“Rust” trial: Fatal shots have been fired in Hollywood for 110 years

The fatal shot that Alec Baldwin fired at camerawoman Halyna Hutchins in autumn 2021 still resonates – and not just legally. On the one hand, the Hollywood star has to answer to the court for negligent homicide starting today (more below), on the other hand, the fatal, because sharp, bullet brings an often repressed fact into focus: people die again and again in the service of Hollywood’s action and stunt cinema.

From 1990 to 2014, 43 people died on a US film and TV set. At the same time, 194 serious accidents were recorded. As early as the 1910s, the urge to provide audiences with the most realistic images possible caused seven accidents. Two were fatal, one of them on the set of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Captive” (1915) due to live ammunition. An extra had forgotten it in a rifle.

Given that there are several hundred US productions per year, fatal tragedies are no longer a regular occurrence, but they are characteristic of the system. But how can incidents occur? It often affects the real professionals who, in their absolute routine, think: “It’s fine as it is. But then we’re missing that little bit of luck and fate strikes,” says Tom Hanslmaier.

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