Bruce Willis 'nearly died' while performing stunts on Die Hard sets, reveals new book

The actor, now 68, played police officer John McClane in the beloved film and its subsequent sequels, which saw the character face various challenging situations, reports Mirror.co.uk.

He's spoken in the past about the stunts in the film and it's been claimed that Bruce "nearly died" taking on one of them whilst working on the first instalment in the series. His experience working on the film has been recalled in Nick de Semlyen's newly-released book 'The Last Action Heroes', which goes behind-the-scenes with different actors.

As reported by Fox News, in the book, Bruce recalls a stunt almost going wrong whilst filming 'Die Hard'. The stunt is said to have seen him jump off the top of a five-storey parking garage onto an inflatable airbag.

As per Mirror.co.uk, the actor, who it was announced last year was retiring from acting amid health issues, is said to have been wearing only black pants and had been lathered in a gel-like substance, which he was reportedly told would prevent him catching on fire.

After jumping from the top of the building and landing on the airbag, plastic bags of gasoline are said to have been detonated, which reportedly pushed Bruce to the edge of the airbag. It's been reported that crew members immediately rushed over to the actor following the stunt, which Bruce said he had initially thought was them coming over to praise him.

He's quoted as recalling: "When I landed, everyone came running over to me and I thought they were going to say, 'Great job! Attaboy!' And what they were doing was seeing if I'm alive because I almost missed the bag."