Spike agreed to a role in his mate David O. Russell's gulf war movie partly because it allowed him to indulge his skateboard-influenced love for stunts (which would also inspire Jackass).

"You know, Spike always wanted to be a stuntman when he was a kid," Russell told Newsweek.

"So I knew he had that daredevil quality. He did two of the biggest stunts in the movie. One is where a car blows up and almost lands on him. He took a total face plant on that. Just fell right on his face as he was running away from that car. One take, and it was perfect."