Jeremy Renner’s life changed when he nearly lost his life in a tragic snowplow accident – and he’s reliving every painful moment through his “healing” new memoir.
My Next Breath hit shelves on April 29, 2025. In Touch rounds up what the Marvel actor revealed about his shocking accident in the pages.
What Happened to Jeremy Renner?
On New Year’s Day in 2023, Jeremy saved his nephew from being crushed by a 14,000-pound snowplow, but he ended up underneath it instead. He’s since revealed that he forgot to set the parking brake on the piece of machinery and when he saw it begin to slide toward his nephew, he jumped back toward it to hit the emergency stop button. Unfortunately, he missed and was run over himself.
The accident resulted in a collapsed lung, an eye that was pushed out of its socket and more than 30 broken bones. He had to spend roughly two weeks in the hospital in Reno, Nevada, before being transferred to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.
Jeremy Renner Believes He Died in the Snowplow Accident
In his book, Jeremy details the moment that he believes he died after being crushed by the snowplow.
“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 in an excerpt obtained by Us Weekly. “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,” he continued. “I died, right there on the driveway to my house. I know I died. In fact, I’m sure of it.”
He described death as a different “energy” and the feeling of there being “no time, place or space” in which he could see his “lifetime” and “everything all at once.”
Jeremy Renner Heard His Own Bones Break During the Snowplow Accident
The Wind River actor wasn’t afraid to get into very graphic detail about the affects the accident had on his body.
“Six f–king wheels, seventy-six steel blades, 14,000 pounds of machine, all ranged against one human body,” he wrote. “I hear all the bones crack … Skull, jaw, cheekbones, molars: fibula, tibia, lungs, eye sockets, cranium, pelvis, ulna, legs, arms, skin, crack, snap, crack, squeeze … I could see my left eye with my right eye.”
Jeremy Renner’s Daughter Motivated Him During His Recovery
Jeremy revealed that his daughter, Ava, who he shares with ex Sonni Pacheco, helped him throughout his recovery.
“She was my fuel to get better,” he shared. “She gets better if I get better. All I have to do is get better for her.”
Jeremy Renner Said Writing His Memoir Was ‘Healing’
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on April 29, 2025, the Arrival star told the host that it was “quite the struggle” to “relive” the traumatic experience in detail while writing his book, but it was an important step.
“To recount it, to own it in a different way word by word was quite healing for me,” he explained at the time. “I learned a lot in writing it. It was healing in a lot of different ways, and look, we know how this thing ends. We know how the movie ends – I’m here. Right?”
