Jackass Forever: Every Stunt Ranked From Worst To Best
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Jackass Forever.
The fourth franchise installment Jackass Forever reaches new levels of carnage thanks to its increasingly dangerous stunts, and here's each of them ranked from worst to best. Jackass Forever received a fervent reception across its opening weekend, with critics and audiences universally proclaiming the fourth Jackass movie to be the best one yet. This is owed in no small part to its litany of brutal and idiotic stunts, which target the original Jackass alums and franchise newcomers alike.
The famous Jackass core of Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Wee Man, Danger Ehren, and Preston Lacy all make their final appearances in Jackass Forever. The fourth Jackass entry also inducts some fresh blood into the cast, with Jasper Dolphin, Sean "Poopies" McInerney, Rachel Wolfson, Zach "Zackass" Holmes, and Eric Manaka all officially introduced to Jackass' unique brand of self-induced pain. As a result, Jackass Forever is a spectacle unlike any other, filled with big-budget stunts 12 years in the making that act as a wholly enjoyable coda to the Jackass film series.
Many of the scenes in Jackass Forever represent the franchise's enduring popularity, with stunts such as The Vomitron and The Flight of Icarus showcasing the movie's franchise-high $10 million budget. Other stunts, however, hark back to Jackass' grittier early seasons on MTV, exemplified by The Human Ramp and The Invisible Wall. As a result, here's every Jackass Forever stunt ranked from worst to best.
In one of Jackass Forever's more minimal stunts, Johnny Knoxville waits until Steve-O leaves his trailer, at which point he launches a machine-propelled soccer ball at his head. The ball hits Steve-O squarely in the face, knocking him to the floor as Knoxville runs over giggling. Surprise Soccer Ball is more an example of Knoxville and Steve-O's unconditional friendship than it is a fully-fledged stunt, with Jackass Forever containing far better offerings for its audiences.
Professional skateboarder Aaron "Jaws" Homoki is swung in a circular motion on a hammock by several other Jackass members before unexpectedly flying into the air. Homoki lands awkwardly, breaking his wrist as his colleagues yell in shock and run to his aid. Hammock Throw largely seems like a spur-of-the-moment stunt in Jackass Forever, with the stunt's botched execution also putting Homoki out of commission just two days into filming the movie.
Biggest Fans sees Odd Future member Jasper Dolphin attempt to float with a parachute while several industrial-grade fans whir furiously behind him. Dolphin is pushed off a slide and gets some air time before falling, while Poopies attempts to surf on a light board before falling face-first into the hard ground. Biggest Fans is an impressive stunt due to the fact that the Jackass Forever movie uses "every available fan" in the Central Valley farmland area of California for the bit, but both Dolphin and Poopies' attempts to fly end up being rather lackluster in comparison to the effort taken to procure the fans.
Jackass newcomer Rachel Wolfson acts as DJ while Wee-Man, professional skateboarder Nick Merlino, Jasper Dolphin, and Dave England compete in a twisted game of musical chairs, in which the loser will be launched into the air. After two rounds with no drama, the bags in the chairs explode on the third record scratch. While all four participants suffer in the chair explosion, Wee-Man is by far the worst-off as he is sent flying backward into the hole between the chairs. The hole is meant to be padded but is left unprotected, resulting in Wee-Man landing on metal pipes, much to the delight of the other Jackass cast and crew members.
One of Jackass Forever's most cringe-worthy stunts arrives in the form of Dirty Dancing, in which Preston Lacy is supposed to lift Wee-Man high into the air akin to Dirty Dancing's iconic dance scene. However, before they can practice the lift, Lacy soils himself, resulting in the stunt being called off. Dirty Dancing is as close to vomit-inducing as Jackass Forever allows, with cameraman Lance Bangs zooming in on Lacy's stained underwear before himself vomiting on the floor. Even in a movie such as Jackass Forever, Dirty Dancing is about as low-brow as it gets, with Lacy's accident barely qualifying as a stunt beyond the scene's initial shock factor.
Continuing in the most nauseating of veins, Jackass Forever's Pig Semen scene is another hard watch in the movie. Johnny Knoxville introduces the jugs of pig semen he will use later in the movie before Chris Pontius suddenly decides to drink some of the liquid. This results in several Jackass members recoiling, including the usually stalwart director Jeff Tremaine, who has to sit down and gag. Just like Dirty Dancing before it, Pig Semen is more improvisation meeting opportunity than a stunt itself, although it does show that Pontius remains as game as ever some 22 years after Jackass first aired.
The Invisible Wall is a classic recurring Jackass stunt that gets right to the point. This snippet of Jackass Forever sees Eric Manaka riding a bike into a wall that is made to look like the street ahead of him before Manaka slams right into it, injuring himself. The Invisible Wall is an easy-to-produce staple of all the Jackass movies that harks back to the early days of the franchise, although its overt simplicity rules it out of being ranked as one of Jackass Forever's great moments.
Jasper Dolphin brings his father "Darkshark" Wilson into the fold for this stunt, who he cheekily reveals is terrified of bugs before the stunt itself begins. Opposite Darkshark in the stunt is Ehren, with the pair sharing helmets connected by a long tube. A giant spider is placed in the center of the tube by Knoxville, with the Jackass leader declaring that whoever ends up with the spider in their helmet has to take a bite from the spider. Darkshark loses the contest before becoming inconsolable as the spider crawls on his face, forcing the Jackass Forever cast to remove the helmet and declare him the winner - with Ehren subsequently being bitten on the nipple. While The Spider Helmet is a hilarious idea, Darkshark is clearly terrified throughout the stunt, making it feel like one of the crueler moments in Jackass Forever.
Machine Gun Kelly guest stars for Bicycle Backhand, in which he and Steve-O are placed on stationary bikes above a freezing-cold pool of water. Each bike has a giant plastic hand facing it, with both hands rigged to wind backward before slapping the contests in the face. Steve-O and Machine Gun Kelly are both knocked down at differing moments, but MGK's reaction to losing the initial contest is rather petulant, souring an otherwise solid stunt in Jackass Forever.
The Paddle Penis does exactly what it says on the tin, as Chris Pontius flattens his penis into a paddle-shaped device before he and Knoxville play a paddleboard with it. The Paddle Penis is classic Jackass humor, although how flat Pontius' penis becomes while in the device is also a genuinely impressive feat.
Jackass newcomer Zach Holmes lives up to his name in the eponymous stunt Zackass, in which the YouTube star careers down a hill on a hang-glider before landing in a bed of cacti. This elicits howls of laughter from the observing Jackass crew before the original cast members sing an improvised song about how wild and reckless Zach is. Zackass represents the unbridled glee of the Jackass team, with their spontaneous song a genuinely heart-warming moment as Zach rises, unharmed, from the bed of spikes he fell into.
This stunt sees the Jackass crew set up a ramp and slide down a heavily lubricated hill which sends them flying into the dirt below. Zach and Dolphin take turns, and at one point, Dolphin and several other Jackass members ride on Zach’s back, only to fall off midway as Zach flies off onto a dirt mound. Poopies also rides his skateboard down the slide, but he hits his head on one of the sandbags protecting the slide before Eric Manaka and Poopies are subsequently put into a horse outfit and slide together - ripping the horse outfit in half. This is another simple stunt that captures the essence of Jackass' infantile charm, with Body Surfing likely to be emulated in the months following Jackass Forever's release despite the movie's revised safety warning.
The beauty of Fist Bump is the perfect connection, and sound, that Jackass Forever's massive plasticine hand makes upon contact. The stunt itself is simple, with Eric Manaka attempting to do a kickflip before being punched by a giant yellow hand, sending him flying onto the sidewalk.
Jeff Tremaine foreshadows this stunt perfectly, stating that "the guys would have to be stupid to go into one of those" before pointing to a Port-A-Potty which is rigged to explode. Queue Steve-O, who saunters into the portable toilet before Knoxville and Tremaine detonate explosives underneath it, causing the Port-A-Potty to collapse. While something of a lackluster explosion by Jackass standards, the bewildered look on Steve-O's face as he clutches his pants is worth repeated viewing alone.
In an upscale revision of The Tree Wedgie stunt on the Jackass TV series, The Triple Wedgie sees Preston Lacy and Zach Holmes jump off a platform onto a mattress, with their resulting force-hanging Wee Man by his underwear. The Triple Wedgie is a prime example of Wee Man and Lacy's regular combinations over the years, with Lacy's bulk keeping Wee Man suspended in the air as he howls in pain.
In one of his most memorable Jackass Forever stunts, Preston Lacy places his testicles into a miniature boxing ring to be repeatedly hit by a set of tiny mechanical boxing gloves. The gloves are operated by Knoxville, who gleefully increases the punch speed and frequency as Lacy screams for him to stop hitting his most sensitive of areas. The Punching bag is a jarring example of The Dirt's Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze's love for slow-motion capture in the Jackass franchise, with Lacy's testicles being hit at half speed a sight not easily forgotten by Jackass Forever audiences.
22 years after shocking employees with Hardware Store Toilet, Dave England returns to a Jackass porcelain throne in Front Yard Sale Toilet. England attempts to defecate in a toilet at a yard sale in front of real onlookers before the toilet explodes, and he flies up into the air soaking wet. Although Front Yard Sale Toilet does not carry the sheer shock factor that the original Hardware Store Toilet stunt did, the yard sale patrons' commentary on why England chose to use a yardsale toilet for his business is the kind of un-scripted reactionary comedy that made early episodes of Jackass infamous.
In one of Jackass Forever's best hidden camera segments, Johnny Knoxville pranks a bystander by asking her for help with moving his electrical service unit. He asks her to press a button, which she does, but it knocks Knoxville off his platform and leaves him hanging on a wire. He then asks her to press another button, which electrocutes him, before the bewildered woman refuses to touch the button console any further. Although the passer-by's reactions are hilarious, Knoxville the Electrician ranks as a worthy Jackass Forever stunt due to the complex rigging needed to realistically suspend Knoxville from an electrical wire above the ground.
Tyler, the Creator guest stars in Electric Dance, playing the piano for several Jackass Forever cast members as they attempt to tap dance on an electrified floor. Tyler's bench is also secretly rigged, causing Tyler to get shocked in tandem with the dancers he is cheering on. Seeing Ehren, Steve-O, and company writhing on the floor in shock-induced pain is riveting enough, but Electric Dance also has the added wrinkle of pulling Jeff Tremaine into the stunt, with the Jackass Forever director quite literally shocked by the force of the voltage he has been subjecting his cast members to.
After the grandeur of Jackass Forever's opening scene, the Human Ramp stunt is the perfect way to hark back to the original Jackass TV series' roots. This extended stunt scene sees several Jackass members pile on top of each other while others attempt to do tricks from the ramps leaning directly on the men below. Pro-skater David Gravette rides a bike over the ramp, crushing Poopies and Knoxville before skateboarder Nick Merlino rides his board on the ramp. Finally, Zach rides a moped over the ramp and crashes, closing a gritty scene that feels surprisingly dangerous given its overt simplicity.
The Dum Dum Game sees Poopies, Ehren, and Wee Man standing shirtless as a device with three corresponding paddles is placed before them. Johnny Knoxville then challenges them to trivia questions, and whoever answers a question wrong gets a paddle to the groin. The Dum Dum Game is quintessential Jackass, with Knoxville and company laughing to the point of tears as Ehren, Poopies, and Wee Man suffer for their lack of general knowledge.
Jackass Forever revives Bad Grandpa's Irving Zisman for its best hidden camera stunt, which sees Knoxville dressed as an older man catapulted into a furniture store's ceiling. Zach and Rachel Wolfson are critical to this stunt, with Wolfson setting up the scene with the store's employees before Zach (posing as a maintenance worker) delivers at the critical moment by falling from a suspended platform and launching Knoxville into the air. Jackass Forever does well to avoid including too much of its spin-off character Zisman, with Bad Grandpa Furniture Shopping a perfectly executed stunt that honors the employees bamboozled by the sudden chaos erupting around them.
In Cold Brew Coffee, comedian and self-made show host Eric André asks for a cold brew from a beer truck and is hit in the face by an inflatable punching bag, sending both him and his coffee flying backward. André's reaction is what makes this stunt such a gem, with the Bad Trip star distraught with himself at being so gullible and starstruck on the set of Jackass Forever.
Jackass has always had a penchant for stomach-churning stunts, which makes Dave England's calm reaction to The Boar-Kake all the more impressive. This stunt is as vomit-inducing as its name suggests, with Knoxville spilling five gallons of pig semen onto England's head as he sits for a fake interview. The Boar-Kake is one of the safest stunts ever to be performed in the history of the Jackass film franchise, but England's downtrodden demeanor at the end of the scene cements Knoxville's decision to purchase such a bizarre quantity of pig semen in the first place.
Jackass Forever's epic coda arrives in the form of The Vomitron, a complex and chaotic scene that involves multiple moving parts. The end of Jackass Forever sees Zach, England, Eric Manaka, Poopies, Steve-O, and Jasper Dolphin drinking milk while strapped to a carousel rotating at high speed. As they start vomiting, Knoxville and the Jackass crew start setting off fireworks before a squadron of paintball-armed soldiers pelt the nauseated performers mercilessly. After the chaos ends, Steve-O shows that he took a paintball to the groin, closing Jackass Forever's box-office-smash fourth chapter. The Vomitron almost appears as overkill, with the first part of the stunt far outstripping the second's impact. Nevertheless, it remains a must-watch stunt simply for Wee Man's custom-made miniature paintball tank that mercilessly pelts Poopies at the end of the scene.
Jackass Forever revives an archived, unused scene from MTV's Jackass season 1, with Steve-O and Chris Pontius acting out macabre scenes in skin-tight skeleton costumes. After ample showboating, the camera pans down to reveal Wee Man strapped to the floor as the pair put raw meat in his underwear. A giant buzzard is released, which immediately pecks at Wee Man's genital area until he can no longer take the pain. The history of this stunt is expanded upon in Jackass Forever's credits montage, showing the original graveyard clip side by side with Wee Man's Sacrifice in an oddly touching tribute to one of Pontius' first-ever on-camera stunts.
Bam Margera's only Jackass Forever scene is one of the most brutal, with the former Jackass member dressing up alongside Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jasper Dolphin, and Dave England in marching gear. The group attempts to play brass and percussive music while jumping onto a fast-moving treadmill. The result is a bone-crunching scene that leaves all six men in a groaning pile on the floor, and when the dust settles, it is revealed Steve-O has lost several teeth, and Knoxville is badly concussed.
Jackass Forever acts as a love letter to the franchise, with The Underwater Fart Fire crossing off an entry on several Jackass members' bucket lists. After years of unsuccessfully attempting to light flatulence underwater, Jackass Forever brings in Mythbusters' Tory Belleci to aid them in their bizarre explosion plans. The result is Steve-O successfully exploding a fart underwater for the first time, with the joy and sense of achievement on each Jackass members' face as hilarious as it is asinine.
At the age of 50, Johnny Knoxville has understandably begun to back away from featuring in every Jackass stunt, with the de-facto Jackass leader instead acting as Jackass Forever's warped master of ceremonies. Knoxville, however, does star in two of the most dangerous Jackass Forever stunts, with The Flight of Icarus requiring a grand setup. The Flight of Icarus boils down to Knoxville being shot out of a cannon while wearing wings, but his air-time, botched landing, and fearlessness when posing mid-air make this particular stunt pure box office.
Bee Genitals was a heavily publicized stunt in the months ahead of Jackass Forever's release, showing Steve-O's anguished face as a queen bee is attached to his penis. Bee Genitals' impact is not diminished by its early reveal, however, with the sight of seeing thousands of bees stinging Steve-O in his private area as impressive as it is painful even before the camera pans in on his numerous sting-marks.
Jackass newcomer Rachel Wolfson emphatically announces herself to audiences in Scorpion Botox, as Pontius, Eric Andre, and Manaka look on in horror. The process is as simplistic as it sounds, with a scorpion stinging Wolfson several times around the lip and mouth area. The sight of seeing the stinger enter Wolfson's skin in slow motion is as raw a piece of footage seen in Jackass Forever, while Manaka's exclamation that the procedure really works as Wolfson's face rapidly swells is comedy gold.
Jackass Forever's opening credits flex the film's franchise-record budget as Jeff Tremaine recreates a bizarre version of Godzilla using Chris Pontius' penis. The genius of this stunt, beyond Pontius' costumed genitals, is the real action contained within the scripted scene, with Lacy and Wee Man's fall from an exploding theatre sign the pick of the movie's bone-crunching opening moments. There is also the element of genuine shock factor, with the scene's happy ending the kind of stomach-churning addition that first made Jackass famous in 2000.
The Silence of the Lambs sees Knoxville and Pontius gather the rest of the Jackass cast in a room where animal trainer Jules Sylvester brings out a venomous rattlesnake. Knoxville says he will try and take a cookie off the rattlesnake’s head, but, in reality, he traps his friends in the dark and spooks them using cattle prods, mouse traps, and pans. Zach Holmes' daring escape through a table of pins and mouse traps is top-quality entertainment, but the icing on the cake for Silence of the Lambs is Chris Pontius' near-perfect Buffalo Bill impression as he dances in shadows behind Knoxville.
In one of Jackass Forever's best ensemble stunts, Rachel Wolfson, Poopies, and Steve-O are dressed like mimes and are forced to do stunts without reacting to them. First, Wolfson is commanded to “lick the electric lollipop” and place her tongue on a taser before Knoxville places a Texas rat snake down for Poopies to kiss. Rachel and Poopies, amazingly, succeed at their respective tasks in silence before Jackass stalwart Steve-O attempts the Skateboard Guillotine, where Knoxville drops a skateboard on his shins. The surprise factor of Steve-O losing to the two new Jackass recruits is an oddly satisfying wrinkle in the scene, while Wolfson's bare tongue dancing on the taser's current while she keeps a straight face remains one of Jackass Forever's standout, un-scripted moments.
The fear written across Danger Ehren's face in the Lie Detector Test speaks volumes, as he is tied down, tased with a shock collar, and then covered in salmon and honey. Knoxville then brings in a black bear, which proceeds to eat every morsel from a shaking Ehren's body. The Lie Detector Test ranks so high here as it introduces an unknown factor in the black bear, with the animal's trainer eventually calling off the stunt as fears for Ehren's safety begin to mount from the viewing room next door.
One of the best aspects of Jackass Forever is the way it attempts to bring the Jackass franchise full circle for its long-time fans. This approach is exemplified by Jackass Forever's The Cup Test, which is a riff on the original stunt Johnny Knoxville made famous in MTV's Jackass season 1. This time, however, it is Danger Ehren in the hot seat as his cup is assaulted by some of the scariest propositions in modern sport. The world's hardest-recorded puncher Francis Ngannou cracks Ehren's cup before fast-pitcher Danielle O'Toole launches pitch after pitch at Ehren's legs and crotch. This scene is then compounded by the introduction of hockey player P. K. Subban, who hits a puck into the same cup before Dave England jumps on Ehren's groin with a pogo-stick, splitting his testicle sack. The Cup Test is vintage Jackass for multiple reasons, with its danger-level, shock factor, and humor encapsulating the very best of the franchise.
Only one stunt tops The Cup Test in Jackass Forever, with Johnny Knoxville's The Magic Trick delivering heapings of pain and nostalgia in equal measure. In a revised version of Jackass Number Two's Toro Totter, Knoxville places a glass of milk inside a magician's hat before an angry bull charges him head-on. The result is far more jarring this time around as Knoxville shows his age, with the bull flipping Knoxville into the air. Knoxville, unnervingly, does not get up, with the Jackass leader since revealing he suffered a brain hemorrhage at the hands of the bull. Jackass Forever's magic trick reminds audiences of the mortality of its primary performers and also ranks as by far the best stunt in the film simply because Knoxville has the audacity to step back into a bullfighting ring 16 years after the initial carnage of the Toro Totter.