Released in 1989, Cyborg was one of the first films in Van Damme’s long career.
The action star didn’t hesitate to throw real punches at the other actors during filming.
The script for this sci-fi action movie was written with Chuck Norris in mind, but either the actor was busy with other projects or the producers felt they couldn’t cast such a big star, so they cast young actor Van Damme instead.
It’s hard to say whether Chuck’s movie would have been better or worse, but one person was definitely not happy about the replacement of the leading actor.
Cyborg received a harsh R rating at the box office precisely for its gore and abundance of blood.
Van Damme performed most of the tricks and fights himself, believing that no one could portray true cruelty better than himself.
In the post-apocalyptic world, Van Damme’s character, Gibson Rickenbacker, fought his way through crowds of bandits who called themselves pirates.
While filming one of the scenes, an extra named Jackson Pinckney was seriously injured. Van Damme grabbed a fake knife from a stuntman’s hand and accidentally hit him in the eye.
Of course, according to all the rules of filming, the knife was made of rubber and could not cause injury if it hit one’s arm, leg or torso – but who knew that the knife would hit the eye.
The damage turned out to be quite serious – as a result of the injury, Pinckney lost sight in one eye, which could not but affect his career. Pinckney, outside the shooting, served in the US Army, and the injury forced him to demobilize.
Of course, Jackson was not willing to leave such a collapse of plans for life without compensation, and filed a lawsuit against Jean-Claude Van Damme. Pinckney demanded a payment of $ 10,000 in damages. However, Van Damme had to pay almost fifty times more – $ 487,000.
The turning point for the trial was the testimony of other stuntmen who starred in Cyborg – they confirmed that Van Damme did not consider it necessary to soften the blows during the shooting, almost maiming his co-stars.
Despite the scandal, the actor’s career only went up and he starred in such movies as Street Fighter, Universal Soldier, Double Impact and others.