Working on the 1979 Francis Ford Coppola movie Apocalypse Now doesn’t sound like it was a smooth process for anybody involved. Primarily filmed on location in the Philippines, the Vietnam War epic took 200+ days to shoot and went well over its intended budget. During that time, members of the cast and crew were said to have contracted hookworm and rabies, and a typhoon destroyed more than half of the sets. That’s in addition to the production nearly claiming the lives of both Coppola and Martin Sheen.
For one thing, Sheen suffered a serious heart attack while filming in the jungle and had to be airlifted to a hospital in Manila. “They had to fly me in on a helicopter,” Sheen told Yahoo Entertainment in 2022. “I hated getting in those helicopters because we had so many close calls, but this day, it was an emergency,” he explained. “I could either go to Manila in a bus, which would take about four or five hours, or I could be there in 15 minutes in a chopper. Under the circumstances, I took the chopper!”
46 Years Ago, ‘Apocalypse Now’ Became One of Hollywood’s Most Dangerous Productions
Sheen wasn’t out of the woods yet, so to speak, as doctors put him under immediate observation and prohibited him from returning to the set for over a month. Coppola reportedly blamed himself for what happened to Sheen and had an epileptic seizure from the stress. He also apparently had a nervous breakdown at one point and threatened to commit suicide on three separate occasions. Scott Glenn, who played Captain Richard M. Colby, even claimed to have prevented Coppola from drowning after the typhoon hit.
While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter last year, Glenn recalled that Coppola climbed into a dugout canoe one night while the storm was in full force. Since the boat was tied to a rope on shore, Glenn anticipated that the current would pull it downstream, tightening the rope and causing the stern to go under. Glenn rushed in just as his fears were about to become a reality and cut the rope with his Marine knife. Though the canoe still drifted downstream, they managed to make it back in one piece.
“That night, Francis said, ‘You saved my life,’” Glenn remembered. “I told him, ‘I cut a rope.’”
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