Trivia: Lance Henrickson set on fire for real?

Excellent observation, my man. I watched this last night and thought the exact same thing. However, the fire retardant that Lance is so obviously drenched in, may have simply been a precaution because of the fire and explosives in his vicinity. When he was actually caught on fire, Lance may have felt safe enough to continue with the scene.

Whether it was accidental or not, that's still a fantastic shot.

This from Wikipedia:

"Contrary to popular belief. Lance Henriksen was NOT accidentally set on fire. It is clearly visible that Henriksen is covered in fire-retardant gel. Used for fire stunts when stunt men or actors are set alight or are close to open-fire. The gel is clearly visible on his arms, hands, neck, head and hair. It's clear and has a wet-look when applied to skin or clothes. During the take, the reactions of the people surrounding Henriksen were actually really surprised of how long he was letting the fire burn on the coat before taking it off. The characters were played by stunt men in the film. If Henriksen would have been accidentally been set on fire. Stunt crew members would have stepped in immediately put him out with fire extinguishers. Fire stunts with actors are taken VERY seriously, with no room for error. Henriksen asked director John Woo to perform the fire stunt himself. Woo only agreed after discussing it at length with stunt coordinator William Burton and Henriksen's stunt double. Burton trained Henriksen for two days on how to perform this stunt."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Target

So it was a deliberate shot, although obviously not in the original script as a stunt actor wouldn't have delivered any dialogue, and the scene would have been shot differently. If Henriksen asked to do the scene himself, perhaps he improvised the dialogue and acting, which is why the others are still surprised by his actions. Brilliant scene, whatever the background.

I actually have "On the set of Hard Target" document which, among other things, includes the "fire" scene with Lance Henriksen. The document is part of the extra materials of Criterion Collection's Hard Boiled laserdisc edition. In the document, we can clearly see that Henriksen is set on fire on purpose. After they have filmed the concerned scene, we can also clearly see, that Henriksen's hair has been handled with some kind of gel or liquid. All in all, the fact comes pretty clear in the document; the scene happened on purpose, it was NOT an accident.

In the document, Henriksen says that he would only do it for John Woo and that he hasn't done a scene like that before, nor has he seen any other actor do it. He says it goes right on to his résumé :)

There is actually behind the scenes footage of Lance Henriksen getting PURPOSEFULLY lit on fire here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=SH7vB78f2ow

as well as a little interview with him. Pretty cool!

1. who cares if it was accidental,any situation with lance henriksen being on fire is epic in the true sense of epicness meaning of a word that as epic as epic is!

2. it could be that his coat accidentally caught fire in the first take,and then they tought it would be cool,so he was drenched in the fire-protective gel,and they re-did the scene with adding more fire to it.