Things About Brandon Lee's Death That Don't Make Sense

At the start of 1993, actor Brandon Lee, who was 28 years old, was well on the way to Hollywood stardom. He had gained a sizable fanbase early in his career by starring in a string of action films, including 1990's "Laser Mission," 1991's "Showdown in Little Tokyo," and 1992's "Rapid Fire" (his role in the last movie was written especially for him). The fact that he was the son of martial artist Bruce Lee, a hero of the silver screen who died tragically young and became a legend, also helped add to Brandon's star power. But Brandon's on-screen work also proved that he shared his father's talent for combat and action scenes.

Brandon looked set to take his career a step further by taking the title role of the revenge fantasy "The Crow," a gothic blockbuster that seemed perfectly suited for the early '90s cinema landscape. However, in one of the most notorious accidents in Hollywood history, the leading actor's life was cut tragically short after he was hit with a slug fired from a prop gun, which caused a fatal abdominal injury. The incident was preceded by so many basic safety violations and freakish coincidences that it gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories around Brandon Lee's death — though as another recent on-set tragedy has shown, such unthinkable accidents can indeed happen.

The tragic shooting of Brandon Lee, the details of which we will soon discuss, occurred in the final days of what was widely reported to have been a uniquely troubled production. It wasn't even the first on-set accident during the filming of "The Crow." Indeed, the bizarre number of issues the crew found themselves dealing made some believe that there was a curse on the production as a whole.

Trouble began on the very first day of shooting, when a crew member was nearly electrocuted after power lines hit the crane in which he was working. He suffered severe burns that inhibited his ability to talk and required two years' worth of surgeries. The same day another crew member was involved in a traffic collision, and a fire broke out in an equipment truck. Later, a sculptor purposefully crashed into a workshop in a fit of rage, a construction worker pierced their hand with a screwdriver, and some of the sets were destroyed in a storm.

Over the decades, safety precautions on movie sets have improved leaps and bounds since the early days of Hollywood, when actors and crew routinely put their lives on the line to get the perfect take. Even more than 30 years ago, when Brandon Lee was shooting "The Crow," many measures were in place to help avoid accidents on set, especially when it came to the use of prop guns. However, a series of on-set oversights led to the freak accident that caused the lead actor's death.

The day before Lee was shot, the crew filmed a take that involved a gun being pointed at the camera barrel-first. However, there were concerns that light filtering through the shaft would let viewers know the firearm was unloaded. To make the take more authentic, the prop handler loaded the gun with a dummy bullet, which was intended to block the light. Tragically, the next day, the same prop was used in a take featuring Lee and loaded with a blank, which, when fired, discharged the dummy — some sources claim a fragment of it — that struck Lee in the abdomen. Director Dwight H. Little, who had worked with Lee on "Rapid Fire," later noted in his memoir "Still Rolling: Inside the Hollywood Dream Factory" that the prop department was meant to check that the weapon was not loaded prior to the scene, and to show the director that the barrel was clear. Sadly, they didn't follow the safety requirements.

Another major issue with the fatal scene, according to Dwight H. Little, was the angle of the gun at the moment the supposed blank was discharged. In a section of Little's memoir, he notes that it is common practice for handguns to be fired purposefully away from their on-screen target. During the fatal take in question, Brandon Lee carried a grocery bag before being shot multiple times, with the actor detonating a small explosive in the bag the moment the first blank was fired. It seems somewhat unnecessary, then, that the barrel of the gun was pointed directly at Lee.

It might have been avoided, too. Reports have noted that by the time the crew of "The Crow" were filming the scene that proved fatal for Lee, the set was without a dedicated firearms specialist — he left after all the takes featuring semi-automatic weapons were already in the can. Looking back from today, the fact that handguns were not treated with the same respect seems an obvious oversight.

The on-set death of any leading actor would cause shockwaves through the movie industry. But the fatal shooting of Brandon Lee took on a life of its own within days of being headline news. Much of this was to do with the uncanny similarities to the death of his father, Bruce, who also died suddenly at the peak of his fame.

Bruce Lee was one of the world's most athletic and physically impressive actors. However, in private he suffered with chronic pain, and he died at age 32 after a reported allergic reaction to a painkiller, which led to fatal swelling of the brain (later theories suggested the cause of death was actually acute water intoxication). Following his death, rumors swirled that the actor had been murdered — potentially by the Chinese organized crime group the Triads after he refused to let them take control of his career, though the Lee family insisted this was not the case.

That history could repeat itself in Bruce's son seemed too much of a coincidence for many fans to take. In the wake of Brandon's death, many conspiracy theories suggested that he had been murdered, with motives typically mirroring those of the supposed assassins who had killed Bruce. Members of the Lee family and his colleagues took to the media to share their belief that both men had been murdered, while fans speculated that a curse had been put on the Lee family to impose early death on its male progeny. More than three decades on, no criminal charges have ever been filed in relation to the shooting of Brandon Lee or his father.