Incredible Stunts: pictures by Jeffrey R Werner

Photojournalist Jeffrey R Werner has spent nearly three decades photographing all manner of death-defying antics created for TV and film. Here are some of the best, as featured in his new book Incredible Stunts

  • Tracy Smith rockets over a 150-foot cardboard tunnel for the TV show That's Incredible! The fire team waited until Smith was approaching the tunnel at 80 mph before setting it ablaze. The photographer triggered a remote shutter on an unmanned camera before jumping from the top of a fire truck to clear the area as the temperature rose from 85 degrees to nearly 2000
    Stuntman Tracy Smith

  • For this stunt, Doug Danger takes on the entire wingspan of a large-body L1011 passenger jet, a 160-foot jump for the TV show I Dare You. Danger made the stunt look easy, reaching the pre-calculated speed of 73 mph to launch himself off the 120-foot long narrow ramp, straight up and over the parked plane
    Stuntman Doug Danger

  • Steve Neale becomes a fiery torch when the shocked stuntman plunges headfirst through the heat-weakened windscreen of the car roaring towards him at 50 mph. The stunt was shot for an episode of the Stuntmasters TV show
    Stuntman Steve Neale

  • Jeffrey R Werner uses a special Hulcher camera that takes 65 frames per second to catch a bullet shot by John Richmond, just as it pulverises a watermelon on top of his brother Ken's head
    Watermelon explodes

  • Steve Hudis jumps a 28,000lb school bus through a giant fireball, and over 15 motorcycles before crashing to earth, for the TV Show I Dare You. The bus flew 109 feet, unexpectedly breaking a world record
    Stuntman Steve Hudis

  • Stunt cyclist John Holland hopes his Yamaha will propel him 265 feet over cars and onto his landing ramp, but he doesn't make the required speed. Holland spends nearly a year in the hospital, recovering from massive injuries, ending his stunt career for good
    Stuntman John Holland

  • Before a crowd of 35,000 onlookers, famed English stuntman Eddie Kidd takes on the Great Wall of China in this historic motorcycle jump. Kidd's greatest challenge is a blind landing on a crude bamboo ramp that is perched precariously over the deadly river far below, which is hidden from view beyond the wall at the end of the jump. Luckily he hits the ramp with only inches to spare
    stuntman Eddie Kidd

  • Reno Jaton holds the quarter-mile world record for being dragged on pavement behind a 14,000-horsepower jet car, reaching 236 mph, subjecting his body to at least 6 Gs, and enduring the spitting flames of the jet engine that reached 700-degrees Fahrenheit
    Stuntman Reno Jaton

  • Strongman Tom Owen lets a truck packed with 20 kids, weighing an estimated 6,500 pounds, drive over his stomach. Owen stood and gave the thumbs-up shortly after the stunt, before going straight to hospital with a couple of broken ribs and internal bleeding
    Strongman Tom Owen

  • Two-time Stuntman of the Year and holder of eight world records Ricky D cheats death in style as he jumps through a 900-degree Fahrenheit wall of fire in Sacramento wearing a $1,500 Pierre Cardin tuxedo
    Two-time Stuntman of the Year Ricky D

  • Before a stunned crowd of 55,000 at the Astrodome in Houston, Spanky Spangler stages a mid-air collision into another car driven by his friend and fellow stuntman Randy Hill. Both stuntmen are strapped in their cars with special crash protectors built in, but the crash is still the equivalent of hitting a brick wall at 120 mph. Despite the numbing impact, both human crash dummies walk away uninjured
    Stuntmen Spanky Spangler and Randy Hill

  • While other air daredevils use parachutes, safety straps, steel-reinforced flight suits, and other protective equipment, Mary Ella McLivain a 52-year-old grandmother of three walks the wing of a biplane, 1,000 feet in the air, wearing only a sundress. She works her way out to midwing of a WWI Curtiss Jenny biplane, flown by 75-year-old Wally Olson, having nothing more than the plane's normal wires and struts to hold onto
    Mary Ella McLivain wingwalking

  • Brian Carson withstands the heat from multiple fire bombs as his car becomes enveloped in flames while jumping over four flatbed trucks at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Fortunately for the nearly roasted Carson, a fire retardant suit and a quick-acting safety crew saves him a trip to hospital
    Stuntman Brian Carson

  • Daredevil escape artist Rick Meisel has been performing the world's cleanest escape act for years for TV shows and audiences around the world. For this stunt the escape artist risks drowning and a battering as he works his way out of six pairs of handcuffs and two leg irons while spinning in a suds-filled washing machine. Meisel admitted to having surgery in order to fit into the machine
    escape artist Rick Meisel
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