Tom Cruise reportedly saved ‘Cocktail’ co-star Elizabeth Shue from being sliced in half by a spinning helicopter blade.
The Sun reports that the story was relayed from aerial camera operator Bill Bennett who alleges to have witnessed the whole ordeal while ‘Cocktail’ was being filmed prior to its release in 1988, he said in a Facebook post.
“I witnessed Tom Cruise save Elisabeth Shue’s life, for real,” Bennett said. “We were filming the scene from a helicopter, where Tom and Elisabeth are riding horses along the beach. We were shooting film, but I had a video recorder in the helicopter to record the camera’s video tap images. After a couple takes, the pilot would land the helicopter on the beach, and Tom and Elisabeth would come over to watch the shot recordings and get notes from the director. The only monitor was at my operating position in the left front seat of the helicopter.”
“It was also quite loud, and you had to shout to be heard over the noise of the engine,” he explained. “You have to know, when you are working around helicopters, that the area at the back of the helicopter, where the tail rotor is spinning, is deadly. The rotor is invisible when it is spinning, and if you walk into it, it will kill you instantly. It is a totally ‘no go’ area when working around helicopters.”
Bennett elaborates on how Elizabeth Shue was getting off the helicopter after a conversation with director Roger Donaldson.
“So, after we had landed for the second or third time, Tom and Elisabeth came over, I opened the side door of the helicopter and they leaned in to watch the shot on the monitor,” he said. “The director gave them a couple notes, and Elisabeth, getting quite excited, took off suddenly, running towards the back of the helicopter.”
Bennett emphasized that several crew members, including himself, were shouting at Shue, trying to warn her, but she could not hear them over the sound of the helicopter engine.
“Just at that same moment that Tom saw where Elisabeth was going,” he continued. He lunged after her, but only was able grab her legs, tackling her to the ground. He rolled her over, dragging her at the same time, and you could see the momentary anger on her face while she was yelling ‘Why did you do that?'”
“But by that time he is pointing at the tail rotor which is now a couple feet away, screaming at her that she almost died,” Bennett said. “At that point she turned white, and he pulled her back towards the front of the helicopter and they walked away.”
“Tom had, in that instant, truly saved her life,” he said.
The story was apparently relayed to ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ director Christopher McQuarrie and actor Tom Cruise, who confirmed the story to be true.
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