Back to the Future

Back to the Future (1985)

Timing: 1:56 (116 min)

8.324/10
21538

8.648/10
707439

8.5/10
1400000

All about film

Video 68

Photo 292

Actors and characters

Release date

1985-07-03

Country

United States

Production

Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment

Genre

Adventure, Comedy, Science Fiction

Budget

$19 000 000

Revenue

$390 348 817

Website

http://www.backtothefuture.com/movies/backtothefuture1

Director

Robert Zemeckis

Actors

Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, Claudia Wells, Thomas F. Wilson, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, George DiCenzo, Frances Lee McCain
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale

Producer

Bob Gale, Neil Canton, Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall

Operator

Dean Cundey

Composer

Alan Silvestri

Artist

Audition

Jane Feinberg, Mike Fenton, Judy Taylor

Editing

Arthur Schmidt, Harry Keramidas
All team (106)

• Michael J. Fox was originally the main candidate for the role of Marty, but at the time he was actively filming a family television series and could not afford to shoot in another project. Actor Eric Stoltz filmed in the role of Marty for the first three weeks, but he did not meet the director's requirements and was soon fired. The studio had to reshoot all the material from scratch.
• Michael J. Fox agreed to participate in the filming, not refusing even television "soap operas." The producers of the series "Family Ties" (1982-1989) allowed Michael to film "Back to the Future" on the condition that the film work would not interfere with his work on the series. Therefore, Fox filmed "Family Ties" during the day and starred in Robert Zemeckis's film at night. Every day after recording a new episode, he immediately rushed to the film set. Filming took place for 6 hours a day – from 6:30 PM to 2:30 AM. Fox slept only 5-6 hours a day during the filming of the movie.
• The screenwriters struggled for a long time to figure out how to present the time machine. In the first version of the script, this device was a laser installation in Dr. Brown's laboratory. There was also an option with a refrigerator, but this idea was rejected due to concerns that small children would start checking their refrigerators for a similar device and accidentally close the door behind themselves. Only in the third version of the script did the time machine become a DeLorean car.
• When Robert Zemeckis tried to sell the idea for his film, he turned to a company famous for its family films – Walt Disney Company. However, they rejected the script outright, believing that the depiction of romantic relationships between a mother and son, even through the prism of time (by the way, the age difference between the actors playing these roles is actually only 10 days) would be a rather risky undertaking for a company that valued its reputation.
• When Ronald Reagan (the current US President) watched the film for the first time, he was so struck by Doc's line: "How did an actor become president?" that he asked the cinema staff to stop the film, rewind it, and replay that moment again.
• The orchestra conducted by Alan Silvestri, hired to record the soundtrack for the film, was the largest in composition at the time the film was released.
• The film marked the screen debut of actor Billy Zane, who later played the role of the main villain in "Titanic" (1997).
• Many candidates for the role of Jennifer were rejected simply because they were too tall – they were all taller than Michael J. Fox (5'4"/1.64m).
• The head of Universal Pictures, Sid Sheinberg, strongly opposed using the word "future" in the film's title. He himself insisted on the title "Alien from Pluto," linking the suggestion to jokes made by Marty throughout the film.
• John Lithgow auditioned for the role of Doc.
• Christopher Lloyd created the image of his character – Doc – based on the mannerisms of physicist Albert Einstein and conductor Leopold Stokowski.
• Despite the film being fictional and actively exploiting the theme of time travel, the filming crew only had to use special effects 32 times.
• Three DeLorean cars were used during filming.
• Actress Lea Thompson had to spend around 3 hours in makeup every day to transform from a 23-year-old girl into a 47-year-old woman.
• When the first film was completed, a sequel was not planned. The DeLorean flying off was immediately followed by the end credits. When the second and third installments were subsequently released, and the first became available on video, an insert reading “To Be Continued…” was added between the final scene and the credits. For the DVD version, this insert was removed again, restoring the original theatrical release.
• Michael J. Fox is only ten days younger than Lea Thompson, who played his mother, and almost three years older than his on-screen father, played by Crispin Glover.
• The DeLorean has Good Year tires.
• The sets from the film "Gremlins" (1984) were used for the decorations of the town's main street.
• The exact same clock tower can be seen in the film "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962).
• The "Mr. Fusion Home Energy Converter" is actually a Krups coffee grinder.
• The device to which Marty connects his guitar in Doc Brown's laboratory has a label "CRM-114". The same name was given to the decipher on a B-52 in the film "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964), and the same serial number was used for the Jupiter spacecraft in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968).
• The date of Marty's journey to the past (November 5th) was also used in "Time Racer: The Adventures of Lyle Swann" (1982).
• Wendy Jo Sperber, who played Linda McFly, is three years older than Lea Thompson (Lorraine McFly) and six years older than her on-screen father, Crispin Glover.
• The scene in which Doc Brown hangs from the clock tower resembles a scene from "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" (1946) starring Harold Lloyd, which in turn is a remake of "Safety Last!" (1923).
• On Marty's bed, one can notice "RQ" magazine, which stands for "Reference Quarterly" and is a print publication intended for librarians.
• In one of the deleted scenes, Marty peeks at Lorraine during a school test and sees her cheating off her neighbor.
• Doc Brown's dog, Einstein, returns from the first time travel journey at 1:21. Notably, 1.21 gigawatts of electricity are required to make a time travel journey.
• The license plate number of the 'DeLorean' – 3CZV657 – is a real license plate registered in the state of California.
• The clock tower's chime exactly matches the chime in the 1960 film 'The Time Machine', based on the book by H.G. Wells.
• The scene with Darth Vader first appeared in the third draft of the script. Initially, Marty was supposed to appear before his father George in an 'alien costume'.
• Doctor Brown's first name, Emmett, is 'time' spelled backwards, pronounced syllabically (em-it).
• The initials for Doc Brown's middle name are "L", but throughout the three films, we never learned what they stood for. Bob Gale, the film's screenwriter, revealed the secret: Brown's middle name is Lathrop, which is "portal" spelled backwards.
• One scene was cut from the film. Between the family dinner and Doc Brown's phone call waking Marty, the latter wanted to send an audio cassette to a record company. Marty hesitated and left an empty envelope on the table. In the scene that made it into the film, he goes to breakfast holding a sealed envelope, indicating that he ultimately decided to send his demo recordings to the record company.
• Doc Brown's house is located on Westmoreland Avenue in Pasadena, California. Until 1966, the house belonged to the Gamble family. After 1966, it was converted into the University of Southern California. Currently, the building houses a historical museum.
• Corey Hart and C. Thomas Howell were considered for the role of Marty McFly.
• The 'DeLorean' is a 1981 DMC-12 model with a six-cylinder PRV engine (Peugeot/Renault/Volvo). The base for the nuclear reactor was a cover concealing the central part of a Dodge Polara wheel. A special edition of the film on DVD incorrectly states that this car model has a four-cylinder engine.
• Ronald Reagan enjoyed the film so much that he included a reference to Zemeckis's picture in his address to the nation in 1986: “As they said in ‘Back to the Future,’ ‘Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.’”
• In the opening scene of the film, all the clocks show 7:55 (25 minutes behind), with the exception of one clock lying on the floor next to the plutonium suitcase: it shows the correct time (8:20).
• Initially, Ron Cobb was supposed to create the external design of the ‘DeLorean’. However, he preferred to work on another project, and Andrew Probert took his place.
• In the French dub of the film, when Marty wakes up in 1955, his young mother calls him Pierre Cardin instead of Calvin Klein. In the Italian dub, she calls him Levi Strauss.
• Jeff Goldblum was considered for the role of Doc Brown.
• Two inscriptions can be seen on the condenser: "Disconnect the condenser before opening" and "Protect your eyes from the light".
• When Marty appears before his father as Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan, he inserts a cassette labeled "Van Halen" into the player. The song that George McFly wakes up to is an unnamed composition by Edward Van Halen, written for the film "Hardbodies" (1984), which starred Lea Thompson.
• According to Bob Gale, the idea for the film came to him when he was visiting his parents and found his father's high school yearbook. He learned that his father had been class president. This reminded him of the class president he knew, with whom he wasn't friends. And he thought about what it would be like if he were the same age as his father, they would have been friends.
• A film called "Cattle Queen of Montana" (1954), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan, is playing at the Hill Valley Cinema. The latter was re-elected to a second term as President of the United States in 1984. The following year, "Back to the Future" was released in theaters.
• According to British channel "Channel 4", the film ranked 7th on the list of "Greatest Family Films".
• In the film "Marty" (1955), the main character has the same name as Marty McFly. Additionally, the cafe owner is also named Lou. According to Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, the identical names of the characters are purely coincidental.
• Sid Sheinberg, head of "Universal Pictures" studio, made many changes to the film, including: — Doc Brown instead of Professor Brown. — Initially, Doc was supposed to have a chimpanzee as a pet. Sid suggested a dog named Einstein. — Marty’s mother’s original name was Meg. Then it was changed to Eileen. After that, Sid insisted it be changed to Lorraine. His wife’s name was also Lorraine – Lorraine Gary.
• Doc’s phone number in 1955 is Klondike 54385. The letters “K” and “L” are on the number 5. Therefore, Doc’s number begins with the prefix 555. Thus, it is a fictional number.
• Robert Zemeckis specifically created the opening scene, repeating the beginning of the film "The Time Machine" (1960), as a tribute to George Pal’s film. The panel showing the time you are going to, the present time, and the time of the last journey, flashes red, green, and yellow lights respectively. The same colors were used for the control panel of the time machine in Pal’s film.
• To find coordinators for the scenes where Marty rides a skateboard, Bob Gale went to a beach in California and saw two skaters, one of whom, Per Lindner, later became a European champion, and the other became Eric Stoltz’s stunt double. However, after Eric left the project, the stunt double was also replaced.
• To create the effect of frost on the car just returned from its journey, they used nitrogen – the DeLorean was literally frozen. The fiery trails left by the speeding car were simply spilled fuel that was ignited manually. The filmmakers decided to use these relatively inexpensive effects, although for a long time they considered a version with the DeLorean stretching and compressing like a rubber band. But in the end, they abandoned this special effect: it was expensive, time-consuming, and would likely look hopelessly outdated today.
• In the early versions of the script, the time machine received the missing energy needed to start in the Nevada desert during nuclear tests, but the production team believed that this scene alone would inflate the budget to astronomical proportions, and they settled on the lightning strike option.
• When Marty tries to restart the DeLorean while in 1955, the car's headlights spell out the SOS signal in Morse code.
• When Marty travels to the past, he ends up on a farm belonging to the Peabody family (the surname can be read on the mailbox). The farmer's son is named Sherman. That's the same name as the boy who traveled through time in the “Peabody’s Improbable History” episodes of the animated show “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” (1961-1964).
• According to the film “Back to the Future Part III” (1990), the clock on the tower began running at 8:00 PM on September 5, 1885. In this film, lightning strikes the clock tower at 10:04 PM on November 12, 1955. Thus, the clock on the tower functioned for 70 years, 2 months, 7 days, 2 hours, and 4 minutes.
• The supermarket where Marty McFly and Doc Brown meet is called "Two Pines." Doc says that all the land in the area belonged to Farmer Peabody, who grew pine trees. When Marty travels to the past, he knocks down one of the pines on Peabody’s land. When Marty returns to 1985 at the end of the film, the sign in front of the supermarket reads: "Lone Pine."
• In the original 1981 screenplay, Marty's rock and roll performance led to a riot that required police intervention. Additionally, Marty told Doc about a "secret ingredient" that made the time machine work – ordinary "Coca-Cola." These circumstances led to a change in the course of time. When Marty returned, he found himself in an alternate 1980s that mirrored the concepts of 1950s science fiction writers. Moreover, many revolutionary inventions were created by Doc Brown and ran on "Coca-Cola." Marty also discovered that rock and roll had never been created, and he intended to start a delayed cultural revolution. Marty's father found an old newspaper with an article about a "school riot" in the 1950s, and on the photo, he recognized his son.
• The special effects for the final scene of the film, where we see the flying "DeLorean," were not finished in time for the test screening of "Industrial Light and Magic," so the last few minutes of the film were shown in black and white. But this was completely unimportant, as the audience loved the film.
• The guitars Marty plays are: - Erlewine Chiquita (in the opening scene of the film); - Ibanez black Strat copy (scene where Marty plays with his band in the 1980s); - Gibson ES-335 (scene at the dance).
• At the very beginning of the film, in Doc's room, you can see a clock with a small figure hanging from the hand. In the lightning scene, Doc also hangs from the clock's hand.
• At the very beginning of the "sea" party, where McFly arrives, the left floor loudspeaker stands on a large overturned wooden crate from "Pepsi". When McFly plays the guitar and then kicks this loudspeaker with his foot, the crate from "Pepsi" is no longer there.
• At the very beginning of the 'sea' party, where McFly arrives, the left floor speaker stands on a large overturned wooden crate from 'Pepsi'. When McFly plays the guitar and then kicks this speaker with his foot, the 'Pepsi' crate is no longer there.