Can you imagine kicking off your New Year by transforming into a real-life superhero, only to face a heart-stopping tragedy? Well, on January 1, 2023, Jeremy Renner lived this nail-biting tale. In a heroic feat, The Avengers star, 53, found himself in the thick of danger when he attempted to save his nephew from becoming roadkill under his snowplow.
With over 30 broken bones and blunt chest trauma, Renner was swiftly ushered into surgery and spent nerve-wracking days in the intensive care unit. By sheer force of will (and perhaps a smidgen of Marvel magic), Renner was able to move around, albeit with difficulty & using a cane for support.
In June’s (2024) soul-baring interview with Men’s Health, Renner bounced back to share the spine-chilling details of his near-fatal rendezvous with a snowplow.
The Shocking Truth Behind Jeremy Renner’s Snowplow Injuries
January 1, 2023, was a day that was all too real for Jeremy Renner. They say that life can change in the blink of an eye and for the actor, that saying couldn’t ring truer. In a heart-stopping twist of fate, he found himself in the crosshairs of a 14,300-pound snowplow, an accident that left him with blunt chest trauma and a new appreciation for life’s fragility (via Variety).
The aftermath was nothing short of a medical nightmare. In a candid interview with Men’s Health, Renner pulled back the curtain on his heart-rending ordeal. He described the sensation of being crushed under the snowplow as “an immovable object and a crushing force”, a chilling reality that left him gasping for breath. The Mayor of Kingstown star recalled:
It undulates, because there’s four sections of tires with these metal tracks — it pulls it like a tank. I remember every undulation. 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.
Renner’s battle to breathe was a fight against time itself. With broken ribs and a punctured lung, every inhale was a Herculean task. “There was no breathing happening,” he admitted, adding,
It’s hard to use your stomach muscles when you have 14 broken ribs and a popped lung. I don’t know this at the time — I just needed to get air. I was going through the checklist of my body, figuring it the f— out.
Exhaustion set in, but there was a strange peace in his struggle as he handed over his fate to the arriving EMTs.
Jeremy Renner’s Hard Road to Recovery: The Real Struggle
Well, the recovery process was a real uphill battle. From awkward sponge baths to a constant struggle with pain and immobility, Jeremy Renner described his ICU days with a blend of dark humor and stark reality. He confessed:
Undulate, undulate, undulate, undulate. 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.
Despite the mountain of obstacles, Renner’s optimism was his secret weapon. He said with characteristic bluntness:
I have to get better than I was today. That’s all that f—ing matters. I’m not setting a high bar here.
With a mantra of “The only thing we can control is our perspective” (via CNN), Renner tackled each day of his recovery with grit and humor. And now, almost a year later, he stands tall, grateful for every breath, every step, and every moment of this leaner, meaner life he’s been given.
On the work front, we’ll soon catch Jeremy Renner in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. This much-anticipated mystery flick, penned and helmed by Rian Johnson, is set to make its debut on Netflix in 2025.
