R.I.P. Brandon Lee February 1, 1965- March 31, 1993.

Brandon Lee was killed while shooting the flashback scene in which he walks into the room and discovers Shelly is being attacked. Funboy (Michael Masse) was to shoot Eric as he walked into the room. Michael Masse was handed the gun with "blanks" loaded into the chamber. Brandon walked in and Masse shot him as scripted. However a bullet penetrated Brandon's abdomen and lodged next to his vertebra (there is a good chance had he lived, he may have been paralyzed). Brandon was rushed to a local hospital where he died 13hrs later after attempts to stop the bleeding with surgery failed (he pretty much bled to death). Investigation into the incident found that the gun that was used had been loaded in an earlier scene with "dummy" bullets for a close up shot. A dummy is a shell and slug but there is no gunpowder in the casing to make it fire. In this case, real bullets were used. They bought the bullets at a local gun shop. The slugs were removed from the caseing, the gun powder removed and the slugs placed back into the caseing. This was a major mistake, live ammo should never be used to make a dummy bullet, but due to budget and time constraints the production crew did what they thought best. The dummy bullet is used for headon, close up shots so that the slugs can be seen in the chamber. According to what investigators could piece together, in the scene where the gun was loaded with the dummy rounds, one of the slugs came loose and stayed in the chamber after it was unloaded. Then they reloaded it with the blanks to get ready for the flashback scene. Blank bullets have double the gunpowder in them than a normal bullet so that a loud sound is made and discharge is seen. When Michael Masse fired the gun, the slug that had remained in the chamber was pushed through with double the force and hit Brandon. One of the major lapses in safety, other than using live ammo to create the dummy, was the fact that the weapons expert was sent home that evening to save money, and a couple of prop assitants were the ones handling the weapons. Their oversite led to Brandon's death, and his mother subsequently sued the production company for neglegence and won an undisclosed settlement. Its sad that saving money and time ended Brandon's life way too soon. The irony of it all was this was to be the last scene where there would be guns involved, as the final 8 days of shooting were to be fill-in scenes and more flashbacks. Its sad that there were only 8 days of shooting left and only 12 days to when Brandon was to be married. All the information I just typed was read from official reports on the accident and in interviews with gun experts and Brandon Lee's mother.

For more information I recommend ordering The Crow: The Story Behind The Film in the merchandise section.