Back to the Future

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Back to the Future
Back to the Future movie poster
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Produced by	Bob Gale Steven Spielberg Neil Canton Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall Johnny Colla (uncredited)
Written by	Robert Zemeckis Bob Gale
Starring	Michael J. Fox Christopher Lloyd Lea Thompson Crispin Glover Thomas F. Wilson
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Dean Cundey
Editing by	Harry Keramidas Arthur Schmidt
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	July 3, 1985 (USA)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$19,000,000
Followed by	Back to the Future Part II
IMDb profile

Back to the Future is a 1985 science fiction/comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Bob Gale and Zemeckis. It included Steven Spielberg as executive producer, and starred Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown. The film follows a young man named Marty McFly who accidentally travels into the past and jeopardizes his own future existence. The film was followed by two sequels, Back to the Future Part II (1989), and Back to the Future Part III (1990), forming a trilogy.

The movie opened on July 3, 1985 and grossed US$210 million at the US box office, making it the highest grossing film of 1985.^[1] On December 17, 2002, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released Back to the Future: The Complete Trilogy on DVD and VHS.

Following the completion of the film series, three more spin-off projects surfaced. CBS TV aired an animated series, Back to the Future: The Animated Series and Harvey Comics released a handful of similarly styled comic books, although their stories were original and not merely duplicates of the films. In 1991, Universal Studios Theme Parks opened a simulator ride based on the series called Back to the Future: The Ride.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Script 3.2 Casting and filming 3.3 The DeLorean time machine 3.4 Music 4 Reception 4.1 Critics 4.2 Cultural impact 5 Series continuity 6 Home video release history 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

On October 25, 1985, Marty McFly, a 17-year old high school senior, visits the home of his friend, an eccentric local scientist named Dr. Emmett L. Brown, but finds that "the Doc" is not there. Marty soon receives a call from Doc himself asking him to meet him at 1:15 AM in the parking lot at Twin Pines Mall. As Marty agrees, the clocks in Doc's home (a converted garage) chime the hour. When Doc Brown remarks that the clocks are 25 minutes behind, proof that an experiment was successful, Marty realizes that he is late for school.

After school, Marty's band is rejected in an audition, and Marty worries to his girlfriend Jennifer Parker that his music will never be successful. A woman hands them a flyer for a campaign to save (prevent the replacement of) the clock tower at the local courthouse, which has not been functional since it was struck by lightning at exactly 10:04 PM on Saturday, November 12, 1955.

When Marty gets home he finds that the family car has been totaled by his father George McFly's supervisor, Biff Tannen. Biff bullies George while making crude comments about Marty's mother Lorraine. The family then has dinner. Marty's older brother Dave works at a fast food restaurant, his sister Linda has no love life, and his mother disapproves of girls chasing boys. She remarks that fate brought her together with George from her father hitting George with a car, and mentions their first kiss at the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" while nobody really wants to hear the story again.

Marty meets Doctor Brown at the Twin Pines Mall to film 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. Overjoyed by this success, Doc demonstrates to Marty how the time machine works by entering several significant dates into the keypad. The last of these is November 5, 1955, the day that Doc first conceived of the flux capacitor, the device that makes time travel possible.

Just as Doc is about to travel back in time, a group of Libyan terrorists arrive, from whom Doc stole the plutonium necessary to power the time machine. The Libyans shoot Doc dead and attempt to shoot Marty, but he escapes in the DeLorean, accidentally sending himself back in time to November 5, 1955. The plutonium necessary to generate the required 1.21 gigawatts of electricity for the return jump in time is left in 1985.

Marty, at first, doesn't seem to know he is in 1955, and is bewildered walking around in a completely changed Hill Valley. While in a diner, Marty finds Doc's address in a phone book, meets his father George (who is being bullied by a younger Biff Tannen). Marty follows George and gets in the accident that George was originally involved in. As Marty recuperates in the Baines household, his mother-to-be Lorraine flirts with him, calling him Calvin Klein because she sees the name on his underwear. When Marty asks Lorraine's father for directions near John F. Kennedy drive, Lorraine's father responds, "Who the hell is John F. Kennedy?". After Marty leaves, he tells Lorraine, "If you ever have a kid who acts that way, I'll disown you."

Marty goes to Doc's house and persuades him that he really is from the future and takes him to see the DeLorean which Marty hid when he first arrived in 1955. Doc realizes that in lieu of plutonium, the only possible source of 1.21 gigawatts of electricity to power the flux capacitor would be a bolt of lightning. Marty shows Doc the clock tower flyer, and Doc strikes a plan to use the impending lightning strike to send Marty home.

Meanwhile Marty has another problem. Part of Dave's head is missing from a photo Marty carries of himself with his siblings, indicating he is being "erased from existence" by the time paradox Marty has created. Marty must ensure his own birth by getting his parents together to share their first kiss at the dance, the same night as the thunderstorm. But George is too nervous to ask Lorraine. So Marty impersonates an alien (calling himself "Darth Vader") and blaring Van Halen through headphones to threaten George into asking Lorraine to the dance. But George has another run-in with Biff, but Marty steps in. His tactics with Biff (during which Marty "invents" the skateboard) and causes Biff to crash his car into a manure hauling truck increase Lorraine's infatuation with Marty and she asks him to ask her to the dance.

Marty arranges for George to 'save' Lorraine from him in the school parking lot the night of the dance. But Biff interferes and George must save Lorraine from a real threat. George manages a knockout punch and escorts Lorraine back to the dance.

Marty's photo is still fading, however. Biff's gang had locked Marty in the trunk of bandleader Marvin Berry's car, and Berry injures his hand freeing Marty. To keep the dance going so his parents can kiss, Marty plays the guitar instead, but finds himself fading away. But then George does kiss Lorraine, restoring Marty and the photograph.

At the band's request, Marty plays one more song, "Johnny B. Goode". Marvin Berry calls his cousin, Chuck Berry, and tells that he found the "new sound" Chuck was looking for. Marty does Chuck Berry's trademark duck walk, and then gets carried away imitating other guitar heroes: 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 has a last chat with his parents and leaves to rejoin Doc Brown, who has suspended a cable from the clock tower to channel the lightning into the DeLorean. Before the dance, Marty wrote Doc a note warning him about being shot in 1985, and slipped it into Doc's coat pocket. But Doc discovers it and tears it up unread, unwilling to endanger his future by knowing too much.

Disconnected electrical cords almost prevent Doc from channeling the power of the lightning, and engine trouble almost prevents Marty from reaching the clock tower in time. At the last possible moment, they succeed in their respective tasks, and Marty returns to 1985 -- but with an extra ten minutes in which to save Doc's life.

The DeLorean's engine fails again, however, so Marty runs on foot to the Lone Pine Mall (Marty knocked down one of the eponymous trees in 1955), arriving just in time to see Doc shot and himself accidentally departing for 1955. The terrorists crash into a photo booth. Marty begins to mourn his friend, but then Doc sits up. Doc had taped together Marty's letter and, forewarned, wore a bulletproof vest. Doc drives Marty home, and leaves for the year 2015. In the morning, Marty discovers his house is different; there is a new BMW in the driveway (in place of the wrecked Nova), Linda has an active social life and Dave has an office job for which he wears a suit. Lorraine and George arrive home from playing tennis, both more fit and attractive, and much more affectionate to one another than when Marty left. Biff, now in the automotive detailing business, treats him with respect, even deference and brings in George's first novel, a science fiction story called A Match Made In Space. Marty finds that a Toyota pick-up truck that he previously coveted is now his. Jennifer arrives, and as she and Marty are about to kiss, Doc reappears in the DeLorean, telling Marty to come with him to the future because "something has got to be done about your kids!" Doc feeds garbage and beer into a device atop the car's engine, labeled "Mr. Fusion", and hurries Marty 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.

[edit] 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
Harry Waters Jr.	Marvin Berry

Michael J. Fox is 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.

[edit] Production

[edit] 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 other teen comedies at the time (such as Porky's, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Revenge of the Nerds).

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. According to one of the DVD commentaries, 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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4]

In the film's script the word "gigawatt" is spelled and pronounced "jigowatt" (/dʒɪgæwɑt/). Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis had been to a science seminar and the speaker had pronounced it /dʒɪgæwɑt/. This is an uncommon although accepted pronunciation of the word "gigawatt", not an error.

Doc Brown's "man hanging off a clock face" reprises the famous scene in Harold Lloyd's Safety Last! (1923). The fact that Christopher Lloyd and Harold Lloyd have the same last name, however, is merely a coincidence.

[edit] Casting and filming

As Back to the Future's producers scouted locations on a residential street in Pasadena, Michael J. Fox was elsewhere on that street, filming his first starring feature role, Teen Wolf. The producers became interested in having Fox play Marty McFly. However, Fox initially had to turn down the part because another actor in Family Ties, Meredith Baxter-Birney, was pregnant at the time, and thus the show's producers were looking to Fox's character (Alex Keaton) to "carry the show".^[5]

Production of the film began on November 26, 1984 with actor Eric Stoltz portraying Marty McFly, and reportedly shot for more than four weeks, until the return of executive producer Steven Spielberg, who was out of the country at the time. After seeing a rough cut, Spielberg and the writer/directors agreed that Stoltz was a fine actor, but unfortunately not right for the part. Stoltz had played it seriously, and they wanted a lighter touch on the character. They returned to the idea of Michael J. Fox, who this time worked out a shooting schedule that would not interfere with his television commitment. Fox spent his days rehearsing and shooting Family Ties, and then drove to the movie's set to film Back to The Future all night. The movie's day shots were filmed on weekends. Fox reportedly averaged only an hour or two of sleep each night during production, which was completed on April 20, 1985, less than three months before the film's release.^[3]

Much of the original footage was retained for the film, for shots in which Eric Stoltz were not visible. Bob Gale later explained in a commentary track on a DVD release that some dialogue scenes with other actors were from the original shoot. A few long shots with Stoltz as Marty McFly still exist in the film, according to Zemeckis and Gale, and there was at least one "teaser" movie poster released with Stoltz' name and face visible. One notable scene that was kept in the final film is the one in which Stoltz as Marty drives the DeLorean in the mall parking lot. Since the shots were fairly distant, with the driver's face not particularly visible, the footage was retained.

Michael J. Fox had to learn to skateboard for the film. To find a coordinator for the skateboarding scenes, Bob Gale went to Venice Beach and approached two skateboarders. One turned out to be European skate champ Per Welinder. The skater he was with became the stunt double for Eric Stoltz, but was later replaced in order to match Michael J. Fox's height.

Christopher Lloyd reportedly based his performance as Doc Brown on a combination of physicist Albert Einstein and conductor Leopold Stokowski.^[3]

Several key scenes were filmed on the Universal Studios backlot in what is now known as Courthouse Square. The setting of hundreds of other productions, including the current television show Ghost Whisperer, it has suffered major fire damage on two occasions since Back to the Future was made.^[6]

[edit] The DeLorean time machine

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 site. 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 De Lorean DMC-12, 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 site. Ultimately this concept was considered too expensive to film, so the power source was changed to lightning.

The DeLorean used in the trilogy was a 1982 DMC-12 model, modified to accommodate 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 four real DeLoreans: one for external drive/race scenes, one with a modified interior for entering/exiting the DeLorean, one stripped down model for interior scenes only, and one to be destroyed in Part 3.

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", and when Doc comes back from the future, it's a futuristic barcode license plate, the DeLorean's actual license plate reads 3CZV657.

[edit] Music

The film's musical score was by Alan Silvestri, who later wrote music for Forrest Gump and numerous other films, many of them directed by Robert Zemeckis. The memorable themes in his Back to the Future Suite have since been heard in the film's sequels (also scored by Silvestri), in Back to the Future: The Ride, and as ambient music at the Universal Studios theme parks. The hip, upbeat Back to the Future Soundtrack, featuring two new songs by Huey Lewis and the News, also 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. Huey Lewis portrayed the high-school band audition judge that rejects Michael J. Fox's band, The Pinheads, as they perform "The Power of Love".

The film's soundtrack, which was available on CD, also included songs by Eric Clapton, Lindsey Buckingham, Etta James and others. Two 1950s hits Marty encounters when he arrives in 1955, "Mr. Sandman" by The Four Aces and the Fess Parker recording of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", were not included on the CD release.

The material ostensibly by Marty McFly, Marvin Berry and the Starlighters was recorded by Harry Waters, Jr. as Marvin Berry and Mark Campbell as Marty McFly, and the guitar solo by Tim May. (Campbell and May received a Special Thanks acknowledgment in the film's end credits, with the recording credit going to the fictional characters.) Berry's group also plays the song "Night Train", first recorded by Jimmy Forrest in 1951.^[7]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critics

Reviews were generally positive. Roger Ebert complimented the direction, writing that Zemeckis "shows not only a fine comic touch but also some of the lighthearted humanism of a Frank Capra. Even the sequences where Marty's mom has the "hots for him" are regarded as "up-beat... without ever becoming uncomfortable."^[8] The BBC applauded the intricacies of the "outstandingly executed" script, remarking that "nobody says anything that doesn't become important to the plot later."^[9]

The movie was called a "classic epic comical masterpiece" in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (1985-12-19) after it's premiere.

This movie ranked number 28 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.^[10] As of December 2006, Back to the Future had received a very respectable 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, with 98% rating from the users.^[11] In 2006, Back to the Future was voted the 20th greatest film ever made by readers of Empire.^[12]

[edit] Cultural impact

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.'"^[13] Reagan loved this movie a lot. In fact, when he first saw the joke about him being president, ie. "Ronald Reagan? The actor? Ha! Then who's Vice President, Jerry Lewis?", he made the projectionist of the theatre stop the reel, roll it back, and run it again. He also considered accepting a role in the third film as the 1885 mayor of Hill Valley but eventually declined.

In early 2007, two commercials for the DirecTV satellite TV service began airing based on the film. Using both new and old footage, the spots recreate Marty's climactic departure from 1955, with Doc (Lloyd) addressing the viewer, lamenting the fact that he has failed to advise Marty to subscribe to the service upon his return to the future. The longer of the two, touting improved technology, ends with Doc running down the street yelling "Impossible? That's what they said about my flux capacitor!" while the shorter has him declaring the service "TV from outer space!" It can be observed that in these commercials, the bruise on Doc's head is on the wrong side of his forehead in the recently filmed shots. This can be seen effectively during the moment when he is connecting to the electrified cables, and then during his close-up where he says "three times more HD capacity than cable".

In the 2007 Doctor Who episode The Shakespeare Code, the Doctor uses Marty's predicament in Back to the Future to illustrate to Martha Jones that it is possible for the world to come to an end in the year 1599, even though Martha was born centuries later.

[edit] Series continuity

Sequels were not initially planned. Zemeckis later stated that had sequels been envisioned, the first film would not have ended with Jennifer traveling in the DeLorean with Marty and Doc, which created logistical problems in plotting the other films. In addition, the "To Be Continued..." caption was not added until the film was released to video^[9] by 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 as well at the box office. While the first installment grossed $210 million (making it the biggest-earning movie of 1985), Back to the Future Part II (Fall 1989) and Back to the Future Part III (Spring 1990) made roughly $118 million and $88 million, respectively.

Part of the article series on Back to the Future trilogy
Movies
Back to the Future Back to the Future Part II Back to the Future Part III
The McFly Family
Marty McFly · George McFly Lorraine Baines · Jennifer Parker Seamus & Maggie McFly
The Brown Family
Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown Clara Clayton · Jules Brown Verne Brown · Einstein
The Tannen Family
Biff Tannen · Griff Tannen Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen
Related articles
Other characters · Hill Valley Animated series · The Ride Video games · Timeline v • d • e

[edit] Home video release history

• November 30, 1986 (VHS & Laserdisc)
• January 25, 1987 (VHS & Laserdisc)
• May 18, 1987 (VHS & Laserdisc)
• December 15, 1990 (VHS)
• May 27, 1995 (VHS & Compact Disc)
• March 9, 1999 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc)
• July 1, 1999 (DVD with Lucasfilm THX)
• May 7, 2000 (VHS & DVD)
• June 5, 2003 (VHS & DVD)

[edit] See also

• Back to the Future timeline
• Back to the Future trilogy
• Back to the Future Soundtrack
• Grandfather paradox
• 1980s in film
• 1950s Nostalgia Films

[edit] References

[edit] External links

These links were last verified 22 November 2006.

• Official Universal Pictures site
• BTTF.com
• BTTF Frequently Asked Questions written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis
• Back to the Future at the Internet Movie Database
• Back to the Future at All Movie Guide
• Back to the Future at Rotten Tomatoes
• Back to the Future at Yahoo! Movies
• Movie Locations Guide.com - Maps and Directions to Back to the Future Filming Locations
• Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies - Back To The Future
• Back to the Future trivia at AMC's DVD_TV blog