If you’re a Tannen living in Hill Valley, California, then you need a group of minions to help you bully others. In the gadget-packed Back to the Future: Part II, Darlene Vogel’s Spike was one of the trio of ne’er do wells who tagged along with Griff Tannen in 2015, and things didn’t end well for her. In real life, it’s even been rumored that Vogel died while making the sequel, and while that’s been debunked time and time again, it turns out the actress’ stunt double seriously injured while filming one of Part II’s most memorable sequencs.
While she appeared on The Patrick LabyorSheaux podcast, Darlene Vogel talked about how much she appreciates the Back to the Future fanbase, which she got to see firsthand when she attended the 25th anniversary celebration event. However, she also addressed the recurring misconception about her tied to this franchise:
The one thing that I am surprised that a lot of [fans] don’t know about, which I see on Facebook, is that my stunt double got hurt in the crash. And they think it was me. And they thought I died or whatever.
In case you haven’t seen Back to the Future: Part II in a while, Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly prevents his future son from falling into a life of crime in 2015, as that would have kicked off a series of events that led to the destruction of his family. He did so by leading Griff and his cronies on a wild hoverboard chase that ends with the four baddies crashing into the Hill Valley Courthouse and being arrested by the police. Cheryl Wheeler-Dixon served as Darlene Vogel’s stunt double during the sequence.
Article continues belowAs it was originally choreopgraphed, Wheeler and the other stunt doubles were all supposed to crash through the giant candy-glass paned window and land on some padding inside the building. However, once the cameras started rolling, the stunt doubles started drifting left. Not only did Wheeler end up colliding with a column, but because she and the others were all tethered together, she fell 20 feet down onto concrete rather than the padding when they were released.
Cheryl Wheeler, who died in 2020, recalled this experience to Women in Stunts in 2015, as well as shared how she went through four reconstructive surgeries to her face and arm, followed by an eight-hour surgery a year later that left her jaw wired shut for six weeks. The injuries continued to affect her for the rest of her life, but there were enough people who thought it was Darlene Vogel who’d suffered them, including Michael J. Fox himself. She recalled:
I bumped into Michael in New York, like, right after COVID. And I saw him and [his wife] Tracy coming out of a restaurant. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I have to say hello.’ I haven’t seen Michael since the premiere, you know?… I was like, ‘Hi, Michael! Hi, Tracy!’ And they were like, ‘Ok, here comes a fan.’ I go, ‘No, I'm Darlene. I played Spike in Back to Future 2.’ And they're like, ‘Oh my god, hi.’ And then he said to me, ‘Didn't you get hurt?’ And I said, "No, that was my stunt double, Cheryl.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, okay.’
While it’s unfortunate that the hoverboard sequence went so badly for the late Cheryl Wheeler, it’s also good that Darlene Vogel was spared those injuries. None of the Back to the Future movies are currently available to stream, so you’ll need to break out your own phsyical or digital copy for Part II to see with your own eyes what Wheeler endured.
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