[A349] Parental Discretion Advised: Warner Bros. Pictures Four Camera Synchronization (Trial Film Used)

Parental Discretion Advised: Warner Bros. Pictures Four Camera Synchronization (Trial Film Used)

• Twilight Zone accident: (PUBLIC DIGITAL ARCHIVE RECORD) 

• PUBLIC NOTICE: Parental Discretion Advised: 18+

On July 23, 1982, a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter crashed at Indian Dunes in Valencia, Santa Clarita, California, during the making of Twilight Zone: The Movie. The crash killed three people on the ground (actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen) and injured the six helicopter passengers. The incident led to years of civil and criminal action and was responsible for the introduction of new procedures and safety standards in the filmmaking industry.

Landis, Folsey, Wingo, production manager Allingham, and explosives specialist Paul Stewart were tried and acquitted on charges of manslaughter in a nine-month trial in 1986 and 1987. Morrow's family settled within a year; the children's families collected millions of dollars from several civil lawsuits.

The night scene called for Morrow's character to carry the two children out of a deserted village and across a shallow river while being pursued by American soldiers in a hovering helicopter. The helicopter was piloted by Vietnam War veteran Dorcey Wingo. During the filming, Wingo stationed his helicopter 25 feet (7.6 m) from the ground, while hovering near a large mortar effect; he then turned the aircraft 180 degrees to the left for the next camera shot. The effect was detonated while the helicopter's tail-rotor was still above it, causing the rotor to fail and detach from the tail. The low-flying helicopter spun out of control. At the same time, Morrow dropped Chen into the water. He was reaching out to grab her when the helicopter fell on top of him and the two children. Morrow and Le were decapitated by the helicopter's main rotor blades, while Chen was crushed to death by the helicopter's right landing skid; all three died instantaneously.

The film featured four sequences, one of which was based on the 1961 Twilight Zone episode "A Quality of Mercy" (S03 E15), named in supplementary material as "Time Out". In the script, character Bill Connor (Morrow) is transported back in time to the midst of the Vietnam War, where he has become a Vietnamese man protecting two children from American troops.

Director John Landis violated California's child labor laws by hiring seven year-old Myca Dinh Le and six year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Chén Xinyí) without the required permits. Landis and several other staff members were also responsible for a number of labor violations connected with other people involved in the accident, which came to light after the incident.

Le and Chen were being paid under the table to circumvent California's child labor laws, which did not permit children to work at night. Landis opted not to seek a special waiver, either because he did not think that he would get permission for such a late hour or because he knew that he would not get approval to have young children in a scene with a large number of explosives. The casting agents were unaware that the children would be involved in the scene.

Twilight Zone: The Movie is a 1983 American science fiction horror anthology film produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis as a cinematic interpretation of the 1959–1964 television series of the same name created by Rod Serling. The film stars Vic Morrow, Scatman Crothers, Kathleen Quinlan, and John Lithgow, with Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks in the prologue segment. Burgess Meredith starred in four episodes of the original series and took on Serling's position as narrator. Other actors from the original series included William Schallert, Kevin McCarthy, Bill Mumy, Murray Matheson, Peter Brocco, and Patricia Barry.

The film is a remake of three episodes of the original series and introduces one original story. Landis directed the prologue, the first segment, and the epilogue; Spielberg directed the second segment, Joe Dante the third, and George Miller the final. Dante recalled that the four stories were originally intended to be interwoven, with characters from one segment appearing in another segment, but problems with the filming precluded this.

The film gained notoriety before its release for the stunt helicopter crash which took the lives of actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen during the filming of the segment directed by Landis. The two child actors had been hired illegally. Their deaths led to a high-profile legal case, although no one was found to be criminally liable for the accident.

Warner Bros. Pictures = 322

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