The Twilight Zone movie is about four bizarre tales being told through the minds of four different filmmakers. Perhaps the most bizarre tale of the film is a famous disaster that occurred during filming, resulting in the death of three actors, including two children.
In one of the last scenes of the tale, the racist character Bill Connor carries two Vietnamese children across a river in the Vietnam war while escaping a town. The scene was supposed to show the town blowing up with a helicopter in the background while Bill was escaping with the Vietnamese children.
After 2 a.m. on July 23, 1982, an accident occurred while filming this scene. The filming was going normally at first, but then filmmaker John Landis demanded that the pyrotechnicians make the explosions bigger. The helicopter pilot was a Vietnam War veteran who was very experienced. He expressed concerns that the explosions were too big to Landis, but Landis said that the helicopter should still be lowered. When they started filming, the explosions went off, damaging the helicopter. The helicopter spun out of control and decapitated actor Vic Morrow and one of the children. The other child died from the weight of the helicopter. The child actors killed were Myca Dinh Lee, aged 7, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, aged 6.
When investigators examined the crash site, they discovered that the children should not even have been there in the first place due to child labor laws that prevented children from working at night. Landis did not have a permit to have those two kids on set at 2 am The children also weren’t officially hired to avoid California labor laws.
Landis eventually went to court three years after the incident, where he was charged with involuntary manslaughter. He ended up being acquitted of all charges.
Morrow’s friend and former Combat! (1962) co-star Dick Peabody wrote that Morrow’s last words before the shot took place were: “I’ve got to be crazy to do this shot.”
In one of the last scenes of the tale, the racist character Bill Connor carries two Vietnamese children across a river in the Vietnam war while escaping a town. The scene was supposed to show the town blowing up with a helicopter in the background while Bill was escaping with the Vietnamese children.
After 2 a.m. on July 23, 1982, an accident occurred while filming this scene. The filming was going normally at first, but then filmmaker John Landis demanded that the pyrotechnicians make the explosions bigger. The helicopter pilot was a Vietnam War veteran who was very experienced. He expressed concerns that the explosions were too big to Landis, but Landis said that the helicopter should still be lowered. When they started filming, the explosions went off, damaging the helicopter. The helicopter spun out of control and decapitated actor Vic Morrow and one of the children. The other child died from the weight of the helicopter. The child actors killed were Myca Dinh Lee, aged 7, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, aged 6.
When investigators examined the crash site, they discovered that the children should not even have been there in the first place due to child labor laws that prevented children from working at night. Landis did not have a permit to have those two kids on set at 2 am The children also weren’t officially hired to avoid California labor laws.
Landis eventually went to court three years after the incident, where he was charged with involuntary manslaughter. He ended up being acquitted of all charges.
Morrow’s friend and former Combat! (1962) co-star Dick Peabody wrote that Morrow’s last words before the shot took place were: “I’ve got to be crazy to do this shot.”
