back to article Harrison Ford's leg, in the Star Wars film, with the Millennium Falcon door

A subsidiary company of Disney has admitted criminal breaches of health and safety laws after a door of the Millennium Falcon almost crushed Harrison Ford to death in a Star Wars film. Ford, best known for playing CSO Jack Stanfield in the 2006 cyber-thriller Firewall, was reprising his role in the the Star Wars franchise when …

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        1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. asdf

        Re: Now we need a kill switch on the person operating the door.

        >It's good that we have managed to get out of caves without getting sued to death for "reckless egress".

        What does this article have to do with anyone getting sued? Its a criminal proceeding. I guess we could get rid of all the pesky labor and safety laws and go back to the Gilded age where when an 8yo kid sorry employee at the end of a 16 hour shift fell in the meat grinder you didn't even have to throw out the meat.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Now we need a kill switch on the person operating the door.

          when an 8yo kid sorry employee at the end of a 16 hour shift fell in the meat grinder you didn't even have to throw out the meat

          Nasty, exploitative capitalists and their dark, satanic mills!

          Well, in that age, said kid would likely have died of hunger or a random encounter with a malady in case he had decided to stay safely at home in his cottage with his 7 siblings.

          Of course he could always have decided to get a job in the navy. Very safety-conscious, the navy... still is, in a sense (one of the rare places in civilization where you are situated in heavy industrial environment that will kill you in a jiffy if you don't pay attention and other people are deploying heavy gear to make that environment MORE unpredictable and nasty to you)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Now we need a kill switch on the person operating the door.

            >Of course he could always have decided to get a job in the navy.

            Or some other branch of service as Gangs of NY showed so clearly when the Irish would arrive. That movie did a great job of showing how lovely 19th century urban living was.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re: own responsibility

      What happened to LOTO or personal responsibility for your own safety?

      For all we know they could have been doing a rehersal of a scene which included him hitting that button. And because things weren't life maybe he expected to be able to walk out and redo the rehersal again.

      There's not enough info in the article to draw conclusions such as yours.

    2. fandom

      When it comes to work safety there is no such thing as personal responsibility, it is always a lack of training or supervision.

      As far as the law goes if he had been trained to push the button while not being in the way there would have been no accident.

      But even if he had been trained, as far as the law goes there should have been a supervisor checking that people didn't push the button without following proper procedures.

      And no, I am not kidding.

      And they pleaded guilty in case a trial would have been even worse for them.

    3. phuzz Silver badge

      By the sounds of it, Ford assumed that the door wasn't operational yet. The operator assumed that when Ford hit the button, he wanted the door to close.

      What should have happened was when people came on set, someone should have pointed out "hey, these doors are hydraulic and fully operational, so you really don't want to be under them when they close, so be careful".

      The idea is that you can't be responsible for your own safety until you've been informed of the risks to your safety.

    4. Cuddles

      "Door was operated by a person. Door was stopped by a safety. Door was probably operated because he signalled by hitting the damn button.

      What happened to LOTO or personal responsibility for your own safety?"

      It may depend on why you assume this sequence of events happened.

      A) Ford randomly wanders around the set hitting buttons because he's bored;

      B) Ford is practising a scene that involves him hitting the button, understanding that nothing will happen because the set is turned off for practice.

      In the former scenario, I'd certainly assign at least some blame to Ford since pressing random buttons in an industrial setting is generally a bad idea. In the latter, Ford would appear to be entirely blameless. No doubt other scenarios could be constructed in which all, some or none of the blame is assigned to various different parties. The details haven't been made public, but a court appears to have decided that it was, in fact, the fault of the company managing the set and not Ford's. Unless you have access to information not in the article, blaming Ford seems a little odd.

      As for the more general question of what happened to personal responsibility for your own safety, there's a reason health and safety laws exist in the first place. You might as well complain that it's child labourer's own fault when they get their arms chopped off in a mill. As a society we've decided that actually not all accidents are entirely the fault of the person involved in them, and that employers have the responsibility to minimise risk to their employees (and anyone else on site) as much as is practical.

  1. Alister

    Ford, best known for playing CSO Jack Stanfield in the 2006 cyber-thriller Firewall,

    and a few other no-account roles over the years...

    :)

    1. Graham Dawson Silver badge

      I was under the impression his most widely celebrated role was Regarding Henry.

      1. asdf

        actually

        Or Witness. 100 years from now the one that he might well be remembered for is Bladerunner but that will be more because Phillip Dick's writing (though admittedly only thing left was the bare outline in the movie script) and Rutger Hauer's soliloquy are both timeless.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Unhappy

          Re: actually

          > 100 years from now the one that he might well be remembered for is Bladerunner...

          100 years from now, the MPIAA will have made it illegal to remember a film.

          1. asdf

            Re: actually

            But they will remember it wholesale for you.

  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Be advised: Doors in Star Wars may close prematurely or not at all.

    A court in Milton Keynes was told today that the 78-year-old had passed through a door of the spacecraft

    "Pretend Spacecraft", please ... "Fantasycraft" is more appropriate, even.

    pinning him to the floor with "the weight of a small car"

    A small European or a small American car? And why does the door need that many Newtons?

    1. Nolveys

      Re: Be advised: Doors in Star Wars may close prematurely or not at all.

      And why does the door need that many Newtons?

      I was wondering about that too. You'd think there would be some safety built into the door itself. It's not like it's a garbage masher or anything.

      1. Eddy Ito

        Re: Be advised: Doors in Star Wars may close prematurely or not at all.

        Oddly on my two car wide garage door the automatic closer is able to reverse direction with only a few pounds of resistance thanks to the door weight being largely counterbalanced by springs and it has an optical safety that prevents the door closing if the beam is broken. It's really hard to understand why such cheap and simple safeguards weren't in place. I suppose it comes down to the set being designed by movie people and not engineers.

        1. OliP

          Re: Be advised: Doors in Star Wars may close prematurely or not at all.

          This!

          Does it work? Yep!

          Does it look awesome? Hell Yeah!

          <un-asked question> Could it seriously kill someone? Oh hell yeah, but does that matter?

      2. el_oscuro

        Re: Be advised: Doors in Star Wars may close prematurely or not at all.

        Maybe they accidentally installed the doors from the garbage compacter on the Death Star instead?

  3. Nano nano

    Anyone else trust [their life to] a firm called .... "Foodles" ...?

    1. StudeJeff

      Other products?

      I caught that too... wonder if they have another business that makes food products such as Soylent Green.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Has the door been nominated for any awards? Could come close to winning.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      I think the door was exactly the opposite of a "Supporting Actor".

      1. Montreal Sean

        Maybe not "best supporting actor", but the door did put in a weighty performance.

  5. gregthecanuck

    Harrison Floored

    See title.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Harrison Floored

      ...was this during the filming of Mar Doors: The Force Embreakens?

  6. captain_solo

    Fortunately the carbon freezing process I had undergone during the production of Episode V created very dense crystalline calcium bone structures in my pelvis so I was able to bear the weight until the crew reacted and lifted the door.

    I don't know what JJ is talking about either, I'm out of it for a little while and everyone gets delusions of grandeur

  7. ElectricFox
    Alien

    Who needs the force?

    Who needs to use the force when you can just press a remote button?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNhYJgDdCu4

  8. Camilla Smythe

    Ford, best known..

    ..for playing CSO Jack Stanfield in the 2006 cyber-thriller Firewall.

    Not part of my memory but he still pulls the same faces. Just another one trick horse like Brian Blessed.

    <rant>

    I thought a Firewall was that thing you stuck between sections of Forests... Oh hang on it's that iptables thing you use to stop some script kiddie twat face from connecting to your mail server 20 times every second.

    Perhaps Jack Stanfield can sort that one out for me. Can someone implement IPv6 sometime soon. I realise I will be totally identifiable but it will force a rewrite of that 'Yo Scan The Internet in 20 seconds' shite that lives on github.

    Oh and whilst I am on the case.

    FUCK OFF Umich.Edu, and the rest of the twats. I did not ask you for a 'security/research scan' and you did not offer me any 'results'. Go get your students to practice on your own network.

    </rant>

    <sarc>

    I, for one, will be glad when the IPBill is passed because it will nip all this script kiddy shit in the bud as our Security Forces swing into action and prevent people taking £600 out of my bank account via Western Union for the privilege of having my computer fucked over some more or having to buy more storage for my log files. Go Theresa.

    </sarc>

    Otherwise I am inclined to agree with Health And Safety at Work... even if it involves pretend movie security experts..... What? You mean the character has been adopted and promoted by GCHQ? Perhaps I'll just go to bed and wake up when this bad dream is all over.

    1. Triggerfish

      Re: Ford, best known..

      what?

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. tekHedd

        Re: Ford, best known..

        *this* is why El Reg is still my #1 news source.

    2. Graham Dawson Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Ford, best known..

      Camilla's back and on the sauce again, it seems. Bottoms up!

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: Ford, best known..

        "Camilla's back and on the sauce again, it seems. Bottoms up!"

        - Ah, christmas memories...

  9. Spudley

    Sounds like a scene from a film I watched recently...

    So the scene is the Millenium Falcon. A leathery, wrinkly creature is loose aboard the ship. Crew members are running away from it, desperately closing bulkhead doors to escape from it, eventually disabling it when they manage to close one of the doors and crush one of its appendages.

    Hmm. Yep, definitely sounds familiar.

    1. asdf

      Re: Sounds like a scene from a film I watched recently...

      Can't fault him too much for cashing out one last time. IMHO the guy has kind of earned it (not to mention he got badly injured as well doing it) unlike a lot of the hacks that pass as the next big thing today. How can you not love:

      The President: How dare you come in here and lecture me!

      Jack Ryan: How dare *you*, sir!

      The President: How dare you come into this office and bark at me like some little junkyard dog? I am the President of the United States!

      The President: You'll take the blame. Cutter and Ritter will take some too, but it won't amount to much. They'll get a slap on the wrist and $20,000 an hour on the lecture circuit. The rest, you'll dump on Greer. Yes, you'll take him down with you. You'll *destroy* his reputation. But it won't go any further than that. It's the ol' Potomac two-step, Jack.

      Jack Ryan: I'm sorry, Mr. President, I don't dance.

      1. beboyle

        Re: Sounds like a scene from a film I watched recently...

        "Can't fault him too much for cashing out one last time."

        Actually in several interviews he has said he didn't want to do the film at all but was offered such a large bucket of cash that he decided he couldn't refuse. But he did insist that he actually die this time as he had wanted to do in Return of the Jedi, as he has also said many times.

        1. Teiwaz

          Re: Sounds like a scene from a film I watched recently...

          "But he did insist that he actually die this time as he had wanted to do in Return of the Jedi, as he has also said many times."

          - Guess he had it in his contract then, but the wrong name, and someone tried their best to honour it, kind of 'create a hologram to outwit data' mistake.

          1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
            Trollface

            Re: Sounds like a scene from a film I watched recently...

            More leathery, more wrinkly, more door-closey ... more deadly!!

            ***Harrison Ford in "Pak Protector" ***

            Now in movie theaters worldwide ... should you choose to be in the same room as popcorn-munching, texting, chatting, fighting, Pokémonning, annoying and uncough yoof!!!

            (OTOH the odd ISIS adherent or depressed up-armed youngster might make this an unforgettable near-death experience or beyond!!! FEAR!!)

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. Joseph Haig
    Mushroom

    I don't believe it

    I've seen him in a fridge launched through the air by a nuclear blast and then walking off unscathed. Don't tell me that something as insignificant as a door is going to hurt him.

    1. asdf

      Re: I don't believe it

      The movie that showed clearly why George Lucas the writer had to be put to pasture (actually the first Star Wars prequel did but this one made it an emergency).

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Paris Hilton

        Re: I don't believe it

        What scene was that?

        1. Richard 12 Silver badge

          Re: I don't believe it

          You don't want to know.

          That which has been seen, cannot be unseen.

          1. asdf

            Re: I don't believe it

            Think Nuketown for real from COD. The nuke was as actually cool (been a sucker for nukes in movies see Sum of All Fears but not whole thing Ben Affleck sucks) but yeah the star surviving in a refrigerator ruined it.

    2. Eltonga
      Devil

      Re: I don't believe it

      That's why the company pleaded guilty.

      They were using a door more dangerous than a nuclear blast.

  12. Gene Cash Silver badge
    FAIL

    Missing details

    This story sounds like the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit story, where you have no clue what actually happened because everybody leaves out some of the most important details.

    I'd expect El Reg to do better.

    1. asdf

      What controversy?

      >A subsidiary company of Disney has admitted criminal breaches of health and safety laws

      >Foodles Production has pleaded guilty to two of four offences brought against it.

      Don't know seems like these two El Reg article sentences pretty much make the doubt only in your head. Perhaps read the story a second (first?) time.

  13. Tempest8008

    Foreshadowing (spoilers)

    Meh....he died in the end anyway!

  14. Tikimon
    Devil

    It could have been worse...

    The bloody door might have said "It is my pleasure to open for you, and my satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done", shades of Sirius Cybernetics.

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