Disney World Employee Injured by Runaway ‘Indiana Jones’ Boulder

Disney’s theme parks may want us to believe they’re all the happiest places on earth, but they are, at the end of the day, places of work for the people who make that magic happen. And that means that, just like any other workplace, accidents can happen… they just happen to come with some very absurd theming.

That was the case earlier this week during a performance of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, when a large fake boulder meant to be recreating the iconic chase sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark broke free of its track and veered towards the watching audience. Thankfully for them, a nearby Disney cast member stepped in the boulder’s way, taking the hit to stop its momentum from carrying it further into the crowd.

It’s perhaps about as thematically appropriate a workplace injury as you could possibly get at a Disney park, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t pretty severe: the boulder was made of rubber, not rock, but it still weighed in at around 400 pounds, which is a nasty chunk of stuff to get hit with regardless. Footage of the accident, which went viral on social media over the New Year’s break, shows the Disney staffer falling to the ground after being hit, and other workers rushing to attend to them after they didn’t get up.

Thankfully, according to a statement from Disney, the employee was not seriously injured and is recovering. “We’re focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering,” Disney said in a statement provided to press (via the BBC), before adding that the boulder sequence of the Epic Stunt Spectacular show will be modified going forward to hopefully avoid the chances of a runaway boulder any time soon. “Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened.”

In the meantime, nobody loot any precious idols that just happen to be placed on seemingly normal plinths without ensuring they’ve gone through the necessary health and safety training first. Or just leave it to any local archaeology professors who know their stuff.

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