10 Times Tom Hanks Was Nearly Killed By Water

Tom Hanks has a problem with water. It seems every time he’s near H2O in a movie he needs to have his wits about him. Danger is often near. Of course, Hanks never had to fear death in film in the 1980s, even though, as we’re about to find out, he had a run-in with a hallucinating killer snake in Dragnet and could have died while soaking in the tub in The Money Pit.

Yet, until Philadelphia in 1993, Hanks was an immortal star. As Joe Dante found out when he cast him in The ‘Burbs – a film that, in its original script, would have seen Hanks’ character die but was changed to protect its star – you can’t kill Tom.

The CIA couldn’t get him in The Man with One Red Shoe, a plane crash wasn’t enough to cause his demise in Every Time We Say Goodbye, and he even survived a season with the Rockford Peaches’ baseball team in A League of Their Own.

Tom Hanks’ ability to survive his near-misses with water should, therefore, come as little surprise. That’s not to say he hasn’t been close to meeting his maker courtesy of the wet stuff!

Greyhound

Dir. Aaron Schneider (2020)

Tom Hanks is never far from the dangers of water – particularly the sea. In Greyhound he heads back to World War II (after his exploits in Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan) as Captain Ernest Krause, the US Navy commander in charge of protecting a convoy from German U-boats in the Atlantic in 1942.

Dragnet

Dir. Tom Mankiewicz (1987)

During a “People Against Goodness and Normalcy” ritual, Hanks and co-star Dan Aykroyd have to dive into a pit of water to save Alexandra Paul’s virginal human sacrifice from a huge anaconda.

Joe Versus The Volcano

Dir. John Patrick Shanley (1990)

Before Hanks was captain of his own shrimp boat in Forrest Gump, and prior to being stranded in Cast Away, the actor was caught short in the ocean during an ill-fated trip with Meg Ryan in Joe Versus The Volcano. The pair’s yacht gets hit by a typhoon en route to Waponi Woo and sinks, leaving the duo clinging to Joe’s steamer trunks in the hope of survival.

The Money Pit

Dir. Richard Benjamin (1986)

This is a hypothetical addition. We know in The Money Pit the bath ends up falling through a rotten floor when being filled with hot water by Walter and Anna (Hanks and Shelley Long). Let’s assume the floor held out for a bit longer and Walter jumped in Anna’s bath after her. It could have been curtains for the Hollywood legend!

Volunteers

Dir. Nicholas Meyer (1985)

On a Peace Corps mission in Thailand, Hanks and co-stars John Candy and Rita Wilson are forced to build a bridge across a river by a drug lord. When Hanks’ Lawrence concocts a plan to disrupt the criminals’ activities involving blowing up the now-completed bridge, he’s nearly killed when he finds himself stranded in the middle of the rickety construction just before the dynamite is detonated.

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Forrest Gump

Dir. Robert Zemeckis (1994)

If there’s any truth to Tom Hanks’ ability to withstand anything water can throw at him perhaps there’s no better example than his shrimp boat being the only commercial ship to survive Hurricane Carmen enabling him to build a seafood empire in Bubba’s name in Forrest Gump.

Saving Private Ryan

Dir. Steven Spielberg (1997)

Steven Spielberg sent Hanks in to the D-Day landing beaches on a Higgins boat with the hope that he could dodge a million German army bullets. Hanks being Hanks, he makes it without a scratch on him while hundreds fall all around him.

The difference between Saving Private Ryan and the other films on this list is that – spoiler – Hanks does end up getting killed. Of course, he’s inland without any water in sight. Had it been raining he probably would have made it back home.

Cast Away

Dir. Robert Zemeckis (2000)

Hanks plays a FedEx systems analyst who takes an ill-fated flight to Malaysia which, in a heavy storm, is damaged and crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Hanks is the only survivor, eventually washing up on an uninhabited beach and living there for four years.

Although the actor doesn’t have the same problem with planes as fellow Hollywood star Harrison Ford, he’s certainly not impervious to things going wrong with aircraft (and NASA spaceships!).

Sully

Dir. Clint Eastwood (2016)

Tom Hanks plays real life US Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in this biographical drama inspired by the successful Hudson River landing of flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport in which Sully and co-pilot First Officer Jeff Skiles save the lives of all 155 passengers on board.

Captain Phillips

Dir. Paul Greengrass (2013)

Paul Greengrass’ dramatic film tells the true story of Somali pirates and the US Navy’s attempts to rescue Captain Phillips (Hanks) after he is taken prisoner in one of the ship’s lifeboats.

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