Things That Bring Back Memories – “Back to the Future” #MondayMemories 20

For this week’s “Things That Bring Back Memories” post, I am going to pick something in the topic of “MOVIES” and go with  “Back to the Future“.  For those of you, who are either too young, or don’t remember, here’s a snippet of part of the “Back to the Future” movie:

Back to the Future is one of those movies, that never really gets old.  I know that there are a lot of people talking about it lately, because of the “destination time” in the “time machine”…do you remember this?:

Crazy how time flies!!  I love how you can watch this movie with someone of any age, and it either brings back memories for the older ones, or the younger ones love what it’s all about.  I remember one year, my family and I headed up to Williams, AZ to see the Grand Canyon Railway and the town.  We were walking along the downtown street, and came upon this:

My son immediately wanted to go see it, and absolutely loved it!!  This gentlemen, Paul “Doc” Nigh, now goes around the country using the car, as a means of getting people’s attention and letting them know about his work with “The Fireball Run”.  The Fireball Run helps with the recovery of missing children and every team is assigned a missing child. Everywhere they go during the event, they hand out flyers (1,000 in 8 days).  “Team TimeCar” had 3 children assigned that were brought back home to their parent(s).  For more info on this great organization, click here.

More Info on the Movie:

Back to the Future is a 1985 American science fiction comedy adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. Fox plays Marty McFly, a teenager who is sent back in time to 1955. He meets his future parents in high school and accidentally becomes his mother’s romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by causing his parents-to-be to fall in love, and with the help of scientist Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd), he must find a way to return to 1985.

Zemeckis and Gale wrote the script after Gale mused upon whether he would have befriended his father if they attended school together. Various film studios rejected the script until the financial success of Zemeckis’ Romancing the Stone. Zemeckis approached Spielberg, who agreed to produce the project at Amblin Entertainment, with Universal Pictures as distributor. The first choice for the role of Marty McFly was Michael J. Fox. However, he was busy filming his television series Family Ties and the show’s producers would not allow him to star in the film. Consequently, Eric Stoltz was cast in the role. During filming, Stoltz and the filmmakers decided that the role was miscast, and Fox was again approached for the part. Now with more flexibility in his schedule and the blessing of his show’s producers, Fox managed to work out a timetable in which he could give enough time and commitment to both.

Back to the Future was released on July 3, 1985, and became the most successful film of the year, grossing more than $383 million worldwide and receiving widespread critical acclaim. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, and the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing, as well as receiving three additional Academy Award nominations, five BAFTA nominations, and four Golden Globe nominations. Ronald Reagan even quoted the film in his 1986 State of the Union Address.[4][5] In 2007, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, and in June 2008 the American Film Institute’s special AFI’s 10 Top 10 designated the film as the 10th-best film in the science fiction genre. The film marked the beginning of a franchise, with sequels Back to the Future Parts II and III released in 1989 and 1990, as well as an animated series, theme park ride, several video games and a forthcoming musical.

Teenager Marty McFly is an aspiring musician dating girlfriend Jennifer Parker in Hill Valley, California. His family is less ambitious; his father George is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen, while his mother Lorraine is an overweight alcoholic who mainly reminisces about the past, such as how she met George in high school when he was hit by her father’s car.

Marty meets his scientist friend “Doc” Brown late at night in the parking lot of a shopping mall, where Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean. The vehicle’s “flux capacitor” is powered by plutonium that he’s stolen from Libyan terrorists. Doc tests the time machine by accelerating it to 88 m.p.h., sending it one minute into the future, and demonstrates the time circuits by entering an example date of November 5, 1955, the day he invented the flux capacitor. Before Doc can make his first trip, the Libyans appear in a van and gun him down. Marty escapes in the DeLorean but inadvertently activates the time machine, finding himself transported to 1955.

Wandering in 1955 Hill Valley, Marty encounters the teenage George, who is still bullied by Biff, now a classmate. After Marty saves George from an oncoming car and is knocked unconscious, he awakens to find himself tended to by an infatuated Lorraine. Marty goes in search of the 1955 Doc, asking for his help to get back to 1985. With no plutonium, Doc explains that the only power source capable of the necessary 1.21 gigawatts of electricity is a bolt of lightning. Marty shows Doc a flyer he kept that recounts a newspaper story about a lightning strike at the town’s courthouse the coming Saturday night. Doc formulates a plan to harness the power of the lightning, while Marty sets about introducing his parents to each other to ensure his own existence.

Marty makes several attempts to set George up with Lorraine, but only antagonizes Biff and his gang in the process, such as causing Biff to crash his car into a manure truck. Marty also attempts to warn Doc about his death in the future, but Doc refuses to hear it, fearing it will alter the future.

When Lorraine asks Marty to the upcoming school dance, Marty plans to have George attend as well and “rescue” Lorraine from Marty’s inappropriate advances. The plan goes awry when a drunken Biff shows up, pulls Marty from his car, and attempts to force himself on Lorraine. George arrives to rescue her from Marty but finds Biff instead; standing up to him for the first time, George knocks out Biff. A smitten Lorraine follows George to the dance floor, while Marty helps the band and ensures that his parents kiss for the first time.

As the storm gathers, Marty arrives at the clock tower. Doc angrily tears up a warning letter Marty has written him, still fearing it will alter the future, and a fallen branch suddenly disconnects the massive wire Doc has run from the clock tower to the street. As Marty races the DeLorean at 88 m.p.h. toward the clock tower, Doc climbs across the face of the clock to reconnect the cable. The lightning strikes on cue, sending Marty back to 1985 ten minutes before he left it. Marty runs to the shopping mall, but arrives too late only to watch Doc get gunned down and his counterpart escape. After a moment, Doc arises with a bullet-proof vest thanks to Marty’s letter, which he kept. Doc then takes Marty home and departs to 2015.

Marty awakens the next morning to find his family changed: George is a self-confident, successful author and Lorraine is physically fit. Biff, instead of being a bullying superior, is now an obsequious subordinate to George and Marty. As Marty reunites with Jennifer, the DeLorean appears with Doc, dressed in a futuristic outfit, insisting they accompany him in the future. The DeLorean disappears into the future with Doc, Marty and Jennifer.

Characters:

Michael J. Fox was the first choice to play Marty McFly, but he was committed to the show Family Ties.  Family Ties producer Gary David Goldberg felt that Fox was essential to the show’s success. With co-star Meredith Baxter on maternity leave, he refused to allow Fox time off to work on a film. Back to the Future was originally scheduled for a May 1985 release and it was late 1984 when it was learned that Fox would be unable to star in the film. Zemeckis’ next two choices were C. Thomas Howell and Eric Stoltz. Eric Stoltz impressed the producers enough with his earlier portrayal of Roy L. Dennis in Mask – which had yet to be released – that they selected him to play Marty McFly.  Because of the difficult casting process, the start date was pushed back twice.  Fox’s schedule was opened up in January 1985 when Meredith Baxter returned to Family Ties following her pregnancy. The Back to the Future crew met with Goldberg again, who made a deal that Fox’s main priority would be Family Ties, and if a scheduling conflict arose, “we win”. Fox loved the script and was impressed by Zemeckis and Gale’s sensitivity in releasing Stoltz, because they nevertheless “spoke very highly of him”.  Per Welinder and Bob Schmelzer assisted on the skateboarding scenes. Fox found his portrayal of Marty McFly to be very personal. “All I did in high school was skateboard, chase girls and play in bands. I even dreamed of becoming a rock star.”

Christopher Lloyd was cast as Doc Brown after the first choice, John Lithgow, became unavailable.  Having worked with Lloyd on The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984), producer Neil Canton suggested him for the part. Lloyd originally turned down the role, but changed his mind after reading the script and at the persistence of his wife. He improvised some of his scenes, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein and conductor Leopold Stokowski.  Brown pronounces gigawatts as “jigawatts”, which was the way a physicist said the word when he met with Zemeckis and Gale as they researched the script, rather than with an initial hard “g”, although both pronunciations are acceptable.  Doc Brown’s notable hunch came about because at 6’1″ Lloyd was considerably taller than Fox at 5’5″, and they needed to look closer in height.

Did You Know?

Apparently Ronald Reagan was amused by Doc Brown’s disbelief that an actor like him could become president, so much so that he had the projectionist stop and replay the scene. He also seemed to enjoy it so much that he even made a direct reference of the film in his 1986 State of the Union address: “As they said in the film “Back to the Future”, ‘Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.'”

When Marty is being judged at the band auditions at the beginning, the judge who stands up to say he is “just too darn loud” is Huey Lewis, whose songs, “The Power of Love” and “Back in Time” are featured on the movie’s soundtrack, and also wrote Marty’s audition song (which is a re-orchestrated version of “The Power of Love.”).

The sticker on Doc’s truck said: “One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.”

The gas-powered struts that hold the DeLorean’s gull-wing doors open would fail during the course of filming a take, so crew members had to be on stand-by with hairdryers to warm them up to stop the doors from drooping.