Back to the Future III

All you want to know about Back to the Future III

For the video game based on this film, see Back to the Future Part III (video game).
Back to the Future Part III

Theatrical film poster
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Produced by Steven Spielberg
Written by Robert Zemeckis
Bob Gale
Starring Michael J. Fox
Christopher Lloyd
Mary Steenburgen
Thomas F. Wilson
Lea Thompson
Music by Alan Silvestri
James Horner (Universal logo only)
Cinematography Dean Cundey
Editing by Harry Keramidas
Arthur Schmidt
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) May 25, 1990 (1990-05-25)
Running time 118 minutes
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget US$40,000,000
Gross revenue US$244,527,583
(worldwide)
Preceded by Back to the Future Part II
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Back to the Future Part III is the third and final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy. The film is a science fiction western, using the time travel premise of the series to take Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) back to the Old West of 1885.

Contents

Plot

Picking up where Back to the Future Part II left off, Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) is now stranded in 1955 after "Doc" Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and the DeLorean were accidentally sent back to the year 1885. Marty receives a seventy-year-old letter from the Doc, which explains that he hid the DeLorean in an old mineshaft and tells Marty that he should immediately return to 1985 and destroy the time machine in order to prevent further disruption of the space-time continuum. With the help of the 1955 version of the Doc, Marty uncovers the DeLorean, but discovers in a nearby cemetery that the Doc died just seven days after having written the letter thanks to Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. His tombstone has an encryption which says it was erected by "his beloved Clara".

Marty as Clint Eastwood
Marty as Clint Eastwood

Therefore, Marty journeys back to the Old West to rescue his friend. He arrives in the middle of a skirmish between a group of Native Americans and the United States cavalry, resulting in the DeLorean's fuel line getting ruptured. Marty reunites with the Doc, who agrees to leave when he learns of his upcoming fate. Concluding from a photograph of the tombstone which Marty brought back from 1955 that he is apparently destined to fall in love with a woman named "Clara", Doc realizes that he was going to meet the incoming schoolmarm Clara Clayton that day and decides that he should leave without meeting her.

However, due to the ruptured fuel line, leaving 1885 proves problematic as the DeLorean cannot reach eighty-eight miles per hour without gasoline and there won't be any gas stations in Hill Valley until the 20th century. The Doc plans to push the DeLorean up to eighty-eight with a steam locomotive, but finds they will need to achieve that speed before reaching an incomplete train trussel built over a deep ravine. Shortly after formulating this plan, Doc and Marty rescue a woman from falling into the ravine, only discovering afterwards that she is Clara Clayton. Doc has an obvious amorous interest in her and she reciprocates, much to Marty's annoyance.

Doc, Marty and Clara later attend a town festival dedicating the newly constructed clock tower. The festival is interrupted by Buford who attempts to kill Doc, revealing that he was shot two days before his actual death. Marty manages to save the Doc, but is goaded into a gun duel after Buford calls him "yellow". With Doc's original death averted, his name disappears from the tombstone in the photograph, but the date remains and Doc warns Marty that his name may end up on it if he chooses to meet up with Buford. Still infatuated with Clara, the Doc expresses his desire to stay with her in 1885, but Marty talks him out of it. Doc decides to say goodbye to her and, when pressed, tells her that he's from the future. Thinking this an obvious lie, Clara angrily rejects him and so Doc heads to the town saloon to get drunk. Marty convinces him to leave the saloon, but not before Buford shows up and insists that it's time for the showdown. Marty is forced to participate and defeats Buford by using a stove cover as a bullet-proof shield. Following the duel, Buford is arrested for having had committed a robbery the previous day. Clara, meanwhile, hears about how heartbroken the Doc was when she rejected him and sets off to find him.

Doc and Marty hijack a train and, leaving the railroad cars behind, start to push the DeLorean with it, using specially-created logs to heat the engine hot enough. Clara catches up with it on a horse, climbs aboard the cabin and declares her love to Doc. As Clara will die when the train goes over the edge of the ravine, Doc and Marty conclude they will have to bring her into the DeLorean and take her back to the future with them. This proves impossible when the engine gets so hot it explodes, leaving Doc and Clara clinging onto it for dear life. Marty sends them the hoverboard he obtained from 2015 and Doc rescues Clara with it. The two of them fly off just as the DeLorean hits eighty-eight miles per hour, sending Marty back to 1985 without the Doc or Clara.

The Doc and family return from the past
The Doc and family return from the past

As planned, Marty coasts safely across the ravine bridge, completed and still in use by 1985, but he immediately encounters a modern-day diesel locomotive bearing down on him. Marty escapes, but the DeLorean is smashed to pieces. Marty meets up with Jennifer and Needles and, having learned his lesson back in 1885, refuses to take part in a drag race after Needles calls him "chicken". This causes him to avoid the automobile accident which resulted in his ruined future, as depicted in Part II. Marty takes Jennifer to the site of the destroyed DeLorean, where they witness Doc arrive in a steampunk time machine built out of a train. Doc reveals to them that he has started a family with Clara and that they have two boys named Jules and Verne. As Doc prepares to leave again, Marty asks if they plan to go to the future. Doc says they've already been there and the train lifts off from the ground and flies into time.

Cast and crew

Cast

Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton
Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton

Crew

Release

The movie grossed US$23 million in its first weekend of US release and $87.6 million altogether in US box office receipts – $243 million worldwide. On December 17, 2002 Universal Studios released Back to the Future Part III in a boxed set with the first two films on DVD and VHS which did extremely well. In the DVD widescreen edition there was a minor framing flaw that Universal has since corrected, available in sets manufactured after February 21, 2003.

In 1990 the movie won a Saturn Award for Best Music for Alan Silvestri and a Best Supporting Actor award for Thomas F. Wilson. In 2003 it received AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award for Best Special Edition of the Year, an award based on consumer online voting. The film received a Thumbs Up from Gene Siskel and a very marginal Thumbs Down from Roger Ebert on Siskel & Ebert.

Video and computer games

Main article: Back to the Future video games

LJN released an NES game called Back to the Future Part II & III, a sequel to their game based on the first movie. An arcade Back to the Future Part III game was also released that would eventually be ported to several home video game systems, including the Sega Genesis. However, the games ended up being a critical flop due to their odd level design, and few references to the films (In Back to the Future the game there are no settings, events, items or characters from the movie other than Marty). Gametrailers.com placed it at number eight in their "Top Ten Worst Movie Based Games."

See also

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Back to the Future trilogy
Back to the Future · Back to the Future Part II · Back to the Future Part III
Characters
McFly family
Brown Family
Tannen Family
Related articles
Entertainment
Soundtracks
Other
v • d • e
Films directed by Robert Zemeckis
1970s
1980s
1990s
Back to the Future Part III (1990) · Death Becomes Her (1992) · Forrest Gump (1994) · Contact (1997)
2000s
What Lies Beneath (2000) · Cast Away (2000) · The Polar Express (2004) · Beowulf (2007) · A Christmas Carol (2009)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future_Part_III"

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