Spider-Man: Brand New Day star Tom Holland recalls the hardest stunt of his career, and it happened while he was "fighting an alien."
"I think my favorite stunt I've ever done is something I was advised not to do, and it never made the cut of the film," Holland told Matt Damon during an interview with Complex. "And it was with a good friend of yours, Doug Liman. It's called a 'Dead Man' and you wear the full harness. I always wanted to do it... it was this sequence where I'm supposed to be charging at this alien, and it was supposed to kick me in the throat and throw me on the ground. And they were going to try and do it with CG, but I really wanted to create this strong snapback. So essentially you wear the harness, tie yourself to a fixed point, and run away from the point. And when the line goes taut, you just... whack!'"
Continued Holland: "The cameraman missed it, because it happened so quickly. I didn't anticipate it hurting as much as it did. It winded me beyond belief, but [there] was something about it that I loved."
The stunt in question took place during the 2021 sci-fi movie Chaos Walking, based on the British YA sci-fi novel The Knife of Never Letting Go. Author Patrick Ness co-wrote the screenplay with Spider-Man: Homecoming screenwriter Doug Ford. Holland plays Todd, who lives on a dystopian planet without women, with Daisy Ridley as Viola, the woman who suddenly crash-lands onto said planet. Despite having a pretty stacked cast including Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas, and Mads Mikkelsen, the film was a critical and commercial failure.
Despite Damon interjecting and telling Holland that he couldn't believe he attempted the stunt, Holland has a tendency to do as many as he possibly can – as evidenced in the behind-the-scenes of every single Spider-Man movie. Many of the ones in Spider-Man: Brand New Day were inspired by the Insomniac video games, and are pretty dang cool.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in theaters on July 29 in the UK and July 31 in the US. For more, read our guide to upcoming Marvel movies and shows and our breakdown of how to watch the Marvel movies in order.
