This week, we dive deeper into silver screen folklore.

Last week, we peeled back the curtain on some of Hollywood’s myths regarding movies. From behind-the-scenes shenanigans (including actual assault) to misconceptions about legendary improvisations, it turns out you can’t trust everything you read on the internet. Except this. You can totally trust this.

This week, we dive deeper into silver screen folklore.

Brandon Lee’s death made it into the movie

The Myth: In 1994, actor Brandon Lee, son of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, was near to wrapping up his scenes in the movie The Crow, the story of a rock musician who is murdered but comes back to life to exact vengeance. Tragedy struck when he ended up being shot as the crew loaded up a gun with live rounds. As the film was already done and the on-screen death was so epic, the heartless studio execs decided to release the movie and include the scene.

The Truth: What?! No! Can you even imagine someone being that insensitive? Or completely ignorant of the scale of a lawsuit they are facing? The truth is that The Crow was released posthumously and in memory of the late Brandon Lee, but his death scene was reshot with stunt double Chad Stahelski, something he has stated in multiple interviews.

Heath Ledger was unaware that Christopher Nolan would blow up a hospital

The Myth: The great, late Heath Ledger gained eternal fame for his disturbing portrayal of the Joker, the Batman villain, in The Dark Knight Rises. During a scene where he wired a hospital to explode, Ledger casually walks outside while explosions are going off and strolls down the street. At some point, he stops, looks around somewhat confused and then the building erupts in flames and comes down. Ledger jumps back in genuine surprise and leaves the shot. Director Christopher Nolan got what he wanted: a genuine reaction from Ledger, who had no idea that the hospital was rigged to blow up.

The Truth: Here’s the simple reason why some people were fooled by Ledger’s reaction: he was an extremely talented actor. Ledger was absolutely informed that the building would collapse, and he had rehearsed his surprise with Nolan. The SFX team came up with a scenario in which Heath could walk out of the building. They put a little beat where the first set of explosions stops as if something’s gone wrong, and the Joker just takes a second to look around, surprised like the audience is surprised, then the major demolition comes in, and he jumps straight into the school bus.

People who saw the first movie came out screaming

The Myth: The Lumière brothers shocked the world with their invention of the moving image. Shocked? Try terrified.

According to an urban legend, when the Lumiere Bros showed their 50-second movie The Arrival of a Train in 1896, people who were in attendance fled screaming. The shot had the train moving towards the camera, so people panicked that an actual train was heading towards them, and they scattered out of the way.

The Truth: There is no way to know if this is true, but it most probably isn’t. First off, people are not that stupid. It wasn’t as if they didn’t know what they were going to see. Reports from the time talk of amazement and shouts, but that probably had to do with watching a film that wasn’t made by Disney.

The corpse of an extra is briefly shown in The Wizard of Oz

The Myth: In a scene from 1939’s Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man are shown merrily walking down the yellow brick road, towards a forest. For a second, a shadow shows, one that has a terrifying secret: one of the little people who were cast as the Munchkins couldn’t bear the mistreatment and hanged himself from a prop tree. No one noticed the corpse before cameras started rolling.

The Truth: First off, writing about the horrific conditions on the set of The Wizard of Oz – especially the grotesque abuse Judy Garland had to endure – merits a story in of itself. Having said that, no, there is no corpse in the background of one of the most beloved films ever made. Truth is funnier though: it was actually a pelican that was on loan, along with other animals, to make the forest look more realistic. It escaped its handler, wandered on set and got entangled in one of the weirdest urban legends!