Resident Evil: The Final Chapter finished up the long-running franchise in the manner to which its fans had become accustomed – with a plethora of unlikely action and slow-motion stunts. But those stunts came with a cost.
During production, stunt performer Olivia Jackson took part in a motorcycle scene that ended badly, leaving her in a coma for 17 days and resulted in her arm being amputated above the elbow. In a Facebook post soon after the accident, she described her injuries as follows:
“Brain bleeding, brain swelling, severed main artery in the neck, crushed and degloved face, several broken ribs, paralyzed arm, shattered scapula, broken clavicle, broken humerus, broken radius and ulna, with an open wound and a 7.5 piece of bone missing, and an amputated thumb.”
She’s since brought a lawsuit against the filmmakers, claiming that her injuries were a result of her smashing into a camera that failed to lift out of the way in time. She’s now filed a suit against director Paul Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt in the Los Angeles Superior Court seeking damages to assist in paying for her ongoing medical expenses, alleging that:
“Anderson and Bolt created an unsafe working environment on the set of the last instalment of the popular video-game movie franchise, and also failed to procure adequate insurance to cover the injuries that resulted from her crash.”
In response, Anderson and Bolt’s lawyers are claiming that Jackson’s suit is misdirected, pointing out that she was hired for the stunt by a firm called Davis Films in South Africa, and that they bear responsibility for her injuries. They argue that Davis Films have already admitted liability by paying Jackson $248,265 to cover her medical bills and that her attempt to take out a suit in California is just a “publicity stunt masquerading as a lawsuit.”
Ouch. Well, I guess the proof is in the pudding. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was hardly a landmark moment in cinema history, but it goes to show the commitment of stunt performers across the board in Hollywood. Here’s hoping for an amicable conclusion to this for all parties.
