In February, I survived a low-altitude canopy collision with another parachutist while skydiving at a busy drop zone in Southern California. We wrapped and came spinning down to crash land on an RV supply parts warehouse. I punched a hole through the roof and was knocked unconscious, yet miraculously, the worst injury I suffered was a badly broken wrist. The other jumper hit a second or two after me and broke two ribs.

“Every man dies, but not every man really lives,” is a quote from the movie “Braveheart” but could easily apply to the group of friends I have been honored to know and perform with in this perhaps strange but compellingly thrilling sport.

There was not enough room in the October issue’s “Profile” of B.J. Worth by Brian Giboney to include this anecdote, so we are printing it here. Worth was responding to Giboney’s question, “What’s your best bonfire story about being James Bond’s stunt double?”

During production on the movie “Drop Zone” (starring Wesley Snipes and Gary Busey), the good guys needed to catch the bad guy as he was escaping on foot within a forest of skyscrapers. The plan was for the non-aerial stunt team to rappel down the building and jump on the bad guy (played by former jumper Michael Jeter). During a production meeting with the director, I casually mentioned that a good guy could ground launch from the top of the building and swoop down and catch Jeter in a scissor grip with his legs. The director bought it and changed the script. The regular stunt team was not amused and more than a bit skeptical.

Shooting skydiving on film—true film—has a long history. Nearly at our sport’s inception, freefall cinematographers captured it this way. It was the only way to show a skydive in motion. Many of the early movie cameras used in freefall were World War II military surplus, just like early parachute gear. These were gun cameras, which the military mounted on aircraft guns to record a minute or so of footage when the weapon fired.