Johnny Depp's Plane Engine Stopped While Shooting 'The Rum Diary'

Johnny Depp's Big Life-Threatening Scare

"The Rum Diary" was such a passion project for Johnny Depp that he nearly gave his life to make it. Not that it was on purpose.

Depp, who stars in the adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's long-gestated novel about his time as a reporter in Puerto Rico, shot the film in some of the most beautiful scenery to hit the big screen this year. Getting to and from the set, however, was a bit of a problem.

"The plane just shut down," Depp told Live Magazine (via Hollyscoop). "The sound of the engines stopped. There was silence. Bruce [Robinson, the film's director] and I were looking at each other and I think I said, 'Is this it?' It was like this weird extended moment when you're just floating for a second and you could feel this unpleasant descent."

And how did he react? The way another one of his characters, Captain Jack Sparrow, might in the face of death.

"Nobody said a word except for Bruce and I, sitting next to each other saying, 'Oh sh*t! This is death; I guess this is how it goes down,'" he remembered. "Then we burst into hysterical laughter at the idea that this was how we were going to die."

The plane, of course, soon kicked back into gear and all was okay. Unfortunately, though, the film did a little crash landing of its own, opening to poor reviews and making just $5.6 million at the domestic box office.

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