You know you have a good story to tell when legendary actor Michael Caine is in it, and much more so when Caine just happens to save your life. That’s exactly what happened to actor Lance Guest, who recalls that Caine saved him from potentially frying to a crisp on the set of Jaws 4.
In the mid ’80s, Guest was on a warm streak in his career as an actor. He had starred in the modest hit The Last Starfighter and was following that up with a role in one of the biggest movie franchises ever: Jaws. Unfortunately, it was also the worst in the series and pretty much tanked the franchise for good.
In his new book Movies Go Fourth, author Mark Edlitz examined what it’s like when a franchise goes past a trilogy into a fourth installment. In a world of bad movies, Jaws 4 has become sort of the gold standard for just how wrong things can go. The story of how Guest almost died were it not for Caine’s quick thinking. Per syfy.com:
“I always say Michael Caine saved my life. And it’s a totally over-dramatic and overblown version of something that could have been disastrous,” Guest said.
Guest was filming the climactic scene where he’s worried his mom will die by going after the shark herself. He’s in a “dinky little boat” with Caine and Mario Van Peebles. Van Peebles and Cain are in the front of the boat, with Guest in the back.
“I weighed about 160 pounds and they’re on the other side of the boat. So what do you think happened? We start to go over and the whole front of the boat is just submerged in the water. The battery pack that’s running the boat was huge, it’s about the size of a chessboard.”
The boat starts going down and recognizing the severity of the situation, the cameraman “throws the camera on the barge,” a five foot throw, which is kind of impressive. Then Van Peebles bails.
“So I’m sitting in a bathtub with a toaster. I feel this hand behind me, and I heard Michael scream, ‘Get the f*** out of the boat!’ With one hand, he pulls me out of the boat and onto the board because he didn’t want me to get electrocuted.”
Caine! He saved Guest from becoming a tater tot.
“I have Michael Caine to thank for my life. But like I said, it wasn’t unsafe working conditions or anything like that. It could have been a twelve-volt battery pack and it was covered in plastic, I have no idea why, but it’s just kind of funny.” And a great story to boot!
Movies Go Fourth is available for sale Monday, May 22.