Jeremy Renner is revealing the details of the freak accident that almost took his life. The Avengers actor shares the harrowing moment in his memoir, My Next Breath, in which he was run over by a 14,000-pound snowplow in 2023. The 54-year-old blamed himself for the accident, which left him with devastating injuries, after attempting to stop the machine from sliding in the direction of his nephew.
The Gruesome Moment Shared By Jeremy Renner
“I could see my lifetime. I could see everything all at once. It could have been for ten seconds; could have been for five minutes,” Jeremy Renner writes in his book released on Tuesday, per Page Six. “I know I died … When the EMTs arrived, they noted that my heart had bottomed out at 18, and 18 beats per minute, you’re basically dead.”
Jeremy Renner reflects on the severity of the situation, saying, “Six f–king wheels, seventy-six steel blades, 14,000 pounds of machine, all ranged against one human body.” He describes hearing all his bones crack: “Skull, jaw, cheekbones, molars: fibula, tibia, lungs, eye sockets, cranium, pelvis, ulna, legs, arms, skin, crack, snap, crack, squeeze.”
The Aftermath and Recovery
Jeremy Renner suffered 14 broken ribs, a spinal fracture, a punctured lung, and a sliced liver, among other grave injuries. “I had no full sense then what a hot mess my body was in,” he recalls, describing how he lay in the snow covered in his blood. “I could see my left eye with my right eye,” the veteran actor writes, referencing the fact that his left eye “violently burst out of [his] skull.”
A Monumental Error and Self-Sacrifice
The star of American Hustle admits the accident was a “tiny” but “monumental” error on his part, remembering that he hadn’t engaged the parking brake on the snowplow. Despite the life-changing nature of the incident, Renner has no regrets about saving his nephew. “I had to do something,” he writes. “In those lightning-fast seconds, his life hung in the balance. If that machine was to hit him, it would have crushed him to death, no question.”
