1985A

Back to the Future
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Written by	Bob Gale Robert Zemeckis
Starring	Michael J. Fox Christopher Lloyd Thomas F. Wilson Lea Thompson James Tolkan Claudia Wells (Part 1) Elisabeth Shue (Parts 2 & 3) Crispin Glover (Part 1) Jeffrey Weissman (Parts 2 & 3) Mary Steenburgen (Part 3)
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	1985-1990
Running time	337 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Gross revenue	$957 million
Official website • IMDb

Back to the Future is a comedic science fiction film trilogy written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, directed by Zemeckis, and distributed by Universal Pictures. The plot follows the adventures of high-school student Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and scientist Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) as they use a modified De Lorean automobile to time travel to different periods in the history of Hill Valley, California.

The first film was the highest grossing film of 1985 and became an international phenomenon, leading to two sequels which were filmed back-to-back and released in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The trilogy is widely noted for its irreverent comedy, eccentric characters and ability to incorporate complex theories of time-travel without confusing the audience.^{[citation needed]} Though the two sequels did not perform quite as well at the box office as the first film, the trilogy remains immensely popular after 20 years and has yielded such spin-offs as an animated television series and a motion-simulation ride at the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, Florida (now closed); Universal City, California (now closed), and Osaka, Japan.

Contents 1 Main cast 2 Storylines 2.1 Back to the Future 2.2 Back to the Future Part II 2.3 Back to the Future Part III 3 Critical reception 4 Box office 5 Time Travel Theory 6 DVD release 6.1 Framing issues 6.2 Second DVD release 7 Release formats and features 8 Promotional posters 9 Games 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

Main cast

Main article: List of Back to the Future cast members

• Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, Marty McFly, Jr. (son of Marty), Marlene McFly (daughter of Marty), and Seamus McFly (great-great-grandfather of Marty).
• Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown
• Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen, Griff Tannen (grandson of Biff) and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (great-grandfather of Biff)
• Lea Thompson as Lorraine Baines (McFly/Tannen) and Maggie McFly (Seamus' wife, Marty's great-great-grandmother)
• James Tolkan as Mr. Strickland and Chief Marshal James Strickland (grandfather)
• Claudia Wells and Elisabeth Shue as Jennifer Parker (McFly)
• Crispin Glover and Jeffrey Weissman as George McFly
• Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton

Storylines

Back to the Future

Main article: Back to the Future

17-year-old Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955 in a time machine built from a DeLorean by eccentric scientist Emmett L. Brown, also known as "Doc". Upon arriving in 1955, Marty inadvertently causes his mother (Lorraine McFly) to fall in love with him, rather than with his father (George McFly). This begins to cause what Doc Brown later describes as a paradox that would cause Marty to disappear from existence. To make matters worse, Marty did not bring back any extra plutonium to power the time machine, so he must find the 1955 version of Doc Brown to help him reunite his parents and return to 1985. Biff Tannen, the antagonist, causes difficulty in the conflict resolution. Marty successfully causes his parents to fall in love and simultaneously ruins the future of Biff Tannen, who in the end is an auto detailer instead of George McFly's co-worker. Marty learns in the end that his familial situation has improved because of the way his parents' relationship was changed by his intervention in the past. Doc Brown and the De Lorean appear and Doc tells Marty that he has returned from the future, and that Marty must come back to the future with him.

Back to the Future Part II

Main article: Back to the Future Part II

Doc Brown travels with Marty to the year 2015 where he has discovered Marty's family is in ruins. Marty buys a sports almanac containing the outcomes of 50 years worth (1950–2000) of sporting events. However, Doc catches him and throws the almanac in the trash, where the aged Biff Tannen finds it. While Marty and Doc are at Marty's future house, Biff steals the De Lorean time machine and gives the book to himself just before he goes to the dance at the end of the first movie. When Doc and Marty return to 1985, they find that Biff has used the almanac's knowledge for financial gain, which allows him to turn Courthouse Square into a 27 story casino, "own" Hill Valley, get away with the murder of Marty's father, and later marry Marty's mother. Marty learns that Biff was given the book by an old man in 1955, so he and Doc go back to that date in order to steal the almanac from Biff before he can use it to destroy their lives. They accomplish this in a complex fashion, often crossing their own past-selves' paths. When the duo are about to travel back to 1985, a lightning bolt strikes the De Lorean and scrambles the time circuits, sending Doc back to 1885 and leaving Marty stranded in 1955.

Back to the Future Part III

Main article: Back to the Future Part III

After finding out that Doc Brown is trapped in 1885, Marty sets out to find the 1955 Doc to help him fix the DeLorean (which has been waiting for him in a mineshaft for 70 years) and restore it to working order. Learning that Doc gets shot in 1885, Marty travels back in time to save Doc (who becomes a blacksmith) and bring him back to the future. Unfortunately, Marty rips a hole in the fuel line, rendering the DeLorean immobile. Furthermore, Doc falls in love with schoolteacher Clara Clayton, and considers staying in 1885. Marty must convince Doc to come back with him and find a way to get back to his time before it's too late. After several dramatic action scenes involving a speeding locomotive, Marty returns to 1985 in the restored De Lorean. It appears on a train track as planned, and Marty jumps out just in time to see the DeLorean time machine destroyed by a modern train. He worries that Doc has been lost in the past forever, when suddenly Doc Brown appears in a new time machine, modeled after a locomotive. He introduces Marty to Clara (to whom he is now married) and his two sons, Jules and Verne. When Marty asks if Doc and his family are going to the future, Doc replies that he's already been to the future. The locomotive flies across the sky and disappears, and the trilogy ends.

Critical reception

Film	Rotten Tomatoes
Back to the Future	95% (44 reviews)[1]
Back to the Future Part II	65% (37 reviews)[2]
Back to the Future Part III	74% (52 reviews)[3]

Box office

Film	Release date	Box office revenue
		United States	Foreign	Worldwide
Back to the Future	July 3, 1985	$210,609,762	$170,500,000	$381,109,762
Back to the Future Part II	November 22, 1989	$118,450,002	$213,500,000	$331,950,002
Back to the Future Part III	May 25, 1990	$87,727,583	$156,800,000	$244,572,583
Total		$416,787,347	$540,300,000	$957,581,847

Time Travel Theory

Time travel is one of the primary storytelling elements in the Back to the Future series. While there are no rules of time travel in real life, only theories, the film series generally adheres to a single set of rules of how the timeline can be affected.

In the films, a time traveler can have a direct effect on the timeline, and thus alter the future. When traveling to the past, a traveler can alter events such that they no longer correspond to the events as they occurred in the traveler's own past. However, the traveler retains the memory of his original experiences, and not memories of the new timeline. The Back to the Future series thus follows the grandfather paradox theory of time travel, and not the predestination paradox theory. But, as seen in Part I, if a traveler causes changes in the past that will ultimately result in his non-existence in the future, he will fade from existence, but only once the possibility of their existence is entirely eliminated. The films do not consider the fact that if they were to eliminate their own existence, they could not possibly travel to the past to create such effects, thus making the plot of the film redundant^{[original research?]}. Physical artifacts can also bear the results of changes in the timeline. In the series, several photographs and a printed document, all brought back from a future time, are immediately altered as a result of changes made in the past. The immediate changes indicate that the timeline is changed whenever a change in the past is made. This is known as the ripple-effect.

Every jump into the past depicted in the Back to the Future saga puts the traveller along a new timeline, as their presence in the past is itself a change made to the timeline. When traveling forward in time, the traveler arrives in the future along the same timeline they departed from. The films do not explore the question of whether travelling into the future causes a change in the timeline from that point on, and whether a timeline exists/existed in which the traveler did not arrive in the future. However, Doc Brown simplifies the theory in Part II, stating that whenever a time traveler alters events occurring in the past (in his case, Biff giving his younger self the sports almanac), they effectively bring an alternate timeline into existence from that point in time. He does not indicate that the travel into the past itself changes the timeline.

Doc Brown suggests that it may be disastrous for someone to meet themselves while traveling through time. Marty sees a past instance of himself numerous times in Part II, with no special consequences; he is aware of his past self's experiences and his past self does not see him. Jennifer and her future self come face to face in Part II and both faint, but again, there are no other consequences. Imagineer Bruce Gordon suggested in issue #108 of Starlog Magazine that no second version of the time traveler exists until the time traveler goes back in time and sees himself in the past.^[4] There is some ambiguity as to how changes in the past affect travelers left in the future. Doc, Marty and Jennifer seem unaffected by "Old" Biff's trip to 1955 which causes his younger self to rise to control the city. Biff's trip seems to have no effect on the three travelers. Also, in Part II, Jennifer is left on her front porch; she is found there in Part III after many changes in the timeline. In both cases, the timeline seems to change around the travelers who originate in another timeline.

While there is no set number of timelines in existence throughout the films, as unseen trips through time are made off-screen, the following is a list of timelines actually seen. Jumps to the future are presumed not to create new timelines:

1. The original, unaltered timeline that exists at the start of Part I.
2. Marty accidentally jumps back to 1955, and subsequently alters his parent's past. Marty returns to 1985, and the movie ends in this timeline. Doc also travels to the future off-screen. This is presumably also the timeline in which Doc, in the future, sees the trouble with Marty's kids.
3. Doc returns to 1985 to pick up Marty and Jennifer at the end of Part I (replayed at the start of Part II). He brings them to the 2015 where they see their family.
4. "Old" Biff heads back to 1955 in the stolen DeLorean with the sports almanac to give to his younger self. He then returns to 2015, having set his past self up to be rich and powerful.
5. Marty, Doc and Jennifer return to 1985 (dubbed "1985A") in which Biff controls much of the city. They unwittingly leave Jennifer asleep on her porch. The Doc native to this timeline has been committed, and the Marty of this timeline is overseas at school.
6. Marty and Doc travel to 1955 to prevent the changes. Marty robs Biff of the almanac, while avoiding running into the past version of himself.
7. The hover-converted DeLorean is struck by lightning and is sent back to 1885. Doc hides the DeLorean and writes Marty a letter which is delivered in 1955. Marty seeks out the Doc of 1955 who helps him recover the car.
8. Marty travels to 1885 in Part III, where he saves Doc's life, but must return to 1985 alone. Doc, in the past builds a locomotive into a time machine and travels into the future to have it hoverconverted. He may also have stopped in 1985 to retrieve Einstein.
9. Doc and his family return to 1985 in the locomotive to give Marty his gift. This timeline may begin earlier if Doc's trip to the future was not immediately prior to his arrival in 1985 at the end of Part III

DVD release

In July 1997, Universal Studios announced that Back to the Future would be one of their first 10 releases to the new format, though it ended up being delayed for five years. It was finally released at the end of 2002 in both widescreen and fullscreen versions in a blue box with Marty and Doc on the cover.

Framing issues

Devoted fans of the films quickly noticed that the video of the widescreen version of Parts II and III contained numerous shots that had been framed incorrectly, either because the shots were too high or low to center the image correctly, or because they "zoomed in" on the image, eliminating portions of the image on all sides. One notable example is when Marty's futuristic jacket adjusts itself to fit him, the misframed version doesn't show the sleeves changing size, thus ruining the visual gag. Outraged fans quickly organized petitions demanding that Universal Studios correct the problem and re-release the DVD set.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2003, Universal corrected the problem and issued "V2" (Version 2) DVDs, that could only be distinguished from the original, flawed DVDs by the mark of a small "V2" near the edge of the discs themselves (and, of course, by comparing the corrected video). However, they did not initially begin packaging the V2 discs with the trilogy box set that was being sent to retailers. Instead, Universal set up a toll-free phone number which owners of the original DVDs could call, and ask for a postage-paid envelope to be sent to them. The owner would send their flawed discs to Universal in the envelope, and would soon thereafter receive the corrected "V2" discs by mail.

In January 2005, Universal began a nationwide promotional campaign, announcing that they would re-issue the DVDs of the trilogy at a special low price (about half the set's original retail price) on January 25, 2005, and then put the entire trilogy on moratorium a week later, on February 1, 2005, with new stickers on the box declared "Lowest Price Ever: Own It Before Time Runs Out!" The discs in this release contained no new content or bonus features from the original release even the packaging was almost identical, except for the promotional sticker and excluding the multi-page, full color DVD menu booklet. No booklet or chapter insert is included in the revised release, but did finally contain the corrected V2 discs. Curiously, only the disc for Part II displays the "V2" marking on its edge; the Part III disc does not, but fans have analyzed its video carefully and concluded that, despite the lack of the "V2" marking, the Part III disc is the corrected one.

Second DVD release

On October 21, 2008, BTTF.com broke the story that Universal will be releasing each of the "Back to the Future" films individually in February 2009. "Back to the Future" will be a 2-disc set featuring the long awaited documentary "Looking Back to the Future" and "Back to the Future...The Ride." ^[5]

Release formats and features

	Box	Audio	Scene Specific Commentary	Framing	Enhanced MJ Fox interview
1986 (Part I) CED	Tan with Marty and De Lorean	Stereo	No	?	No
1986 (Part I) VHS	Blue with Marty and De Lorean-	Stereo	No	Correct Widescreen	No
1993 Japanese Laserdisc	Charcoal with logo	Stereo	No	Generous	No
VCD	Blue with Marty and De Lorean	Stereo	No	Correct Widescreen	No
2002 R1 DVD	Blue with Marty and Doc with De Lorean	Dolby 5.1	Yes	Incorrect Widescreen	Yes
2002 R2/R4 UK DVD	Black with De Lorean	Dolby 5.1 and DTS	No	Incorrect Widescreen	No
2002 R2 German DVD	Black with De Lorean	Dolby 5.1 and DTS	No	Incorrect Widescreen	?
2003 "V2" (Part II & Part III) DVD	No box	Dolby 5.1	Yes	Corrected Widescreen	Yes
2005 R1 DVD	Blue with Marty and Doc	Dolby 5.1	Yes	Corrected Widescreen	Yes
2005 R2/R4 UK DVD	Blue with De Lorean	Dolby 5.1 and DTS	Yes	Corrected Widescreen	Yes
2005 R2 German DVD	Blue with De Lorean	Dolby 5.1 and DTS	No	Corrected Widescreen	?
2005 R2 Japanese DVD	Blue with De Lorean	?	?	Corrected Widescreen	?
2006 R2 UK DVD	Blue with De Lorean	Dolby 5.1 and DTS	Yes	Corrected Widescreen	Yes
2009 R1 Individual DVDs	BTTF: Marty with DeLorean BTTF II: Marty and Doc with DeLorean BTTF III: Marty, Doc, and Clara with DeLorean	Dolby 5.1	Yes	Corrected Widescreen	Yes

The footage that was shot with Eric Stoltz in the role of Marty McFly before he was replaced with Michael J. Fox has never been officially released. This footage was not included in Universal's original DVD release in 2002 or in 2005, despite many fans hoping that Universal would include it.

Promotional posters

All three posters were created by noted poster artist Drew Struzan, although the original concept poster of Marty looking at his watch by the car was by Wayne Coe. Each poster features a variation on the same pose, and has the same number of characters present as each movie is numbered.

• For Part I, Marty is dressed in his 1985 clothes standing beside the original De Lorean time machine, raising his sunglasses and looking at his wristwatch.
• For Part II, Marty and Doc are dressed in 2015 clothes beside a hovering De Lorean, raising their sunglasses and looking at their wristwatches.
• For Part III, Marty, Doc and Clara are dressed in 1885 clothes beside a De Lorean on rails, holding the brims of their hats and looking at pocket watches.

A modified version of the Part I artwork, which added Doc Brown to the original image, was used on the cover of the trilogy's DVD release.

Games

• Various video games based on the Back to the Future movies have been released over the years for home video game systems, including the Commodore 64 computer, the Sega Master System, the Sega Genesis/Megadrive, NES, and Super Nintendo system.
• LJN also released Back to the Future Part II & III for the NES in 1990, which unlike the previous game, was a side scrolling adventure game that allowed travelling back and forth between the different time periods from the trilogy as Marty attempts to correct the timeline and get back to the real 1985.
• A Japanese-only release for the SNES was made based on Back to the Future II. The game was a side-scroller that allowed the player to control Marty on the hoverboard while he battled enemies.
• A 1990 pinball game designed by Joe Kaminkow and Ed Cebula and released by Data East Pinball based on the Back to the Future trilogy. This game features three songs that were featured in the movies: "Back in Time" and "Power of Love" (originally performed by Huey Lewis and the News), and Doubleback (originally performed by ZZ Top).IPDB listing for Back to the Future: The Pinball.
• The GameCube game, Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure, featured the Back to the Future: The Ride as a game.Back to the Future Ride Game follows just like the ride. Your mission is to chase Biff in Hill Valley through time, future(2015), ice age, and prehistoric.

See also

• De Lorean time machine
• De Lorean DMC-12
• Back to the Future
• Back to the Future Part II
• Back to the Future Part III
• Back to the Future: The Animated Series
• Back to the Future The Ride

References

External links

• BTTF.com
• Official Universal Pictures site advertising the trilogy.
• BTTF Frequently Asked Questions written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis

v • d • e Back to the Future Films Back to the Future • Back to the Future Part II • Back to the Future Part III Characters McFly family: Marty McFly • George McFly • Lorraine Baines • Jennifer Parker • Seamus & Maggie McFly Brown family: Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown • Clara Clayton • Jules Brown • Verne Brown • Einstein • Copernicus Tannen family: Biff Tannen • Griff Tannen • Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen Music Back to the Future • Back to the Future Part II • Back to the Future Part III • The Back to the Future Trilogy • "The Power of Love" • "Back in Time" • "Johnny B. Goode" • "Mr. Sandman" • "Earth Angel" Related media Back to the Future: The Animated Series • Back to the Future: The Ride • Video games • Back to the Future: The Pinball Universe Timeline • DeLorean time machine • Minor characters • Hill Valley • Hoverboard • In popular culture

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