Jeremy Renner opens up about how he ‘died’ in snowplough accident caused by ‘tiny’ mistake

MCU star Jeremy Renner says he actually “died” after being run over by a snowplough, and he remembers the exact moment it happened.

In his memoir My Next Breath, the Avengers star opened up about the terrifying New Year’s Day 2023 accident outside his Lake Tahoe home that nearly took his life.

He had rushed to help his nephew, Alexander Fries (27), when he saw a snowcat plough rolling toward him. Renner tried to hit the machine’s stop button, but slipped and landed in its path.

The actor described the moment, the plough “slowly, inexorably, monotonously, ground over [his] body.”

He was pinned down, waiting for help, suffering injuries he would later learn included over 30 broken bones and six quarts of blood loss.

He recalled, “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.”

He continued, “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.”

Emergency responders said his heart rate had “bottomed out at 18,” which meant he was “basically dead.”

Renner also shared what he experienced in that moment.

He went on, “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.”

He described feeling an “exhilarating peace” and added, “I could see everything all at once… in death there was no time, no time at all, yet it was also all time and forever.”

Still, something told him not to let go. “I didn’t f**king die,” Renner said.

He was airlifted to the hospital and later pinpointed the mistake that caused it all.

He said, “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, who still lives with permanent injuries including a jaw broken in three places and misaligned teeth, said the experience forced him to simplify his life.

In a separate interview with CBS Mornings, he said, “I oversimplify life because it is just that simple.”

“Living in that space is quite a peaceful, joyful, clean life.”

When asked what he would say to himself in those critical moments, Renner replied: “Keep breathing. It works.”