“I could see my left eyeball with my right eyeball”: Jeremy Renner’s Eye Literally Popped Out of His Socket During Snowplow Accident

On New Year’s Day, 2023, Jeremy Renner’s horrific fate was disguised under the almost angelic white layer of snow that covered a small town near Lake Tahoe, Nevada. In the early hours of the day, an accident involving a snow plow left the Oscar-winning actor with injuries no mortal could possibly survive and had the fans re-evaluating their definition of a real-life superhero.

Although he was crushed by a 14,330-lb snowcat and was informed about potentially losing functionality in both legs, Jeremy Renner’s sheer will brought him back from death’s door. His new-found purpose made him reach for the stars with no limit to his ambitions and no cap on his Hollywood career.

Jeremy Renner Survives an Impossible Accident

The life story of Jeremy Renner is a fascinating tale that charts the rise of a talented indie actor with features famously resembling that of a bulldog who would go on to change the face of modern cinema. The actor started fairly early with a deliciously dark role in Dahmer (2002) before moving on to his Oscar-nominated roles in The Hurt Locker (2008) and The Town (2010).

A year later, he would debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a small role in Thor alongside heavy hitters like Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. 12 years later, he would befall an accident that broke more than 38 bones in his body, crushed a part of his skull, and left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down.

With his arc as a superhero fairly fleshed out in the MCU as one of the original 6 Avengers, what Jeremy Renner did next would defy all logic and rationality as if inspired directly from the pages of a comic book. The actor survived – and in 4 short months, swaggered his way across late-night talk show stages and down the red carpet for the launch of his Disney+ event.

Jeremy Renner Reveals the Details of His Harrowing Accident

On the fateful morning of January 1, 2023, Jeremy Renner was trapped under a 14,330-pound heavy Sno-Cat while trying to save his nephew after it hurtled down the slope near his ranch on Mount Rose. With blood-curdling sounds of unimaginable pain coming out of him, Renner’s neighbor could be heard on the 911 call insisting that he “keep fighting.”

The actor later revealed in a tell-all interview with Diane Sawyer that his thoughts immediately honed in on what the accident had done to his body:

What does my body look like? Am I just gonna be like a spine and a brain like a science experiment? Is that my existence now?

Now, 18 months later, after having completely recovered and on a mission to conquer all of Hollywood, the actor reveals in a Men’s Health cover story:

I remember my head cracking on the thing and it just pressing on me — it’s exactly like you think it would feel. An immovable object and a crushing force, and something’s gotta give. But thank God my skull didn’t fully give. And then it kept going.

Cheekbone broke, eye socket broke, and then from the crushing of getting run over by the machine, my eye bulged out. I could see my left eyeball with my right eyeball. I was screaming for a breath.

However, the harrowing and nightmarish incident that almost turned fatal and left him in the ICU for 12 days, gave him a new purpose and outlook in life. The actor has not only demonstrated a superhuman will to overcome every impossible obstacle in his journey to a full recovery but is driving forward at an unbelievable pace with projects in Hollywood, including the Paramount+ series, Mayor of Kingstown, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

Knives Out 3 will premiere in 2025 while Mayor of Kingstown is available to stream on Paramount+