My favourite sequence in HOOPER is the highway backward driving to reach out for the beer. They had Burts pickup prepared to drive seemingly backwards when in fact a hidden driver drove it forward. Cool sequencence with a great smokey/bandit vibe!
I just finished watching Cannonball Run 1 & 2, and was about to watch my favorite, Hooper. Thought I might do a little search to see if anyone has made any videos about it. It is nice to see you discussing the real people doing the stunt work. As a 10 year old, watching this movie was awesome! I will watch Hooper, Smokey and the Bandit, and Cannonball films at least once a year. Such great stupid fun, thanks in part to all the stunt people working on the films.
Wow this is great! I mean flat out great..it changed my life at the age of 7..my grand father took me to see it…within days I was building ramps to jump my friends -which I did I could jump 2. Not long after I was given a jr 50… i could fall without getting hurt in full pads…and then built ramps.. my grand father was cool with it .. Rarely was hurt and worse case was a scrape.. jumping red rail sleds head first 20 feet down onto the frozen river… jump from the roof of the house into the pool… it was all cool…and then I tried to get my friends to lay down so I could jump them on the jr. 50. He must have watched from the kitchen..I had everything ready..I started my bike .. everybody was laying down in front of the ramp… I looked over my left shoulder and saw him calmly walking out into the garage.. I put the bike in gear… and went to start my run up.. he picked me up by my pads the bike fell over he set me down .. killed the engine took out the spark plug….the bike was gone 2 days later….
One of my favorite Burt Reynolds movies... I was friends with AJ Bakunas. A couple of stories he related to me. If you watch the Helicopter high fall, apparently Burt wasn't supposed to jump. Hey was just supposed to wave his arms around as if he was going to jump and they were going to cut to AJ. But Burt was feeling his oats and jumped the 20/30 feet into the airbag. (It was set up for safety, just in case he lost his balance and fell... LOL) The studio execs weren't too happy about that. You have to watch the full stunt in the movie, but when AJ bounces up from the airbag in the long shot, you can see he split his pants. The backwards driving truck was actually custom built with the chassis reversed and a Stunt driver (not sure who) lying in the truck bed and driving forward, looking through strategically cut out peepholes. Burt was just faking the driving. Far be it for me to contradict a stunt guy who was on set... but I am fairly certain there is no matte line on the tower falling. There was some editing in between shots, but that wide shot of the tower just missing was real. And just a note: Terry Bradshaw was an NFL Quarterback for the Steelers. Not a Wrestler. This is one of the films that inspired me to get into the business. A tragedy that A.J. was killed not long after. You can see his work in The Warriors (one of the Roller Skate gang) and the Stuntman with Peter O'Toole. The rooftop scene were the soldiers are rolling down... you can actually see AJ break his leg in slow motion. I have some behind the scenes 16mm footage of him doing a high fall stunt show in Fort Lee NJ around 1976 or so and him on set with Sean Connery in The Next Man... he got blown up on a ratchet... Debris went into his eyes and threw off his balance. He went through the windshield of a police car (accidently). I was only 15... it was pretty traumatizing. But he came back an hour or so later and was back doing more stunts. Great guy. Great stuntman.
Great video! I love Hooper. I remember, even as a kid, watching the film and telling my mom, "that's not how it actually works... most of those gags would be done separately." It's nice to see that several of the gags were actually done at the same time with a bunch of cameras rolling. Stunt men and women were my heroes and, as a kid who was a bit lost and lonely, got me out of the house to be more active in things like BMX and skateboarding. Thanks for digging into these stunts.
Great video I watched Hooper on Blu Ray and I love all of the car stunts and I love all of the information I didn’t know a lot about this film thank you
Jon, the chimney stack gag where it just misses the car. I can see a matte line at the back end, its slightly transparent too. I think its a visual effect. Still a great film.
You are right as Hal did a little editing magic to make it look closer. I was doubling Burt and Joe Hooker was driving. Glen Wilder crashed into our car in the one scene on the passenger side as he miscalculated and near snuffed me as he hit right on and behind the seat post, breaking the axle on the Trans Am. It really rung my bell. Good thing we had several backups. I did the slide under the truck twice as the first one Tommy Huff slowed too much and I laid the bike down at about 45 mph and being committed and already sliding I hit the driving wheels breaking my bike and blowing the truck tire and being slung under the truck. I had Hal bring another bike and had him start it as I had busted my ankle and torn my sternum hitting the tank of the bike. The second one went well and the flip over the car Went 40 feet to the flower bed and it was a good landing, I thought I was getting five grand but got five hundred as Booby Bass had a different idea what it was worth. I didn't know until I got my check weeks later and then it was too late. I never hired him again when I was coordinating.All in all it was a great film to work on and I appreciated Hal and Burt wanting me to mostly double Burt. I was picked by Hal to drive the Budweiser Rocket that broke the Sound Barrier two years later. I owed it all to Needham for bringing me into the business. He changed my life and many others.
I watched a video when Dick Warlock who was Kurt Russell stunt double for years saying he stopped doing it because it was getting harder to come back from injuries
Thanks man, that was an amazing. I think it would be awesome If some older stunt guys and newer stunt guys did a movie reaction to this movie. It’s one of my favorites when I was a kid.
Great to hear some more details about the rocket car jump! I always had questions about it (Was it unmanned? Was it a model? etc), so it's awesome to have that finally cleared up! P.S. How awesome is that Hooper behind the scenes footage! I remember when I first came across it - was totally blown away to see what it was like to be on the set! Hal dragging that stuntman out of the car was pretty insane! Those safety guys weren't particularly on the ball it seems :) I've been watching this film since I was around 8 years old and it's always been one of my favourites! Another awesome video - cheers :)
Sorry to tell you this but 1- Burt was not driving the pickup truck backward , someone was driving seating in the box of the truck. 2- the trans-am was never close to the chimney, this was super impose
Fantastic Film....I was lucky enough to see it in the theatre in 1978
Thanks Dad.
This is my favorite movie of all time
My favourite sequence in HOOPER is the highway backward driving to reach out for the beer. They had Burts pickup prepared to drive seemingly backwards when in fact a hidden driver drove it forward. Cool sequencence with a great smokey/bandit vibe!
I just finished watching Cannonball Run 1 & 2, and was about to watch my favorite, Hooper. Thought I might do a little search to see if anyone has made any videos about it. It is nice to see you discussing the real people doing the stunt work. As a 10 year old, watching this movie was awesome! I will watch Hooper, Smokey and the Bandit, and Cannonball films at least once a year. Such great stupid fun, thanks in part to all the stunt people working on the films.
Sadly A.J. Bakunas died during a high fall attempt on movie called Steel he was only 27:(. Rest in peace.
Wow this is great! I mean flat out great..it changed my life at the age of 7..my grand father took me to see it…within days I was building ramps to jump my friends -which I did I could jump 2. Not long after I was given a jr 50… i could fall without getting hurt in full pads…and then built ramps.. my grand father was cool with it .. Rarely was hurt and worse case was a scrape.. jumping red rail sleds head first 20 feet down onto the frozen river… jump from the roof of the house into the pool… it was all cool…and then I tried to get my friends to lay down so I could jump them on the jr. 50. He must have watched from the kitchen..I had everything ready..I started my bike .. everybody was laying down in front of the ramp… I looked over my left shoulder and saw him calmly walking out into the garage.. I put the bike in gear… and went to start my run up.. he picked me up by my pads the bike fell over he set me down .. killed the engine took out the spark plug….the bike was gone 2 days later….
Very underrated 78 movie
Thanks for this!! Burt Reynolds Hooper another great movie! Jon you are the greatest!!
One of my favorite Burt Reynolds movies... I was friends with AJ Bakunas.
A couple of stories he related to me.
If you watch the Helicopter high fall, apparently Burt wasn't supposed to jump. Hey was just supposed to wave his arms around as if he was going to jump and they were going to cut to AJ. But Burt was feeling his oats and jumped the 20/30 feet into the airbag. (It was set up for safety, just in case he lost his balance and fell... LOL)
The studio execs weren't too happy about that.
You have to watch the full stunt in the movie, but when AJ bounces up from the airbag in the long shot, you can see he split his pants.
The backwards driving truck was actually custom built with the chassis reversed and a Stunt driver (not sure who) lying in the truck bed and driving forward, looking through strategically cut out peepholes. Burt was just faking the driving.
Far be it for me to contradict a stunt guy who was on set... but I am fairly certain there is no matte line on the tower falling. There was some editing in between shots, but that wide shot of the tower just missing was real.
And just a note: Terry Bradshaw was an NFL Quarterback for the Steelers. Not a Wrestler.
This is one of the films that inspired me to get into the business. A tragedy that A.J. was killed not long after.
You can see his work in The Warriors (one of the Roller Skate gang) and the Stuntman with Peter O'Toole. The rooftop scene were the soldiers are rolling down... you can actually see AJ break his leg in slow motion.
I have some behind the scenes 16mm footage of him doing a high fall stunt show in Fort Lee NJ around 1976 or so and him on set with Sean Connery in The Next Man... he got blown up on a ratchet... Debris went into his eyes and threw off his balance. He went through the windshield of a police car (accidently). I was only 15... it was pretty traumatizing. But he came back an hour or so later and was back doing more stunts.
Great guy. Great stuntman.
That was a fun thing to see! Thank you for showing us about that!
Fantastic video, good old fashioned stunts 🚗
Stuntman and woman I salute you all.
Sally Field was Jock Mahoney's step-daughter in real life
Great video! I love Hooper. I remember, even as a kid, watching the film and telling my mom, "that's not how it actually works... most of those gags would be done separately." It's nice to see that several of the gags were actually done at the same time with a bunch of cameras rolling. Stunt men and women were my heroes and, as a kid who was a bit lost and lonely, got me out of the house to be more active in things like BMX and skateboarding. Thanks for digging into these stunts.
Thank you Chris…great to hear from you 😎
Great video I watched Hooper on Blu Ray and I love all of the car stunts and I love all of the information I didn’t know a lot about this film thank you
Jon, the chimney stack gag where it just misses the car. I can see a matte line at the back end, its slightly transparent too. I think its a visual effect. Still a great film.
You are right as Hal did a little editing magic to make it look closer. I was doubling Burt and Joe Hooker was driving. Glen Wilder crashed into our car in the one scene on the passenger side as he miscalculated and near snuffed me as he hit right on and behind the seat post, breaking the axle on the Trans Am. It really rung my bell. Good thing we had several backups. I did the slide under the truck twice as the first one Tommy Huff slowed too much and I laid the bike down at about 45 mph and being committed and already sliding I hit the driving wheels breaking my bike and blowing the truck tire and being slung under the truck. I had Hal bring another bike and had him start it as I had busted my ankle and torn my sternum hitting the tank of the bike. The second one went well and the flip over the car Went 40 feet to the flower bed and it was a good landing, I thought I was getting five grand but got five hundred as Booby Bass had a different idea what it was worth. I didn't know until I got my check weeks later and then it was too late. I never hired him again when I was coordinating.All in all it was a great film to work on and I appreciated Hal and Burt wanting me to mostly double Burt. I was picked by Hal to drive the Budweiser Rocket that broke the Sound Barrier two years later. I owed it all to Needham for bringing me into the business. He changed my life and many others.
That helicopter fall is a monumental stunt!
It certainly was. So tragic that AJ was subsequently killed doing an even higher fall on Steel when the airbag burst,
I watched a video when Dick Warlock who was Kurt Russell stunt double for years saying he stopped doing it because it was getting harder to come back from injuries
Thanks man, that was an amazing. I think it would be awesome If some older stunt guys and newer stunt guys did a movie reaction to this movie. It’s one of my favorites when I was a kid.
Great to hear some more details about the rocket car jump! I always had questions about it (Was it unmanned? Was it a model? etc), so it's awesome to have that finally cleared up! P.S. How awesome is that Hooper behind the scenes footage! I remember when I first came across it - was totally blown away to see what it was like to be on the set! Hal dragging that stuntman out of the car was pretty insane! Those safety guys weren't particularly on the ball it seems :) I've been watching this film since I was around 8 years old and it's always been one of my favourites! Another awesome video - cheers :)
I’ve had the pleasure of working with several people that worked on this film and just wanted to say I really enjoyed your tribute.
Thank you Joe….still the best behind the scenes stunt movie ever made. Did you see Stunts with Robert Forster?
Sorry to tell you this but 1- Burt was not driving the pickup truck backward , someone was driving seating in the box of the truck.
2- the trans-am was never close to the chimney, this was super impose