Director John Landis talking with the fire service (Image: Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)
Twilight Zone: The Movie is a title that will eternally remain shrouded in cinematic notoriety.
Based on the television programme of the same name and co-helmed by Steven Spielberg, John Landis, George Miller and Joe Dante, the production was to feature a sequence where Bill Connor, portrayed by Vic Morrow, saved two youngsters from an American helicopter.
However, catastrophe occurred during shooting, claiming all three lives in harrowing circumstances.
The tragedy unfolded at 2:20am on July 23, 1982. Filming at Indian Dunes, California, Morrow, 53, was supposed to carry child performers Myca Dinh Le, seven, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, six, to safety from a low-flying helicopter, piloted by Vietnam veteran Dorcey Wingo.
John Landis, who was directing the scene, purportedly instructed Wingo to fly closer to the ground than he was comfortable with, reports the Mirror.
Vic Morrow was a screen legend (Image: undefined)
While the pursuit was being captured on camera, a scheduled pyrotechnic was detonated to simulate a mortar bomb. Nevertheless, the explosive ignited before the helicopter had sufficient time to manoeuvre clear of it.
Fragments from the special effects mortar hit the helicopter’s tail rotor, causing the aircraft to spiral out of control.
As the 2,500 kilogramme helicopter plummeted to earth, its 15 metre long rotor blades sliced through Morrow’s and Le’s neck, decapitating them both.
Chen, who was avoided by the rotors, was instead hit by the fuselage of the aircraft and was crushed and killed beneath its enormous weight. The parents of both children had been present on set during filming and witnessed their children’s deaths.
The film went on to be a box office smash (Image: MADWORLD1427/Youtube)
None of them had been told a helicopter or explosives would feature in the scene.
Following the tragedy, it emerged Landis had breached child labour laws to secure the children’s presence on set and concealed their involvement from firefighters and welfare workers who were on standby.
The disaster led to a 10-month trial in which Landis and four others involved in the film’s production were ultimately acquitted of manslaughter, marking the first occasion a film director faced trial for an on-set accident.
Throughout the trial, a group of 16 prominent filmmakers, including Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, John Huston, George Lucas, Sidney Lumet and Billy Wilder, penned a public letter expressing their support for Landis.
However, Spielberg declined to sign the letter, saying: “No movie is worth dying for. I think people are standing up much more now than ever before to producers and directors who ask too much.
“If something isn’t safe, it’s the right and responsibility of every actor or crew member to yell ‘cut!'”.
Following the criminal trial, the families of Le and Chen launched a civil lawsuit against the producers and directors. They reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum, though it is reported both families received millions of pounds.
The National Transportation Safety Board published its conclusions on the incident in October 1984, finding the “probable cause of the accident was the detonation of debris-laden high-temperature special effects explosions too near a low-flying helicopter.”
Seven-year-old Myca Dinh Le and six-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen (Image: Wikipedia)
This had resulted in “foreign object damage to one rotor blade and delamination due to heat to the other rotor blade, the separation of the helicopter’s tail rotor assembly, and the uncontrolled descent of the helicopter.”
The report added: “The proximity of the helicopter (around 25 feet off the ground) to the special effects explosions was due to the failure to establish direct communications and coordination between the pilot, who was in command of the helicopter operation, and the film director, who was in charge of the filming operation.”
Despite the tragedy, filming continued and the picture was released in cinemas on June 24, 1983, less than a year following the fatalities.
The horror crash (Image: Wikipedia)
The film garnered mixed reviews and was described as a “flabby, mini-minded behemoth” by the New York Times.
Nevertheless, it proved a box office hit, taking $42 million from a budget of $10 million.
Spielberg personally withdrew from the film and was “disgusted” by Landis’s conduct. Although it was Spielberg who had originally brought Landis onto the project, he terminated their friendship shortly afterwards.
