Jim Carrey opens up on the terrifying moment he was told he had 10 minutes left to live

(Image credit: Getty)

Jim Carrey has opened up about the bizarre moment he was told he had 10 minutes left to live.

The comedian and actor was suddenly given the terrifying news when he was in Hawaii back in 2018.

During the trip, the Liar Liar star was shocked to hear a ballistic missile alert being broadcast.

Chatting about the eerie moment, when the announcement told island residents to take shelter, to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Jim explained that the cover of his new book Memoirs And Misinformation has a connection to the traumatic experience.

“The cover is actually my face after being told I have 10 minutes to live. It was completely real to us,” he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8LlB3psUtM

He explained that after hearing the alert it dawned on him that he couldn’t leave the island and began to look out to the ocean for what he thought were his last minutes of life.

“At that point I started going, ‘OK what can I do with this last moment of time’. I just decided to go through a list of gratitudes and honest to God I just could not stop thinking of wonderful things that have happened to me and blessings I’ve had,” he reflected.

A photo posted by on

“It was lovely. And I got to a point of grace at about two minutes to spare when I found out it wasn’t actually happening. All I was planning to do was close my eyes and be thankful because it’s been a good ride.”

Luckily, it turned out that the frightening alert was in fact a false alarm, caused by a miscommunication during an exercise at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

Recalling his reaction when he found out he wasn’t moments away from his deathbed, Jim laughed, “I got pissed off and heads rolled.”

Caitlin Elliott
Junior News Editor

Caitlin is a Junior News Editor for Goodto.com, covering all things royal, celeb, lifestyle, food, and family. Having set her sights on becoming a magazine journalist when she was a child, Caitlin took on work experience stints at local papers and titles such as Cosmopolitan, Now, Reveal and Take a Break while studying for her Multimedia Journalism degree and has interviews with celebs, reality stars and the Archbishop of Canterbury under her belt (of course, she couldn't resist asking him about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry).