How They Filmed the Most Legendary Train Stunt of All Time

It's become a legendary stunt in Hollywood. The fall from the caboose during the train robbery, climax of how the West was won. No computer gimmicks here. It's all real. And it's all the work of stuntman, Loren James. We'd been going back and forth on this 27 mile narrow gauge track where he was shooting all the various stunts. And there was, every time we'd go by, there was just... There's a Saguaro cactus all over the place. Well, there's just one. It was a big one. You could write a book on it, James. His credits include more than 500 films and more than 1,000 episodes of television. He's fallen off cliffs, battled a giant snake in the Swiss Family Robinson, crashed through countless balconies, and fallen off who knows how many horses. I've fallen off many horses in my life. And doing it deliberately is a little different, but you can plan it. And being a gymnast and acrobat, I know where I am in the air. I know how to turn over. I know how to go head first, duck and hit on the shoulder, and flip and flop. And that's sort of thing. James worked with the biggest stars in Hollywood. He's doubled for Jack Nicholson, Yul Brynner, and was Steve McQueen's stunt double for his entire career. But one of his favorite movies is one of mine. The classic, thrilling western, How the West Was Won. It was shot in five segments, and Loren did 80% of the stunts in three of those. And when he wasn't performing in front of the camera, James was behind the lens of his home movie camera, documenting the making of this incredible film. And then I had other people do the same thing. I'd pick the spots and the angles I wanted, and then they'd film me doing my stuff, and I'd film other people. That's Lauren getting shot by an arrow during the Indian attack on the wagon train, and getting trampled by the galloping horses of the pursuing Indians. And while it appears to be Debbie Reynolds who falls off the wagon, It's really James who falls, and James who vaults onto the back of the horse that races by to pick him up. So I had the loose horses running all around me, and the wagon coming at me, and I've got to watch them so they don't kick me and knock me down, and then catch his arm to swing up behind me. What's the most dangerous stunt you ever did? They all are, because if a stunt seems very simple and easy, and the stunt person says, ah, this is, you know, no sweat, this is an easy one, then you might relax a little too much. Take it for granted and not be primed and get hurt. Get hurt seriously. And while all stunts may be dangerous, few are as thrilling to watch as the ones James did on How the West Was Won. James is one of the outlaws robbing the train at the end of the film. The gun battle rages. A bullet breaks the chain holding logs to a flat car, and the logs fly about, tossing outlaws off into the dust. But James' character ends up dangling from a log, just as it crosses a bridge over a 189-foot-deep gorge. And there's no net to fall into until the train gets to the other side. Going backwards, I have to keep looking under my arm and over my shoulder to see where the net is. And then I have to let go before I get to the net because of forward momentum. So I let go. When I let go, there's nothing but 189 feet down with rocks. But momentum, I kind of just carried me and I carried over and then I saw the net come under me and I hit the net. Then there's the classic of them all. The fall from the top of the caboose. The stunt was the idea of director Richard Talmadge. Because he's always trying to find something new. I'm not gonna find something someday you can't do. James went to work. He used a blowtorch to burn off the needles where he'd hit the cactus. Then he cut the taproot so it would fall over at just the right speed. Then Jane's had to figure out how to time that unforgettable jump. And if I'd missed it, if I'd been late, I'd have gone, and around the curve there was a whole side of just big boulders, and I'd have lit on the boulders. Weren't you ever, uh, frightened doing those kinds of stunts? I mean, most people would be terrified to do something like that. Yeah, and that's why they're not stuntmen or stuntwomen. Uh, that's, see, one thing that all stuntpeople have to have, male or female, is a great stuntwoman also. You can't have fear. If you have fear, you're in trouble. You react differently. You do things differently. You can't have that fear. The other quality that they all have to have is that it's tough. Things go wrong. The fire gets too big. The explosions. And you're really under pressure. The stunt person has to be a person that remains collected, thinks clearly. If something goes wrong, you figure, well, how do I save myself? How do I save the shot? How do I save other people around? Think of five or six ways to get out of it and to save the thing or whatever, and then you pick the best one and do it in a matter of fraction of a second. Throughout his amazing career, James never even broke a single bone. The 69-year-old is now retired from stunt work, but he still works as a stunt coordinator, second unit director, and does an acting job from time to time. He recently married concert pianist Jan Sanborn, and the two share a beautiful home in the Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles. And despite a career in the world's most glamorous business, Lauren is at heart a cowboy with a genuine love for the American West and all that heritage stands for. There was honor and integrity, and you need honesty and integrity and morals and people standing for something that's right and fight for it. We'll be right back. I'm starting to speak.