Turns out Spider-Man does have a real identity after all. It’s not Peter Parker. It’s not Tobey Maguire, either. On September 20, we learned that the name is Daniels. Chris Daniels.
As the Rensselaer Union Speaker’s Forum introduced one of the most gifted and unique guests to set foot on RPI’s campus, Daniels appeared out of the darkness with a spinning fall onto a padded mattress. “How you guys doing?” he asked, the same question the production team on the sets of Spider-Man 2 must have asked the stunt team as Daniels hung from a cable 230 feet above the ground.
Daniels did not become Spider-Man overnight. It took years of effort, training, injuries, persistence, courage, self-discipline, and more training. As he took listeners on an awe-inspiring ride of his life’s work, including his career-defining moments as well as his hardships along the way, I understood why we draw inspiration from certain individuals: they perform what we call the impossible. In Daniels’ case, this is true more literally than figuratively.
The story begins with a five-year-old Daniels who developed a natural fondness for tumbling and rolling on the ground, jumping off tables and sofas, and watching TV while crouched in an “attack” position. He names “The Fall Guy” as his first inspiration, an 80s TV series starring Lee Majors, who played a Hollywood stuntman moonlighting as a bounty hunter, capturing criminals through his extensive knowledge of stuntwork.
While his father was unenthusiastic about Daniels’ pastime, his mother helped him develop his skills using her experience as a gymnast. In high school, Daniels did as much physical activity as he could, signing up for football, wrestling, and track events. He had learned early that physical fitness, strength, and “body intelligence” were top priorities for an aspiring stuntman, though it wasn’t until much later that he actually considered a career in performing stunts for the camera. At age 18, he joined The Stunt Show, where he practiced choreographed fight sequences and falls down stairways; this was followed by a stint in Los Angeles where the height of his falls from buildings increased exponentially, from 30 feet to 75 feet to 180 feet. A year later, Daniels and a friend from Florida spent time learning car handling and related tricks. They would rent cars, sign up for full insurance, and then go bang them up while trying near-misses, skids, and crashes. Daniels insisted it was more about fun than danger.
After working with some stunt teams on commercials, TV shows, and movies, he worked his way up the ladder to more advanced projects. His reputation spread and Hollywood sat up and took notice. Spider-Man was the perfect project to showcase his talents. After successfully passing the casting auditions for Tobey Maguire’s body double, Daniels brought the web-slinger to life. He leaped off buildings, swung between towers, jumped through narrow alleyways, fought the bad guys in mid-air, and saved Mary Jane Watson from trouble.
The road to success was not, however, easy by any measure. Daniels has injured himself on far more than one occasion. He has suffered a separated shoulder, fractured his tailbone, braved several cuts, and even had 23 stitches on his left knee.
As a special treat to the audience, Daniels jumped off a 15-foot stand to demonstrate one of the techniques of falling. He landed onto a pile of strategically-stacked cardboard boxes and calmly got up to answer more questions. I was present to see the spectators go “Whoa!”
Daniels’ impressive work profile boasts stunts on numerous popular TV shows. He has performed fights, falls, jumps, and chases for such series as “Angel,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Martial Law,” “The Practice,” “VIP,” “Roswell,” and “Fear Factor.” The movies he has worked on or appeared in include, apart from the Spider-Man series, Dukes of Hazzard, Dead Air, Jarhead, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Charlie’s Angels, and Species 3 to name a few.
He was very gracious with his time, patiently answering all of the audience’s questions and recollecting interesting stories from his time spent around Hollywood A-listers. Daniels is extraordinary not simply because of his high tolerance to pain, but because while the rest of world asks “Why?” he asks “Why not?”
Keep an eye out for Daniels in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
