TravelingbeebryantRN & Flicks_withNick

The latest review drop is the 1985 classic Back to the Future. The movie is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who has done other classics like Forrest Gump, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The movie is written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The music is by Alan Silvestri, who has composed other classics like Father of the Bride, the Avengers movie, and everyone’s favorite video game movie Super Mario Brothers (just kidding). The movie stars Michael J Fox as Marty, Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown, Lea Tompson as Lorraine Baines, Crispin Glover as Geroge Mcfly, and Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen. The movie grossed over 300 million dollars, and only had a budget of 19 million. As of right now, the movie has a Rotten Tomato score of 93% with an audience score of 94%

WARNING!!!!. SPOILERS AHEAD!

The movie starts out with the tick tock noise from several different clocks. As the credits are rolling we see an array of clocks, some which spoil the movie if you look closer. For instance one of the clocks, a man is holding for dear life,  while dangling from the clock. After getting some background exposition, including some of Doc’s cool inventions, we are introduced to our protagonist Marty. We get a funny scene where he plugs his guitar into the amplifier, only to be overloaded, and he’s knocked off the ground. His only response is “rock and roll”. 

Marty grabs his Skateboard and rushes to school. In the process he only goes on the road and latches onto a vehicle, so he can move faster. How does he never get arrested for this? And how does he not eat shit when the vehicle stops or changes speed? It’s ok though, you get the iconic song “Power of Love” in the background by Huey Lewis and the News. Marty gets to school to then find out that Principal Strickland was waiting for him and his girlfriend. He gives Marty and his Girlfriend detention, and then tells Marty that he isn’t going anywhere in life… What a nice guy lol. In the next scene we see Marty and his band auditioning for battle of the bands. Fun fact…in this scene the judge is Huey Lewis, the singer who wrote two songs for the movie. The man playing guitar with Marty, is the guy in real life who taught Michael J Fox how to play the guitar. The line where the judge says “you’re just too darn loud” was something that Huey Lewis was told in real life at an audition, before he made it big.

In the next scene we see Marty talking to his girlfriend Jennifer about his future. Marty is afraid to send his audition tape to the record company.  Jennifer had to tell Marty a quote from Doc “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything”. Marty was then brave enough to check out two girls walking by, while still talking to his girlfriend lol. We then get some future deposition where a big black 4X4 truck drives by, and Marty gets a flier from an employee from the Hill Valley Preservation Society. Of course you get the catchy line ‘SAVE THE CLOCK TOWER”

Marty heads home where we meet his dad; George, and George’s supervisor Biff. When we meet Biff, we realize fast that he’s a bully that uses intimidation to get his own way, and make George do everything for him. Marty can only witness this interaction with disappointment for his father, and digest for Biff. I honestly think Biff is the greatest movie bully of all time. I know some people will say Regina George from Mean Girls, but Biff has better movie moments than Regina. What do you think?

We meet Marty’s family next. Sitting at the dinner table we learn that the parents met each other due to Lorriane’s dad hitting George with his car. Lorraine felt bad for George, and took him to the High school event, Enchantment under the Sea dance. Lorriane makes the point to the kids, that none of them would have been born if their grandfather never hit George, and then met Lorraine.

Later that night Marty meets Doc at the Twin Pines Mall. This is where we get the introduction of Doc’s latest invention. Marty hears noise coming from the truck, only to see smoke coming out, and a car coming down the ramp. We finally see this invention is a delorean that has been converted to a Time Machine, and with the door opening, we are finally introduced to Doc. We get to see Doc’s tech with the time machine, and see Einstein the dog sent one minute into the future. For a movie made in 1985, I still believe the special effects hold up, except for one frame. When you watch it, you’ll know what I’m talking about, the scene where the flames roll between their legs. 

As Doc is explaining time travel and the time machine, foreign nationalists appear, and they are after Doc for stealing plutonium. Doc is shot and killed by them, and Marty hops in the car to run away from them. Next is a thrilling car chase scene around the mall. Full of quips, beautiful cut scenes, and Silvestri’s score in the background. Marty drives the car 88 mph, without realizing that this will cause him to use the time machine, and he is transported to 1955.

Marty crashes his car in a barn at the Pine tree farm. The family thinks its an alien ship, as they’ve never seen a vehicle like that. The son shows a comic book called Tales from Space. Story has it that the creators of Back to the future were told from one studio head to call the movie Tales from Space, instead of Back to the Future. Dodged a bullet there.

Marty arrives in town, and wanders around with a puzzled look on his face. A traditional fish out of water scene, and we explore the downtown of Hill Valley. During this process Marty meets his dad George at a Diner. While talking, George is interrupted by Biff showing up, and asking for homework. We get a full circle of Biff in the future asking for his work being done, and now we realize this has been going on since High school. Marty follows George as he exits the diner. Marty catches up to George, and we see he has climbed a tree, to only be a Peeping Tom. As George falls from the tree, he lands in the middle of the road, with a car approaching. Marty pushes George out of the way, and gets hit by the car instead. Now we’ve ruined how Marty’s parents met. Right after Marty gets hit by a car, a man comes out of the car, and we get one of the funniest movie lines, “Stella! Another one of these damn kids jumped in front of my car.” Like this is a regular thing for him?

Marty wakes up and realizes that he sees his mom, but her as a teenager. Michael J. Fox plays the awkwardness perfectly, and he makes you laugh, without making any jokes. Marty and Lorraine head downstairs and we meet the rest of her family. After some funny exchanges between Marty and Lorraine’s brother, we get one of the funniest scenes of the movie. Marty storms out and Lorraine’s dad calls him an idiot. He then states “Lorraine if you ever have a kid who acts that way, I’ll disown you”. 

Marty heads over to Doc’s house. After some convincing Marty (including a joke of Ronald Regan being president, when he started out as an actor) finally proves to Doc that he was sent in the past from a time machine that Doc built. Now they have to concoct a plan to get Marty back to 1985. As Marty shows a video explaining time travel, we get the infamous quote 1.21 gigawatts! Christopher Lloyd plays the quirky, and spontaneous personality perfectly. We figure out that the clock tower is going to be struck by lightning, and as Doc says “Next Saturday night we’re sending you BACK TO THE FUTURE”. Do you have a famous movie quote or scene where the character says the title of the movie, in a dramatic fashion? Another one of my favorites, is when the President says the line of the movie in Clear and Present danger. Doc then asks Marty if he’d seen anyone else today, and Marty admits that he bumped into his parents. Marty shows Doc a picture of his brother and sister, and Dave’s head is missing. Doc believes that Marty interfered with his parents’ meeting, and now have jeopardized him being born.

 Marty and Doc try to have George meet Lorraine, but Lorraine is more interested in Marty. Marty tries to get George to ask Lorraine out to the Enchantment under the Sea Dance. This leads them to going to the diner and George telling Lorraine that he’s her density, I mean your destiny. Biff shows up to the diner, and expects George to pay him. Marty intervenes and punches Biff in the face. This then leads to Marty stealing a kid’s board on wheels to escape Biff and his goons. We see that Marty, without knowing, has invented skateboarding. Silvestri’s score kicks into high gear, as we get a chase through downtown Hill Valley between Biff on his 49 ford, and Marty on his skateboard. If you look closely between the cut scenes, you can see Biff’s stunt double driving the vehicle, instead of the actor. This made me think of Terminator 2, where you could easily see Arnold’s stunt double making a huge jump on their motorcycle. Can you think of another scene where you can easily make out the stunt double? As Biff tries to ram Marty to a truck of manure, Marty escapes, and Biff runs into the manure himself. 

Marty heads back to Doc’s house, and Doc reviews his plan of sending Marty back to 1985. They are attaching a long pole with a hook to the vehicle, and will have cables connecting to the clock tower. We hear a knock on the door, and it’s his mother Lorraine. She had followed him home. We realize that Lorraine is even more attracted to Marty, after he stuck up for her, and confronted Biff. Marty is put in a corner, and has to bring Lorraine to the dance. Marty comes up with a cruddy plan of making moves on his mom, to make her feel uncomfortable, and George comes to save the day. 

We arrive on the night of the dance, and it’s the same night Marty is going back to the future. We are taken to the Enchantment under the sea Dance. To me the rest of the movie is an exciting thrill ride, on the edge of your seat. We first get Marty trying to go through with his plan of making Lorraine uncomfortable. We get this comical scene of Lorraine kissing Marty and she says “it’s like kissing my brother” The door opens and Marty thinks it’s George, but it’s Biff looking to seek revenge, from damaging his car. Marty is thrown into the trunk of a vehicle by Biff’s goons. While this happens,  George approaches Lorraine’s car thinking it’s Marty in the vehicle, only to find out it’s Biff and Lorraine. George tries to stick up for himself, only to have Biff twist his arm, and toy with him. George finally musters the courage and winds back, and punches Biff right in the face. It looks like George has made an impression on Lorraine, and she’s infatuated with him. George and Lorraine walk off together, heading to the dance floor. Marty finds himself stepping in for guitarist for the band playing at the dance. While Earth Angel is playing in the background, we see George and Lorraine dancing. Lorraine wants him to kiss her, only to have another guy cut in and try to dance with her. The score turns very dark as it looks like Marty can’t play the guitar anymore. We get this intense scene of Marty looking at his hand, as it’s fading away. George finally pushes the guy away from Lorraine, and kisses her. This represents them falling in love, and eventually being married in the future. With this Marty is back to his normal self. We then see Marty invent rock and roll while singing Johnny B Goode by Marvin Berry. This scene is funny as we see Marty doing all the classic moves from all the famous guitarists. I always chuckle when you see Mr. Strickland covered his ears with his hands. The only negative of this scene, is the close ups of Marty playing guitar, does not look good at all.

We cut back to Doc at the Clock Tower, and he’s waiting for Marty to show up. I love the interaction he has with himself. He checks every watch he has, and just says damn! Marty finally shows up and they get the Delorean all set up. While setting up Doc finds a note in his pocket that Marty wrote. Marty wrote a letter for future Doc, so he doesn’t get shot down in the future. While arguing with each other a tree gets struck by lightning, and lands on the cable wire to the clock tower. Doc has to climb the clock tower, so he can drop the rope down, and hook the cable back up. The clock rings while doc is up there, and they realize that Marty only has 4 minutes to try and get back to the future. The upcoming sequence that flips back and forth between Marty trying to start the car, and Doc climbing through the clock tower is one of my favorite scenes. If you ask my wife, she’ll tell you I always watch this scene while flying, since it’s always downloaded on my phone lol.  The pacing and editing is shot beautifully, and they use camera techniques to make the car seem like it’s going faster. The music flows perfectly, as the tension builds. It all comes down to Doc at the last second connecting the cable wire, and Marty hits the cable wire at the perfect timing. The delorean leaves flames on the road, and Doc does his victory dance, as he realizes Marty got back to the future.

We cut back to 1985, and Marty is relieved to be home. He realizes he still has time to save Doc, and heads over to the mall, which is now called Lone Pine Mall, since Marty ruined the pine when he first went to 1955. Marty heads down to Doc, as he thinks he got shot. Marty is heartbroken as he thinks Doc is dead. Doc then closes his eyes, and we see Doc is alive, and reveals he’s wearing a bulletproof vest. He brushes it off like it was no big deal, but in reality it would hurt a lot. Doc ended up saving the letter Marty wrote, and Marty asked about messing up future events and the Spacetime Continuum. Doc gives the hilarious response of “Well I Figured what the hell?

Marty wakes up the next morning thinking it was all a dream, but then realizes everything is different at home. Everything has improved, and has improved since George has more self-confidence. After watching the scene you realize that yes, Marty changed everything, but he never grew up living in this reality, as he just changed the past. We see that Biff no longer is George’s supervisor, but now owns his own car detailing company. Biff hands keys to Marty, and we get the same 4×4 truck in the garage that we saw earlier. Marty meets back up with his girlfriend, as they are about to kiss…..the delorean pulls up to the driveway, and we see Doc in a colorful suit. He tells Marty they need to go to the future to help their kids. They all hop in the vehicle, and we get the perfect send off. We realize that the Deloran has upgraded, and can now fly. The last shot is the Deloran flying right into the screen, and the credits appear!

Overall I think this movie is a fantastic adventurous thrill ride (I think they need to bring the ride back at Universal Studios). The humor flows fluid through the movie, where it’s subtle, and doesn’t hit you over the head. Marty drives the humor through the movie, and it takes an actor like Michael J Fox to make you laugh, just from his body language. His on screen presence is huge, even for a man in real life that’s 5’5. The chemistry between Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd is iconic. They even based these two characters to what would be Rick and Morty.

You know a score is iconic, where people can recognize it whenever it’s played. I hope someday to go to a live orchestra while they play during the movie. The storytelling is great, where they introduce you something, and bring it back full circle during the movie. They even teach this movie in screenwriting classes at Universities. 

This is probably my favorite movie of all time. I think this modern classic will be relevant even in the next 50 years. The story is timeless, and I think the special effects are good enough to not have it ruined for the average movie goer. I know some people focus on the special effects, and not the story, so if it’s subpar, they’ll say the movie is no good. Have you  actually ever heard someone say they didn’t like the movie? I know all films are subjective, but I think something is wrong with their palette if they hate the movie. 

Overall I give this movie a 4.9/5

Bob Dale first got the idea to write this movie after seeing his parents’ high school yearbook. He realized his dad was class President, and wondered if he would have been friends with his dad in High School. This premise is what inspired the story of Back to the Future.