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.