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Back to the Future is an American comedy science fiction adventure film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released in 1985. It is about a young man who is accidentally sent into the past and jeopardizes his own future existence. The movie was followed by two sequels, Back to the Future Part II (1989), and Back to the Future Part III (1990), forming a trilogy.
Back To The Future was written by Bob Gale and Zemeckis, and starred Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. The movie opened on July 3, 1985 and grossed $210 million at the US box office, making it the highest grossing film of 1985. On December 17, 2002, Universal Home Video released Back to the Future: The Complete Trilogy on DVD and VHS.
Following the completion of the film series, two more spin-off projects surfaced. CBS TV aired an animated series, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, while Harvey Comics (publishers of Casper the Friendly Ghost) released a handful of similarly styled comic books, although their stories were original and not merely duplicates of the movies.
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Synopsis
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On October 16,1985, Marty McFly, a 17-year old high-school senior, visits the home of his friend Dr. Emmett Brown only to find the eccentric local scientist is not home. Marty soon receives a call from Doc himself asking him to meet him at 1:15 AM that night at Twin Pines mall. Marty agrees and then discovers that he is late for school. Later, Marty walks home with his girlfriend, Jennifer, while they plan a weekend away. A woman hands them a flyer for a campaign to save the city clock tower, which was struck by a lightning bolt at 10:04 PM on November 12, 1955. Jennifer writes a number on the flyer where Marty can reach her, then leaves.
When Marty gets home he finds that the McFlys' Chevy Nova was wrecked by his father's supervisor, Biff Tannen, who bullies George McFly into writing all of his work reports while making rude comments about Marty's mother Lorraine. The family has dinner: Marty's father watches a Jackie Gleason rerun, his older brother has a fast-food job, his sister has no love life, and his mother disapproves of girls chasing boys. She remarks that fate brought her and her husband together from her father hitting George with a car, and eventually having their first kiss at the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance".
Marty meets Doc at the mall to witness a demonstration of Doc's latest invention: a time-machine made from a modified DeLorean sports car, which must reach 88 miles-per-hour in order to travel through time. Doc tests the car by sending his dog Einstein one minute into the future. A group of Libyan terrorists arrive, from whom Doc stole the plutonium necessary to power the time machine. After the Libyans kill Doc, Marty escapes in the DeLorean but inadvertently travels thirty years back in time to November 5, 1955. However, the plutonium necessary to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity required to make one jump in time is left in 1985.
Marty encounters many differences between 1985 and 1955: different music, Ronald Reagan still an actor listed in a movie marquee at the local theater, exemplary service at the gas station, and a cleaner, less run-down ambiance in the town square. While searching for a younger Doc Brown, he meets his father and accidentally interferes with the first meeting of his parents--being hit by his grandfather's Chevy in his father's place. (His father had been in a tree watching Lorraine undress through her window.) Lorraine then falls in love with Marty instead, calling him Calvin Klein because she sees the name on his underwear. He has dinner with Lorraine's family, claims that he has seen the episode of The Honeymooners on TV even though it is brand new, and meets his Uncle Joey, a future "jailbird" who loves being in his crib.
Marty leaves and finds Doc, who disbelieves his story until Marty tells him that today is the day he conceived of the flux capacitor. Doc tells Marty that his encounter with his parents jeopardizes Marty's own existence. Marty carries a snapshot of himself with his sister and brother, and they are fading out, first Dave, the oldest, then Linda.
Doc does not know where to acquire plutonium, and the only other source of the necessary "1.21 gigawatts" of electricity needed would be a bolt of lightning: but you never know when or where they'll strike. Marty shows him the fundraising flyer from 1985 that gives the exact time and place of a lightning bolt, one week away. Doc will build the device that will let them channel the lightning bolt into the flux capacitor, sending Marty back to 1985. But in this time he must also manipulate his parents into falling in love, so that they will still have their first kiss at the dance--coincidentally also one week away, on November 12.
Marty tries to get George to ask Lorraine to the dance, but he is too nervous. They also have trouble with the school bully, Biff Tannen, who is after Lorraine and who bosses George around and makes him do his homework. At one point, Biff and his cronies chase Marty in their car while he rides a makeshift skateboard, and they crash their car into a manure truck. Another time Biff picks a fight with George, and Marty defends him. Most of these events only makes Lorraine even more attracted to Marty. Finally Lorraine asks Marty to the dance.
Marty accepts, and tells George his plan is to 'take advantage' of Lorraine in the car, so that George can rescue her, which would put him in a good light. On the night of the date, Lorraine reveals that she is more than willing to let Marty take advantage of her, having snuck out some liquor for the event. (Although when Lorraine and Marty kiss, she is suddenly uncomfortable and says that it was like "kissing my brother".) Then Biff arrives instead of George, gets in the car with Lorraine, and tells his gang to take Marty "around back," where they lock him in the trunk of a car. When George arrives, expecting Marty, he finds Biff harassing Lorraine instead; Biff gets out of the car and almost breaks George's arm. When George sees Biff push Lorraine to the ground and laugh at her, he becomes infuriated with him and he knocks Biff out with a punch. George and Lorraine head off to the dance just in time for Marty to see they have reunited for the dance after being freed from the car he was locked in.
His parents have not kissed yet, and the photograph is still fading, but the band's guitarist, Marvin Berry, cut his hand open while getting Marty out of the car's locked trunk, meaning the dance is over. Marty volunteers to play the guitar instead. During the first number, "Earth Angel", a member of Biff's gang, cuts in between George and Lorraine. Dave and Linda are long gone from the photograph and Marty, to his horror, begins to fade out from the picture--and in reality: he watches his own hand and arm begin to disappear. George pushes away Dixon and then kisses Lorraine. Marty begins playing the guitar again with renewed strength, and realizes from the photograph that Linda and Dave have reappeared, and the future is safe; he just has to get back to it. The band gets him to play one more song, so he plays "Johnny B. Goode". Marvin Berry, meanwhile, has called his cousin Chuck and tells that he found the "new sound" Chuck was looking for. (Chuck Berry was the one who originally wrote and performed "Johnny B. Goode".) Marty does Chuck Berry's trademark duck walk, and then gets carried away imitating other guitarists in rock and roll history: windmilling his arm and kicking over his amplifier in imitation of Pete Townshend, lying on the stage kicking his legs in imitation of Angus Young, playing behind his head like Jimi Hendrix, and tapping in the style of Eddie Van Halen. In the face of uncomprehending stares from the audience, Marty says, "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it."
Marty leaves the gym after talking with his parents and giving them the inspiration for his name. Marty reaches the clock tower, where Doc has suspended a cable from the top of the tower to two lamp posts on the street below to channel the lighting into the DeLorean. He writes Doc a note warning him how he will die in 1985. But Doc discovers it and tears it up, saying that "the consequences could be disastrous." A tree limb falls onto the cable, disconnecting the wire, so Doc climbs up the clock tower to reconnect the wires, and Marty, with no more time to warn him, goes and starts the car: he must speed down the street so that he hits 88 miles per hour and contacts the cable just as the lightning strikes. He sets the time machine to take him back earlier than he left, so he can save Doc, and then he starts. While he speeds toward the cable, Doc fixes one wire only to disconnect another. He slides down the wire and reconnects it, just as the lightning hits the tower. Marty then speeds through the electrified wire, sending the DeLorean back to the future.
Marty returns to 1985 ten minutes before he left, but the car stalls and he has to run to the mall, where he sees Doc being shot and himself driving the DeLorean back in time. The terrorists crash into a photo booth and either are killed or then leave; they do not reappear. Marty rushes down to Doc's body and turns away in tears, but Doc sits up. He reveals he wore a bulletproof vest under his radiation suit. Doc then pulls out the letter Marty wrote him, taped up from 30 years before.
Doc drives Marty home, then heads 30 years into the future. In the morning, Marty discovers his house is different; there is a new blue BMW in the driveway (in place of the wrecked Nova), Linda has an active social life and Dave has a good office job. Lorraine and George arrive home from playing tennis, both more fit and attractive, and closer and loving to one another, than when he left. A humble Biff, who instead of being George's supervisor, now runs an auto detailing service and defers to him, runs in with the delivery of George's first novel, a work of science fiction called A Match Made In Space. Marty finds that the Toyota pick-up truck that he previously coveted is now his. Just as Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer are about to take a ride in the truck, Doc reappears in the DeLorean, telling Marty that they have to come with him to the future, that something has got to be done about their kids, and hurries him and Jennifer into the car. Marty points out that there is not enough road to accelerate to 88 mph, but Doc says "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads," and flies off in the now fusion-powered and hover-converted car.
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Cast
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Trivia
Michael J. Fox is, in fact, only ten days younger than the actress who plays his mother, Lea Thompson, and is almost three years older than his on-screen dad, Crispin Glover.
Huey Lewis played the high-school band audition judge that rejects Michael J. Fox's band, The Pinheads, as they are performing the song Power of Love, a Huey Lewis & The News song, stating the band was too loud.
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Goofs
If the lightning bolt has 1.21 Gigawatts of electricity, and Doc gets shocked by the lightning, he should die, but he doesn't.
There are many differences between the scene at the mall, and the videotape of the mall.
It only takes about 25 seconds for the clock to move from 10:03, to 10:04.
A purple light on the set is reflected off the DeLorean when it's parked at the end of the town square.
Marty hits 87mph long before 10:04 PM, then when it's maybe 10 seconds to 10:04 PM, he's hitting 85 or so, but he's been accelerating all the time.
Marty doesn't set off when Doc set the alarm clock in 1955, so he should be late for the lighting bolt.
The clock hands move from 10:02 to 10:03 twice.
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Script
The inspiration for the film largely stems from Bob Gale, who discovered his father's high school yearbook and wondered whether he would have been friends with his father as a teenager.
Robert Zemeckis pitched the idea to several companies. Disney turned it down because they thought that a story involving a mother falling in love with her son was too risqué, even if it was a twist of time travel. All other companies said it was not risqué enough, compared to the other teen comedies at the time (see Porky's, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Revenge of the Nerds (1984)).
Sid Sheinberg, the head of Universal Pictures, made many changes to the movie. "Professor Brown" was changed to "Doc Brown" and his chimp Shemp to a dog named Einstein. Marty's mother had previously been Meg, then Eileen, but Sid Sheinberg insisted that she be named Lorraine after his wife Lorraine Gary. Sheinberg also did not like the title, insisting that no one would see a movie with "future" in the title. In a memo to Robert Zemeckis, he said that the title should be changed to "Spaceman From Pluto", tying in with the Marty-as-alien jokes in the film. Steven Spielberg replied in a memo thanking him for the wonderful "joke memo" and told him everyone got a kick out of it. Sid Sheinberg, too proud to admit he was serious, let the title stand.
In the original script, Marty's rock-and-roll caused a riot at the dance that had to be broken up by police. This, combined with Marty accidentally tipping Doc off to the "secret ingredient" that made the time machine work (Coca-Cola) caused history to change. When Marty got back to the 1980s, he found that it was now the 1950s conception of that decade, with air-cars and whatnot, all invented by Doc Brown and running on Coca-Cola. Marty also discovers that rock and roll was never invented (the most popular musical style is now the mambo), and he dedicates himself to starting the delayed cultural revolution. Meanwhile, his dad digs out the newspaper from the day after the dance and sees his son in the picture of the riot. * In the film's script the word "gigawatt" is spelled and pronounced "jigowatt". Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis had been to a science seminar and the speaker had pronounced it "jigowatt".
Doc Brown's "man hanging off a clock face" reprises the famous scene in Harold Lloyd's Safety Last! (1923).
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Marty McFly
As Back to the Future's producers were scouting locations on a residential street in Pasadena, Michael J. Fox was elsewhere on that street, filming what became his first starring feature role, Teen Wolf. The producers became interested in having Fox play Back to the Futures lead role of "Marty McFly". However, Fox initially had to turn down the part because the producers of the Family Ties television show wouldn't allow Fox's character on that show (Alex Keaton) to be absent from any episodes.
Production of the film began on November 261984 with actor Eric Stoltz portraying Marty McFly. But after filming began, the filmmakers came to the conclusion that Stoltz was not right for the part. Stoltz had played it seriously, but they wanted a lighter touch on the character. It is believed that they had, at that point, filmed about one third of the completed movie. They returned to the idea of Michael J. Fox, who this time worked out a shooting schedule that wouldn't interfere with his commitments on Family Ties. Fox would spend his days rehearsing and shooting Family Ties, and then drive immediately over to the movie's set and film Back to The Future all night. The movie's day shots would be filmed on weekends.
Fox reportedly averaged only an hour or two of sleep each night during production. Shooting was completed on April 201985, less than three months before its release.
Footage with Stoltz as Marty McFly still exists, according to Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. One notable scene with Stoltz that was kept in the final film is the scene in the mall parking lot in which Marty is driving the time machine. Stoltz is at the wheel of the DeLorean in that scene. After the change in actors occurred, it was decided to stick with the previously filmed footage for that scene, since the shots were fairly distant, with the driver's face not particularly visible.
Michael J. Fox had to learn to skateboard for the film. Bob Gale explains that, to find a coordinator for the skateboarding scenes, he went to Venice beach and approached two skateboarders. One turned out to be European skate champ Per Welinder, and the skater he was with became the stunt double for Eric Stoltz, but was recast when they recast the role of Marty McFly in order to match Michael J. Fox's height.
More detailed still photos featuring Stoltz in the role can be found at BTTF.com. *
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The Delorean time machine
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The DeLorean used in the trilogy was a 1981 DMC-12 model, modified to accompany a more powerful and reliable Porsche engine. The base for the nuclear-reactor was made from the hubcap from a Dodge Polara. In the 2002 Special-Edition DVD of the BTTF Trilogy, it is incorrectly stated that the DeLorean had a standard 4-cylinder engine. The only engine available on this car was a 130 HP V6. Also, the production ultimately used three real DeLoreans: one for external drive/race scenes, one with a modified interior for entering/exiting the DeLorean, and one stripped down model for interior scenes only.
The time machine went through several variations during production. In the first draft of the screenplay the time machine was a laser device that was housed in a room. At the end of the first draft the device was attached to a refrigerator and taken to an atomic bomb test. Director Robert Zemeckis said in an interview that the idea was scrapped because he did not want children to start climbing into refrigerators and getting trapped inside. In the third draft of the film the time machine was a DeLorean, as Zemeckis reasoned that if you were going to make a time machine, you would want it to move. However in order to send Marty back to the future the vehicle had to drive into a nuclear test. Ultimately this concept was considered too expensive to film, so the power source was changed to lightning.
The DeLorean time machine is a licensed, registered vehicle in the state of California. While the vanity license plate used in the film says "OUTATIME", the DeLorean's actual license plate reads 3CZV657.
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Reception
The series was very popular in the 1980s, even making fans out of celebrities like ZZ Top (who appeared in the third film) and President Ronald Reagan, who referred to the movie in his 1986 State of the Union address when he said, "Never has there been a more exciting time to be alive, a time of rousing wonder and heroic achievement. As they said in the film Back to the Future, 'Where we're going, we don't need roads.'" He also considered accepting a role in the third film as the 1885 mayor of Hill Valley but eventually declined. The hip, upbeat soundtrack, featuring two new songs by Huey Lewis and the News, contributed to the film's popularity. "The Power of Love" became the band's first song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Sequels were not initially planned. Zemeckis later stated that the original ending to the first film would have been rewritten so that Marty's girlfriend would not have been included. In addition, the "To Be Continued..." caption, according to Zemeckis, was not added until the film was released to video at which time plans for a sequel (eventually two sequels) had been announced (the filmmakers chose to omit the caption from the 2002 DVD release). Ultimately, the sequels did not fare quite as well at the box office. While the first installment grossed $218 million (making it the biggest-earning movie of 1985), Parts II (fall of 1989) and III (summer of 1990) made roughly $125 million and $90 million, respectively (still making the movies hits, but not major hits). It is usual for sequels to suffer from diminishing returns, and in this case the box office may have also been affected by Part III being released so soon after Part II.
This movie ranked number 28 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.)
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Video game
A video game loosely based on the film was released for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1989. Two sequels were also produced for the system.
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See also
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