Jeremy Renner’s 2023 snow plow accident was a life-changing event for the MCU star, but the actor also believes it was life-ending, temporarily. The accident took place at his Nevada home, and led to Renner being hospitalized and being forced to undergo physical therapy. Renner is still on the path to a full recovery, although he has returned to work, starring in shows like Mayor of Kingstown. But, the actor feels like he was literally reborn during the incident.
Jeremy Renner wrote about the accident in his new memoir, My Next Breath, which was released yesterday (April 29, 2025). The actor recalled the incident in heartbreaking detail, including hearing his family’s reaction as he was crushed by the plow. “As I lay on the ice, my heart rate slowed, and right there, on that New Year’s Day, unknown to my daughter, my sisters, my friends, my father, my mother, I just got tired,” he wrote. The actor described being crushed as exhausting, so much so that he felt like he literally died. Renner continued:

“After about 30 minutes on the ice, of breathing manually for so long, an effort akin to doing 10 or 20 push-ups per minute for half an hour . . . that’s when I died. I died, right there on the driveway to my house.”

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Jeremy Renner Doesn’t Have ‘Energy’ or ‘Fuel’ to Tackle ‘Challenging’ Roles

After suffering severe injuries in his highly publicized snowplow accident, Jeremy Renner says, “I don’t have the fuel” to play demanding parts.

After the plow was moved off of him, Renner still waited for 45 minutes for emergency services to arrive on the scene. He remembered the broken bones and loss of blood replaying in his mind. But, Renner also had to contend with the freezing cold weather. He continued:

“Though I’d broken more than 30 bones and lost six quarts of blood (I’d find out the true extent of the injuries only later), an even greater danger to me as the minutes dragged by on the ice was hypothermia.”

Jeremy Renner Describes His “Death”

Paramount Pictures

During the accident, Jeremy Renner experienced what scientists call an NDE, or Near-Death Experience. The actor described the sensation, saying “When I died, what I felt was energy, a constantly connected, beautiful and fantastic energy.” He went so far as to say he could “see [his] lifetime.” In his own words:

“There was no time, place, or space, and nothing to see, except a kind of electric, two-way vision made from strands of that inconceivable energy. I could see my lifetime. I could see everything all at once. In death there was no time, no time at all, yet it was also all time and forever.”

While his recovery is ongoing, Renner is back to work on the big and small screen. The long-time MCU veteran hasn’t been confirmed to return for Avengers: Doomsday yet, as his name was absent from the hours-long casting announcement video. But, there are reportedly many more characters yet to be confirmed for the upcoming team-up movie, so there is always a chance that Hawkeye’s days in the MCU aren’t up.
Source: US Magazine