When Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson heard that a 10-year-old boy had rescued and resuscitated his drowning brother using the same technique from one of his movies, he pulled out all the stops to meet the hero.

Jacob O’Connor, a Roseville, MI, native, had recently seen the action movie San Andreas, starring Johnson. In the film, Johnson is forced to save his character’s daughter using CPR. That scene is what O’Connor’s mind leapt to when he went outside to find his 2-year-old brother, Dylan, lying face down in the pool.

Jacob saved him, became a hero, and, as a reward, got to meet his hero.

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Jacob was super nervous and shy the whole time we hung out, so it was fun getting him to laugh and talk. He threw me for an unexpected spin when he showed up on set wearing a shirt that he proudly made with my bull insignia on the front and on the back was the picture of me holding our two puppies, Brutus and Hobbs, after I rescued them from our pool. Seeing that picture on this boy's shirt, got me in the gut. Eventually, we would lose Brutus to heaven, but it wasn't the picture of Brutus that made me tear up, it was the fact that this 10yr old kid, had a heart big enough to put our puppies on his shirt after he saved his little 2yr old brother's life. What a special day. What a special kid. Thanks Jacob for being awesome and for being the kind of person we all aspire to be. ~ DJ

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When Johnson initially caught wind of the miraculous story with which he was tangentially involved, he went on a mission to track down Jacob. 

He posted a video to Instagram imploring Jacob and Dylan to come visit him on the set of the movie Skyscraper in Vancouver, Canada. 

Johnson’s social media outreach worked, and the two were united on set, which Johnson documented on Instagram. 

Johnson punctuated his Instagram post with the following sentiment: “Thanks Jacob for being awesome and for being the kind of person we all aspire to be.”

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