dolph Lundgren Punch He Says Nearly Stopped His Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sylvester Stallone<\/span><\/span><\/b> has consistently risked his life for cinematic greatness, performing his own death-defying stunts throughout his action-star career.<\/span><\/span> The actor recently broke down the two most dangerous moments he ever faced on screen, one involving a near-drowning incident and the other a notorious punch that landed him in the Intensive Care Unit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Near-Drowning Horror of <\/span>Demolition Man<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Stallone, 79, revealed that his 1993 sci-fi action flick, <\/span><\/span>Demolition Man<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/b> , co-starring Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock, contained what he considered the two most dangerous stunts of his career, mainly because the set involved operating, <\/span><\/span>practical props<\/span><\/span><\/b> .<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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One scene involving his character, John Spartan, being caught in a “giant claw” during a fight with Snipes’ Simon Phoenix.<\/span><\/span> Stallone explained that the metal claws were controlled by live hydraulics and “really worked,” posing a serious risk of real injury.<\/span><\/span> \u201cThe hydraulics will go sideways, and the strength of those metal claws will tear you up,\u201d he recalled.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The second, more terrifying moment involved a round cryo-tub.<\/span><\/span>Stallone was placed inside a container made of “thick plexiglass” that “you couldn’t break with a sledgehammer.” <\/span>The container was then filled with <\/span><\/span>“warm oil”<\/span><\/span><\/b> to simulate the thawing process.<\/span><\/span> The danger was acute: the lid was <\/span><\/span>bolted on<\/span><\/span><\/b> , making escape impossible.<\/span><\/span> If the oil reached past his nose and failed to stop within 30 seconds, Stallone faced certain drowning.<\/span><\/span> As a backup, two crew members stood nearby with sledgehammers and hatchets.<\/span><\/span> After the scene was done, Stallone challenged them to break the plexiglass.<\/span><\/span> He recalled, “Of course, they hit it 20 times and couldn’t crack it.” A technical malfunction could have been fatal.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Punch That Stopped a Heart<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

More legendary than the <\/span>Demolition Man<\/span><\/i> close calls is the 1985 punch that defines the intensity of <\/span>Rocky IV<\/span><\/i><\/b> . Stallone, who also directed the film, wanted the final fight against the towering Russian villain Ivan Drago, played by <\/span>Dolph Lundgren<\/span><\/b> , to look absolutely authentic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To achieve this, Stallone infamously condemned Lundgren to forget the choreography and ” <\/span>just go out there and try to clock me<\/span><\/b> ” for the first minute of the fight. Lundgren complied with scary efficiency. <\/span>Stallone later claimed the powerful punch landed by the actor (a former competitive karate expert) hit him so hard it ” <\/span><\/span>almost stopped my heart<\/span><\/span><\/b> .”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The injury was severe. <\/span>Stallone was forced onto a low-altitude plane to the emergency room, where he spent <\/span><\/span>four days in intensive care<\/span><\/span><\/b> .<\/span><\/span>Doctors later told him the injury, which involved his heart swelling and banging against his ribcage, was typically only seen in victims of head-on car collisions. Stallone quipped, “I said, ‘Close. <\/span>I did hit a bus, of sorts.'” The famous punch remains one of the most serious physical risks Stallone has ever taken for a role.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Sylvester Stallone has consistently risked his life for cinematic greatness, performing his own death-defying stunts throughout his action-star career. The actor recently broke down the two most dangerous moments he ever faced on screen, one involving a near-drowning incident and the other a notorious punch that landed him in the Intensive Care Unit. The Near-Drowning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}