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Jeremy Renner came close to death during his January 2023 snowplow accident — maybe too close. In his memoir My Next Breath, published on April 29, 2025, the Marvel star revealed that he believes he briefly died while waiting for emergency responders after being crushed by his 14,000-pound snowplow.
During his appearance on CBS Mornings that same day, the Mayor of Kingstown actor opened up about his hesitation to write the book, saying he “didn’t think it was valuable” at first. “I lived it. It was a private incident that happened in my driveway. Why does anybody care about it?” he said. “But the act of writing it — what I want people to take away from the book [is] getting out of your own way is quite important to achieve and get anything you want in your life. … I knew it was valuable. It would be silly of me not to share it.”
In an October 2025 interview with the New York Post ahead of Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Renner reflected on how far he’s come since the accident. “Season 3 was the one where I was pretty affected… This season, I’m much stronger, much clearer, happier, more awake and attentive.”
Below, learn what happened to Jeremy and find out his perspective on what really happened to him.
What Happened to Jeremy Renner?
While in Nevada on January 1, 2023, Jeremy was operating his snowcat and prevented his nephew from being run over by the 14,000-pound rig. As a result, Jeremy was plowed by the machine and had to be airlifted to a hospital. He was treated in the intensive care unit and was released from the hospital nearly three weeks later.
Within three months of his accident, Jeremy was able to walk with a cane and gradually rebuild his strength for public appearances and to return to work.
Jeremy Renner’s Snowplow Accident Injuries
Jeremy broke 38 bones as a result of the snowplow accident on New Year’s Day in 2023. Among the most serious injuries were a collapsed lung.
Jeremy Renner’s Injury Photos Post-Accident
Days after he was hospitalized, Jeremy started sharing moments to Instagram from his journey to regain his strength.
Did Jeremy Renner Actually Die From His Snowplow Accident?
Jeremy claims in his book, My Next Breath, that he died and that no one in his family knew it at the time.
“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,” the Hawkeye alum wrote in one excerpt of the memoir. “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.”
Though we may never know if Jeremy’s heart did, in fact, stop that day, he insisted in the book that it’s true.
“I know I died—in fact, I’m sure of it,” the actor elaborated. “When the EMTs arrived, they noted that my heart rate had bottomed out at 18, and at 18 beats per minute, you’re basically dead.”
Despite the frightening incident, Jeremy noted in his book that he was at an “exhilarating peace” during the near-death experience.
“When I died, what I felt was energy, a constantly connected, beautiful and fantastic energy,” Jeremy added. “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 was in space: no sound, no wind, nothing save this extraordinary electricity by which I am connected to everybody and anything, anyone and everything. I am in every given moment, in one instant, magnified to a number ungovernable by math.”
Jeremy added, “What came to me on that ice was an exhilarating peace, the most profound adrenaline rush, yet an entirely tranquil one at the same time: electric serenity. I can still feel that space, silent, still, empty, but filled with every instant and all the forevers and, for the first time ever, my existence has nothing to do with time. It was an entirely beautiful place, filled with a knowable magic.”
