Amazing People Who Survived The Unsurvivable

You know how in each "Die Hard" movie, the things Bruce Willis does get more and more ridiculous? How could he possibly survive all of that? It turns out that a lot of real people have gone through stuff sick enough to make an action star go blanche, and lived to brag about it. 

From surviving car crashes to be stuck underwater, stories abound of people who seemingly skirted the laws of nature or were saved by a miracle. Here are some tales of survival that would impress even John McClane. 

Bill Morgan didn't survive anything that extreme. Actually, for awhile, he didn't survive at all. He was in a car accident that caused him to have a fatal heart attack, and he died,  reports CNN. Full stop ... or it would've been, if it were anybody else. Apparently, though, when Morgan got to Heaven, God felt bad and gave him another go, because 14 minutes after he died, he came back to life, with no brain damage whatsoever. He was in a 12-day coma, yes, but he woke from that still possessing 100% of his abilities.

In what seemed to be God attempting to apologize for the mishap and asking, "We cool, bro?" one of the first things Morgan did after coming back and conquering comas was win the lottery. And then, when re-enacting the lottery win for the cameras, he won the lottery again. All in all ... he fared fine.

You know what's hard? Climbing the Himalayas. You know what's harder? Doing it with broken legs. As detailed in "Extreme Survival," by Helen Chapman and Jane Moates, on the way down from The Ogre — the coolest-ever nickname for a mountain — Doug Scott slammed into the cliffside and broke both his legs. Legs, in case you're not aware, are important for climbing. After that, he and fellow climber Chris Bonington (who had broken his ribs) built a cave in the snow, because a blizzard was coming. You're right, that doesn't make any sense. An igloo, sure, but just a bunch of snow? No way. But the snow-cave actually helped them survive the blizzard! (If anyone knows how pushing snow on yourself can protect you from more snow, teach us your secrets, wizard.)

Finally, the pair returned to find their support team had left, thinking them dead. Somehow, the two managed to last an incredible 10 days more before finally being rescued. We're guessing no one on the support team got invited to the welcome back party.

How long can you hold your breath? Go ahead, try. We'll wait.

How long did you manage? A minute? Maybe two? Can you imagine surviving 80 minutes underwater? For comparison, that's the length of the credits in "Lord of the Rings." If you're Dr. Anna Bagenholm, though, you've already done that. As CBS News reports, she was skiing around a waterfall when she fell headfirst into it, plunging underground, where she stayed under ice for over an hour. In the freezing cold water. At first, she found an air pocket where she could breathe, but that only lasted about a half-hour before the cold and exhaustion gave her the one-two punch that forced her underwater. There she stayed, for another 40 minutes.

After that, she was finally rescued and taken to the hospital. By that time, her heart had been stopped for over two hours, which is almost always fatal. Also usually fatal: a body temperature of 56.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the lowest ever seen in a human, notes The Atlantic. Past experience though, suggested to the doctors there that maybe she wasn't quite as dead as she seemed. And they were right! After nine hours, the doctors managed to get her functional again. Despite the lengthy endeavor, and losing precise control over her hands, she suffered no brain damage, most likely because of the hypothermia ensuring her brain required very little oxygen to stay alive. We're not sure if that proves cryogenics works, but sign us up anyway, just in case.

Remember all those old-time movies where a damsel would be tied to the tracks by a dastardly and devious villain? Ever wonder what it would really feel like to have a train run over you? If you're curious, just ask Truman Duncan — it happened to him! He was working as a railroad switchman when he fell off a train and landed on the tracks, Today details. He tried to run and avoid getting caught under it, but since he isn't a cartoon character, no such luck. Remarkably, even after suffering the real-life version of the world's most famous magic trick, he had the ability to call 911 and tell them that he had been, quite literally, cut in half. After that, it took an ambulance a ridiculous 45 minutes to get to him — he was conscious the entire time, even calling his family (probably because he was bored).

He later said his inspiration for living, despite how being cut in two usually makes that impossible, was his children. As he put it, "I wanted to see my babies grow up." Awwwwww.

You know what normally can't survive the huge toxic cloud, fireballs, and endless amounts of lava that comes from an exploding volcano? Anything, including people. People are notoriously bad with lava. Enter Danny Balch and Brian Thomas. The pair had been camping near Mount St. Helens — because hey, it wasn't exploding right then — when, guess what? It exploded. Just their luck. When it erupted, the blast knocked Balch off his feet, freezing him before the heat came, and melting the skin off of his fingers (via The Columbian) — the horror version of jumping from the pool into the hot tub. The air was so thick with ash he couldn't see 2 feet in front of him and only found Thomas by mistake. Balch escaped into a river, wading 2 miles before finding someone who helped him contact rescue workers. Those workers then went back and found Thomas, along with the rest of the campers Balch had been chilling with when the Earth literally blew up.

Amazingly, Danny Balch wasn't even supposed to be there that day. He had wanted to go to the beach but got talked into climbing a volcano. Knowing his luck, though, the beach would have produced a shark-filled tsunami of radioactive waste and shot it straight at him.

Prepare to hear a story so awesome, it should be made into an Oscar-winning movie. Oh, wait ... they already did. "The Revenant" tells the story of a frontiersman fighting for survival after being attacked by a bear.

HistoryNet presents the true story: Hugh Glass lived in 1823, back when the Wild West was still a fantasy — it was the Wild North. While in Upper Missouri, he and his fellow trappers survived an attack by Native Americans, before Glass stumbled upon being mauled by a bear. Glass somehow managed to survive that — because Chuck Norris was him in a past life — but he was horribly wounded. Also, don't forget that there were still Native tribes trying to shoot all these pushy white people off their land, and he was one of them. Fearing that his breaths were drawing attention, two of Glass' fellow trappers stole his stuff and buried him. While he was still alive. Think of the rudest thing you've ever done, and take heart because it almost certainly wasn't that rude.

Glass soon pulled himself out of his grave and hunted down those who had hurt him. Once he found them, he ... asked for his stuff back, and left them in peace. That is, somehow, the most badass thing he ever did.