Thirty-two years since its release, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most action-packed on-set moments from True Lies is still talked about as an example of how practical stunt work was risked in the 1990s.

According to a SYFY report, the accident took place when the crew members set up a shot featuring Schwarzenegger while riding a horse on the roof. The camera arm hit the horse's nose, and the horse turned around and jumped onto a ramp without guardrails for support.

It took years for Schwarzenegger to address the near-miss. "That's why I will always love stunt people," he wrote in a 2014 Reddit AMA. Schwarzenegger wrote about the people who helped him during that time and did not make the shoot turn tragic.

Schwarzenegger lost his balance in the chaotic moment, and a stuntman saved him from falling off the building's edge.

The moment embodies everything unique about James Cameron's era of filmmaking: the use of live horses, height, and danger, all in one rooftop shot.

And even after three decades, it remains one of the bravest yet most frightening behind-the-scenes moments in the movie.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's 3 Stunts Nearly Cost Him a Finger

The rooftop horse scare in True Lies wasn't the only production in which Arnold Schwarzenegger walked away from a stunt gone wrong.

After almost a decade, during Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, a minor practical effect turned out to be one of the most painful moments of Schwarzenegger's career.

In an interview with Black Film, Schwarzenegger revealed one instance of the shootout that involved small explosive charges hidden under the coffin. And one of them exploded right under his hand.

"I felt unbelievable pain and this explosion going off underneath my finger, and I'm absolutely convinced that if I hadn't had leather gloves, my fingers would've been with that explosion," he said.

His hand came out bruised, but thankfully no fingers were lost, so he didn't need treatment. In contrast to previous installments of The Terminator series, this time around, his regular stuntman was not around, and Schwarzenegger was forced to endure the accident himself.

Follow Bodybuilding Bros for all things fitness!

Written by

Proma Chatterjee

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil