Despite Director’s Assurance, Arnold Schwarzenegger Was Left Bloodied on the Set of Conan the Barbarian: “They Bit at My Pants and Dragged”

Shooting for an action-packed entertainer comes with a lot of punches, kicks, and stunts. Arnold Schwarzenegger built up his image of a sci-fi hero fighting away the bad guys with style. But performing stunts always comes with risks, and the Austrian Oak may have found himself in dangerous situations multiple times.

In his autobiography, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, Schwarzenegger recounted one such stunt gone wrong. Despite taking all safety measures, a normal shoot day on the sets of Conan the Barbarian turned upside down with a botched-up stunt. Let’s dive right in.

Wolf chase went wrong as Arnold Schwarzenegger saw his nightmare come true

The movie needed a scene where a pack of wolves chased Schwarzenegger. For this, director John Milius suggested getting a bunch of German Shepherds that, unbeknownst to the actor, “had some wolf in them“. This meant having a bunch of huge, wild dogs accompanied by their trainer who was in charge of their behavior. Arnie would try and spend time with them every day to get over his fear.

The day finally arrived when they had to shoot the scene. The trainer was ready, and the Milius assured Schwarzenegger that he would be safe. The plan was to release the dogs only after the star began running, giving him plenty of time to get to a safer place. The cameras were ready, and Schwarzenegger was prepped.

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Raw meat was sewn to the actor’s costume to lure the dogs and get some realistic shots. The cameras began rolling, and Arnie sprinted across the field. But the trainer let the dogs loose too soon, and they caught up with the actor in no time. While Schwarzenegger tried climbing up the rocks, penning his experiences in his book, he recalled, “They bit at my pants and dragged me down off the rock, and I fell ten feet onto my back”. The trainer immediately sprang into action and commanded the dogs to stop, and they did so with a ferocious look. In fact, the incident ended with Arnie getting 12 stitches as he split a portion of his back open.

This wasn’t Arnie’s only dangerous encounter with animals.

Horse riding as ‘Kalidor’ went wrong for Arnie

During an interview, Schwarzenegger recalled shooting for the movie Red Sonja, where he played the role of ‘Lord Kalidor’. To perfect the role, he needed to work with horses, which the actor was surprisingly good at. But things didn’t end well when he woke up in a pool of mud with nasty injuries.

It turns out, while practicing horse riding, Schwarzenegger’s horse slipped and fell into a pool of mud, dropping the actor consequently. When he woke up, crew members informed him that he fell unconscious since the horse toppled over him. But all’s well that ends well, and both Arnie and the horse remained unscathed.

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