Dave Donnelly was only 16 years old and not yet a skydiver when he was hired on to the Point Break production as a parachute packer and ‘gopher.’ Here, he shares his incredible tale from behind the scenes of one the most iconic, adventure-seeking movies in the 90’s and how he ended up making his first jump during a plane crash on set. 

How did you get involved in working for the Point Break movie?

I had two skydiving parents, and grew up on drop zones. My Dad was a skydiving stunt man, and progressed to be an aerial coordinator for TV and motion pictures. While I was in high school, I would go spend my summers with him. When he was working on a project, he would get me hired on the job. That was usually packing parachutes, with other light duties mixed in as well. In the summer of 1990, he was hired on as aerial coordinator to a movie called “Johnny Utah”, but was later re-named “Point Break”. 

We spent over a month on the aerial sequences. We started out filming at Lake Powell and got a lot of great shots there including the iconic shot Tom Sanders got of the 5 way dropping out of the foreground down toward the lake. I was in a safety boat right under the shot fishing for stripers and watching the stunt doubles land on the remote edges of the lake. Later in the summer, we moved to the drop zone in California City to shoot a different sequence in the film. That’s where things got weird.  

You were so young at this time, and not yet a skydiver. Did you have an inclination of the impact Point Break would have in skydiving?  

Not really. As you said, I grew up around it but I didn’t look at the sport in terms of member growth and how many jumps were being done at the time. But 18 months later when I was doing AFF in Perris Valley, I realized that the sport was experiencing a lot of growth in large part, due to the amazing cinematic images shot by Tom Sanders and Ray Cottingham.   

You stated that you had an interesting story about Patrick Swayze in your Dad’s T-210. Can you elaborate on that story?

After the production was complete, Patrick wanted to do some jumping on his own to supplement what the stunt doubles had done during production. They did these shots at Skydive Perris, and because the ground was different than anything in the movie, they were all shot with the camera looking up at him. Patrick had met my Dad that morning to fly out to the DZ from Whiteman airport, to save a drive out there. My Dad had a really nice Cessna T-210 with a great jump door on it. The in-flight door had a handle that the pilot could operate to open the door and lock it in place. It could then be lowered and locked in place with another latch on the door itself.

On the flight home that night, Patrick was sitting on the floor of the plane and had not locked the door. At some point, he decided to get up and grabbed the in-flight door handle to help himself up. Since it wasn’t locked, the door instantly popped open and the handle moved toward the open door, as it is designed to do. I’m not sure how close Patrick came to going out the door, but my Dad grabbed his shirt and pulled him away from the door until he got it closed. The T-210 cruises at around 170 knots and the door opens quickly and with a lot of noise at that speed. From what I was told, they were both extremely startled by the event, but laughed it off.    

You weren’t yet a skydiver at this point, but you happened to make your first jump during the production. Tell us the events that lead up to that first jump:

While we were in Cal City working on the sequence that was supposed to take place over Mexico, it was really hot. It is the Mojave desert after all. It was early August and well over 100 degrees. For the shot we were working on, the stunt doubles would exit the aircraft with a helicopter flying left trail. A Twin Otter had a camera crew shooting out of the side door and zooming in the doubles and they fell away from the camera. They did several takes, and I was in the Otter with an emergency rig on during these flights to get off the ground and out of the heat. I remember very clearly on the first flight being surprised that the pilot and DZO, Van Pray Sr., wasn’t wearing a pilot rig. I asked him about it and he brushed me off saying something like he didn’t need one.

On the third flight of the day, I had asked the assistant director, Carla McCloskey, and the hair stylist, Bunny Parker, if they wanted to come for a ride to cool off. They said, “Sure!” My Dad agreed provided they had on emergency parachutes and that I trained them how to use them. On this particular load, there were three stunt doubles on board. I believe, (though I may be wrong), that the stunt doubles were Jim Wallace, Jake Lombard and Jeff Jones. Other doubles on the film were Ted Barba and Jeff Habberstad. Also on board was my Dad, and two other jumpers on the production crew, including Jerry Meyers, as well as myself and the two ladies I invited along. And of course, flying was Van Pray with no rig on.

The fun jumpers were there to get the camera angle right with the helicopter and to get the best sun for the shot. As they got ready to exit, I moved next to the door to watch them exit, while holding on to a seat belt. As they left the door, I saw the helicopter turning to the right to start circling over the jumpers. But this time he was MUCH closer and when he went out of my view over the top of the tail, I felt an impact, and the plane yawed hard to the side. Clearly, he had hit us. One of the stunt doubles went up to talk with Van and then he ran to the back and looked out the door at the tail of the Otter. When he came back in he was very wide eyed, and went up to report to Van the extent of the damage. The three way left the plane around 8,000 feet, and now were probably around 7,500 feet or so, and descending. I moved forward to hear what was going on. I got there in time to hear Van tell the guys to get out. One of them asked him what to do about us, and he quickly replied “Take ‘em with you”. That’s when I realized that after spending my 16 years on drop zones, I was going to make my first jump immediately.

All of the stunt doubles were AFF instructors, and two of them began their 15 second first jump courses with Bunny and Carla. The third double was still up front, so after taking off my favorite hat and throwing it up front, I walked to the door. I put both hands on the ripcord and hopped out poised, to look up at the plane. I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and Tevas. I had no altimeter or goggles. I don’t remember pulling, but I remember seeing the Otter flying away as I got opening shock under Jerry Meyers’ ram air pilot rig. I lost the free bag and the ripcord, which he still reminds me of. Bunny and Carla and their instructors got out just after me and they deployed under their rounds right in front of me. I spent the descent just flying around the two rounds so that we stayed together. We were way out over the open desert by now. I was able to tell which way the wind was blowing, and I turned into the wind and landed the square standing up.

Bunny broke her tail bone on landing, and Carla was fine. Van Pray was able to fly the Otter over to Mojave airport because they had a full fire rescue station. On the way over, he was able to straighten out the remaining rudder by stomping on the rudder peddle and got it flying straight. He landed without incident. The helicopter was in much worse shape. They (pilot and camera operator, neither of whom had a parachute) had a bent rotor, but it did not snap. It was vibrating like crazy though and they were forced to shut down the engine and do an autorotation. They did this successfully and walked away from it. I was pretty fired up about what had just happened. We were found out in the desert within an hour or so, and I was happy to eventually learn that everyone survived.  

Did you want to learn to skydive before that moment? And how did you handle the aftermath of your first jump? Did it inspire you to pursue skydiving or scare the hell out of you?

I had gone back and forth for years about whether I wanted to be a skydiver or not. And even right after the incident, I wasn’t sure. But once I got into college in Arizona and went to visit the DZ in Eloy, I started dreaming about skydiving. Then I knew it was happening. Jim Wallace graciously taught me how to skydive. I was very lucky to have him as my instructor.

What was your favorite part of working on the set?

I had been on sets since I was very young. I always liked it. On this film I was really seeing things more as an adult, and that made it much better. More freedom, more responsibility and now that I could drive I became a gopher. Go-fer coffee, go-fer doughnuts, etc. All the sets I was on were second unit, so I never met any of the actors on the film. I would have loved to meet Patrick Swayze.   

Overall, how did working on the movie change your life?

It got me into the sport. I probably would have gone that way anyway, but having the best first jump story at the campfire didn’t hurt. Skydiving changed my life in very profound ways. From collegiate skydiving teams and competitions to being in Eloy during the freefly revolution, to working as a jump pilot, I look back on those times with gratitude and appreciation. I don’t jump that much these days, but I still stay current. Skydive Truckee Tahoe opened last year in my backyard, and being able to ride my bike to jump in one of the most beautiful places on earth is amazing.

The post Behind the Scenes of Point Break (Part II) With Dave Donnelly appeared first on Skydive Perris.

Point Break is not only an iconic adventure-seeking movie from the 90’s, it’s also a movie that re-shaped the sport of skydiving! We recently caught up with accomplished skydiving photographer, Tom Sanders, who is the man responsible for capturing those aerial skydiving scenes that now live in our memories forever.

Point Break transformed the popularity of skydiving to a degree not seen since. When you filmed these skydiving scenes, did you have any sense that this would be such a major movie inspiring an entire generation of new skydivers?

I really had no idea that Point Break would become such a cult classic and have such an effect on skydiving. I knew it was a big deal since Patrick Swayze was involved but I don’t recall expecting the level of influence it had on skydiving. It was long before GoPros so exposure to skydiving was pretty limited; long before the Internet, Facebook, etc. Back then was just the beginning of many decades of good skydiving exposure with commercials, TV shows and the occasional feature film.

Patrick Swayze did many jumps in several of the scenes. What was he like to work with?

Patrick Swayze was pure joy to be around.  They would not let him skydive while “principal photography” was going on but he was sneaking out to the DZ to train. I only got to be with him for two days I think. After the studio was happy with all the footage for the skydiving scenes, he called me up and asked me if we could go out to Skydive Perris and shoot some more shots. He said he could get the film if I could get the camera. Not even sure who paid for the jumps but it did not involve the studio, he just wanted to make the scene better. I was able to shoot up angle shots only because the filming in the movie did not take place at Perris. So we did exit shots, tracking, and deployments with me on my back. He didn’t have many jumps… maybe less than 50 but he did great. He was friendly, easy to approach, just a cool mellow guy with no attitude about being a movie star.

What are some of the things that surprised YOU about Point Break that few people know about?

That Patrick Swayze was attempting to do the surfing during principal photography and he was not a surfer. The studio would allow him to try and surf but not skydive during the principal photography filming. They can’t chance the main character getting hurt. I know many of the people involved with the surfing scenes because much of it was shot here where I live in Hawaii. Surfing is a VERY difficult sport to learn, much less look like you are a super cool Bodhi while surfing. Eventually, they had to put him on a skid behind a jet ski to fake some shots. As a surfer and skydiver, I know skydiving is easier in the beginning. With his dancing and athletic background, his skydiving skills were awesome for the few jumps he had. We had two doubles for him but he definitely did some of the jumping that is in the final cut but no real surfing.

What was the location where most of the Point Break skydiving footage was shot? What portion of the movie was filmed at Perris?

There were two skydiving scenes, one was shot at California City Parachute Center using Perris’s King Air and the other scene was shot at Lake Powell using Perris’ King Air. The only filming we did at Perris for the movie were the shots Patrick asked me to shoot to make the scenes better. He was trained at Skydive Perris so he made a lot of training jumps there.

What was YOUR favorite part of working on this film?

My favorite part of working on the film was the entire scene at Lake Powell. We would take off from Paige Arizona airport, climb up to 14k for the jumps. The jumps would take place far from the airport over the Lake. We were required on all but the landing shots to land on top of a mesa to stay away from the general public on the lake and shore. Then a helicopter would pick us up, fly us back to the airport and repeat. Pretty decadent and awesome scenery. I was also working under the direction of skydiver and 2nd unit director Kevin Donnelly who is a legendary skydiver that more jumpers should know about. I was also working with Ray Cottingham who was my mentor as a cameraman. He made a good double for one of the jumpers and it was a major honor to have them put me in the camera slot.

Patrick Swayze’s brother Don, was an active jumper at Skydive Perris. Did he play any role in the movie other than getting Patrick into the sport?

I can only guess that Don’s love for skydiving had some influence. I know he was in the plane at Perris when we did the pickup shots. I got to hang with Don a bit because of a mutual friend and skydiver Moe Viletto. We used to mountain bike ride together.

During one of the scenes being filmed at California City, a helicopter turned suddenly and sheared off one of the horizontal stabilizers causing everyone to bail out. Were you on that load? Can you tell us about it?

I was in my camera room when someone knocked on the door and asked me why there were so many round canopies coming down. I was as surprised as them. It turns out that the helicopter was supposed to peel over the Twin Otter as the jumpers exited to get a nice angle and turn so the cameraman could also keep the jumpers in frame. The helicopter pilot underestimated the height of the tail and hit the vertical stabilizer with the rotor. This was on a practice pass for the cameraman with jumpers not in wardrobe, just skydivers. Kevin Donnelly and Jan Davis were among the jumpers. They actually saw helicopter parts fall past them. In the plane were the real stunt doubles and unfortunately some people that were not skydivers such as a hair and make-up artists and David Donnelly (Kevin’s son).

I do know that the otter pilot told everyone to get out of the plane, including the non-jumpers [wearing emergency parachutes]. I recall Jim Wallace offered to help David Donnelly and he said, ‘I got it,’ and jumped out and deployed the emergency parachute system all on his own. He was the son of a legendary skydiver but I don’t recall him having any jumps or any desire to follow in his dad’s footsteps back then. He went on to become a very accomplished skydiver, quite a first jump if what I recall is true.

Meanwhile, the helicopter was trying to descend and the pilot could not find [control]. World famous cameraman, Frank Holgate told me that it felt like the chopper was going to disintegrate! However, they made it down very slowly and safely. After that Frank Holgate always had an emergency parachute in the chopper I recall. The other pilot declared an emergency and landed at nearby Mojave where they had the ability to foam the runway, firetrucks etc. He was such a skilled pilot.

Of all the skydiving films and commercials that YOU have participated in, is there a highlight that you think most fondly of?

I have been fortunate to have several projects that I am most fond of: Point Break because of how much fun it was to work on early in my career and its resounding success, 3 James Bond films, and working for 3 months solid on the movie, “Drop Zone”. “Drop Zone” would probably be my favorite if I had to choose. It lasted so long, was all about skydiving, had a wide variety of skydiving and even a couple BASE jumps. I think Drop Zone is like the modern day Gypsy Moths.

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