How Did Brandon Lee Die on the Set of The Crow?

As we come up on Rupert Sanders‘ remake of The Crow, starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs, it’s only natural that we look back on the 1994 version starring Brandon Lee, and acknowledge how big of a deal it is that they’re remaking the movie in the first place. Sanders himself has acknowledged Lee’s legacy and how synonymous The Crow is with him, in an interview with Vanity Fair. “Brandon was an original voice and I think he will always be synonymous with The Crow and I hope he’s proud of what we’ve done and how we’ve brought the story back again. His soul is very much alive in this film.”

To this day, The Crow’s production remains one of the most devastating stories in Hollywood, as it claimed the life of its lead star, Brandon Lee. The remake, which stars Bill Skarsgård in the lead role, will appeal to a brand-new generation who may not know what happened on the set of the original film, and what went into completing it following the tragic and untimely death of Brandon Lee. So how exactly did Brandon Lee die on the set of The Crow? What impact did his death have? And how did the filmmakers complete the movie afterward?

Brandon Lee Died While Filming Some of the Final Scenes for ‘The Crow’

On March 31, 1993, Brandon Lee was filming a scene for The Crow in which his character Eric Draven walks into his apartment and is shot and killed by a group of thugs. During the scene, he walks in and finds his fiancée being brutally attacked when a thug named Funboy (Michael Massee) fires a gun at him and kills him. This scene would ultimately prove fatal, as negligence in the prop department led to a dummy bullet being left in the barrel of the gun. Before filming, the gun used in the scene, which was a real revolver, was loaded with improperly made dummy rounds, made from live cartridges that had the powder charges removed. This was so that in close-ups the revolver would show normal ammunition being loaded and used. However, the crew neglected to remove the primers from the cartridges, so when one of the rounds was fired, even though there was no powder, there was enough energy from the ignited primer to separate the bullet from the casing. This caused the bullet to get lodged in the barrel of the gun and become stuck, causing a highly dangerous squib load.

When it came time to film the actual scene, the dummy cartridges were replaced with blank rounds, which contained a powder charge and primer, but no bullet. This allowed for the gun to be fired and provide sound and flash effects without any actual risk — or so everyone thought. Before the scene the gun was not properly checked and cleared, meaning no one noticed the dummy cartridge stuck in the barrel of the gun. The scene required the gun to be aimed at Lee from a distance of about 12 feet, so when the gun was fired during the scene, the dummy bullet that was stuck in the barrel was launched out and was fired into Lee’s abdomen with about the same force as if it were a live round. After the shot was fired, Lee fell backward instead of forward like he was supposed to, which caused the director to yell, “Cut!” Only Brandon Lee didn’t move. The cast and crew thought he was just joking around or still acting, but stunt coordinator Jeff Imada immediately noticed something was wrong and pointed out that Lee was unconscious and breathing heavily. The medic on set at first believed he had hit his head when he fell, but his pulse began to slow rapidly, so they rushed him to the nearest hospital. After six hours of emergency surgery, attempts to save him were unsuccessful, and Brandon Lee was pronounced dead at 28 years old.

How Was ‘The Crow’ Completed After Brandon Lee’s Death?

At the time of Brandon Lee’s death, the majority of The Crow’s filming had been completed, aside from a few key scenes. In fact, he was only scheduled to film for three more days, making the whole situation feel all the more heart-wrenching because of how preventable it was. But following the tragedy, the crew was forced to decide whether to continue making the film. Being so close to the end of filming made it hard to scrap the project, but going on without Lee just felt so wrong. Eventually, the cast and crew decided to go on with the project in honor of Brandon, and hired stunt double Chad Stahelski to help them do so.

With only three pivotal scenes required to finish the film, Stahelski was brought in as the body, where he would act out the scene, and afterward, the visual effects team, Dream Quest Images, would take unused shots of Lee and digitally map his face onto Stahelski’s body, allowing his scenes to be completed. It’s surprisingly seamless, though it doesn’t take up much screentime for it to be all that noticeable anyway; it allowed Lee’s legacy to live on through the movie and for him to become the movie star he deserved to be, even if it was posthumously.

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The Brandon Lee version of ‘The Crow’ has garnered a massive cult following since its release in 1994.

Brandon Lee’s Death Left an Impact on Prop Handling in Hollywood

Brandon Lee’s death had a huge effect on a lot of people. For starters, the cast and crew of The Crow naturally had a hard time coming back to filming, with actor Michael Massee in particular left traumatized by the incident as he was the one who fired the gun. He believed he had been handed a properly checked and safe prop, only for that not to be the case. He sat down with Extra TV in 2005 and shared the effect Lee’s death has had on him.

“What happened to Brandon was a tragic accident. It’s something I’m going to live with. It took me the time it took to be able to not so much put it in perspective, but to be able to move on with my life. We’ve all experienced tragedies in our lives and we all find our way through them to get to the other side to be able to go on, because if not you wouldn’t be able to go on with life. That’s what I had to do with this experience. As I said, it’s very personal.
It’s something that I want to make sure when I work that it’s never repeated
.”

Lee’s death sparked a larger conversation about better safety practices on movie sets, a topic that was once again brought to the forefront in 2021 after the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust. She was killed after a gun held by actor Alec Baldwin fired a live round during a rehearsal, leading to a rightful uproar as to why real guns are even used on sets. The Crow director Alex Proyas spoke up about this cause, having his own firsthand experience with a similar tragedy.

“Real guns should have been banned on sets after
The Crow
. Why they’re still used is utterly inexplicable. I am filled with sadness for the victims, and I’m also so angry over this.
Ban functioning guns on movie sets now!
I’ll add my voice to the chorus, in the hope this time something might change.”

Despite his untimely death, Brandon Lee is undoubtedly a movie star. His performance in The Crow was praised consistently by audiences and critics alike, and the film itself lives on as a cult classic. As unfortunate as it is that Lee never got to see his career skyrocket the way it surely would’ve following the release of The Crow, he’s undoubtedly a legend in his own right and a timeless one at that.

The Crow is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

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The Crow

Release Date

May 11, 1994

Runtime

102

Writers

James O’Barr , David J. Schow , John Shirley

Tagline

Believe in angels.

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