Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t just known for starring in death-defying films—he’s lived through a few of his own. The actor, famous for playing characters that face life-threatening situations (Titanic, The Beach, The Revenant), has had his own brushes with death. And when he opens up about it, his stories are as wild as any movie script.
In an interview with Wired, Caprio revealed three insane survival tales that sound more like action movie scenes than real-life experiences. Here’s a breakdown of the close calls that left him staring death in the face.
First up: a terrifying experience in 2009. DiCaprio was flying on a commercial flight to Russia, sitting in business class, when the unimaginable happened. The engine exploded. DiCaprio saw the wing engulfed in flames. The entire plane went silent, and the engines were completely shut down. He described the surreal experience of gliding through the air with no sound, just waiting for the worst. Amazingly, the captain succeeded in reigniting the motors and performed a crisis touchdown back in Manhattan.
Afterward, DiCaprio’s craving for excitement brought him to shark enclosure diving in South Africa. However, events swiftly became a horror when a great white shark lunged into his cage. The predator’s body got halfway inside, snapping dangerously close to him. DiCaprio fell to the bottom of the cage, hoping to stay out of harm’s way.
“The great white took about five or six snaps an arm’s length away from my head. The guys there said that has never happened in the 30 years they’d been doing it.”
Luckily, the shark eventually flipped itself out and swam off, leaving DiCaprio with a heart racing but no wounds. Lastly, there was the skydive. The actor decided to take the plunge, but things went south fast. The first parachute didn’t open, so the instructor cut it loose. The second one?
Also knotted. DiCaprio, free-falling through the sky, thought he was done for. The instructor kept shaking the parachute until it finally unfurled just in time. They landed hard, but neither was seriously injured. And DiCaprio? He’s never skydived again.
These brushes with death have become part of DiCaprio’s legend, and his friends have taken note. “My friends have named me the person they least want to do extreme adventures with, because I always seem to be very close to being part of a disaster. If a cat has nine lives, I think I’ve used a few” he joked.
Despite the danger, DiCaprio seems to have a knack for dodging disaster. But given how close he’s come to meeting his maker, maybe it’s time for him to take it easy, at least when it comes to extreme sports.
