Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure comedy film[6] directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox as teenager Marty McFly, who is sent back in time to 1955, where he meets his future parents in high school and accidentally becomes his mother's romantic interest. Christopher Lloyd portrays the eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, Marty's friend who helps him repair the damage to history by helping Marty cause his parents to fall in love. Marty and Doc must also find a way to return Marty to 1985.

Zemeckis and Gale wrote the script after Gale mused upon whether he would have befriended his father if they had attended school together. Various film studios rejected the script until the financial success of Zemeckis' Romancing the Stone. Zemeckis approached Steven 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, grossing over $381 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1985. 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, including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). Ronald Reagan even quoted the film in his 1986 State of the Union Address.[7][8] 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 two sequels, Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990), as well as an animated series, theme park ride, several video games and a forthcoming musical.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Produced by

Bob Gale

Neil Canton

Written by

Robert Zemeckis

Bob Gale

Starring

Michael J. Fox

Christopher Lloyd

Lea Thompson

Crispin Glover

Music by Alan Silvestri

Cinematography Dean Cundey

Edited by

Arthur Schmidt

Harry Keramidas

Production

company

Amblin Entertainment[1]

Universal Pictures[1]

Distributed by Universal Pictures[1]

Release date

July 3, 1985

Running time

116 minutes[2]

Country United States

Language English

Budget $19 million[3][4]

Box office $381.1 million[3][4][5]

President Ronald Reagan, a fan of the film, referred to the film 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'."[65] When he first saw the joke about him being president, he ordered the projectionist of the theater to stop the reel, roll it back, and run it again.[9]

The film ranked number 28 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.[66] In 2008, Back to the Future was voted the 23rd greatest film ever made by readers of Empire.[67] It was also placed on a similar list by The New York Times, a list of 1000 movies.[68] In January 2010, Total Film included the film on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.[69] In 2007, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[70] In 2006, the original screenplay for Back to the Future was selected by the Writers Guild of America as the 56th best screenplay of all time.[71]

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed the AFI's 10 Top 10 – the best ten films in ten classic American film genres – after polling more than 1,500 people from the creative community. Back to the Future was acknowledged as the 10th best film in the science fiction genre.[72]

A musical theater production, also called Back to the Future, is in development for a debut in London's West End theatre during the film's 30th anniversary in 2015. Zemeckis and Gale reunited to write the play, while Silvestri and Glen Ballard provide music.[73]

The scenes of Marty McFly skateboarding in the film occurred during the infancy of the skateboarding sub-culture and numerous skateboarders, as well as companies in the industry, pay tribute to the film for its influence in this regard. Examples can be seen in promotional material, in interviews in which professional skateboarders cite the film as an initiation into the action sport, and in the public's recognition of the film's influence.[74][75]

Back to the Future is also among Film4's 50 Films to See Before You Die, being ranked 10th

Back to the Future's success led to two film sequels: Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III. Part II was released on November 22, 1989, to similar financial and critical success as the original, finishing as the third highest-grossing film of the year worldwide.[77][78] The film continues directly from the ending of Back to the Future and follows Marty and Doc as they travel into the future of 2015, an alternative 1985, and 1955 where Marty must repair the future while avoiding his past self from the original film. Part II became notable for its 2015 setting and predictions of technology such as hoverboards.[79][80][81] Part III, released on May 25, 1990, continued the story, following Marty as he travels back to 1885 to rescue a time-stranded Doc. Part III was less financially successful than its predecessors despite being better received by critics than Part II

Back to the Future

Films

Back to the Future Back to the Future Part II Back to the Future Part III

Characters

Marty McFly Emmett Brown Biff Tannen

Music

Back to the Future "The Power of Love" "Back in Time" Back to the Future Part III "Doubleback" The Back to the Future Trilogy (soundtrack)

Video games

Back to the Future (1985 video game) Back to the Future (1989 video game) Back to the Future Part III Back to the Future Part II & III Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure Back to the Future: The Game

Other media

Back to the Future: The Ride Back to the Future: The Animated Series Back to the Future (musical) Back to the Future: The Pinball Back in Time

Universe

DeLorean time machine Hill Valley Hoverboard Nike Mag

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Films directed by Robert Zemeckis

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) Used Cars (1980) Romancing the Stone (1984) Back to the Future (1985) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Back to the Future Part II (1989) Back to the Future Part III (1990) Two-Fisted Tales (1992) Death Becomes Her (1992) Forrest Gump (1994) Contact (1997) What Lies Beneath (2000) Cast Away (2000) The Polar Express (2004) Beowulf (2007) A Christmas Carol (2009) Flight (2012) The Walk (2015) Doc Brown Saves the World (2015) Allied (2016)

[hide] v t e

Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1958) no award (1959) The Twilight Zone (1960) The Twilight Zone (1961) The Twilight Zone (1962) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1965) "The Menagerie" (Star Trek) (1967) "The City on the Edge of Forever" (Star Trek) (1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) News coverage of Apollo 11 (1970) A Clockwork Orange (1972) Slaughterhouse-Five (1973) Sleeper (1974) Young Frankenstein (1975) A Boy and His Dog (1976) Star Wars (1978) Superman (1979) Alien (1980) The Empire Strikes Back (1981) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982) Blade Runner (1983) Return of the Jedi (1984) 2010 (1985) Back to the Future (1986) Aliens (1987) The Princess Bride (1988) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1989) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1990) Edward Scissorhands (1991) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1992) "The Inner Light" (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (1993) Jurassic Park (1994) "All Good Things..." (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (1995) "The Coming of Shadows" (Babylon 5) (1996) "Severed Dreams" (Babylon 5) (1997) Contact (1998) The Truman Show (1999) Galaxy Quest (2000) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2002)

[hide] v t e

Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film

Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) Soylent Green (1973) Rollerball (1974/1975) Logan's Run (1976) Star Wars (1977) Superman (1978) Alien (1979) The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Superman II (1981) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Return of the Jedi (1983) The Terminator (1984) Back to the Future (1985) Aliens (1986) RoboCop (1987) Alien Nation (1988) Total Recall (1989/1990) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1992) Jurassic Park (1993) Stargate (1994) 12 Monkeys (1995) Independence Day (1996) Men in Black (1997) Armageddon/Dark City (1998) The Matrix (1999) X-Men (2000) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Minority Report (2002) X2: X-Men United (2003) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) Children of Men (2006) Cloverfield (2007) Iron Man (2008) Avatar (2009) Inception (2010) Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) The Avengers (2012) Gravity (2013) Interstellar (2014) Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 American science-fiction adventure comedy film[4] directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Bob Gale. It is the sequel to the 1985 film Back to the Future and the second installment in the Back to the Future trilogy. The film stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, and Lea Thompson and continues immediately following the original film. After repairing the damage to history done by his previous time travel adventures, Marty McFly (Fox) and his friend Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Lloyd) travel to 2015 to prevent McFly's future son from ending up imprisoned. However, their presence allows Biff Tannen (Wilson) to steal Doc's DeLorean time machine and travel to 1955, where he alters history by making his younger self wealthy.

The film was produced on a $40-million budget and was filmed back-to-back with its sequel, Part III. Filming began in February 1989 after two years were spent building the sets and writing the scripts. Two actors from the first film, Crispin Glover and Claudia Wells, did not return for the final two. While Elisabeth Shue was recast in the role of Wells' character, Jennifer, Glover's character, George McFly, was not only minimized in the plot, but also was obscured and recreated with another actor. Glover successfully sued both Zemeckis and Gale, changing how producers can deal with the departure and replacement of actors in a role. Back to the Future Part II was also a ground-breaking project for effects studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM): In addition to digital compositing, ILM used the VistaGlide motion control camera system, which allowed an actor to portray multiple characters simultaneously on-screen without sacrificing camera movement.

Back to the Future Part II was released by Universal Pictures on November 22, 1989. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $331 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing film of 1989.

According to Zemeckis, the 2015 depicted in the film was not meant to be an accurate depiction of the future. "For me, filming the future scenes of the movie were the least enjoyable of making the whole trilogy, because I don't really like films that try and predict the future. The only ones I've actually enjoyed were the ones done by Stanley Kubrick, and not even he predicted the PC when he made A Clockwork Orange. So, rather than trying to make a scientifically sound prediction that we were probably going to get wrong anyway, we figured, let's just make it funny." Despite this, the filmmakers did do some research into what scientists thought may occur in the year 2015.[20] Bob Gale said, "We knew we weren't going to have flying cars by the year 2015, but God we had to have those in our movie."[21]

However, the film did correctly predict a number of technological and sociological changes that occurred by 2015, including: the rise of ubiquitous cameras; unmanned flying drones for mundane tasks; flat panel, widescreen television sets mounted on walls with multiple channel viewing; video chat systems; hands-free video games; talking hologram billboards; wearable technology; Tablet computers with fingerprint scanners; and head-mounted displays.[22][23] Payment on personal portable devices is also depicted. Although payment by thumbprint is not widely used, fingerprint scanning is in use as security at places such as airports and schools, where it is also used to authorize payments for meals.[23] Cars and other vehicles have been able to be run using fuel generated from food wastes, though not through a fusion reactor as suggested in the film.[24] The popularity of 3-D film in the 2010s was also somewhat accurately predicted, although overlaid polarized imagery remains the standard format (as it has been since the 1950s, since updated in modern times to digital) and holography is still not in use for major films.

Other aspects of the depiction of the future had not come to pass by 2015, but efforts were made to replicate the technology advances.

The film shows Marty putting on Nike "Air Mag" tennis shoes with automatic shoelaces. Nike released a version of their Hyperdunk Supreme shoes, which appear similar to Marty's, in July 2008. Fans dubbed them the Air McFly.[25] In April 2009, they filed the patent for self-lacing shoes, and their design bears a resemblance to those worn by Marty in the film.[26] In 2010, a fan named Blake Bevin created shoes that tie themselves.[27] Though Nike had made very limited quantity of Air Mags in the same style as the movie, they stated in September 2011 that their consumer-line MAG line of shoes would not feature the self-lacing feature shown in it.[28][29] Tinker Hatfield, one of the shoe's designers, indicated in 2014 that they would introduce shoes with power-lacing technology the following year, 2015.[30] In March 2016, Nike unveiled the HyperAdapt 1.0 shoe, which is a consumer-market model of the Air Mag and features the same self-lacing technology they used for the commemorative Air Mags, and are expected to start selling in late 2016.[31]

The concept of the hoverboard—a skateboard that can float off the ground—has been explored by various groups since the release of the film. Attempts similar to hoverboats, which blast air at the ground, have been demonstrated,[32] with a 2015 record distance of 275 meters.[33] A different type is the MagBoard, developed by researchers at the Paris Diderot University. It uses a large superconductor plate on the bottom cooled with liquid nitrogen as to achieve the Meissner effect and allow it to float over a special track; it was shown capable of carrying the weight of a human in its practical demonstration. However, the requirement to run the superconductor at higher, more ambient temperatures prevents this from becoming practical.[34][35] In March 2014, a company named HUVr Tech purportedly demonstrated a working hoverboard along with several celebrities including Lloyd, though this shortly was revealed as a hoax created by the website Funny or Die.[36] self-balancing 'hoverboards' became popular in 2015 even though they do not hover above the ground.[37]

In the 2015 scene, the film imagines the Chicago Cubs winning the 2015 World Series against the fictional Miami-based Gators, referencing the Cubs' longstanding failure to win a championship. In the actual 2015 season, the Cubs qualified for the postseason, their first postseason appearance since 2008,[38] but the Cubs lost the National League Championship Series (not the World Series) to the New York Mets on October 21, 2015, which coincidentally was the same day as "Back to the Future Day," the day Marty McFly arrived in 2015 in the film.[39] Despite losing in 2015, one year later the Cubs did win the 2016 World Series against the Cleveland Indians.[40] In the real 2015 World Series, the Kansas City Royals defeated the Mets to win their first World Series championship since 1985, the same year from which Marty and Doc time traveled in the film. As for the fictional Miami Gators, when the film was made Florida did not yet have a Major League Baseball team,[41] but the state has since gained two franchises: the Florida Marlins (now the Miami Marlins) in 1993 and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now the Tampa Bay Rays) in 1998. Neither qualified for the postseason in 2015.