A Walt Disney World Cast Member was injured yesterday after being struck by a prop boulder during the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The Cast Member leaped into action when the 400lb boulder jumped the tracks during an opening scene of the show. Here’s what we know.
Cast Member Injured During Indiana Jones Stunt Show Incident
According to reports on social media, the incident occurred during the 4:30pm show on December 30th at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While the stunt is designed to make it look like the stunt double for Indiana Jones barely escapes the rolling boulder, something went wrong during this show that caused a 400lb rubber prop boulder to jump the track and bounce toward the audience.
Here’s a photo of one of the movable set pieces for the temple scene that opens the show. During the show, the Indiana Jones stunt double reenacts the iconic Golden Idol scene from the Raiders of the Lost Ark film. After the stunt double grabs the idol, the doors of the temple open and a 400lb rubber prop boulder comes barreling down the tracks seen below.
During a typical show, the Indiana Jones stunt double narrowly avoids being run over by the boulder, creating suspense along the way. It’s typically a pitch-perfect recreation of an iconic movie moment.
Here’s our video of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular when it returned following COVID-19 shutdowns back in 2021. We’ve timestamped the video below to the scene with the boulder.
During the 4:30pm show on December 30th, a quick-thinking Cast Member put himself in danger by attempting to stop the runaway boulder before it bounced into the audience and potentially injured multiple guests. Videos posted to social media show the boulder shooting out of a backstage door opening, as usual. However, instead of traveling down the track seen above, the boulder appears to hit a part of the set facade, causing it to be thrown off course, jump off the hidden track, and start bouncing toward guests.
It’s at this point that videos show the Cast Member immediately leap into action, putting himself between the boulder and guests. As the boulder continued to bounce toward guests, the Cast Member eventually threw himself against the boulder, redirecting it away from the audience. The force of the impact of the boulder sent the Cast Member flying backward, where he appeared to hit his head either on the ground or on a nearby low wall.
After the Cast Member was knocked down, other Cast Members can be seen running to help him. A video posted to social media shows the impacted Cast Member being helped up by other Cast Members. He appeared to be bleeding from his head as he walked to a backstage area.
UPDATE (12/31 at 1pm): Walt Disney World has released the following statement:
We’re focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering. Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened.
As a quick aside, I believe that the actions of the Cast Member are nothing short of heroic. As evidenced by his injuries, the boulder was a very dangerous threat to guests in the audience. Had it not been for the actions of this singular Cast Member, it’s very possible that guests in the audience could have been gravely injured instead.
More so than perhaps any other show that I’ve seen at Walt Disney World, the Cast and crew of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular are absolute professionals. You simply cannot have a stunt show survive three decades of change at Walt Disney World without a team of professionals to perform and carry out the show in a safe manner.
Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that a boulder has jumped the tracks at the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. In an incident years ago, the Indiana Jones stunt actor appeared to miss the mark during the “close call” boulder stunt, causing the boulder to impact the actor, sending the boulder bouncing toward the audience. That incident appeared to end safely with no injuries.
Following the incident, Walt Disney World is now operating the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular without the boulder as the safety team completes a review of what occurred. We have video of the modified show below.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
