The Clint Eastwood Movie Burt Reynolds Regretted — And How It Nearly Cost Him His Life
Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood finally teamed up in 1984’s City Heat after decades of friendship — only to deliver a dud that flopped on and off camera, leaving Reynolds worse for wear.
On paper, Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood teaming up sounds like a slam dunk. In reality, their one and only collaboration, 1984's City Heat, was a mess. The movie underperformed, the tone was all over the place, and worst of all, it left Reynolds with a brutal injury that spiraled into years of painkiller addiction.
Two legends, one movie, zero luck
Reynolds and Eastwood were friends going back to the 50s, but they only ever made one film together: City Heat. It should have been an event. Instead, it turned into a cautionary tale.
The stunt that wrecked Reynolds
During a fight scene, a stuntman accidentally slammed Reynolds with a real metal chair. Not a breakaway prop. A real one. The hit broke Reynolds's jaw. He finished the shoot anyway, then had surgery where doctors removed his bottom teeth and realigned them to take pressure off the fracture. The recovery was excruciating — he later said the pain was worse than migraines.
How a broken jaw turned into an addiction
Managing that pain is where things got dark. Reynolds started taking painkillers, and what began as treatment spiraled into a serious dependency — by his own admission, up to 50 pills a day. Because he was, well, Burt Reynolds, he tried to keep it quiet. It got so bad he slipped into a coma for eight to nine hours, and doctors told his then-wife, Loni Anderson, to prepare for the worst.
"I went into a coma for about eight or nine hours. At one point the doctors brought Loni in to say goodbye to me. I had an out of body experience. I heard the doctor say, 'We’re losing him.'"
He eventually pulled out of it and kept working, delivering more hits down the line. His final film, Defining Moments, was released in 2021, three years after his death in 2018.
So why did City Heat flop?
Beyond the off-screen nightmare, the movie itself just never clicked. It wanted to be a throwback noir detective story and a buddy comedy at the same time, and it never found the right lane. That confused tone came out of behind-the-scenes turbulence: the project started with Blake Edwards writing it, but he clashed with Eastwood and got pushed aside, and Richard Benjamin ended up directing the finished film. The result feels like a movie having an identity crisis — which is wild considering the star power involved.
City Heat in one glance
- Year: 1984
- Stars: Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood
- Director: Richard Benjamin (after Blake Edwards was pushed out)
- Vibe: Buddy action comedy meets noir, but never gels
- IMDb: 5.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 22% Tomatometer, 25% Audience Score
- Domestic box office: $38.3 million (underwhelming for those names)
- Real-world fallout: Reynolds's broken jaw led to major painkiller addiction and a brief coma
It should have been a classic pairing. Instead, City Heat is one of those movies people remember more for the story around it than what is actually on screen.
Where to watch
City Heat is currently available to rent on Apple TV in the US.