The films follow the adventures of time-travelling high-school student Marty McFly and inventorDoctor Emmett Brown, as they travel throughout several time periods in the past (1885 and 1955), present (1985), and future (2015). The first film was the highest grossing film of 1985 and became an international phenomenon, leading to two sequels which were filmed back-to-back and released in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The trilogy is widely noted for its irreverent comedy, eccentric characters, and ability to incorporate complex theories of time-travel without confusing the audience. Though the two sequels did not perform quite as well at the box office as the first film, the trilogy remains immensely popular after 20 years and has yielded such spin-offs as an animated television series and a motion-simulation ride at the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, Florida (now closed); North Hollywood, California; and Osaka, Japan.
In Part I, 17-year-old Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955 in a time machine built from a DeLorean by eccentric scientist Doc Emmett L. Brown. Upon arriving in 1955, he inadvertently causes his parents to never meet. To make matters worse, Marty did not bring back any extra plutonium to power the time machine, so he must find the 1955 version of Doc Brown to help him out. Not only is his own existence in danger; Marty must get his parents back together before the clock tower is struck by a bolt of lightning, the only power source both capable of sending him back to the future, and predictable enough to harness.
In Part II, Doc Brown travels with Marty to the year 2015, where he has discovered Marty's family is in ruins. Marty buys a sports almanac which he plans to use to gamble and make a fortune. However, Doc catches him and throws the almanac in the trash, where old Biff Tannen finds it. While Marty and Doc are at 2015 Marty's house, Biff steals the DeLorean and gives the book to himself at some point in the past. When Doc and Marty return to 1985, they find that Biff has used the almanac's knowledge to make himself rich and control Hill Valley. Discovering that old Biff went back to 1955, Marty and Doc set out to steal the almanac from Biff in 1955 before he can use it to destroy their lives. They accomplish this in a complex fashion, often crossing their own past-selves' paths. When the duo are about to travel back to 1985, a lightning bolt hits the DeLorean and scrambles the time circuits, sending Doc back to 1885 and leaving Marty stranded in 1955.
After finding out that Doc Brown is trapped in 1885, Marty sets out to find the 1955 Doc to help him fix the DeLorean (which has been waiting for him in a mineshaft for 70 years) and restore it to working order. Instead of going back to 1985 as Doc wished, Marty travels back to 1885 to bring his friend back to the future. Unfortunately Marty rips a hole in the fuel line, rendering the DeLorean immobile. Furthermore, Doc falls in love with the schoolteacher Clara Clayton, and insists on staying in 1885. Marty must convince Doc to come back with him and find a way to get back to his time before it's too late.
A hallmark of the Back to the Future trilogy and a contributor to its popularity is its use of commonalities: running gags, similar events, catch phrases, and parallel situations that recur in the different time frames from film to film. Note that, due to simultaneous productions of Part II and Part III, they have the most commonalities.
The trilogy is particularly unique amongst films in that, due to the subject matter (time travel), it has a perfectly logical reason to revisit scenes and events from different perspectives. For example, in Back to the Future Part II, we are able to witness the scene of George McFly punching out Biff for the first time from the point of view of a different Marty. We are also able to re-attend the high school dance where Marty from the first film plays Johnny B. Goode on stage while Marty from Part II climbs overhead in the stage rigging. While this works as a clever joke, it can also be compared to the idea of seeing scenes and shots from different angles, common today with DVD technology but virtually unheard of in the late 1980s. This storytelling technique has become much more common today, with the same event being revisited from different points of view (the films of Alejandro González Iñárritu are a prime example), but Back to the Future stands out as truly unique in that this same technique is applied to a single character's point of view at any given time.
Relevant notes
The movie makes use of several oxymorons and contradictions, including in the title itself and in the name of the city, Hill Valley. Likewise, when the time machine travels through time, it always leaves fire trails where its tires would have been; however, when it appears in the destination time, it is "damn cold" according to Doc Brown and frost is visible on the surface of the vehicle. Additionally, the term "flux capacitor" can be seen as an oxymoron.
Three sonic booms are always heard when the DeLorean appears in the destination time. After each trip, the delay between the three sonic booms becomes larger.
In Part II, Old Biff steals the time machine and goes back in time to give "'50s Biff" the book. Old Biff then returns to the future to return the machine. However, the Doc says that if they go into the future from the altered past (1985A) it will be the future of 1985A (2015A), not the normal 1985. By this, Old Biff should have arrived in 2015A, when Biff was rich, and not the normal 2015. Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis explain in the BTTF FAQ that their intention was that Old Biff did return to 2015A, because the original 2015 transformed into 2015A around Marty and Doc as they were carrying Jennifer back to the DeLorean. A deleted scene shows Old Biff vanishing immediately upon arriving back to the future, and it is explained by Gale and Zemeckis that Lorraine must have shot Biff sometime between 1985 and 2015 (the FAQ suggests a date of 1996, while Gale suggests a date of 1991 in the DVD commentary for this deleted scene) after getting tired of their marriage, resulting in old Biff's lack of existence from the future Hill Valley. This explanation, however, might result in a time paradox (how could Old Biff have traveled back if he never existed?). Then again, due to the fuzzy and complex nature of the "ripple effect" in the movies, it might not cause a paradox at all.
In Part II, when 1985 Jennifer comes face to face with 2015 Jennifer, they both pass out from the shock of seeing their former/future self, however 2015 Biff meets 1955 Biff to give him the book without incident. Zemeckis and Gale also address this issue in the BTTF FAQ, explaining that "Jennifer definitely realizes she is seeing herself 30 years older and that puts her into shock. Old Biff, however, is advanced enough in age that young Biff has no idea who he really is -- he thinks it's just 'some old codger with a cane.'"
There are actually at least three separate "copies" of the DeLorean time machine in existence at the same time on November 12, 1955. One of them is the machine that Marty originally takes back to 1955 in Part I. The second is the one that Biff takes back to 1955 in Part II to give the sports almanac to himself. The third is the DeLorean that Marty and Doc take to 1955 in Part II to stop Biff from giving the almanac to himself. A possible fourth copy of the time machine is the DeLorean that Doc hides in the old mine to send to Marty in Part III, although based on the way the "ripple effect" is shown to work in the movies, this one would probably not have appeared in the mine until after Doc was sent back to 1885 by the lightning strike.
In several films, Biff Tannen is shown to have no understanding of sayings. For example, in Part II, the 1955 Biff says that his rejection by Lorraine is "as funny as screen doors on a battleship" whereas the correct phrase would be "as funny as a screen door on a submarine." This extends to the non-canonical Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios where he tries to steal a time machine and trips the guards with marbles saying, "Have a nice trip, see you next winter!" whereas the correct phrase would be "See you next fall!" In parts I and II, he says to someone "now make like a tree and get outta here!", which in Part II, his older self slaps him and corrects him to say "make like a tree and leave." Biff's ancestor "Mad Dog" Tannen is shown to have this same tendency.
Biff (young or old) is frequently shown to use the pejorative phrase "Butthead." As seen in the Back to the Future: The Animated Series, his ancestors and descendants also use the term, most notably Tannen's great grandfather, a Confederate officer in the Civil War, who calls his enemies "buttocks brains" but changes it to "butthead" after being corrected by one of Doc Brown's sons.
It is a common misconception that Mayor Red Thomas of 1955 and Red the Bum of 1985 were meant to be the same character. According to Bob Gale's commentary on the Back to the Future DVD set, the name of the bum was ad-libbed by Michael J. Fox. Gale also commented that the photo of the mayor in 1955 on the side of the campaign van was that of set decorator Hal Gausman, whereas the bum was played by George "Buck" Flower.
Throughout the trilogy (and despite Jennifer's claim that Doc "always" says it), Doc never actually says the quote, "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything," onscreen. The line was only used in Part I; twice by Marty and once by George.
After Marty arrives in 1885 in Part III, the DeLorean is hit by an arrow which ruptures the fuel line, causing all the gasoline to leak out. Many fans wonder why Marty did not simply siphon the gas from the other version of the car - the one which Doc had buried there (and which Marty unearthed in 1955 and used to travel to 1885). In the BTTF FAQ Gale and Zemeckis suggest two separate answers. Firstly, all the fluids must be drained out of a car before storage for extended periods of time, so Doc would have done so before burying it in the mine. Secondly, Doc would not have dared risk damaging the car in the mine by uncovering it again, since Marty had uncovered it in 1955 and used it to get back to 1885, so any damage to it in 1885 after Marty had already arrived could create a paradox.
Recurring Gags
These are some of the things that happen in nearly the same way in nearly every single way:
Marty waking up on a bed after being knocked unconscious by something (car in pt.1, one of Biff's cohorts in pt.2, and a fence board in pt.3) saying "Mom? Mom is that you?" Some one says "There there, you've been asleep for (9 hours in pt.1, 2 hours in pt.2, and 6 hours in pt.3)" then they say something that makes Marty jump up ("in 1955" in pt.1, "on the 27th floor" in pt.2, "McFly farm" in pt.3). Marty stammers saying "You're my...my". Then he uses a pseudonym to hide his true identity from (17 year old mom in pt.1, mom in 1985A in pt.2, and his great-great-grandmother Maggie in pt.3) and (Calvin Klein in pt.1 and Clint Eastwood in pt.3) In disguise in pt.1 he uses Darth Vader as an alias to scare his 50s father. After waking, he then goes to dinner with their family (his grandparents, uncles, and his mom in pt.1 and his great-great-grandparents and his great-grandfather, who was an infant at the time, in pt.3).
In every single movie, either Biff Tannen (twice) or Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (once) ends up in a pile of manure, saying: "I hate manure!".
Also in every movie the lines "This is heavy," from Marty and "Great Scott!" from Doc. At one point in Part III they both switch catchphrases when Doc explains to Marty that he could die tomorrow and Marty replies "Great Scott!" to which Doc replies "I know, this is heavy".
One way or another, there's always a McFly in a cafe or bar with a Tannen relation walking in and saying "Hey, McFly!"
Trivia
In Part I Marty's band performs "The Power of Love," which was a 1985 hit recorded by Huey Lewis & the News. Interestingly, Huey Lewis played the part of the high school band audition judge who disapproved of the performance.
All three films show Marty's initial trip back to 1985 at the end of the first film.
Both sequels start immediately after the preceding film, each showing the last scene of the previous installment prior to the opening credits.
Back to the Future Part II is Elijah Wood's first movie. He is one of the two boys trying to play the videogame ("Wild Gunman") at Cafe '80s (in 2015) and he comments about the video-game gun: "That's like a baby's toy". This gag is paid off when Marty is taunted by the Colt gun salesman who tells him a baby can operate it.
The actress that plays Jennifer, Claudia Wells, in the original Back to the Future doesn't appear again, and is replaced by Elisabeth Shue in the sequels. The scene from the very end of Back to the Future is refilmed for Back to the Future Part II, with Shue performing the lines that Wells originally delivered.
In Back to the Future Part III, as Marty is talking to Needles about street racing, you can hear "Power of Love" (a song from the first movie) playing on Needles' car radio.
In the first scene of Back to the Future, Marty switches an amplifier with the words 'CRM-114' printed on it. The CRM-114 is the nomenclature of the Strategic Air Command encryption/decryption device aboard the B-52 Stratofortress in the 1964 filmDr. Strangelove.
During the scene in Back to the Future Part II where Doc climbs the clock tower, the wind blowing around is simulated by two large airplane turbine engines. Due to the extremely loud noise of the engines, Michael J. Fox needed to yell for the scene, and was reportedly coughing up blood after shooting that day.
At the begining of "Back to the future I" the camera pans through many clocks, one of which shows a man hanging from a clock tower just as The Doc is at the end of the film.
Spoilers end here.
DVD release
In July 1997, Universal Studios announced that Back to the Future would be one of their first 10 releases to the new format, though it ended up being delayed for five years. The footage that was shot with Eric Stoltz in the role of Marty McFly (before he was replaced with Michael J. Fox a few weeks into shooting) has never been officially released. This footage was not included in Universal's original DVD release in 2002 or in 2005, despite many fans hoping that Universal would include it.
Region 1
The Back to the Future trilogy was first released on DVD at the end of 2002 in both widescreen and fullscreen versions (in a blue box with Marty and Doc on the cover).
Framing issues
Devoted fans of the films quickly noticed that the video of the widescreen version of Parts II and III contained numerous shots that had been framed incorrectly, either because the shots were too high or low to center the image correctly, or because they "zoomed in" on the image, eliminating portions of the image on all sides. (Because the movies were originally shot in open matte, the fullscreen version was unaffected by this.) Outraged fans quickly organized petitions demanding that Universal Studios correct the problem and re-release the DVD set.
In May 2003, Universal corrected the problem and issued "V2" (Version 2) DVDs, that could only be distinguished from the original, flawed DVDs by the mark of a small "V2" near the edge of the discs themselves (and, of course, by comparing the corrected video). However, they did not initially begin packaging the V2 discs with the trilogy box set that was being sent to retailers. Instead, Universal set up a toll-free phone number ((888) 703-0010 in the US) which owners of the original DVDs could call, and ask for a postage-paid envelope to be sent to them. The owner would send their flawed discs to Universal in the envelope, and would soon thereafter receive the corrected "V2" discs by mail. Because Universal did little to publicize this offer outside of the Internet and devoted fan circles, many have criticized Universal's refusal to issue a straight recall of the flawed discs and instead force concerned customers to jump through hoops just to get the correct video of the film.
In January 2005, Universal began a nationwide promotional campaign, announcing that they would re-issue the DVDs of the trilogy at a special low price (about half the set's original retail price) on January 25, 2005, and then put the entire trilogy on moratorium merely a week later, on February 1, 2005. (New stickers on the box declared "Lowest Price Ever: Own It Before Time Runs Out!") The discs in this release contained no new content or bonus features from the original release (indeed, even the packaging was almost identical, except for the promotional sticker and excluding the multi-page, full color DVD menu booklet. No booklet or chapter insert is included in the revised release.), but did finally contain the corrected V2 discs. Curiously, only the disc for Part II displays the "V2" marking on its edge; the Part III disc does not, but fans have analyzed its video carefully and concluded that, despite the lack of the "V2" marking, the Part III disc is the corrected one. (This is also supported by the date of creation of the disc, which matches that of the "V2" release.)
In the Stargate Atlantis episode "Before I Sleep", Maj. Sheppard brings up the DeLorean in a discussion about time travel, to which Dr. McKay responds, "Do not get me started on that movie!" Later, when they find out about a time-traveling puddle jumper, Sheppard calls its added component the "flux capacitor."
Family Guy has made multiple references to the trilogy.
In "The Perfect Castaway", Peter Griffin builds a time machine out of a DeLorean and intends to travel to the past. He crashes into a wall right after starting the car and gets out. When people run out of the building in flames, Peter says, "Everyone in 1955 was on fire! I never knew that."
In "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'", Peter Griffin remembers his cousin Rufus, who starred in a series of blaxploitation films including "Black to the Future" (said to be "from the people who brought you Caddyblack, Blackdraft, and Black Kramer vs. Kramer").
In The Courtship of Stewie's Father, Stewie Griffin imagines Doc Brown at the end of the first film telling Marty and Jennifer "Something's gotta be done about your kids." However, Doc goes further, telling them their daughter marries a black man. This news does little to offend Marty, although Doc's racist attitude alienates Marty and Jennifer.
On The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert is said to "believe Back to the Future is a documentary"
The Back to the Future movies have been referenced several times on Drawn Together.
In the episode "Captain Girl", Wooldoor Sockbat takes off in a time traveling car called the Wooldelorean. Right after the car disappears leaving fire trails, another Sockbat clad in Western gear runs up behind where the car was, then fades out of existence. When Wooldoor arrives at his destination, the car is covered in ice, just as it was after making its first time travel trip in the first movie. He also runs over a male and female Sockbat, implying that their deaths erased the first Sockbat.
In the episode "A Tale of Two Cows", Toot Braunstein attends a dance called the Enchantment Under the Seafood dance, a reference to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in the first film.
One episode of The Simpsons is entitled Bart to the Future, in addition, Nelson Muntz's future appearance is similar to that of Biff Tannen's in 1985A plus Bart Simpson working for Nelson is similar to George McFly working for Biff in the first film or Marty working for Needles in the second film. Another episode, Half-Decent Proposal, contains a more subtle reference, when Homer thinks that he is actually seeing Marge with Artie Ziff at their prom many years in the past and says "If Marge marries Artie, I'll never be born!".
There is a DuckTales episode entitled "Duck to the Future", in which Magica De Spell sends Scrooge McDuck forty years into the future so she can steal his Number One Dime and take over his company. Scrooge then has to find a way to return to the present in order to prevent the unwanted future from ever happening.
In the movie "Big Fat Liar" Jason and Kayly hide out in a huge movie backlot storage facility and at one point Jason calls Kayly who takes the call lying on the infamous DeLorean.
As of March 2007, BTTF appeared on commercial TV and online ad to promote the DirecTV service. The clip showed the fire tracks of the DeLorean leading towards the familiar BTTF town hall with a clip of Doc Brown prompting customers to upgrade their cable TV service.
Promotional posters
Back to the Future
Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part III
All three posters were done by noted poster artist Drew Struzan, although the original concept poster of Marty looking at his watch by the car was done by Wayne Coe. Each poster features a variation on the same pose, and has the same number of characters present as each movie is numbered (one character for Part I, two for Part II, and three for Part III). It should also be noted that the DeLorean's wheels change in each poster: in Part I they're normal wheels, in Part II they're hover wheels, and in Part III they're bare rims (without the tires) on train tracks. In the Part I and Part II posters, Marty and the Doc (in Part II) look at their wristwatches and lift glasses and a visor respectively, whereas in Part III they look at pocketwatches and raise their hats.
A modified version of the Part I artwork, which added Doc Brown to the original image, was used on the cover of the trilogy's DVD release.
Games
Various video games based on the Back to the Future movies have been released over the years for home video game systems, including the Commodore 64 computer, the Sega Master System, the Sega Genesis/Megadrive, NES, and Super Nintendo system.
LJN also released Back to the Future II & III for the NES in 1990, which unlike the previous game, was a side scrolling platform game that allowed travelling back and forth between the different time periods from the trilogy as Marty attempts to correct the timeline and get back to the real 1985.
A 1990 pinball game designed by Joe Kaminkow and Ed Cebula and released by Data East Pinball. It is based on the Back to the Future trilogy of movies. This game features three songs that were featured in the movies: "Back in Time" and "Power of Love" (originally performed by Huey Lewis & The News), and Doubleback (originally performed by ZZ Top).IPDB listing for Back to the Future: The Pinball
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