Back to the Future
From Free net encyclopedia
- This article is about the first Back to the Future movie. For information about the trilogy in general, see Back to the Future trilogy.
- For information on the 1990 foreign policy paper entitled "Back to the Future" by John Mearsheimer, see John Mearsheimer
Back to the Future is a 1985 film directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. The movie opened on July 3rd, 1985 with artist Drew Struzan creating the film series' distinctive artwork used on movie posters and in other marketing.
After the success of the film, its two sequels were filmed together, Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III, forming a trilogy. Back to the Future grossed US$210 million dollars at the U.S. box office, making it the highest grossing film of 1985. On December 17th, 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, 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 cartoon.
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Plot synopsis
Template:See also1985 - Story Setting
Marty McFly, a 17-year old senior in high school, and an avid skateboarder and electric guitarist, is invited by his friend Dr. Emmett Brown, a local scientist who is rather eccentric, to witness a demonstration of Doc's latest invention, his life's ambition: a time-machine made from a modified De Lorean sports car, which must reach 88 miles per hour in order to travel through time. At first the car is successfully tested with Doc's dog, Einstein (named after Albert Einstein), as the passenger, who is sent one minute into the future. Following the test, a group of Libyan terrorists (from whom Doc has stolen the plutonium necessary to fuel the time machine, by promising to build them a bomb, but instead providing a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts), come looking for revenge. The Libyans open fire on Doc Brown, unloading a barrage of bullets into his chest. Marty escapes from the Libyans in the De Lorean; while doing so, he inadvertently travels back in time to the year 1955.
1955
It is here that Marty accidentally interferes with the first meeting of his parents George McFly and Lorraine Baines, an act with seismic cosmic significance, as it jeopardizes Marty's own existence. This happens when Marty pushes George out of the path of Lorraine's father's car and gets hit himself rather than George, who was in the road after he fell from a tree where he was using binoculars to watch a girl (Lorraine) changing. It is then Marty, (rather than George) who is taken inside Lorraine's house for medical attention. Marty meets his mother's 1955 family and sits down to dinner with them before leaving abruptly after Lorraine makes a pass at him under the table. He then heads off to find the Doc of 1955, who is skeptical at first about Marty's account. Doc in 1955 is not yet a successful inventor; none of his inventions work at all. Doc in 1985 dialed-up the year 1955 because that was when he fell and had the vision of the flux capacitor ("which is what makes time travel possible"). Marty uses this information to explain to Doc how he bruised his head, thus convincing Doc that Marty really is from the future. Doc is then surprised and overjoyed when Marty shows him the flux capacitor in the time machine, which actually works.
Marty carries a snapshot of himself with his sister and brother, and 1955 Doc Brown discovers they're fading out, first Dave, the oldest, then Linda. Marty finds himself stranded, not having brought any additional plutonium back with him. Plutonium in 1955, Marty soon finds out, is "a little hard to come by". The plutonium is used to create the "1.21 gigawatts" of electricity used to power the flux capacitor. Doc is blown away by this seemingly huge amount, stating that the only thing with enough power for that is a bolt of lightning. Fortunately, Marty was given a fundraising flyer from 1985 that recounts the story of how the town's clock tower was to be struck by lightning the following Saturday.
With Doc's help, they find a way to send Marty back to the future: using a lightning bolt for power (since they do not have access to plutonium) that the flier reports will strike the clock tower at exactly 10:04 PM that Saturday. They will rig the De Lorean to channel the lightning into the flux capacitor, sending Marty back to 1985. However, a greater problem has occurred: his mother is now infatuated with him, having never met his father and Marty has triggered a Grandfather paradox which will avert his own birth. Now Marty must not only manipulate his parents back together, but do it before the lightning hits the clock tower.
While attempting to hook his parents up with each other, Marty has trouble with the school bully, Biff Tannen, who is also after Lorraine. In one instance, Biff and his cronies chase him while he gets a makeshift skateboard, and they crash into a manure truck. Unfortunately, this only makes Lorraine even more attracted to him. While Marty is trying to get George to ask her to their school's "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance, Lorraine comes and asks Marty.
"Enchantment Under the Sea" dance
Marty realizes his best chance to have the two get together is at the school dance where George originally first kissed Lorraine, the night of the lightning storm. Marvin Berry (supposedly the cousin of Chuck Berry) and the Starlighters are performing. Marty's plan is to 'take advantage' of Lorraine in the car, so that George can rescue her, which would put him in a good light. Things go bad when Lorraine reveals that she's more than willing to let Marty take advantage of her, having snuck out some liquor for the event. Things get even worse when Biff shows up 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 they find there. When George does arrive, expecting Marty to be there, he finds out that Biff is touching Lorraine up her dress. Biff laughs at the first punch and puts his arm in a twisting lock which almost breaks George's arm. Lorraine tries to stop Biff by jumping on his back. George is infuriated when Biff pushes Lorraine to the ground, and he then knocks Biff out cold with one punch, and he and Lorraine head off to the dance just in time for Marty to see them when he has been freed from the car.
Once his parents are together, he's still not secure without the kiss on the dance floor, but the band's guitarist was injured getting Marty out of the trunk of the car, which would mean the dance is over. Marty volunteers to play the guitar, and during the first number, "Earth Angel", someone cuts in between George and Lorraine, and George seems to give up. Dave and Linda are long gone from the photograph and now Marty's beginning to fade out from the picture and he can look through his own hand as he feels the effect of his "erasure from existence".
George gets his gumption again, clouts the boy who cut in on him, and in a few seconds, kisses Lorraine. Marty's suddenly full of energy, and is playing the guitar expertly again, looks at the photo and sees Linda and Dave have reappeared. After Earth Angel is over, Marvin urges Marty to play another song with them, with the suggestion to play "something that really cooks!" So, Marty performs "Johnny B. Goode" (by Chuck Berry); Marvin calls his cousin Chuck on the phone, and this supposedly explains where Chuck Berry got the idea for his song. The kids love it, but Marty gets carried away, eventually reverting into typical early 1980s stage play (including kicking over his amplifier in imitation of The Who, laying on the stage kicking his legs in imitation of AC/DC and tapping in the style of Eddie Van Halen), resulting in a blank stare from the audience. Which ends with Marty telling the audience "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it."
Heading back to the future
Marty leaves the gym after talking with his parents and giving them the inspiration for his name. Marty reaches the clocktower, 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 De Lorean. However, a tree limb falls onto the cable, disconnecting the wire. Prior to climbing up the tower, Doc discovers a note from Marty in his coatpocket, warning him about his future death. Upset that Marty tried to warn him, Doc tears up the letter, saying that "the consequence could be disasterous." Doc climbs up the clock tower to recconect the wires, while Marty charges toward the lamp posts with the De Lorean. While Doc connects the wire on top of the tower, he accidentally severs the connection to the lampost. Doc slides down the wire and recconects the cable, just as the lightning hits the tower. Marty then speeds through the electrified wire, sending the De Lorean back to the future.
Marty returns to 1985, ten minutes before he left due to his setting the destination cooridinates back 11 minutes, so he would have enough time to stop Doc's impending murder. But the car's starter dies when he gets back, and he has to run to the mall, where he sees himself driving the De Lorean back in time from the start of the movie, and causing the terrorists to crash into a photo booth. However, Marty is still unable to save Doc from getting shot. Marty rushes down to Doc's body and turns away in agony, 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's a nicer car in the driveway, Linda and Dave appear much more successful, and Lorraine and George are much closer than he remembers. A humble Biff (who instead of being George's supervisor, now runs an auto detailing service) runs in with the delivery of George's first novel. Also, 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 De Lorean, telling Marty 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 hover-converted car, which turns around and comes hurtling towards the viewer to end the movie.
Principal cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Michael J. Fox | Marty McFly |
| Christopher Lloyd | Dr. Emmett L. Brown |
| Lea Thompson | Lorraine Baines McFly |
| Crispin Glover | George McFly |
| Thomas F. Wilson | Biff Tannen |
| James Tolkan | Mr. Strickland |
| Claudia Wells | Jennifer Parker |
| Marc McClure | Dave McFly |
| Wendie Jo Sperber | Linda McFly |
| Billy Zane | Match |
| J.J. Cohen | Skinhead |
| Casey Siemaszko | 3-D |
Popularity
Image:Back to the Future.jpg 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 #1 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 had not 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. 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.
The following elements make the popularity of the original movie particularly durable:
- Tight script, excellent continuity, engaging score, and generally high overall production quality.
- Complex concepts of time travel and associated temporal paradoxes are presented in a manner that is easily understood and considered plausible by most audience members.
- The story deliberately appeals simultaneously to parents and children. It highlights experiences that are generally common to successive generations, while making fun of cross-generational distinctions.
Eric Stoltz vs. Michael J. Fox
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 Future's 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. 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 De Lorean in that scene. After the change in actors occured, 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.
More detailed still photos featuring Stoltz in the role can be found on the internet. [1]
The "other" Marty
The film sparked discussion in magazines and fanzines over the nature of alternate timelines. Starlog magazine, in particular, ran an article soon after the film's release in which the ramifications of time travel are discussed. During the first scene at the mall, just before Marty makes his first time-jump, eagle-eyed viewers can spot a shadow moving amongst some trees in the background. The Starlog article postulated that this might be another Marty arriving just as what occurs at the end of the film; the question the article asks is whether this is the same Marty whose adventures we follow in the film, or an alternate Marty who is arriving to discover that, in this timeline, the Doc is truly dead.
Trivia
- Marty starts his trip back in time in the parking lot of "Twin Pines Mall." Immediately arriving in 1955, he hits one of two pine trees. When he returns to 1985, the sign now reads "Lone Pine Mall."
- Doc breaks the ledge of the clocktower trying to reconnect the wire to the lampost in 1955. When Marty returns to the future, the ledge is still broken.
- Doc Brown pronounces "gigawatt" as /Template:IPA/. Although the prefix "giga-"
can be pronounced as either /Template:IPA/ or /Template:IPA/ [2], the latter is much more common. According to DVD commentary, the use of the variant pronunciation is due to Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis hearing the word pronounced the former way at a science seminar.
- The nuclear reactor that powers the time machine bears at least passing resemblance to the 1958 Ford Nucleon concept car.
- While not a continuity error, one error in this movie is the course of fate at the end of the movie. George stops the boy who cut in on him and Lorraine without any help from Marty, so, apparently, Marty had no effect on that particular event. As such, the picture should have reset and Marty should have recovered as soon as he began to play the song in which they kiss, and would have not have began to fade, because that event was fated to occur. It may well be that Marty had an indirect effect on one of the two boys, or that the sight of a stricken Marty inspired George to cut in. However, this is not obvious from the film.
- Further commentary on the aforementioned fate error: It can be extrapolated that the boy cutting in on George and Lorraine's dance was not a fated event destined to occur at all. The boy cutting in was seen earlier in the film as one of several classmates who bullied George independently of Biff and his flunkies. When George knocks out Biff, the student body begins to perceive both of them in a different light, Biff no longer posing as great a threat as he may have to some. Therefore, George's action could have triggered three possibilities: (1) The boy cutting in could have decided to fill the void of Biff as a prominent school bully. (2) He could have been reacting to George's new empowerment and decided to challenge him. (3) He could have always wanted to harass Lorraine but could never do so knowing that Biff had his eyes on her, and now has his chance. Any of these three scenarios would have been tied solely to George's knocking out Biff and therefore triggered by Marty's involvement.
- The "present" events supposedly occur on October 26, 1985.
- This movie managed to pull Hollywood out of a slump that lasted 17 weeks, making it one of the longest in film history. Nevertheless, total revenues for 1985 were 7% less than in 1984.
- The video camera Marty uses in the film is a JVC camcorder GR-C1U.
- The De Lorean's California license plates say "OUTATIME". California vanity plates are typically limited to seven characters.
- The first movie's soundtrack features two songs from Huey Lewis & the News; Lewis also makes a cameo early in the movie, as a judge choosing bands for the Hill Valley High School Battle of the Bands.
- When Marty poses as a spaceman to convince George to ask Lorraine to the school dance, he references three science fiction classics simultaneously in the line "My name is Darth Vader. I am an extra-terrestrial from the planet Vulcan."
- The movie that won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1955, the year to which Marty McFly goes back in time, was called Marty; however, according to Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, this is only a coincidence and was not a factor in naming the character.
- The entrance to Marty's family's subdivision "Lyon Estates" is surrounded by lion statues, inspired by similar statues to the western entrance of the Delmar Loop in writer Bob Gale's home town University City, Missouri in St. Louis. Furthermore, the French sister city of St. Louis is Lyon. Gale was also able to name the local Hill Valley sports teams after his high school and junior high school teams.
- The guitar that Marty plays at the dance is a Gibson ES-345 with a Bigsby vibrato unit. This guitar did not exist in 1955, and likely would not have been available with the Bigsby unit until about 1963. Additionally, his guitar sound is very distorted — unusual for a mid-fifties amp before any guitar distortion methods had been used.
- When Marty switches on Doc's amplifier in the first scene, the keyhole is marked 'CRM-114', a reference to the decryption device aboard the B-52 in Dr Strangelove.
- The film was originally intended to be made by Disney, but Disney turned it down because they thought that the idea of a mother falling in love with her son (albeit in a twist of time) was too risqué.
- In the opening sequence, when the camera pans through the many clocks in Doc Brown's house, one clock depicts silent film actor Harold Lloyd hanging from the minute hand of the clock in the clock tower, just as Doc Brown does at the end of the film.
- When Marty watches television on November 5, 1955 with the Baines family, The Honeymooners episode "The Man from Space" is airing. However, this episode didn't actually air for the first time until December 31, 1955.
External links
- Official news site offering officially licensed memorabilia.
- Official Universal Pictures site advertising the trilogy.
- {{{2|{{{title|Back to the Future}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- MovieTourGuide.com - Maps and Directions to Back to the Future Filming Locations
- Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies - Back To The Future
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