Jeremy Renner talks in detail about his near-fatal accident

More than a year after his hospitalization, Jeremy Renner spoke at length on Wednesday night’s episode of “The Tonight Show” about the snowplow accident that nearly took his life.

“The machine went out of control, out of my hands. It went into my nephew and crushed him between the truck and the (snow plow), so I jumped back on – or at least tried to – and got caught in the chains,” Renner told Jimmy Fallon. “I broke 38 bones. It was brutal, dude.”

The actor then revealed that one of his ankles, half of his face and the right side of his back are now made of “metal,” meaning they are reinforced with titanium. He also suffered 14 broken ribs in the accident.

“You see with the other eye like you see with your own eye – that was because my eyeball was hanging out – and you start thinking weird things, right?” Renner continued, while Fallon looked visibly shocked. “It’s like, ‘That’s probably real, but I’ll worry about that later.’ I look at it and my legs are all twisted. ‘I’ll worry about that later. I need to worry about breathing first.'”

Before Jimmy Fallon asked him questions about his accident, he made sure the Avengers star was comfortable talking about his injuries. “I think it’s pretty cathartic. It can be very healing,” Renner said.

Last January, Renner was run over by a snowplow after rescuing his nephew from the vehicle. The actor assured Fallon that he knew how to operate the machine, but due to the “terrible conditions” the accident occurred. At the time, Renner and his family were stuck “in about 12 feet of snow.”

Renner knew he had to stay calm or he would die. Despite his gruesome injuries and brutal recovery, the actor focused on the unlikely positive aspects of his near-death experience.

“There are so many great gifts in pushing your limits – your physical limits, your mental limits, your emotional limits. I won’t have a bad day for the rest of my life. That’s impossible, right? “It’s a gift,” Renner said.

But he’s also learned “not to panic and to focus.” He pointed out how hard it was for him to breathe after his accident, not knowing he had a ruptured lung. “If you think about it step by step, it’s a really good reminder of what we all need to pay attention to in life,” Renner said. “When we get too stressed or when things get too difficult or when there are insurmountable obstacles or whatever, just put one foot on the ground and then the other.”

“I think I can achieve anything at this point,” he added.

The Marvel star also revealed that Anthony Mackie was one of the first people he saw when he woke up in the hospital after being on life support for “three or four days.” He was reportedly visited by some of his other Marvel co-stars, but did not mention them by name.

“It was like a wake. Everyone came to say goodbye, which is kind of weird, right? But at least Mackie was there and he was really concerned,” Renner said. “Receiving that much love is very difficult for anyone.”