The most expensive film stunt we can document is the cruise ship crash in Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), reported at about $25 million, tied with the train heist in Fast Five (2011). The most expensive stunt performed by one person is the rope transfer between two jets in Cliffhanger (1993), which Guinness World Records lists at $1 million. This list covers the 10 costliest stunts and stunt sequences with a published price tag, as of October 2026.
Studios rarely publish stunt budgets, so every number below is a reported figure, and some cover a whole sequence rather than one moment. We say which in each entry.
| Rank | Stunt | Film (year) | Reported cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cruise ship crash into a harbour town | Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) | About $25 million |
| 2 | Train heist with a real train and vault | Fast Five (2011) | About $25 million |
| 3 | Bus carried by helicopter over Los Angeles | Swordfish (2001) | About $15 million |
| 4 | Junkyard chase and explosions | Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) | About $15 million |
| 5 | Freeway chase on a purpose-built road | The Matrix Reloaded (2003) | About $10 to $15 million (road alone $2.5 million) |
| 6 | Real Boeing 747 crashed into a building | Tenet (2020) | Reportedly about $10 million |
| 7 | Chariot race | Ben-Hur (1959) | $1 million, plus $1 million for the arena |
| 8 | Rope transfer between two jets | Cliffhanger (1993) | $1 million |
| 9 | Locomotive falls through a burning bridge | The General (1926) | $42,000 |
| 10 | Mountain ski jump and parachute | The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) | $30,000 (stuntman’s fee) |
1. Speed 2: Cruise Control, ship crash: about $25 million
The finale of Speed 2 sends a cruise liner into the harbour of a Caribbean town. The crew built a replica of the ship’s bow weighing about 300 tons, ran it along an underwater track and smashed it into a large town set in Marigot, Saint Martin. Reports put the town set alone at around $5 million.
The sequence was reportedly about a quarter of the whole film’s budget, and the film’s own page credits it as the largest and costliest stunt filmed to that date. Adjusted for inflation, the 1997 price is roughly double today.
How we valued it: the cost of the whole crash sequence, a figure repeated across several film tallies. Treat it as approximate, since no studio ledger is public.
2. Fast Five, train heist: about $25 million
Fast Five’s heist set piece has the crew chase a moving train through desert canyon country. To make it work, the producers bought their own train and about 600 yards of track, and the stunt work used the real train.
One report ties the price to about a fifth of the film’s $125 million budget.
How we valued it: a sequence cost repeated by several car and film outlets. It covers the train, the track and the vehicles, not one single moment.
3. Swordfish, helicopter bus: about $15 million
The 2001 hijack scene shows a bus full of hostages lifted by a heavy cargo helicopter and carried over Los Angeles. A Sikorsky Skycrane did the lifting, near its weight limit, and the pilot is reported to have been paid about $25,000 an hour. Because no building could take that weight, a reinforced rooftop replica was built for the landing shots.
After the September 2001 attacks the planned follow-up scenes were cut back, so part of the spending never reached the screen.
How we valued it: the total price tag of the sequence, as reported. The same $15 million figure appears across many lists, so it may trace back to one early report.
4. Transformers: The Last Knight, junkyard sequence: about $15 million
Filmed in the Arizona desert over about ten days, the junkyard fight mixes real custom cars, large explosions and effects work. The production hired dozens of locals and vendors and booked thousands of hotel nights.
It is less a single stunt than a stunt-heavy sequence, which is why we rank it below the two $25 million entries.
How we valued it: a sequence budget of about $15 million. It includes visual effects, so it overstates the cost of the stunt work alone.
5. The Matrix Reloaded, freeway chase: about $10 to $15 million
The Wachowskis wanted real trucks and bikes, so they built a freeway at the decommissioned naval air station in Alameda, California. The road was about 1.5 miles long, walled with a high timber and plywood barrier and was torn down afterwards. The road alone is reported to have cost about $2.5 million, and General Motors donated more than 300 cars that were wrecked in the shoot.
Whole-sequence estimates run from about $10 million to $15 million. One film reference gives a much higher $30 million, but flags it as unsourced, so we do not use it.
How we valued it: road construction cost of $2.5 million, which is widely reported, with the range covering vehicles, training and effects.
6. Tenet, the real 747: reportedly about $10 million
Christopher Nolan bought a retired Boeing 747 and crashed it into a set in Victorville, California. He said a real plane was the more efficient option than miniatures and effects, and a visual effects supervisor said the jet was found relatively cheaply.
The $10 million figure circulates in stunt lists, but neither the studio nor Nolan has confirmed it, so we place it on the lower half of the list.
How we valued it: an unconfirmed reported figure. The cost of the plane itself was never published.
7. Ben-Hur, chariot race: $1 million
The 1959 race took five weeks of shooting spread over three months and was co-directed by the stunt legend Yakima Canutt and Andrew Marton. The arena was carved out of a rock quarry by a thousand workmen over more than a year and cost about $1 million. Seventy-eight horses were imported from Yugoslavia and Sicily, and thousands of extras filled the stands.
Some lists put the race at $4 million, but the film’s page puts the scene’s cost at $1 million, and we use the lower number. The film’s budget was about $15 million.
How we valued it: scene cost of $1 million, with the arena built for another $1 million, in 1959 dollars.
8. Cliffhanger, rope transfer between jets: $1 million
In 1993 the stuntman Simon Crane crossed from one jet to another at 15,000 feet. Guinness World Records lists the aerial stunt as the most expensive of its kind at $1 million. Insurers would not cover it, and reports say Sylvester Stallone agreed to cut his own fee by the same amount to pay for it.
The jets had to hold exactly 150 mph for the crossing to work.
How we valued it: the $1 million figure from the record entry, which is a stunt cost and a fee, not a full sequence budget.
9. The General, bridge collapse: $42,000
Buster Keaton’s 1926 comedy ends with a real locomotive driving onto a burning bridge, which collapses into a river. The shot was made once, on 23 July 1926, with six cameras. It cost $42,000, described as the most expensive single shot in film history up to then, in a film that cost about $750,000 in total.
The locomotive sat in the river for years afterwards.
How we valued it: shot cost in 1926 dollars, which a film reference says is over half a million dollars today.
10. The Spy Who Loved Me, ski jump: $30,000
In 1977 Rick Sylvester skied off Mount Asgard on Baffin Island and opened a Union Jack parachute, in one take. He was paid $30,000, a big fee for a stuntman at the time. The takeoff was slower than planned and he was briefly out of frame, but a backup camera caught the jump.
It ranks last only because the dollar amounts of 1977 are small.
How we valued it: the stuntman’s reported fee, not the cost of the production.
Records set in 2025 and 2026
We found no verified new cost record for a single stunt in 2025 or 2026. The biggest recent production, Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning, carried a reported budget of $300 million to $400 million, with a biplane wing-walking sequence and an underwater submarine set among its set pieces. No outlet we checked gave a price for any one stunt, so we do not rank it. The previous film, Dead Reckoning, built a full-scale train and a ramp on a Norwegian mountain for its motorcycle jump, again without a published stunt cost.
Separately, the Spectre explosion in 2015 took the Guinness record for the largest film stunt explosion, using more than 2,000 gallons of kerosene in Morocco. That is a record for size, not price.
What drives these costs
- Buying the real thing. The costliest entries bought or built full-size objects: a ship, a train, a freeway, a jet. Hiring them is not an option when the object is destroyed.
- One take. The General, Cliffhanger and the Spy Who Loved Me jump could be shot once, so the money went into preparation and cameras.
- Insurance and risk. When insurers refuse cover, the production or the star carries it, which is what happened on Cliffhanger.
- Sequences get blurry. Many reported numbers include effects, sets and cast time. The more a figure bundles, the less it tells you about the stunt itself.
FAQ
What is the most expensive film stunt ever?
Based on reported costs, the Speed 2: Cruise Control ship crash and the Fast Five train heist, each at about $25 million. No studio has published a ledger, so these are estimates.
What is the most expensive stunt performed by one person?
Simon Crane’s rope transfer between two jets in Cliffhanger, listed by Guinness World Records at $1 million.
How much did the Ben-Hur chariot race cost?
The scene cost about $1 million, and the arena was built for another $1 million, according to the film’s reference page. Some lists quote $4 million.
Did Christopher Nolan really crash a Boeing 747 in Tenet?
Yes, a retired 747 was crashed into a set in Victorville, California. The $10 million price tag is a reported figure and was never confirmed.
Why do so many stunt costs differ between sources?
Studios do not publish them, and lists often mix stunt costs, set builds and effects. We use the most repeated figure and label it as reported.
What was the cheapest stunt on this list?
The Spy Who Loved Me ski jump, where the stuntman was paid $30,000 in 1977.
How we put this list together
We ranked stunts by the highest published cost we could find, whether a stunt fee, a set build or a sequence budget, and we state which in each entry. Figures come from official record entries, film references and repeated reports compiled in an internal valuation model, so they are approximate and not adjusted for inflation unless we say so.
Keep reading
- 15 things money can buy
- Top 15 most expensive yachts ever built
- 7 expensive habits people call normal
Last updated: October 2026.
