The Devil at Your Heels is a 1981 National Film Board of Canada documentary directed by Robert Fortier and narrated by Gordon Pinsent. The film chronicles stuntman Ken Carter's attempts to jump a rocket-powered car over the St. Lawrence River (and the U.S./Canada border) and break the record for greatest distance jumping a car. Over the course of five years, Carter prepares for what he hopes will be a truly spectacular event, constructing a ramp near Morrisburg, Ontario and building a custom car to make the jump. Unfortunately, Finagle's Law kicks in hard, and the attempt is hit with various setbacks, both technical and financial, with the whole thing ultimately ending in humiliating failure for all involved.
It is available for viewing on both the NFB's main site and YouTube channel.
Provides examples of the following tropes:
- All for Nothing: Carter pours five years and one million dollars into a stunt that ultimately blows up in everyone's faces. And to add insult to injury, he isn't even present when the jump is made, having been replaced by another stuntman without his knowledge.
- Biopic: In addition to chronicling Ken Carter's efforts to make his jump, the film also details his early life and how he became a daredevil, including footage of some of his early jumps.
- Cool Car: A custom-built jet-powered 1974 Lincoln Continental (or more accurately, a fiberglass shell in the shape of a Continental) with wings certainly qualifies as such.
- Downer Ending: The stunt fails spectacularly in front of a disappointed crowd when the car disintegrates in mid-air and plunges into the river. The whole project is cancelled, the ramp is demolished, and Ken Carter never achieves his goal of jumping the St. Lawrence River.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: One of the many technical hurdles facing Carter is a malfunctioning jet engine whose fuel tank keeps overheating and catching fire.
- Finagle's Law: Everything that can go wrong with Carter's jump does go wrong: the car's jet engine keeps catching fire, the ramp is poorly paved and not entirely sound structurally, he has difficulty obtaining funds or convincing his backers not to pull out of the whole thing, the ground crew goes on strike, and poor weather causes the jump to be postponed twice. Eventually, Carter's backers lose their patience and replace him with another driver, Kenny Powers, behind his back. And on the day when the jump actually takes place, the bumps in the take-off road, which were never remedied at any point, cause the car to bounce, cracking the fiberglass body and making Powers unable to keep his foot on the accelerator pedal. The end result is that the car is unable to achieve sufficient momentum to make the full jump and falls apart in mid-air, causing the parachute to deploy prematurely before the car finally lands in the shallow water, with Powers breaking one wrist, three ribs, and eight vertebrae in the process.
- The Precious, Precious Car: The jet car that Carter had devoted so much time and money into constructing shakes itself to pieces in front of a horrified crowd.
- Rage Breaking Point: When Carter learns at the end that he'd been replaced by another driver without his knowledge or consent, he completely loses it.
- Stock Footage: The footage of the ill-fated jump re-appears in the second Faces of Death film, and in the Discovery Channel series Destroyed in Seconds.
