Back To The Future III (1990)

There is extensive animal action throughout the picture having taken place in 1885. Most of the animal work is horses in the background, used as atmosphere. However there were a few scenes which involved stunts or were a little out of the ordinary.

One scene was a chase sequence involving about 100 indians on galloping horses charging over a ridge. They jump their horses over a gully and keep going. They are being pursued by 100 soldiers of the U.S. Cavalry. They too, race their horses over the ridge, jump over the gully and continue over the plain. The area where the horses jumped was carefully prepared to cushion their landing. This entire sequence was shot over a period of days with rest periods in between.

The next scene is inside a cave where Marty hears a growl. A grizzly bear appears and walks toward Marty. Marty bolts out of the cave with the bear lumbering after him. In his frightened state, Marty drops his boots. It then shows athe bear picking a boot up in his mouth. The bear rsponded to hand and vocal cues with food as a reward. At times the trainer was a photo double for the actor.

There is another scene with a team of six horses pulling the Delorean across the plains. (No problems.)

Another exciting scene is two runaway horses pulling a buckboard with the woman passenger apparently unable to gain control. Marty and Doc jump on their horses and gallop after the rig. Doc rides up alongside the runaway horses and pulls the reins to turn the horses. The horses turn and snap the wagon yoke. The animals run off safely, while the buckboard continues speeding toward the ravine. The buckboard was designed to breakaway and rigged with a special metal bar to protect the horses from a collision. Extra wranglers were present to collect the horses after the breakaway.

The last scene is with Doc and Marty galloping toward the train. They pull alongside and ride even with the last passenger car. Doc grabs for the ladder on the side of the car and pulls himself aboard (off his horse). Marty follows suit as does a woman soon after. The horses safely run off. The train was not going as fast as it appeared to be and the ground was carefully prepared to make sure there was nothing to cause the horses to stumble. The horses were familiarized with the area and rehearsed in the action. Expert riders were used as doubles for the actors and their scenes were edited with close-up footage of the actors.