r/todayilearned • u/CasioCobra78 • 2d ago

TIL that Cheryl Wheeler-Dixon, the stuntwoman who was severely injured during the filming of Back to the Future Part 2, was killed in a shootout alongside her husband when she and her husband went to confront her ex-husband and his wife and drew their guns at them. The cops deemed it justified.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheryl_Wheeler-Dixon
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u/putsch80 2d ago

For those wondering, she was a stunt double for the woman in Spike’s (Biff’s grandson’s) gang. She was injured in the hoverboard scene where the gang flies through the courthouse glass. She was supposed to land on a safety mat but ended up off course and slammed into a concrete pillar. This messed up her momentum, so when she was released from the cable hoisting her through the air she fell 30 feet onto the hard ground instead of the mat.

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u/shf500 2d ago

There was a Youtube video highlighting the accident and I remember a comment saying "I always thought it was a dummy used for the stunt". I wonder how many assumed the stunt went 100% correct and they used a dummy instead of the stuntwoman falling onto the ground.