The story of the movie Rust has been one terrible story after another. First it was the place where a fatal accident led to the death of a crew member. But that, unfortunately, wasn’t the only bad thing that would happen on the set. Another crew member was bitten by a spider, an injury that could have led to the loss of an arm,. But now that crew member has received good news as his arm has been saved.
Jason Miller was a crew member who was in the process of breaking down the set of the movie Rust after production had ceased, when he was bitten by a brown recluse spider, one of the most venomous breeds of spider found in North America. Miller was going to need to undergo significant medical procedures and there was fear his arm would require amputation.
However, while Miller lost large amounts of muscle and skin on his left arm due to the treatment, he has been responding well and now TMZ reports that amputation has been ruled out as a potential treatment.
Miller had set up fundraising for his medical needs, in part because he was reportedly having difficulty getting a hold of the people he needed to in order to get worker’s compensation started. There’s even more good news on that front as Miller’s lawyers have recently been able to start this process, which hopefully means that he won't need to worry about the financial impact of his recovery.
This is, at least, one small piece of good news surrounding a movie that hasn’t had much. In October a prop gun misfire caused the death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. That investigation into exactly what went wrong that caused a live round to end up inside the prop gun is still ongoing.
What was previously seen as a terrible accident, has more recently been suggested might have been intentional. Lawyers for on-set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed have suggested that the live round might have been placed intentionally by crew members who felt that on set conditions were unsafe and were trying to make a point. That, obviously, puts a whole new spin on the entire affair if there is any evidence that such a thing happened.
Lawsuit’s have also been filed against various entities within the production. At this point, the crew member who nearly lost an arm has not filed a lawsuit yet, nor has the family of the person who died, but it would not be shocking to see those suits happen in short order.
Clearly, there’s a lot going on here that is not yet resolved, but it’s a good thing that there is at least one happy ending coming out of a bad situation.
