The Best Stunts of All Time, Over Nearly 100 Years of the Oscars

By Thomas Doherty

Any list of Hollywood’s most memorable stunt work is bound to be idiosyncratic. Do you prefer a jaw-dropping action set piece with the star visibly and unmistakably at risk (as with the silent comedians and, more recently, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise); a feat by a nameless stunt double whose fate you’re not emotionally invested in (presumably with the Wilhelm scream sounding his demise); or the choreography of battalions of humans in league with horses, trains, cars or planes (in which case Plutarch deserves a posthumous credit as stunt coordinator on Spartacus)?