The classic subway line — “Stand clear of the closing doors, please” — took on a far more personal meaning for Samuel L. Jackson one day in New York City.
The veteran actor took a trip across the pond to appear on a Tuesday episode of the podcast “Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith.” The two discussed a wide range of topics — including a time Jackson looked death straight in the eye.
“I got dragged by a subway train in New York in 1990,” he calmly revealed. “I got dragged by the A train.”
Jackson went on to describe a scene that could have been lifted straight from one of his own films. He set the moment with precision, recalling that he was at the “middle door of the last car” in a “long-ass train station.”
That’s when the door closed on his foot and the train began to move.
“I’m sitting there, thinking like, ‘Oh fuck, I’m going to die,’ because I could see the tunnel coming and I couldn’t figure out anything that i could grab or hold on to and get close to the train so that I wouldn’t get killed in the tunnel,” he said.
Fortunately, the train slowed down and eventually stopped. Jackson’s foot was free — and his life was spared. Jackson later revealed it took him “two years” — and a lawsuit against the New York transit system — to discover exactly what saved him. While frantic passengers struggled to free his foot, Jackson found out it was a man on crutches who hobbled over to the emergency cord and pulled it, stopping the train from completing its deadly journey.
20 Years Of Free Journalism
For two decades, HuffPost has brought you the exclusives, scoops and hot takes on the news all your friends are talking about. Support our mission to keep us around for the next 20 — we can’t do this without you.
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
“Things slow down when you’re looking at death,” Jackson said.
