There was a considerable amount of fear for Jeremy Renner's well-being back in January 2023 when it was reported that the actor suffered a “traumatic” accident. After trying to prevent his snowcat from hitting his nephew, the Hawkeye star was run over and dozens of his bones were broken as he was hurled under his massive vehicle. Renner has since been open about what happened and is now detailing the mistake that led to his horrific snowplow injuries. All in all, he's not holding back about the gruesome-sounding ordeal.
In Jeremy Renner’s memoir, My Next Breath, he recalls (via The Sunday Times) how he and his nephew, Alex, were clearing the snow in his neighborhood with his 14,000-pound snowcat for a planned week of family fun. As the highly-paid MCU actor stepped out of the driver’s seat to talk to his nephew, Renner apparently forgot to take on important course of action before exiting the vehicle:
'Before exiting the driver’s cab! — Apply parking brake,' the manual says. But I didn’t engage the parking brake, or disengage the steel tracks. In that moment — an innocent, critical, life-changing moment — that tiny but monumental slip of the mind would change the course of my life for ever.
Just about anyone could make the mistake of forgetting to set the parking brake. However, I can understand where Jeremy Renner is coming from in regard to the notion of how one “tiny but monumental” misstep can lead to one of the scariest, life-changing moments a person can endure.
When the Hurt Locker star saw that his snowplow was heading in Alex's direction, he became a real-life superhero. The actor attempted to jump across three feet of spinning tracks to go back into the cab and hit the STOP button. While Alex avoided being crushed by the snow vehicle, Renner never made it into the cab as his feet lost their grip on the moving tracks, and he was thrown forward. What happened right after was a disturbing realization that made the A-lister realize he was the one under the snowcat:
There came terrible crunching sounds as 14,000lb of galvanised steel machinery slowly, inexorably, monotonously, ground over my body. It was a horrifying soundtrack.
I can’t even imagine what it would be like to experience something so horrific like that myself. Jeremy Renner’s trainer, Christopher Vincent, previously said the the actor’s “excruciating” injuries were the result of his body sending pain signals to his brain from every body part and not being able to “override” them.
Given a painful accident like this, a person may be of the thinking that it's better to have blacked out. Jeremy Renner wrote in his book that he “momentarily blacked out,” but he was “awake through every moment,” experiencing every bit of pain throughout:
I heard all the bones crack, every one of them (I’ll find out later that there are 38, maybe more, in various states of crack and shatter and twist and shard). Then, perhaps five seconds later — count them, one, two, three, four, five — the machine passed.
It's still scary to think about just how close Renner was to being killed. After he was run over, he was airlifted to a hospital where it was discovered that he suffered not only 38 broken bones, but also other terrible injuries. It's also been said that his “eye did pop out” as well and that he had three breaks in his lower pelvis, six broken ribs in 14 places, a major laceration at the back of his head and more. It's truly a miracle that after working towards recovery, he's still with us. Today, not only is he still landing acting gigs (and is set to return for Mayor of Kingstown Season 4), but he's even recorded an album, Love and Titanium.
Life can certainly change in the blink of an eye, and that can, in great part, due to the choices we do or don't make. While the American Hustle actor’s accident and recovery weren’t easy, Renner considers himself “blessed” for his life and the ability to be with his loved ones and do the work he enjoys.
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