Jump in the void from the heights, cross crystals, drive vehicles at full speed or roll along flame stairs. Throwing scenes that seem taken from a video game, but that come alive on the big screen thanks to a select group of professionals: specialists (or double) in action scenes. They are workers who were born for adrenaline, capable of executing extreme maneuvers with surgical precision. Thanks to their performances, action movies do not go out of style. The clear example is impossible mission: final sentence, which has raised $ 190 million worldwide on the weekend of its premiere. Part of the success of these tapes is due to those who put the body to record impossible scenes. But behind each jump, explosion or fight a less glamorous truth is hidden: fractures due to poorly calculated falls, burns and, in some cases, even death. In 2002, Harry O'Connor, double Vin Diesel in XXX: Reactivated, he died when he crashed into a bridge while making a parachute jump. David Holmes, a specialist from Daniel Radcliffe in the Harry Potter saga, was in a wheelchair after an accident in the Harry Potter set and the death relics (2010) that caused an irreversible injury in the spinal cord. In 2014, Olivia Jackson, specialist in the film Resident Evil: the final chapter, suffered so serious injuries that ended the amputation of one arm. A little later, in 2017, the industry was also shocked by the death of the double action Joi Sj Harris during the filming of Deadpool 2. The profession of these specialists is as dangerous as necessary. «At present there is almost no film or television series where specialists are not essential,» says Ángel Plana, an expert with more than 30 years of experience rolling risk scenes and owner of their own school of specialists. Plana ensures that, today, action doubles do much more than execute risk scenes. They also replace the main actors in seemingly simple sequences, such as driving a car, a motorcycle or a bicycle. The reason? «The producers cannot allow actors to have a slight accident that paralyzes production.» Specialists are not iron, and also need minimal safety conditions. Their work implies an extreme risk, but there is no specific regulation that covers them. «The regulatory framework is the same as that of any worker: statute of workers, labor laws and collective agreements,» explains Iran Díez, a legal mint partner. However, already a difference from other professions, being double action implies such a high level of risk that forces producers to extreme prevention measures. «A previous report of each scene to be filmed is usually required, in which all existing risks and the measures taken to mitigate or eliminate them are detailed,» says Díez. This report is essential to cover the damage in case of incident. To participate in a production, the action doubles «must be discharged in social security and have the necessary training prior to the execution of any risk scene,» said the lawyers of singular Law Sara Gutiérrez and Isabella Penelope. Contracts also include clauses that force the producer to guarantee safety conditions and have figures such as action coordinators and protection equipment.
Lights, camera and … protection
Nor is there a specific standard that stipulates the specific security measures that producers must follow to guarantee the protection of specialists. Therefore, Ángel Plana wrote his own Occupational Risk Prevention Manual in the Film and Double Specialist profession for the audiovisual sector, a document used by producers to set the appropriate security measures for each scene according to the level of risk. Among them is the obligation to have protection elements, an ambulance prepared in case of an accident and a fire team for fire scenes. In addition, according to the manual, it is mandatory that the double action doubles before executing any action. The producers are also obliged to subscribe insurance to protect their specialists. Being a peculiar trade with extreme conditions, «all filming and any producer must always have civil liability insurance, which covers damage to third parties, including risk doubles,» says Iran Díez. In these policies, the lawyers of Singular Law add, including injuries or doubles death, coordinators and technicians involved in physically demanding scenes. The document also usually includes the conditions to activate coverage, such as the presentation of the medical part or certificate of work accident. Although the most common, says Ángel Plana, is that the doubles «do not know the terms of these insurance.» In his experience, when signing a contract with a producer, «I have never talked about any kind of specific insurance for risk sequences or for specialists, although I know that there are insurance that covers the entire production, but it is never specified in case of accident of a specialist,» he says. In the event that a double suffers a serious mishap and there is a lawsuit, he says, it is the judge who ultimately estimates who is responsible for the incident and sets economic compensation if he considers it appropriate.
Without recognition
«The film specialist does not exist as a profession,» says Ángel Plana, an expert with more than 30 years of experience rolling risk scenes and owner of his own school of specialists. «They include us within the group of circus artists and bullfighters, but we have nothing to do with them,» he adds. Nor do they have a collective agreement or union, unlike the actors. The specialist acknowledges that they have fought to recognize minimum salaries, but the reality is that there is nothing established and the producers «call the one who works for free because she needs to be known», although, he says, it is a matter of time that it changes. «Specialists play life and deserve some recognition,» he defends.
