Jim Carrey Shares What He Did When He Thought He Had Only ‘10 Minutes Left’ to Live
Comedian Jim Carrey faced what he thought were the last moments of his life back in January 2018. The actor was in Hawaii when a false missile alert threw the island into chaos. Carrey shared his harrowing experience on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, in July 2020. He shared that it started off just like any other day. He was working on his writing when his assistant Linda suddenly called him in tears. "We have 10 minutes left," she sobbed. Confused, Carrey asked what she meant. Her answer chilled him to the bone. "The missiles are coming from North Korea," she answered.
2018 - Jim Carrey says he was in Hawaii when the missile alert went out pic.twitter.com/MErF18fEYx
— Urantian Lady (@UrantianL) August 19, 2023
The threat felt very real and Carrey's first instinct was to escape. He tried to leave the island with his daughter, but it wasn't possible. As the reality of the situation sank in, a new thought struck him. He realized, "I don't want to die in my car," and chose to spend what he believed was his final moments looking out at the vast Pacific Ocean. As he stood there, facing the possibility of imminent death, his mind began to race. "My brain started winding," Carrey told Fallon, as per People magazine.
The panic left his body and he soon found himself filled with gratitude. "I just decided to go through a list of gratitudes," he explained. "Honest to God, I just could not stop thinking of wonderful things that have happened to me and the blessings I have had." This shift in perspective brought Carrey a sense of peace. "It was lovely," he recalled. "I got to a point of grace at about two minutes to spare when I found out it wasn't actually happening."
Jim Carrey was there on vacation with his family when he received a ballistic missile alert on his phone. He in an interview said he felt as if he was going to die. Luckily the alert was a dud and the missile didn't hit and him and his family were fine.
— 😁The Real Captain Obvious😁 (@CaptaynObvious) June 19, 2024
The missile alert turned out to be a false alarm. An employee had mistakenly sent out the warning, causing widespread chaos across Hawaii. For Carrey and many others, those 38 minutes of fear left a lasting impact. When asked how he reacted to the news that it was all a mistake, Carrey joked, "I got p***** off and heads rolled." Despite the humor, the incident clearly affected him deeply.
It even made its way onto the cover of his book Memoirs and Misinformation. Published in 2020, the cover featured a screenshot his assistant accidentally took during their frantic call. "That cover is somebody staring at infinity, staring at eternity," Carrey explained in a separate interview. "It wasn't panic. It was more the feeling of, 'Wow, that's weird. Huh. That is how it's gonna end? Strange.'" He shared that at the time, he didn't have any regrets. "All I was planning to do was closing my eyes and be thankful because it has been a good ride," he reflected, as per Sky News.
