HAWKEYE Actor Jeremy Renner Says He Died in 2023 Snowplow Accident, Reveals Recovery Secrets in Memoir

HAWKEYE Actor Jeremy Renner Says He Died in 2023 Snowplow Accident, Reveals Recovery Secrets in Memoir

In his new memoir 'My Next Breath', Hawkeye Actor -Jeremy Renner shares chilling new details about his near-fatal Snowcat accident, his moment of death.

By Divineokpara02 - May 01, 2025 12:05 PM EST
Filed Under: Marvel
Source: Yahoo Entertainment

Jeremy Renner is reliving the most traumatic day of his life — and the miraculous recovery that followed — in his newly released memoir, My Next Breath. The actor opens up for the first time in uncensored detail about the devastating New Year’s Day 2023 accident that nearly killed him when he was crushed by a 14,300-pound Snowcat while trying to save his nephew outside his Reno home.

According to Renner, his body was so broken after the accident that he believes he briefly died on his frozen driveway. "After about 30 minutes on the ice... that’s when I died," he writes. "In death, there was no time, yet it was also all time and forever." Paramedics told him his heart rate dropped to just 18, while his nephew and neighbor watched his skin turn blue-green. Though he describes feeling an “exhilarating peace,” Renner says a force pulled him back to life — and back to his family.

One of the more startling survival tactics he credits is Lamaze breathing. As strange as it sounds, Renner reveals that the breathing technique he learned at age 12 in a childbirth class with his mother ended up saving his life. With collapsed lungs, punctured ribs, and massive internal trauma, he manually forced air in and out of his body — likening the effort to doing nonstop push-ups for 30 minutes. “If you can’t breathe, I’m a goner,” he explains.

Adding a touch of levity, Renner recalls his attempts to escape the hospital just days after the accident. With the help of his nephew, he made multiple slow-motion “breakouts,” dragging IV lines and machines behind him on shattered legs. One attempt, he jokes, was like “Escape from Alcatraz — if you can’t swim.” Nurses and doctors eventually intercepted him before he could leave the ICU, still in need of a blood transfusion.

As painful as recovery was, Renner refused to let his injuries define him. He writes that after leaving the hospital, he went cold turkey off OxyContin. Instead of relying on opioids, he developed a technique he called “the agreement,” essentially reprogramming how his body understood pain. He had loud arguments with his titanium-reinforced leg, demanding it stop sending distress signals. Over time, he learned to reduce pain to the level of an iPhone notification — something he could swipe away with mental focus.

A year after the incident, Renner returned to the Snowcat that nearly killed him. Despite finding remnants of his torn clothing still embedded in the tracks, he climbed aboard and operated it again. “I didn’t want this thing to haunt me,” he told Jimmy Kimmel. “It’s like getting back together with an ex and realizing, ‘Yeah, you ain’t that good looking.’”

Through tragedy, pain, and an unrelenting will to live, Renner’s My Next Breath isn’t just a survival story — it’s a deeply human reflection on mortality, family, and mental toughness. For fans and readers alike, it offers a rare glimpse into how even the strongest heroes must sometimes fight just to breathe.

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MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 5/1/2025, 12:17 PM
No he didn't.
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 5/1/2025, 12:20 PM
@MakeAmericaGrea -

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MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 5/1/2025, 12:35 PM
That's tough to read; I can't even imagine going through it. Good on him for not relying on the pain medication. The mind and body are capable of great things.
Diend
Diend - 5/1/2025, 12:36 PM
I feel his pain. I died during a screening of Failure to Launch and it's the weirdest sensation.
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 5/1/2025, 2:47 PM
@Diend -

What caused you to die?
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 5/1/2025, 12:39 PM
It's so surreal reading about people who experience death briefly and their descriptions are almost always the same. An empty space of peaceful nothingness. They have no physical form but can visually see and feel the astral plane they're in.
NonPlayerC
NonPlayerC - 5/1/2025, 2:07 PM
@SonOfAGif - or a sudden surge of brain activity due to cardiac arrest and the restriction of oxygen to the visual cortex.... but

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V
V - 5/1/2025, 12:41 PM
That is a harrowing experience
Fogs
Fogs - 5/1/2025, 12:53 PM
@McMurdo - holy shit, that's rough. Thanks for summarizing the thing, I'm not sure I want to listen to all these excruciating detail.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/1/2025, 12:57 PM
@Fogs - sorry I felt bad about how many words I botched. Typed this out on my phone and my autocorrect is truly horrendous so I corrected my grammar and reposted below. But yes no prob!!
Fogs
Fogs - 5/1/2025, 1:04 PM
@McMurdo - don't worry, I also do it all the time, specially when writing on the phone as well.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/1/2025, 1:17 PM
@Fogs - yeah I gotta dig into the auto correct systems. My phone used to save word "profiles" I would utilize often and at some point it stopped doing so and just became a pain moreso than helpful, if that makes any sense.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/1/2025, 12:51 PM
I watched him go into detail on Rogan. Here are the details for those who don't wanna watch it:

The snow cat he owns has a bit of a design flaw, IMO, in that you must utilize the tracks to step up into the cab to operate the snow cat. The controls are fairly simple and you just use your thumb to operate. Apparently he accidentally hit the go forward button with his thumb whilst standing halfway on the track whilst his nephew was in front of the snow cab not too far ahead and thus, the track began rolling forward and he was thrown off the snow cat onto the ground. I guess once in forward mode, it is automatic and thus, he recognized immediately he was about to kill his nephew by pinning him with the snow cat's metal "shovel" piece attached to the front that hauls snow. So, he went into instinct mode and tried to step onto the moving track to hop into the cab and prevent his nephew from dying. Unfortunately this went very wrong and he was sucked under the track completely and was wholly run over....the entirety of his body was run over including his skull. He said he felt the pressure on his head a few different times as the inner wheels within the track went one by one over his body. This was all on frozen asphalt so no cushion underneath. He saw his left eyeball pop out of his eye socket, still attached. After the snowcat cleared his body fully he had the idea to tilt his head as close to the eyeball as possible to get it closer to his skull and to "keep the eyeball on ice". He has lots and lots of titanium in his head (his entire cheekbone and left orbital bone) and in other parts of his body. His jaw was completely broken and needed screws drilled into his mouth and he states the screws removal from his mouth was even worse than the crushing accident as he felt every turn of the screw in his skull and the sound was awful. He said the screws in his head will not be removed due to concerns of infection. By some miracle, his spine, brain, and inner organs were all un-damaged in the accident. The only inner injury to his organs came from a rib that broke and stabbed his liver, but even that was fairly minor and his liver is now fine. He's had a miraculous healing and you wouldn't even really notice he had a severe accident. Amazing physical therapy and he has to actively work his body to keep it okay. Said he feels pain in lots of places but can laugh and be present with people because the pain comes and goes in so many different spots day by day.
JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 5/1/2025, 1:49 PM
@McMurdo - damn, dude is fast thinking.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 5/1/2025, 1:55 PM
@McMurdo - That's so terrifying. I wonder if Snowcat corrected the design flaw on the newer models due to this accident?
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 5/1/2025, 2:03 PM
@McMurdo - damn, that's even gnarlier than I got from the article. Massive respect to how he pushes through the pain with his mind and body instead of relying on painkillers.
Fanmar16
Fanmar16 - 5/1/2025, 12:52 PM
I read Jeremy Renner and Die in the title

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AgentofSH1ELD
AgentofSH1ELD - 5/1/2025, 12:52 PM
This man is amazing. I hope he continues as Hawkeye until his last day. Few people out there have the survival and fight for life that he has to have made it through this.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 5/1/2025, 1:02 PM
The testimony of his experience is the most interesting thing I've seen attached to Hawkeye since this introduction in Thor.

I hope Renner gets to show a solo story close to his real life redemption arc. Make Hawkeye great.
IAmAHoot
IAmAHoot - 5/1/2025, 1:09 PM
Headline of this article could be less first-glance worry-inducing.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 5/1/2025, 1:12 PM
@IAmAHoot - User Comment Image
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 5/1/2025, 1:11 PM
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narrow290
narrow290 - 5/1/2025, 1:25 PM
Amen! Happy he lives hopefully he has faith
DrDReturns
DrDReturns - 5/1/2025, 1:46 PM
@narrow290 - It is only through God that Renner was carried through this. He guided the minds and hands of all involved in Renner's accident.
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 5/1/2025, 2:15 PM
Glad he's better. Mayor of Kingstown is pretty good.
MisterBones
MisterBones - 5/1/2025, 2:18 PM
Remarkable resilience, this man has
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 5/1/2025, 2:32 PM
Glad he’s doing much better. Must be the Disney stemcell babies he’s been eating.
Pictilli
Pictilli - 5/1/2025, 3:05 PM
Will he be in Doomsday?
CaptainFlapjaks
CaptainFlapjaks - 5/1/2025, 3:12 PM
@Pictilli - its plausible. He might not do any serious action but it would be cool if he was co-director of shield or something
Mercwitham0uth
Mercwitham0uth - 5/1/2025, 4:16 PM
Seems Renner turned down Hawkeye season 2 cause they offered him half of what he made in season 1:

https://x.com/screenrant/status/1918033411970568368

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