Every Cameo By An Extreme Sports Star In The Original Xander Cage Movie

The Xander Cage series features several cameos from extreme sports stars, so when do they appear in the 2002 movie? Starring Vin Diesel as the NSA spy Xander Cage, the film tripled its budget at the box office and inspired multiple sequels. The series protagonist comes from the world of extreme sports, so director Rob Cohen hired real-life athletes to infuse the film with authenticity and credibility.

In the first movie’s opening act, Cage steals a California state senator’s vehicle and drives it off a bridge while parachuting to safety. He records the stunt for his extreme sports fanbase and collaborates with several of his colleagues. Importantly, Cage doesn’t seek mere thrills or attention but rather wants to deliver a message to the politician Dick Hotchkiss, who wants to ban rap music and believes that video games diminish the intelligence of America’s youth. Cage decides to punish the “bad man,” and thus becomes wanted by the FBI for auto theft, reckless endangerment, and the aforementioned extreme sports stunt — the three strikes that correlate with the movie’s title. Hoping to avoid jail time, Diesel’s character accepts an offer from NSA head Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) and leads a mission in Prague.

Diesel performs many of his own stunts, which strengthens the film’s extreme sports credibility. Tragically, however, stuntman Harry O’Connor was killed after crashing into Prague’s Palacký Bridge, a moment that Cohen discusses in the film’s director commentary. Overall, 500 stunt professionals were hired for the 2002 movie; here are the big-name extreme sports professionals who also appear in the action movie.

Skateboarder Tony Hawk

Skateboarder Tony Hawk appears during Xander Cage’s opening stunt scene. As Cage parachutes to safety, a “Caddy Driver” watches in astonishment and asks two friends to get cameras. Hawk is one of the world’s most iconic skateboarders and was already a legend by the late ’90s before the movie released. Previously, he portrayed Josh Brolin’s body double in the 1986 movie Thrashin’, a skateboarder in Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, and Buddy in Gleaming the Cube. Since 2002, Hawk has appeared in Lords of Dogtown, Ballers, and The Masked Singer season 3 as the Elephant.

Skateboarder Mike Vallely

Skateboarder Mike Vallely also makes a cameo during the action flick’s opening stunt sequence. He appears shortly before Tony Hawk, holding a Sony videocamera and stating “Pull it! Pull it!” while recording Cage as he rides the Senator’s plummeting vehicle. Known as “Mike V,” Vallely rose to fame as a skateboarder during the late ’80s and later became the first professional board athlete to play professional hockey. Vallely is currently the lead singer of Black Flag. He portrayed Rudolph in Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Nico in The Hangover movie franchise.

Freestyle Motocross Racer Carey Hart

Motocross star Carey Hart appears alongside Hawk as “Caddy Passenger.” He wears a dark beanie and watches Cage’s opening stunt. Hart became a professional motocross racer during the early ’90s and later innovated the now-famous “invert superman” or “Hart Attack” seat-grab move in 1999, making him a true star by the time the movie released. Hart appears as himself in the 2003 movie Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, and married the musician Pink in 2006.

BMX Rider Mat Hoffman

BMX star Mat Hoffman makes a cameo in the first Xander Cage shortly after the opening car scene. As Cage celebrates his latest stunt, he’s approached by Hoffman’s character (credited as “Extreme Guy”), who inquires about a trick that Diesel’s character describes as the “Superman seat-grab barrel roll.” When the movie released, Hoffman aka “The Condor” was already an industry veteran and the entrepreneur behind Hoffman Promotions and Hoffman Bikes. He appears as himself in Jackass season 2, and also in several of the franchise movies. Hoffman is also the featured subject in the 2010 ESPN 30 for 30 documentary The Birth of Big Air.

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Q.V. Hough
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Q.V. Hough is a senior writer at Screen Rant. He’s also the founding editor at Vague Visages, and has contributed to RogerEbert.com and Fandor.

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