Jim Carrey Recalls the Moment He Was Alerted in Having 10 Minutes to Live

Jim Carrey spoke about the time he thought he only had 10 minutes left to live, and it was not in a hospital or sick at home, instead it was beside the ocean off the coast of Hawaii. During an interview on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, Carrey recalled the time he though missiles were headed his way — no joke. After an alert was sent to so many people's phones in 2018 who were on the island of Hawaii, he genuinely thought he would be dead in a matter of 10 minutes.

"That cover is actually my face after being told that I had 10 minutes to live," Carrey said. "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 min left.' I said, 'What do you mean?' She said, 'The missiles are coming.'"

At the time, the mass text read, "Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill," according to Page Six. However, officials later said the text was "part of a drill." He continued to explain, "I couldn't get off the island. 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."

While in such a scary time, the Dumb and Dumber actor said he thought about what to do for the remaining few minutes he thought he had and decided to overlook the ocean and go through a number of gratitudes. "I just decided to go through a list of gratitudes," he continued. "Honest to God, I just could not stop thinking of wonderful things that have happened to me and blessings that 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."

When Fallon followed up by asking what his reaction was when he found out it was a false alarm, Carrey said, "Then I got pissed off and heads rolled!" He added that the cover photo of his new book "Memoirs and Misinformation" was his exact facial expression when he found out he only had a few minutes left to live.