I'm the real Indiana (when I'm not busy being James Bond or Superman): Legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong reveals the secrets behind those amazing heroics

By VIC ARMSTRONG
Updated: 17:01 EST, 7 May 2011

Daredevil: Vic Armstrong doubling for Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones on the rope bridge that forms the dramatic climax to Temple of Doom

Dangling over an icy precipice, dodging hungry sharks or leaping off a bridge is just another day at the office for Vic Armstrong. For 45 years, he has put his life on the line as a stuntman, bringing us some of the most spine-tingling moments in film history.

He's taught, guided  -  and stood in for  -  Hollywood stars including Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Sean Connery, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford and Christopher Reeve.

Vic's death-defying work has earned him an Oscar and a Bafta lifetime achievement award. Now, in an exhilarating new book, he tells how an English boy who was good at riding horses ended up as a Hollywood hero...

Off to a galloping start with Sophia Loren

My ticket into the adrenaline-fuelled world of blockbuster films was the fact that I could ride. Horses had always been part of our family life in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire  -  my father Robert was farrier to the British Olympic team and later bought and sold horses  -  and I was riding before I could even walk.

In 1966, when I was 20, I got a call from the chief stuntman on Arabesque which was being filmed nearby. He explained that the horses they had hired for the film were useless old nags that couldn't jump over their own shadow, so he wanted to borrow one of our horses. He then offered me a job as a stunt double  -  that was how I had landed my first film, at £20 a day.

The stars were Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren and I had to hold the horses while they did their close-ups. Peck was in the saddle with Sophia holding on behind, which made the horse buck.

Sophia looked at me: 'Veek, Veek, why is the horse bucking?' she asked.
I don't think I can repeat what I replied, but luckily she laughed.

A Bridge too Far  -  and a parachute too low

The Second World War epic A Bridge Too Far was a huge stepping stone for me because I was both stuntman and stunt co-ordinator.

Released in 1977, it was one of the biggest films of its time. It cost £25million to make and had massive action set pieces such as the taking of Nijmegen Bridge by American marines who crossed the Rhine in canvas boats. We used the same boats as the marines  -  which was dangerous because the current was extremely strong.

One of the big sequences was the parachute jump that involved 2,500 people. I was doubling Ryan O'Neal, and had to be filmed landing. Instead of me jumping out of a plane, the plan was for my parachute to be attached by little hooks on to a ring, which a crane lifted 80ft in the air. I'd then be released, the parachute would fill with air and I'd land safely. Well, that was the idea.

Feel the power: Vic worked on the first two Superman movies

The day of the mass drop was windy and, as I was yanked up, the parachute started flapping about. Suddenly  -  ping, ping, ping  -  three of the hooks came loose. A few minutes later, more came out.

I must have been there for 15 minutes waiting for the planes to fly over and everybody else to bale out, while more hooks were popping off. The crew finally pressed the release button and I went into free fall but, because so many hooks had ripped off, only half the parachute was full of air, and it sheared off sideways and backwards.

From 80ft up I must have gone 200ft sideways. I didn't land in front of the cameras but backwards on a road, whacktooking my head on the ground. I was just happy to be alive. 

How I turned into Harrison Ford

For years, Hollywood actors refused to admit they had stunt doubles. It took the likes of Harrison Ford to speak up and say: 'I don't do the stunts, Vic Armstrong does.'

I came to be involved with the Indiana Jones films because the producers said I looked, walked and acted like the lead man.

Even his clothes fitted me. As Harrison himself put it: 'If you learn to talk I'm in deep trouble.' My biggest moment came when Steven Spielberg was directing Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom in 1984.

Awesome twosome: Vic and Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - with a quirky signature from Ford himself

It was after we had filmed the most spectacular stunt, set on a rope bridge in Sri Lanka. The bridge had taken months and thousands of pounds to build, but it was gone in one take when Indie (played by me) slashed it in half.

But when we returned to London to continue filming, Harrison couldn't work. He had a herniated disc and would be out of action for three weeks: the film was facing a crisis.

I was able to come to the rescue. I put on Indy's gear and they shot me in the lead role for several weeks before Harrison returned for his close-ups.

The physical resemblance meant that after Raiders Of The Lost Ark, the first Indiana Jones film in 1981, I worked as a double for Harrison whatever he was starring in.

I did Blade Runner in 1982, for example. Harrison had started working on another film and the studio needed some 'pick up' shots of him, so they flew over from Los Angeles, where the movie was made, and rebuilt some of the sets at Pinewood just for me to double as Harrison.

I also worked on 1983's Star Wars: Episode VI  -  Return Of The Jedi and, on the last night of shooting, I went to the pub with the crew. Harrison joined us. We were outside when he said: 'You stunt guys are lucky. All the girls fancy you.' I said: 'You are joking, aren't you? You're Harrison Ford!'

'No, nobody ever knows who I am,' he replied.

I said: 'What a load of nonsense, you're recognised in a heartbeat.'

'I'm not, you know,' insisted Harrison. 'Watch this.' With that he shouted over at two young ladies walking into the pub. Harrison pointed to himself and said: 'Indiana Jones, Han Solo, Harrison Ford.'

'Yeah, right,' was the response, and they carried on walking.

'See, I told you,' he said. 'Nobody recognises me.' 

Rambo, polo and a dead goat

For Rambo III in 1988 the budget was $60 million. When we filmed the battle climax in Arizona the logistics were massive.

There were 5,000 people and 5,000 horses in the field. We did not have one mishap with special effects but, by the end of the first day, six people had been taken to hospital with broken ribs and ruptured spleens after falling off horses.

Old friends: Vic with Sylvester Stallone on Rambo III, then the most expensive film every made

But Sylvester Stallone was in his polo phase at the time and we taught him to ride well.

You see Rambo bend down and pick up a dead goat off the ground at full gallop  -  Sly did it for real. 

Working with Tom is a cruise

I had worked with Tom Cruise on War Of The Worlds in 2005 and knew he was able to handle the action, so I designed every stunt for him in Mission: Impossible III in 2006.

Tom is great with heights, so we had him jump off an 80ft building on a decelerator, a piece of kit using cables to slow the fall. That took courage, because nothing kicks in for 60ft and you're free-falling until the last few feet, when it slows and eventually stops.

Another stunt that took guts to perform was shot at the Vatican in Rome. Tom runs at a wall and fires a hook to the top. It's got a wire attached to his chest, with an electric pulley that enables him to run horizontally upwards. With Tom safely on top, we changed locations to Caserta just outside
Rome, where we built a 75ft wall. Lying on his back at the top, Tom rolls off and falls, face first.

There's a wire, hooked to his back, that stops him an inch from the ground.

If anything had gone wrong it could have been the end of my career. Tom's chest just touches the ground and a little puff of dust comes up. The audience did not appreciate the extent of what Tom did, because they assumed it was digital trickery. But we can put our hands on our hearts and say, Tom did it. 

The best job a man could get

It was 1978 and The Stud was being filmed in London, when the assistant director Vincent Winter called me.

'Joan Collins has thrown a wobbler,' he said. 'She doesn't like the guy who's her masseur, said he's gay, she wants someone more masculine. Would you do it?'

What a job: Vic was on hand to give Joan Collins a massage on the set of her film The Stud

I'd never massaged anyone in my life. I turned up, they put me in a white smock and there was Joan Collins completely naked.

I gave her a massage and was paid stunt money for it; terrific. My mates were jealous. They would have paid just to be in the room watching.

Old tricks for a new Spider-Man

When I first joined the film business, stuntmen were still using trip wires to make horses fall. They also used 'toe tappers'  -  that's where a hole was drilled in the front hoof and a cable attached to it, which the rider pulled as the horse was galloping. This made the horse do a somersault.

These practices are now outlawed, and rightly so. The only way to do these stunts now is to teach the horse to fall.

But the old techniques could be wonderfully inventive. I once watched a Hammer horror movie in which a guy has his arm chopped off. They had found a real amputee, stuck a false forearm on him, nailed it to the pike he was holding and then slashed it away. I was impressed and used the method in 2002's Gangs Of New York.

And a trick involving polystyrene cups still works brilliantly when you're staging a fall. Hal Needham, one of the greatest stuntmen, showed me how to do it: you dig a hole about the size and shape of a mattress, then fill it with upturned polystyrene cups placed about a foot from each other.

Then you put a layer of cardboard boxes folded flat over the top of it and replace the earth. When you jump or fall on to this contraption, the cups collapse and absorb a lot of the impact. That's how Nicolas Cage does a fall in 2001's Captain Corelli's Mandolin, on which I was second unit director.

I'm currently working on Spider-Man 4  -  to be released next year  -  and the traditional tricks of my trade have inspired me to go back to basics. In previous Spider-Man films they relied too much on computer-generated imagery and it looked ridiculous.

So we're developing ways for the new Spider-Man to swing, move and climb up buildings like a proper, old-fashioned stuntman. 

I do my own stunts: Angelina Jolie seen hanging from a window as she performs scenes for her movie 'Salt'

Angelina's Jolie brave

Angelina Jolie starred in the 2010 movie Salt, about a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy. She was happy to learn Muay Thai for the film, even though it's a martial art where you use your knees, head, elbows  -  just about everything.

In one scene, Angelina has to crawl along the window ledge of a tall apartment block. She did it  -  and proved she's got nerves of steel.

She said: 'When Vic says, "Go out that window," and you're 30 floors up, you think, "Yes, sir." And you step out on the ledge. When you've made it back and completed a good stunt, he smiles at you and you feel on top of the world.' 

My secret mission: Jump off a 1.500ft cliff

James Bond gave me some of my first big film jobs. I played a ninja in 1967's You Only Live Twice, filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, then, in 1969, I found myself doubling the new 007, George Lazenby, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

It was an introduction to real danger. I performed the stunt that comes at the end of the big ski chase when Bond jumps off a cliff and ends up hanging from the edge. I couldn't walk out to see over the edge because I'd leave footprints in the snow, so my jump was going to be a leap of faith. I hooked the safety cable round my ankle and ran towards the edge. As I neared the precipice, the snow beneath me gave way and I fell earlier  -  and further  -  than planned.

All I could see was a 1,500ft drop and my heart nearly stopped because I thought the cable had snapped.

Injuries are common in my trade, many of them fatal. But I've been fortunate, even though I've broken my shin, my arm, my nose, my collarbone and my ribs.

Live And Let Die, released in 1973, was a painful experience. Roger Moore is tied up with Solitaire, played by Jane Seymour, on a platform hanging over a shark pool. Using a buzz-saw in his watch, Bond cuts the rope and then somersaults across to land and confront the villain.

However, the platform wasn't braced well and gave way under me as I was doing the somersault. As a result, my feet smashed into the ground, cracking my heels and crushing the pads under them. It was absolute agony.

In 1999, I ran the action unit for The World Is Not Enough, which is famous for its boat chase on the Thames. It was a huge project, with 60 boats. Maria Grazia Cucinotta, who played the female assassin, had to trust us completely when she drove off down the river at high speed with a stuntman crouched at her feet  -  out of shot but ready to take over if things got out of control.

I spy: Vic with Pierce Brosnan while making the world is not enough

The whole thing was real: the only computer-generated images were the torpedoes that Bond fires, because the authorities wouldn't let us use real ones.

In 1983 I doubled for Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again and jumped with a horse 40ft into the sea in Almeria, Spain. The horse was calm as I walked him up to the trap door that was going to release us. But as we slid out, his reaction was to try to rear up.

I couldn't jump clear: I had to stay with him and hold his head forwards or he would have flipped backwards. We went down absolutely vertically and crashed into the sea. When I finally reached the surface he'd already swum ashore  -  I'd spent two weeks training him to do that.

Copywright Vic Armstrong with Robert Sellers 2011.

The True Adventures Of The World's Greatest Stuntman by Vic Armstrong with Robert Sellers is published by Titan Books at £18.  To order your copy at £14. with free p&p, call The Review Bookstore on 0845 155 0713 or visit www.MailLife.co.uk/books.