With the recent release of Rupert Sanders' The Crow reboot, the tragic story behind the original movie has once again come to light.
For those who may be unaware, the 2024 movie is a reboot of the movie franchise that originally starred Brandon Lee as the titular vigilante.
The movies are based on the 1989 comic book series by James O'Barr, and despite being released at a time when comic books movies were far from as popular as they are now, the movie more than quadrupled its budget at the box office and gained a cult following.
One of the reasons the movie gained such a devoted fan base was down to the heartbreaking incident that occurred on-set, and led to Lee's death.
While filming the final scenes for what would become his last movie, Lee - who was the son of martial arts acting legend Bruce Lee - was directed to walk through a doorway carrying a bag of groceries.
The scene then called for fellow actor Michael Massee to fire a prop gun at Lee.
Standing just 15ft away, Massee fired the gun at Lee's abdomen.
Rather than using a fake gun for the scene, a real revolver was used. It had been loaded with improperly made dummy rounds, which had been made from live cartridges that had the powder charges removed, per Collider.
For the scene, the dummy cartridges were replaced with blank rounds - except for one dummy cartridge that had become stuck in the barrel of the gun. When Massee pulled the trigger, the dummy bullet was fired and knocked Lee backward.
When he failed to get back up after the director called cut, the crew rushed to his side.
On March 31, 1993, Lee was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital hours later as a result of internal injuries, blood loss and heart failure. His death was completely preventable.
Lee had filmed most of his scenes for the movie, and the release was able to go ahead the following year thanks to stand-ins and special effects.
In 2005, Massee - who died in October 2016 following a battle with stomach cancer - revealed the anguish he had faced since Lee's death.
Speaking to Extra TV, Massee revealed that he relived the tragedy in "nightmares", adding that people don't "ever get over something like that".
"I've never talked about this on camera," the actor said. "What happened to Brandon was a tragic accident and it's something that I'm going to live with. It's taken me the time it has took - not so much to put it in perspective, but to be able to move on with my life.
"I never felt the need or the obligation to talk to anybody about it, other than his fiancée at the time and his mother, who I called. It's very personal and it's something that I want to make sure when I work, that it's that it's never repeated."
He added that the incident made him "'very conscious of the dangers of making a movie".
Brandon Lee's death was later ruled an accident due to negligence. However, his mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, took legal action against the filmmakers.
She later settled under undisclosed terms.
