Jeremy Renner reveals he 'died' waiting for help after 2023 snowplow accident: 'I could see my lifetime'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jeremy Renner is opening up about the near-fatal snowplow accident that changed his life in January 2023, in a new and descriptive way.

In his new memoir 'My Next Breath', the actor recounts the terrifying ordeal and the moments he believes he died. The accident happened outside his home in Nevada while he was trying to save his nephew from being crushed by a snowplow. 

Jeremy Renner says he 'died' in the driveway outside his home

In 'My Next Breath', Jeremy Renner revealed he felt his heart rate slow while lying on the ice after being crushed by a 14,000-pound PistenBully snowplow.

“As I lay on the ice, my heart rate slowed, and right there, on that New Year’s Day, unknown to my daughter, my sisters, my friends, my father, my mother, I just got tired,” Renner wrote according to US Weekly, in the memoir, released Tuesday, April 29.

“After about 30 minutes on the ice, of breathing manually for so long, an effort akin to doing 10 or 20 push-ups per minute for half an hour, that’s when I died,” he continued. “I died, right there on the driveway to my house.”

Renner was trying to help his nephew, Alex Fries, avoid being hit by the machine when the accident occurred. He broke over 30 bones and lost six quarts of blood.

“Though I’d broken more than 30 bones and lost six quarts of blood (I’d find out the true extent of the injuries only later), an even greater danger to me as the minutes dragged by on the ice was hypothermia,” Renner shared.

He remained on the ice for 45 minutes as his nephew and a neighbor tried to care for him before first responders arrived.

Jeremy Renner describes seeing his entire life flash before him

Jeremy Renner recalled his nephew and neighbor watching his body turn “a gray-green color” before he lost consciousness.

“I know I died — in fact, I’m sure of it,” he wrote, saying emergency responders later told him his “heart rate had bottomed out at 18.” According to Renner, this meant he was “basically dead.”

'The Avengers' star described a surreal out-of-body experience that followed. “When I died, what I felt was energy, a constantly connected, beautiful and fantastic energy,” he wrote.

“There was no time, place, or space, and nothing to see, except a kind of electric, two-way vision made from strands of that inconceivable energy," he detailed.

He described a feeling of complete serenity while lying on the ice. “I could see my lifetime. I could see everything all at once,” Renner shared, adding, “In death there was no time, no time at all, yet it was also all time and forever.”

Jeremy Renner says he feels 'very blessed' to be alive

Eventually, Jeremy Renner said he felt a force pulling him back to life, telling him not to “let go.”

Surviving the accident became a defining moment for him. “I didn’t f*****g die,” he wrote. “So the celebration of New Year becomes a recognition of the depth of the love in our family.”

Recovering from the near-fatal accident, however, went beyond rehabbing his body.

"Perseverance. Strength. It’s all a mental game. I put it in my back pocket now. I know how to deal with pain,” Renner told CNN in October 2023.

“It’s all mind. It’s all in the mind. If you can sift through the fog of it all, I am very blessed," he added.

He also said during the interview, “I just feel very blessed and very lucky to be upright and walk around and to live life."