The allure of a theme park like Disney World is the controlled fantasy of it all. You’re in for thrills, chills, and wild times you couldn’t experience outside its gates.
At the same time, it’s all strictly controlled and only provides the illusion of danger. It thrives on that allusion. You don’t need to imagine what it would be like if a Disney park were actually, consistently dangerous. We already have the legacy of New Jersey’s extremely dangerous, now-defunct Action Park to let us know how that would’ve turned out.
Well, this past week, we got a glimpse of what that actually dangerous version of a Disney park would look like. The fantasy was inadvertently stripped from a performance of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Disney World Hollywood Studios in Orlando.
The show went awry, injuring a park employee as they valiantly attempted to protect audience members from harm.
Viral Video Shows Disney Worker Hit by 400-Pound Prop Boulder at Stunt Show
During the show, the iconic massive boulder that chases Indy at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark chases him yet again in the live theme park stunt show. It is, of course, a fake boulder, but it can still do some damage if it runs you over since it’s reportedly over 400 pounds.
During a performance, the boulder came loose from its track and rolled toward the audience. A Disney cast member (that’s what they call park employees of all kinds) ran directly into its path, stopping it before it could reach spectators.
Video of the incident quickly spread on social media over the New Year’s holiday. You can watch it for yourself below.
The heroic maneuver likely prevented a far worse outcome of audience members getting obliterated by a fake but still heavy phony rock. However, it did come at a cost. The cast member who jumped in front of it took the hit like a champ.
He stopped its forward momentum, even if that energy transferred into him, immediately slamming him, torso-first, into the ground. He didn’t immediately get back up as other cast members rushed to help.
The cast member wound up bleeding, but Disney later confirmed that he wasn’t seriously hurt and is recovering. The company announced that the boulder sequence will be modified while its safety team reviews what went wrong.
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