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‘Resident Evil’ stuntwoman speaks out about injury, lawsuit l ABC News

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A stuntwoman crushed by a camera rig now has her day in court against the makers of Resident Evil.

Olivia Jackson spent 17 days in a medically induced coma after a 2015 stunt on the set of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter went catastrophically wrong. Four years later, the British stuntwoman is suing the film’s producers, and she’s telling ABC News exactly how a routine action sequence left her without an arm.

Jackson was working as Milla Jovovich’s stunt double during production in South Africa when a last-minute change to a motorcycle sequence put her directly in the path of a camera crane. What was supposed to be a controlled stunt turned into a life-altering collision that ended her career and, according to her lawsuit, exposed how little financial protection stunt performers actually have on major productions.

• Jackson was ordered to ride a motorcycle at roughly 115 kph toward an SUV-mounted camera crane that was supposed to lift over her head — instead, a one-second timing delay caused the rig to smash into her upper body and face.
• The crash left her in a coma for 17 days with a severed thumb, punctured lungs, broken ribs, a twisted spine, facial disfigurement, and paralysis that led to her left arm being amputated above the elbow.
• Her lawsuit says producers’ insurance covered only $33,000 of her medical bills and paid her just $990 in lost earnings — on a film that went on to gross more than $300 million worldwide.

A Stunt Changed at the Last Minute

Jackson was originally set to film a fight scene the day of the accident. Unexpected rain pushed director Paul W. S. Anderson to swap it out for a far more dangerous motorcycle sequence, shot in adverse weather conditions that Jackson says made the maneuver riskier than planned. The setup called for her to ride toward an oncoming camera crane mounted on an SUV, with the camera timed to elevate safely above her head just before impact.

That timing failed. An unannounced adjustment delayed the crane’s lift by about one second — roughly 32 meters at the speed Jackson was traveling — and the metal camera assembly struck her directly instead of clearing her path.

The Toll of the Injuries

The physical damage was immediate and permanent. Jackson emerged from her 17-day coma with a severed thumb, punctured lungs, broken ribs, a twisted spine, and facial disfigurement. Nerve damage paralyzed the upper left quadrant of her body, and doctors ultimately amputated her left arm above the elbow.

Speaking to ABC News, Jackson described the toll the accident took beyond the physical recovery, framing the lawsuit as much about accountability as compensation.

Had she known there was no proper liability insurance, Jackson says she would have opted out and doubled instead on Wonder Woman.

Core Allegations Within the Lawsuit

Filed in Los Angeles, the suit names director Paul W. S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt among the defendants, accusing the production of negligence and breach of contract. Jackson’s attorneys, Stuart R. Fraenkel and Gabe Barenfeld, argue the production prioritized cost and schedule over safety and misled Jackson about the insurance coverage backing the stunt.

Court filings show the gap between what Jackson was told and what she actually received: a policy that paid out just $33,000 toward her medical bills and $990 for lost income, against a film that cleared $300 million at the box office. The disparity is central to her argument that stunt performers on major productions need enforceable insurance standards, not verbal assurances.

Industry Reckoning Over Stunt Safety

Jackson’s case lands amid growing scrutiny of how film productions insure the people performing their most dangerous sequences. Her attorneys are positioning the suit as a test of whether producers can be held liable not just for the accident itself, but for the financial safety net they promised beforehand.

The case is still working through the Los Angeles court system, with no trial date set as of Jackson’s ABC News interview. For a stunt performer who once doubled for one of action cinema’s biggest stars, the fight now isn’t for a scene — it’s for the industry to treat coverage promises as more than paperwork.