Patrick Swayze almost died six times on the set of ‘Point Break’
Back in 1991, one of the greatest, if not the single greatest, action movies was released. Kathryn Bigelow directed Point Break, the high-tension surf-cop movie written by W. Peter Iliff and starring Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty and Garry Bussey.
It tells of a young undercover FBI agent by the name of Johnny Utah (played by Reeves), who takes on a job investigating a group of surfers who live double lives as bank robbers in a gang known as ‘The Dead Presidents’. Point Break is simply a marvel; the action, the surfing, the cheesy dialogue, it’s all simply perfect for an action flick.
In a bonus feature from the Point Break DVD, Swayze once explained that he nearly died as many as six times whilst making Point Break and featuring in some of its most death-defying stunts, even though he did indeed have a stunt double on set to help him out with the trickiest ones.
“It’s very funny because I had to battle insurance companies to get to do the skydiving in the movie, and I never came close to dying once,” Swayze said. However, it was necessarily the skydiving that posed the biggest threat to the actors, but the giant waves that they would have to conquer.
“But they never said one word about me getting my brains pounded in by the biggest surf on this planet,” the actor said. It’s fair to say that Point Break has some seriously gnarly moments of surfing. In fact, Swayze’s character is killed by the biggest wave of the year at the film’s conclusion.
“I almost died six to ten times,” Swayze admitted. “I thought I was outta here. I had this bone in my sternum that I almost injured being on much bigger waves than I had any business being on.” Still, though, it’s a testament to the actor’s bravery that he took on the waves, even knowing the damage he might take in riding them.
On riding the biggest waves, Swayze noted, “So we had to groove out my surfboard, build up my wetsuit to try and get me off that bone, but of course, it’s not possible. Every time you try to turtle through a wave, it just slams you.” Ouch. Still, that reality of surfing is what makes Point Break one of the greatest, if not the greatest, action movies of all time. It’s certainly a must-watch of the genre.
Check out the Point Break trailer below.
