Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, it follows Marty McFly, a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean automobile built by his eccentric scientist friend Emmett "Doc" Brown, where he inadvertently prevents his future parents from falling in lovethreatening his own existenceand is forced to reconcile them and somehow get back to the future.
Gale and Zemeckis conceived the idea for Back to the Future in 1980. They were desperate for a successful film after numerous collaborative failures, but the project was rejected more than forty times by various studios because it was not considered raunchy enough to compete with the successful comedies of the era. A development deal was secured with Universal Pictures following Zemeckis's success directing Romancing the Stone. Fox was the first choice to portray Marty but was unavailable; Eric Stoltz was cast instead. Shortly after principal photography began in November 1984, Zemeckis determined Stoltz was not right for the part and made the concessions necessary to hire Fox, including re-filming scenes already shot with Stoltz and adding $4million to the budget. Back to the Future was filmed in and around California and on sets at Universal Studios, and concluded the following April.
After highly successful test screenings, the release date was brought forward to July3, 1985, giving the film more time in theaters during the busiest period of the theatrical year. The change resulted in a rushed post-production schedule and some incomplete special effects. Nevertheless, Back to the Future was a critical and commercial success, earning $398million to become the highest-grossing film of 1985 worldwide. Critics praised the story, humor, and the cast, particularly Fox, Lloyd, Thompson, and Glover. It received multiple award nominations and won an Academy Award, three Saturn Awards, and a Hugo Award. Its theme song, "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News, was also a success.
Back to the Future has since grown in esteem and is now considered by critics and audiences to be one of the greatest science fiction films and among the best films ever made. In 2007, the United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film was followed by two sequels, Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III. Spurred by the film's dedicated fan following and effect on popular culture, Universal Studios launched a multimedia franchise, which now includes video games, theme park rides, an animated television series, and a stage musical. Its enduring popularity has prompted numerous books about its production, documentaries, and commercials.
Plot
In 1985, teenager Marty McFly lives in Hill Valley, California, with his depressed alcoholic mother, Lorraine; his older siblings, who are professional and social failures; and his meek father, George, who is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen. After Marty's band fails a music audition, he confides in his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, that he fears becoming like his parents despite his ambitions.That night, Marty meets his eccentric scientist friend, Emmett "Doc" Brown, in the Twin Pines mall parking lot. Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean, powered by plutonium he swindled from Libyan terrorists. After Doc inputs a destination time of November 5, 1955, the terrorists arrive unexpectedly and gun him down. Marty flees in the DeLorean, inadvertently activating time travel when reaching.
Arriving in 1955, Marty discovers he has no plutonium, so he cannot return to 1985. While exploring a burgeoning Hill Valley, Marty encounters his teenage father, discovering Biff was bullying George even then. George falls into the path of an oncoming car while spying on the teenage Lorraine changing clothes, and Marty is knocked unconscious while saving him. He wakes to find himself tended to by Lorraine, who becomes infatuated with him. Marty tracks down and convinces a younger Doc that he is from the future. Doc explains the only source available in 1955 capable of generating the 1.21 gigawatts of power required for time travel is a lightning bolt. Marty shows Doc a flyer from the future that documents an upcoming lightning strike at the town's courthouse. As Marty's siblings begin to fade from a photo he carries with him, Doc realizes Marty's actions are altering the future and jeopardizing his existence: Lorraine was supposed to tend to George instead of Marty after the car accident. Early attempts to get his parents acquainted fail, and Lorraine's infatuation with Marty deepens.
Lorraine asks Marty to the school dance, and he plots to feign inappropriate advances on her, allowing George to intervene and rescue her, but the plan goes awry when Biff's gang locks Marty in the trunk of the performing band's car, while Biff forces himself onto Lorraine. George arrives expecting to find Marty but is assaulted by Biff. After Biff hurts Lorraine, an enraged George knocks him unconscious and escorts the grateful Lorraine to the dance. The band frees Marty from their car, but the lead guitarist injures his hand in the process, so Marty takes his place, performing while George and Lorraine share their first kiss. With his future no longer in jeopardy, Marty hurries to the courthouse to meet Doc.
Doc discovers a letter from Marty warning him about his future and rips it up, worried about the consequences. To save Doc, Marty recalibrates the DeLorean to return ten minutes before he had left the future. The lightning strikes, sending Marty back to 1985, but the DeLorean breaks down, forcing Marty to run back to the mall. He arrives as Doc is being shot. While Marty grieves at his side, Doc sits up, revealing he had pieced Marty's note back together and is wearing a bulletproof vest. He takes Marty home and departs to 2015 in the DeLorean. Marty wakes the next morning, discovering his father is now a confident and successful science fiction author, his mother is fit and happy, his siblings are successful, and Biff is a servile valet in George's employ. As Marty reunites with Jennifer, Doc suddenly reappears in the DeLorean, insisting they return with him to the future to save their children from terrible fates.
Cast
- Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a high school student and aspiring musician
- Christopher Lloyd as Emmett "Doc" Brown, an eccentric scientist experimenting with time travel
- Lea Thompson as Lorraine Baines McFly, a 1955 teenager who grows into Marty's unhappy, alcoholic mother
- Crispin Glover as George McFly, a nerdy 1955 high schooler who grows into Marty's cowardly, submissive father
- Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen, a 1955 high school bully turned George's 1985 boss
Cast appearing in the 1955 portion includes George DiCenzo and Frances Lee McCain as Lorraine's parents, Sam and Stella Baines, and Jason Hervey as Lorraine's younger brother Milton. Biff's gang includes Jeffrey Jay Cohen as Skinhead, Casey Siemaszko as, and Billy Zane as Match. Norman Alden plays cafe owner Lou, and Donald Fullilove appears as his employee Goldie Wilson. Harry Waters Jr. portrays Chuck Berry's cousin Marvin Berry; Will Hare appears as PaPeabody; and Courtney Gains portrays Dixon, the youth who interrupts George's and Lorraine's dance. James Tolkan portrays Hill Valley high school principal Strickland in both 1955 and 1985.
Production
Conception and writing
Long-time collaborators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis conceived Back to the Future in 1980. They wanted to develop a film about time travel but struggled to create a satisfying narrative, and were desperate for a successful project after the critical or commercial failures of their recent efforts in collaboration with Zemeckis's mentor, Steven Spielberg.Following the release of their comedy Used Cars, Gale visited his parents and came across his father's high school yearbook. He wondered if he and his father would have been friends had they attended school together. He did not think so, but realized he could test his theory if he could travel back to a time when he and his parents were a similar age. He shared the idea with Zemeckis, who recalled his mother's childhood stories were often contradictory.
Gale and Zemeckis began a draft in late 1980. They sketched and acted out each scene to help develop the dialogue and actions. They believed many time-travel films focused on the past being immutable and wanted to show the past being altered and the effect those changes would have on the future. In the draft, video pirate Professor Brown builds a time machine that sends his young friend Marty back to the 1950s where he interrupts his parents' first meeting. In September 1980, Gale and Zemeckis pitched their idea to Columbia Pictures president Frank Price, who had liked Used Cars and was keen to work with the pair. Gale recalled having to rein in Zemeckis's enthusiastic pitch before Price had time to change his mind. Gale and Zemeckis completed the first draft for Price on February21, 1981, but Price believed it needed significant refinement.
Some early concepts were abandoned. Originally, Marty's actions in 1955 had a more significant impact on the future, making 1985 more futuristic and advanced, but every person who read the script took issue with the idea. Marty's father also became a boxer, a result of his knockout punch on Biff. The time machine was a stationary object moved around on the back of a truck. Inspired by the documentary The Atomic Cafe, the drained time machine was written to be powered by Marty driving it into a nuclear explosion, combined with an additional ingredient: Coca-Cola. Gale and Zemeckis took inspiration from tales of legendary scientists, opting to make the time machine's creator an individual instead of a faceless corporation or government. The pair wanted the inciting time-travel incident to be an accident so that it would not appear that the hero was seeking personal gain.
Gale and Zemeckis drew humor from the cultural contrasts between 1955 and 1985, such as Marty entering a 1955 soda shop in 1985 clothing; the shop owner asks Marty if he is a sailor because his down vest resembles a life preserver. They also identified conveniences of 1985 that Marty had taken for granted, but would be denied in 1955. Gale and Zemeckis struggled with the writing, as they were in their 30s and did not particularly identify with either era. They were inspired by the All-American aesthetic of films by Frank Capra featuring white picket fences and exaggerated characters similar to Biff, The Twilight Zone, science fiction films, and books by Robert Silverberg and Robert Heinlein. The romantic relationship between 1955 Lorraine and her future son was one of the more difficult writing challenges. Gale and Zemeckis attempted to take the concept as far as possible to keep the audience on edge. They believed it had to be Lorraine who stopped the relationship; she remarks that kissing Marty feels like kissing her brother. Gale jokingly said no one asked how she could make that comparison, but that audiences would accept it because they did not want the relationship to happen. The second draft was completed by April7, 1981.