When Jim Carrey thought he had ten minutes to live

The ‘Dumb and Dumber’ actor recalled being victim of a fake missile threat

Hollywood star Jim Carrey, popularly known for his roles in Dumb and Dumber, The Truman Show, Ace Ventura among others, recently appeared via Zoom on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon where he spoke about the fake missile alert that was issued in Hawaii in 2018.

Carrey shared that the cover art of his book Memoirs and Misinformation was actually a photograph of his that was taken during the fake missile alert. The 58-year-old was living in Hawaii when a text alert was sent out, warning him of the incoming ballistic threat.His assistant had called him crying and told him that there were only ten minutes left for them to live, following which, he tried getting off the island but couldn’t.

"That cover is actually my face after being told that I had 10 minutes to live," Carrey revealed. "And that's for real – a fake missile alert in Hawaii. I was there. I was writing. My assistant Linda called me, she was crying, she said, 'We have 10 minutes left.' I said, 'What do you mean?' She said, 'The missiles are coming.'" 

"I tried to get off the island to my daughter. I couldn't get off the island," he said. "The question was posed -- should we all try to get together? I said, 'I don't want to die in my car.' And we had to say goodbye." 

Upon finding no way out of the situation, Carrey eventually looked towards the ocean and like a scene from a film, thought about all the great things that had happened in his life and felt grateful. "I sat on the lanai and looked out at the ocean," he recalled. "At that point, I just started going, 'okay, well, what can I do with this last moment of time?' And I just decided to go through a list of gratitudes. I could not stop thinking of wonderful things that have happened to me and blessings I've had. It was lovely. And I got to a point of grace with about two minutes to spare when I found out it wasn't actually happening. And all I was planning to do was close my eyes and be thankful because it's been a good ride."

Thankfully, though, the alert turned out to be false. However, when Fallon asked him how he reacted to the news that the missile alert was fake, Carrey quipped, "Then I got pissed off and heads rolled!"

The alert, which went out in January 2018, was later revealed to be the result of "human error," according to The New York Times. 

Jim Carrey was last seen in the video game-inspired movie Sonic the Hedgehog where he played the mad scientist Dr Robotnik. Carrey’s performance was the highlight of the film. Recently, his TV series Kidding was cancelled after two seasons.