Man breaks leg in same '127 Hours' canyon in Utah

There’s a reason I’ll never work on a swordfishing boat, hike the Alaskan wilderness without food or supplies, or trudge up Mount Doom with a greedy little mutant hobbit in tow. It’s because film — and, in two of these cases, real life — has told me that these are very dangerous feats. Yet, it seems Hollywood still hasn’t convinced some people — one man in particular recently found himself mimicking one film’s petrifying premise. The Associated Press reports that 64-year-old Amos Wayne Richards survived four days alone in the Utah desert after breaking a leg and dislocating his shoulder on a hike — in the exact same canyon in which 127 Hours took place.

Talk about tempting fate. But, since it seems Richards had seen the film about a hiker who cuts off his own arm after getting trapped by a boulder, it’s a story that makes you wonder — now, give me a second to plant my head on my desk — whether some movies actually do need a “Don’t try this at home” warning. After all, we have become a nation in which teens need to be told not to mimic the vomit-inducing Jackass stunts. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that some people may be eager to copy lethal stunts as well. So should Bond films warn us against ruining our perfectly good suits and expensive cars in high-speed chases? Quentin Tarantino movies inform us of the dangers of keeping gimps in our basements? Or, should we all just keep in mind that movies are movies, death is decidedly not glamorous, and some people just deserve Darwin Awards?

I vote the latter. What say you, PopWatchers?