Samuel L Jackson has recalled the terrifying moment he was convinced he was going to die after a freak accident on the subway.
In a candid new interview, the Pulp Fiction actor opened up about the moment he was ‘dragged by a subway train’ when he was younger, sharing that he never got the sensation of his life flashing before his eyes.
During an appearance on Paloma Faith’s Mad Sad Bad podcast, the 76-year-old unpacked his ordeal, declaring: ‘That whole thing about your life passing before you, it’s like, “Eh, not really,”. Everything does slow down, though.
‘I got dragged by a subway train in New York in 1990. I got dragged by the A train. Fortunately, I was in the middle door of the last car, and it was a long-ass train station.
‘When the door closed on my foot, train took off. I’m sitting there thinking, “Oh, f**k, I’m going to die.”
‘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 I wouldn’t get killed in the tunnel.
‘It just slowed down really, really slow until all of a sudden the train stopped.’
Shedding light on his mindset during that moment, Samuel admitted that he was focused on the incident ruining Christmas for his loved ones – including wife LaTonya Richardson and their daughter, Zoe.
‘When I was being dragged, all I could think of was, it was going to be a really sad Christmas, because it was like a few days before Christmas,’ the Marvel legend continued.
‘So I was going to miss my birthday and all that. I was like, ‘Damn, it’s going to be f**ked up. It’s going to be a f**ked up Christmas this year.”’
The Django Unchained star was heavily injured in the accident, and tore his ACL and meniscus – he was in physical therapy for over a year and spent 10 months on crutches.
He later took legal action and sued the transit system, and was eventually awarded $540k.
It was only when he got to court for a hearing that he learned what happened that day, and that a man rushed to action and saved his life.
‘I was a car-and-a-half from the tunnel when it stopped,’ he added to Paloma. ‘The guy who pulled the emergency cord was on crutches.
‘Everybody else in there was trying to open the door, get my foot out the door, push and push and pull and try and take my shoe off. And he was going to the emergency cord, and he finally pulled it and stopped it.
‘Things slow down when you’re looking at death. I’ve been in car accidents and if I see them, it’s almost like everything is slowing down and you know there’s nothing you can do to get out of the way.’
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