10 Movie Stunts That Went Very Wrong (But Are Still In The Film)

Back to the Future Part II's terrific hoverboard chase sequence climaxes with Griff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) and his gang of goons being catapulted through the glass facade entrance of Hill Valley Courthouse Mall.

And while it's fair to assume that such a potentially dangerous stunt was executed under extremely controlled conditions, that's not quite the case.

Stuntwoman Cheryl Wheeler doubled for the female member of Griff's gang, and has since stated that she was skeptical of the stunt's safety before taking part in it, no matter the crew's attempts to quell her fears.

The plan was for the four stunt performers to be launched towards the glass window with cables, which would be cut just as they made contact with the glass and landed safely on a crash mat inside the mall.

However, as the four were launched towards the glass, Wheeler veered off-course and hit one of the large stone pillars, resulting in her cable being cut before she hit the glass, causing her to fall 30 feet to the unpadded ground below.

Wheeler ultimately received injuries to her face, arm, and hand, albeit none which had lasting effects or hampered her career.

Though we don't actually get to see Wheeler fall to the ground prematurely in the film, we do see her make contact with the pillar and hang awkwardly in the air for a moment before Robert Zemeckis abruptly cuts to an interior shot of the other stunt-folk crashing through the glass.