Unknown details of the filming of ‘Back to the Future’ revealed 40 years after its premiere

October 21, 2015. That is the date to which Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to the future in the second film, but in 2025 a key event for fans is fulfilled: 40 years have passed since the release of the original film. Charlie Croughwell was double for the risky sequences that Michael J. Fox faced in the adventure. He was his shadow during filming. Four decades later, he reveals some curious anecdotes.

First time on the set of ‘Back to the Future’

Croughwell shares with metro.co.uk how he became Michael J. Fox’s double. It was destiny. He moved to Los Angeles to find a certain Matt Clevin, who could help him work in Hollywood. At that time Clevin was the special sequences coordinator for Universal Studios. Croughwell sneaked into the facilitysearched for his name and soon found himself in the middle of the filming of the film.

“(Matt) looked at me, and then he looked at Michael and said, ‘yeah, this is your double.'” Fox was not convinced and persistently asked Charlie if he was really a double. He said “yes” and immediately started with a sequence that would go down in history: landing on the skateboard. In fact, it reveals that the sequence was dubbed in several takes. It wasn’t one. “It didn’t take long. We did it very quickly. If we did it three or four times I’d be surprised.”

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A magical moment of ‘Back to the Future’: the beginning

The opening sequence of ‘Back to the Future’ is a cinema myth. It’s about 10 minutes of pure cinematography that hides quite a few surprises. Do you remember the moment when Marty McFly plays the guitar in front of a huge speaker? The one you see on the screen was not Michael J. Fox: it was Charlie Croughwell.

“There are a lot of explosions in that speaker, and there is a guy next to you, the special effects guy, who is going to press a button that will activate not only the explosion of the speaker, but the place you are in at that moment,” he remembers. “To film the scene on my back and land on the chair that was on the other side of the room, my body had to be in a very specific position. (…) If he didn’t, he would end up shot to the ground.”.

The injuries suffered during the filming of ‘Back to the Future’

So many special moments carry risks. Croughwell broke a bone in a pretty silly scenebut he got a tremendous blow. When Marty’s father climbs the tree and it saves him from the fall, the stuntman had to be hit by a car falling in a certain way to avoid being under him.

The problem? Despite succeeding, he put his hand badly against the ground and broke his wrist. He had to take some new shots without knowing the extent of the injury.

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