Back to the Future
- This article is about the first film of a trilogy. See Back to the Future trilogy for the entire series. See John Mearsheimer for information on the 1990 foreign policy paper.
| Back to the Future | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Written by | Robert Zemeckis Bob Gale |
| Produced by | Bob Gale Neil Canton Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall Johnny Colla (uncredited) |
| Starring | Michael J. Fox Christopher Lloyd Lea Thompson Crispin Glover Thomas F. Wilson |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates | July 3, 1985 |
Running time | 116 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$19,000,000 |
Back to the Future is an American 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. This story was continued with a sequel, Back to the Future Part II, which was released in 1989; and another sequel in 1990, Back to the Future Part III, 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 cartoon.
Plot
Marty McFly, a 17-year old high-school senior, is an avid skateboarder and electric guitarist. Marty is invited by his friend Dr. Emmett Brown, an eccentric local scientist, 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. At first, Doc tests the car by sending his dog, Einstein (named after Albert Einstein), one minute into the future. Following the successful test, a group of Libyan terrorists (from whom Doc had acquired stolen plutonium necessary to fuel the time machine, and in return gave them what they thought was a plutonium powered bomb that was actually a bomb casing filled with old 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 DeLorean; while doing so, he inadvertently travels back in time to November 5, 1955.
In the past, 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 occurs when Lorraine falls in love with Marty instead of George. Marty meets his mother's 1955 family and then heads off to find Doc, who is skeptical at first about Marty's account. Doc in 1955 is not yet a successful inventor. Doc in 1985 entered the year 1955 into the time machine 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 convince Doc that he really is from the future.
Marty carries a snapshot of himself with his sister and brother, and 1955 Doc Brown discovers they are fading out, first Dave, the oldest, then Linda. Marty finds himself stranded, not having brought any additional plutonium back with him. The plutonium is used to create the "1.21 gigawatts" of electricity used to power the flux capacitor. Doc explains that only a bolt of lightning has the sufficient power required. Marty was given a fundraising flyer from 1985 that recounts the story of how the town's clock tower was struck by lightning on November 12, 1955 - just one week away.
With Doc's help, they find a way to send Marty back to the future: using a lightning bolt for power that the flier reports will strike the clock tower at exactly 10:04 p.m. Saturday. They will rig the DeLorean 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 Marty gets a makeshift skateboard, and they crash into a manure truck. Unfortunately, this only makes Lorraine even more attracted to Marty. While Marty is trying to get George to ask her to their school's "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance, Lorraine comes and asks Marty to the 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. 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. Lorraine reveals that she is more than willing to let Marty take advantage of her, having snuck out some liquor for the event. However, Lorraine and Marty kiss, which triggers Lorraine to say that kissing Marty was like "kissing my brother", which stops the possibility of Lorraine accidentally triggering an incestual relationship. 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.
Marty is still not certain of his future without witnessing his parents' first kiss, however the band's guitarist, Marvin Berry, cut his hand open while getting Marty out of the car's locked trunk, which would mean the dance is over. Marty volunteers to play the guitar, and during the first number, Earth Angel, Dixon, one of George's enemies, 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 erase 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. While playing another song, Johnny B. Goode, Marty gets carried away, eventually reverting into typical early 1980s stage play (including kicking over his amplifier in imitation of The Who, 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), as well as Chuck Berry's trademark duck-walk, 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."
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 DeLorean. 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 coat pocket, warning him about his future death. Upset that Marty tried to warn him, Doc tears up the letter, saying that "the consequence could be disastrous." Doc climbs up the clock tower to reconnect the wires, while Marty charges toward the lamp posts with the DeLorean. While Doc connects the wire on top of the tower, he accidentally severs the connection to the lampost. Doc slides down the wire and reconnects the cable, 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 due to his setting the destination cooridinates back 11 minutes, so he would have enough time to stop Doc's impending death. But the car's starter stops working, and he has to run to the mall, where he sees himself driving the DeLorean 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 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 nicer car in the driveway, Linda and Dave appear much more successful (in the beginning of the movie the family is depicted much more like working class people), and Lorraine and George are much closer and loving to one another (and a little more glamorous looking) 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, a work of science fiction. 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 DeLorean, 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. The ending was reshot for the sequel Back To The Future Part II because Elisabeth Shue played Jennifer in the two sequels.
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 |
Production
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 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.
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. Stoltz had played it serious, 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.
More detailed still photos featuring Stoltz in the role can be found at BTTF.com. [1]
The Delorean time machine
The DeLorean used in the trilogy was a 1981 DMC-12 model, with a 6-cylinder PRV (Peugeot/Renault/Volvo) engine. The base for the nuclear-reactor was made from the hubcap from a Dodge Polaris. In the 2002 Special-Edition DVD of the BTTF Trilogy, it is incorrectly stated that the DeLorean had a standard 4-cylinder engine. 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.
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.'" [2] 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.
Trivia
Template:Sample box start variation 2 Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end
- 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.
- Michael J. Fox is only ten days younger than Lea Thompson, the actress who plays his mother, and is almost three years older than his on-screen dad, Crispin Glover.
- According to the Universal Studios back lot tour, the clock tower is the same one that is seen in the movie To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). The area is referred to as Mockingbird Square (during the tour it is referred to as Courthouse Square), and it is a stone's throw away from other famous filming locations, such as the exterior of the Psycho (1960) house and the "Red Sea" that was used in History of the World: Part I (1981) (it is incorrectly sometimes noted as where The Ten Commandments (1956) was filmed).
- 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" depicts the famous scene in Harold Lloyd's The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947), which itself is a remake of Harold Lloyd's film, Safety Last! (1923) and was also a scene from Charlie Chaplin's black and white comedy films.
- The mall where Marty McFly meets Doc Brown for their time travel experiment is called "Twin Pines Mall". Doc Brown comments that old farmer Peabody used to own all of the land, and he grew pines there. When Marty goes back in time, he runs over and knocks down a pine tree on the Peabody's property. When he comes back to the mall at the end of the film, the sign at the mall identifies the mall as "Lone Pine Mall".
- 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
- The opening sequence with the ticking clocks is a direct lift from The Time Machine (1960). In the scene, all of Doc's clocks read 7:55 (25 minutes slow) except for one clock. It is on the floor next to the case of plutonium and it reads 8:20.
- Alan Silvestri's orchestra for the score of the film was the largest ever assembled at that time.
- When Marty pretends to be Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan, he plays a tape labeled "Van Halen" (with "Edward" written above it in smaller letters) to scare George out of his sleep. It is an untitled Edward Van Halen original written for a movie called The Wild Life (1984) which featured Lea Thompson.
- Playing at the Hill Valley cinema is Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan; the latter of course was the President of the United States in 1985, the year the film was made.
- Marty's Guitars used throughout the movie:
- Erlewine Chiquita ("big amp" sequence)
- Ibanez black Strat copy (scenes of Marty's band performing in the 80s)
- Gibson ES-345 (Marty performing at the dance)
- The Gibson ES-345 guitar that Marty plays in the dance sequence is not historically accurate, as that particular guitar was not introduced until 1959, four years after the period that the movie takes place in. There are also certain noticeable discrepancies between the guitar played in the dance scene of the first film and its sequel. These differences can be seen in the second film as they spliced footage from the first film with newly shot scenes for Back to the Future Part II.
- Christopher Lloyd based his performance as Doc Brown on a combination of physicist Albert Einstein and conductor Leopold Stokowski.
- In recent television airings of the film on TNT, the scene where Marty writes the letter to Doc Brown is edited to remove the mention of the word "terrorists," and the word is not visible when the letter is shown.
See also
External links
These links were last verified 5 September 2006.
- Official Universal Pictures site
- BTTF.com
- Back to the Future at IMDb
- Movie Locations Guide.com - Maps and Directions to Back to the Future Filming Locations
- Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies - Back To The Future
| Films |
|
|---|---|
| Characters | |
| Music | |
| Video games |
|
| Other media | |
| Universe | |
| Legacy | |
