 | ||
The Globe of Death is a circus and carnival stunt where stunt riders ride motorcycles inside a mesh sphere ball. It is similar to the wall of death, but in this act riders can loop vertically as well as horizontally. There have been three performance-related deaths recorded between 1949-1997. The only Globe of Death World Record officially recognized by the Guinness World Records is six riders and one person in the center by the Infernal Varanne team on the set of Lo Show Dei Record, in Milan, Italy, on 13 April 2011.
Contents
For its 2008 touring edition, Ringling Bros. started using the name Globe of Steel, as the word death was not seen as family friendly from a public relations perspective.
Notable instances
Leo Garcia of the Garcia Family Thrill Riders designed and built the very first (horizontal) Triple Splitting Globe of Death in 2006. This Globe is the only one of its kind that hydraulically lifts 5 feet off the ground and splits/separates into three sections while the Garcia Thrill Riders race their motorcycles in the center piece with a 4-foot gap underneath them. During this operation, the entire sphere lifts at over 23 feet high.
The youngest recorded person to ride a motorcycle in the Globe of Death is Maximus Garcia, who was four years, six months, and 28 days old on August 16, 2006.
In June 2015 in Vilnius, Lithuania, the largest outdoor Globe of Death was constructed, standing at 12 metres (39 ft) tall. A total of 12 consecutive loops were performed in the Globe with a 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) car.
In 2014 in Belgium, Johnny Strange became the first person to swallow a sword inside the Globe of Death when he teamed up with Vesko Lesev of Globe of Death EU to combine the two dangerous arts.
In popular culture
In The Simpsons Movie, Homer wins a truck by making a full 360-degree cycle of the Globe of Death (after failing on his first three tries).
In the 2012 film The Place Beyond the Pines, Ryan Gosling’s character performs the Globe of Death stunt with two other motorcyclists.