Back to the Future Part II

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Template:Infobox Film Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 film and is the second part of the Back to the Future trilogy. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The second and third parts of the trilogy were filmed at the same time and released six months apart.

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Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story continues with Marty McFly and Doc Brown as they now leave 1985 to go into the year 2015 to stop Marty's kids from destroying their lives. Since Jennifer has seen the DeLorean, they take her along, but Doc tranquilizes her because she asks too many questions about the future.

Marty's son, Marty Junior, is approached by Griff Tannen, Biff's grandson, and his gang and asked to join in a robbery. According to Doc, this event eventually leads to the disruption of the entire McFly family. Marty impersonates his son and tells Griff he won't join in. The gang gets angry and chases after Marty. Using a hoverboard, he manages to escape them, and as a result, they crash into the courthouse and end up in jail, thus preventing the robbery.

While Marty is in 2015, he finds an antique store with all sorts of memorabilia from the 1980s, among which is the "Gray's Sports Almanac 1950-2000," containing all sport scores for that time span. Wanting to get rich when he goes back to 1985, Marty buys the almanac, but Doc catches him and puts it in the trash, berating Marty that he didn't build a time machine for such trivialities as making money. Old Biff overhears the conversation and takes the almanac.

Jennifer, still tranquilized, is found by the police, mistaken for her future self after thumbprint identification, and taken home. Hiding in a closet, she sees her family life is far from ideal. Then, old Marty gets a phone call from his colleague Needles, who goads him into cooperating in a profitable but illegal scheme. But their boss at CusCo, Mr. Fujitsu, was listening in, and Marty promptly gets fired. Doc finally finds Jennifer and gets her out of the house, after she briefly meets her future self and both faint from the shock of seeing each other.

While Doc is resucing Jennifer, Old Biff steals the De Lorean and travels to some point in time. Biff then returns just before Marty and Doc return with Jennifer.

Returning to 1985, Marty and Doc see that their time is not what it used to be. Hill Valley is now dilapidated, crime-infested and corrupt. Biff has become a rich and powerful man, and is now married to Marty's mother, Lorraine. Doc realizes that the old Biff must have used the DeLorean to give the sports almanac to his past self, thus changing his future. Marty confronts Biff to find out when and where he got the almanac, which turns out to be in 1955, around the time of the events in the original movie.

In a series of events that closely matches the first movie, the newer version of Marty manages to keep Biff's cronies from beating up his other version, and several times comes close to obtaining the almanac. Eventually, Biff drives off in his newly cleaned car. Hanging onto the side of the car with the aid of the hoverboard, Marty finally grabs the almanac and is rescued by Doc from being overrun by furious Biff's car and Biff crashes into a truck full of manure again.

As the rainstorm from the end of the first film begins, Marty burns the almanac to cinders, thus repairing his future. As revealed earlier in the film, Doc accidentally turns on the time circuits while taking off, which were malfuctioning and flashing the "Destination Time" as January 1, 1885. As Doc attempts to land the DeLorean, the car is suddenly struck by lightning, activating the flux capacitor and sending him back to the year 1885.

A few seconds later a Western Union delivery man appears with a letter. The letter was given to Western Union with the explict intstuctions to deliver it to Marty at "this exact location, this exact minute, November 12, 1955." Marty tears open the letter to find out it is in fact from Doc, trapped in 1885. Marty rushes off to find the contemporary 1955 Doc, who has just succeeded in sending other Marty back to the future in the first movie. Upon seeing that Marty has returned from the future, Doc faints and the screen fades out with the words, "To be concluded..."

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Deleted Footage

In scenes deleted from the film, an older Biff Tannen dies once arriving in the future, having been erased from existence in that time period (it was thought that in the alternative future Marty's mother, Lorraine, shot Biff before 2015; therefore he would not exist in that time period).

The scene is notable in that Biff started to fade out as Marty and Doc Brown flew off in the DeLorean and only disappeared completely after the sound of the "time burst" is heard. Presumably, had Marty and/or Doc discovered Biff's cane head in the time machine, which Biff broke off when he exited the car, they could have aborted the trip to 1985 and restored the timeline. Had this occurred, Biff would have faded back into existence, much as Marty did in Part 1, after his father kissed his mother. Template:Endspoiler

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Café 80's

The Café 80's is a fictional restaurant located in downtown Hill Valley in the 2015 scene. The restaurant is of 1980s nostalgia motif and features Max Headroom-style video waiters with depictions of Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and Ayatollah Khomeini. To the left of the restaurant, there is a Wild Gunman arcade game; to the right of the restaurant, there is a Pac-Man arcade game. The building is painted with Miami Vice-inspired pastel colors. The counter with the Pepsi logo is inspired by Japanese design. The Cafe was situated in the same building that housed "Lou's Cafe" in 1955 and "Lou's Aerobic Fitness Center" in 1985. According to an early sript for the movie, the Cafe 80's is owned by Biff's future son, Biff Tannen, Jr. Image:Pepsi Perfect in Back To The Future II.jpg

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Slogan

  • Reagan: Welcome to the Café 80's, where it's always morning in America, even in the aftern-n-noon!
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Food

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Drinks

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Main cast

The characters of George McFly and Jennifer Parker were played by actors different from those of the original film, requiring that some previous scenes be reshot.

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Release details

Image:Back to the future part II Poster B.jpg Back to the Future Part II earned $47 million in its first weekend of U.S. release (November 22nd, 1989) and $118 million total US gross – $332 million worldwide. However, this was still short of the first film's gross. Part III came out only six months later. On December 17th, 2002 Universal Studios released all three movies in a three disc DVD and three tape VHS boxed set which did extremely well when it was released.

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Awards

The movie won a Saturn Award for Ken Ralston (the special effects supervisor), a BAFTA Film Award for Ken Ralston, an AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award, a Golden Screen, and a Young Artist Award. A new computer-controlled camera system, called VistaGlide, was invented specifically for this movie — it enables one actor to play two or even three characters in the same scene while the boundary between the sections of the split screen and the camera itself can be moving.

A closer look at VistaGlide

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Trivia

  • Filmed simultaneously with Part III.
  • During production, the movie's working title was Paradox.
  • In the five years since the original film was made, Michael J. Fox had forgotten how to ride a skateboard.
  • Michael J. Fox played 3 characters in this film. One is the Marty McFly (of 1955/1985/2015), the other is his future son Martin/Marty McFly Jr. and the other is his future daughter Marlene McFly.
  • Thomas F. Wilson also played more than one character. One is Biff Tannen (of 1955/1985/2015) and the other is Biff's future grandson Griff Tannen.
  • In the scene where Marty (in the alternate 1985) visits the Biff Tannen museum, we see an image of Biff's great grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen who would appear later in Back to the Future Part III. However, this image of Buford differs slightly from the Buford that is seen in the third movie, as the producers were still tinkering with the makeup and clothing for the character.
  • Future Marty and his boss, Mr. Fujitsu, can both be seen wearing two neckties; presumably a new fashion trend in 2015.
  • In the alternate 1985, the newspaper that had the story about Doc being declared insane had an article titled "Nixon to seek fifth term." When the original 1985 was restored, Doc was featured as being commended (instead of committed) and the Nixon article was changed to "Reagan to seek second term." Presumably Biff's actions caused the 22nd Amendment (limiting United States Presidents to two terms in office) to be repealed.
  • Elijah Wood (of Lord of the Rings fame) made his acting debut in this film, as one of the boys playing the arcade machine in Cafe 80s in 2015.
  • Jason Scott Lee (of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story fame) is casted as one of Griff Tannen's henchman in 2015.
  • In the window of an antique shop in 2015, a Roger Rabbit plush doll is displayed. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was another film directed by Robert Zemeckis and also starring Christopher Lloyd.
  • Although the film was released in 1989, they still reffer to 1985 as the "present" to preseve continuality.
  • When airing the movie on TBS, they censored Mr. Strickland's line in the 1985A scene. They changed the line from "son-of-a-bitch" to "stinking bum" in his line where he said something about Marty McFly stealing his newspapers.
  • Many of the cars that appear in the future scene are modified for the film or concept cars. Examples include Ford Probe, Saab EV-1, Citroën DS 21, Pontiac Banshee Concept and Pontiac Fiero.[1]
  • The brand name products in the movie include:
  • In 2015, after predicting to the second when the rain will end, Doc Brown remarks, "Too bad the post office isn't as efficient as the weather service." On November 12th, 1955, prior to the thunderstorm which occurs that night, there are repeated references to the weathermen saying there will not be any rain; whereas Western Union delivers a letter to Marty "at this exact location, at this exact minute..." However, Doc's references to the "weather service" may have been implying that, in 2015, weather control was possible, and that the rain was scheduled to end at that point.
  • The characters pronounce the year 2015 both as "twenty-fifteen" and "two-thousand-fifteen".
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Replacement of Crispin Glover

As Bob Gale states in the DVD commentary, actor Crispin Glover was asked to reprise the role of George McFly in this film. Glover indicated interest, but demanded an exorbitant salary the producers felt was unreasonable, and totally out of line for someone in Glover's position. Glover refused to budge, so he was dropped from the picture. During all new scenes with George McFly in both this film and Back to the Future III he is played by Jeffrey Weissman and seen wearing sunglasses, from the back, upside-down or in the background out of focus. This was to prevent audiences from realizing that George McFly was a different actor. However, producers recycled various scenes from the original Back to the Future that included Crispin Glover's portrayal of George McFly. Glover sued Universal for compensation, on grounds that his contract for the first film did not allow subsequent uses of his portrayal of George McFly. Universal settled and new Hollywood rules were written regarding the derivative use of actors' works.

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Rumors and urban legends

During an interview, director Robert Zemeckis jokingly said that the hoverboards (flying skateboards) used in the movie were real. A surprising number of people thought he was telling the truth and demanded them at toy stores. After the release of Part III, Zemeckis had the opportunity to explain in another interview that all of the flying scenes were accomplished using special effects.

After the Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series, a rumor began to circulate that the movie predicted the Series' result; however, this was not the case. No mention is made of "Florida" winning the World Series at all, and the only mention of a Florida-based team is in a news broadcast which announces that the Chicago Cubs beat a Miami team with an alligator logo (not a marlin) in the 2015 World Series (a joke at the Cubs' expense; they haven't won the World Series since 1908). Many fans cited as evidence the fact that at the time the movie was made, Miami did not even have a Major League Baseball team. This was true, but Miami was at the time the largest metropolitan area in the US without a major league team, and it was considered a foregone conclusion that the city would get a team in the next major league expansion (which occurred in 1993). The rumor resurfaced in slightly different form in 2003, when the Cubs and the Boston Red Sox (both "cursed" teams) were in the playoffs. The rumor in Boston was that the movie said the Sox would win, and the rumor in Chicago was that the movie predicted the Cubs would win. The latter rumor was correct, but the former team went on to win the Series the following year, in 2004. In the 2003 National League Championship Series, the Cubs actually played the Marlins, and appeared to be on the verge of breaking their curse against the Miami-based team (although in this case, breaking the curse would have involved just reaching the World Series rather than winning it as the movie predicted), though in the end it was not to be, as the Cubs ended up losing the series.

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Video games

LJN released an NES game called Back to the Future II & III, a sequel to their game based on the first movie. The second video game based on the movie, Super Back to the Future II, would be released on the Super NES in Japan, among other systems.

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See also

Template:Wikiquote

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External links

Template:Bttfeo:Back to the Future II it:Ritorno al futuro II ja:バック・トゥ・ザ・フューチャー PART2 pt:Back to the Future II ru:Назад в будущее 2 (фильм) sv:Tillbaka till framtiden del II

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