Critically Injured ‘Transformers 3? Extra Gets $18 Million Settlement


An extra for the latest Michael Bay explosions-and-slow-mo-summer-flick, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, will receive $18 million in a settlement from a critical injury suffered during production two years ago.

The 26-year-old extra, Gabriela Cedillo, sued Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Studios after suffering a serious head injury during a stunt-gone-wrong on September 1, 2010. Cedillo was operating her own car in the background during an action sequence, when the cable pulling a stunt car from another car snapped, whipped around, cut through Cedillo’s windshield and hit her in the head. She was then airlifted to a hospital for emergency surgery, but alas… permanent brain damage. “A large part of her brain was lost. She has difficulty with memory. She can’t remember when she went to the bathroom five minutes earlier,” said Todd Smith, Cedillo’s lawyer.

Paramount and DreamWorks originally vowed to cover Cedillo’s medical costs (which quickly soared north of $350,000), but according to Smith, the companies subsequently did “everything they could to avoid payment,” reports TMZ. “They are all about the bottom line. They wanted their movie out and they didn’t want this clouding the issue,” said Smith.

Though an investigation showed that the studio didn’t violate any safety standards in the filming of the scene, the studios were still forced to pay up after a Cook County judge signed off on the settlement, filed by Cedillo’s family on her behalf.

As for Cedillo… it’s bittersweet. “She is on her feet and talking and for that we are thankful,” said Smith at a press conference. “On the other side, she has significant cognizant impairment and with a period of hallucinations…She is going to have issues for the rest of her life.”

Share this article: Critically Injured ‘Transformers 3? Extra Gets $18 Million Settlement
More from Inquisitr