Jeremy Renner, known for his role in Avengers, has shared his belief that he ‘died’ following a snowplough accident on New Year’s Day 2023.
At 54, Renner was with his 27-year-old nephew, Alexander Fries, near his Lake Tahoe residence when he noticed the snowcat plough heading towards his nephew. Concerned about his nephew’s safety, Renner feared he might become trapped between the plough and a nearby truck.
In an attempt to stop the machine, Renner tried to press the ‘stop’ button but instead slipped, ending up beneath the plough as it ran over him “slowly, inexorably, monotonously.”
In his new book, My Next Breath, Renner recounts the injuries he suffered and the period he spent waiting for help.
Renner feels he lost his life during this incident, writing: “As I lay on the ice, my heart rate slowed, and right there, on that New Year’s Day, unknown to my daughter, my sisters, my friends, my father, my mother, I just got tired. After about 30 minutes on the ice, of breathing manually for so long, an effort akin to doing 10 or 20 push-ups per minute for half an hour … that’s when I died.
“I died, right there on the driveway to my house. Though I’d broken more than 30 bones and lost six quarts of blood (I’d find out the true extent of the injuries only later), an even greater danger to me as the minutes dragged by on the ice was hypothermia.”
“I know I died – in fact, I’m sure of it.”
Renner recounted how EMTs noted that his ‘heart rate had bottomed out at 18’, indicating he was ‘basically dead’.
The actor elaborated on the sensations he experienced, stating: “When I died, what I felt was energy, a constantly connected, beautiful and fantastic energy. There was no time, place, or space, and nothing to see, except a kind of electric, two-way vision made from strands of that inconceivable energy.”
Renner experienced a sense of ‘exhilarating peace’ and had an overall view of his ‘lifetime’.
“I could see everything all at once,” he remarked, adding: “in death there was no time, no time at all, yet it was also all time and forever.”
However, he ultimately sensed a force urging him not to ‘let go’.
“I didn’t f**king die,” he expressed.
After emergency responders reached him, Renner was airlifted to a hospital. Reflecting on the incident, he identified a simple mistake that altered his life significantly.
He stated: “I didn’t engage the parking brake, or disengage the steel tracks. In that moment – an innocent, critical, life-changing moment – that tiny but monumental slip of the mind would change the course of my life forever.”
Renner’s book became available on April 29.