Film: Back To The Future
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Country: USA
Released: July 1985
Runtime: 116 minutes
Genre: Science Fiction
Studio: Amblin / Universal
Influenced: John Hughes, Christopher Nolan, Richard Kelly, Jon Favreau, Taika Waititi
Back To The Future is a bona fide classic, one of the films I've taken most pleasure in rewatching with my children. The idea for the film came to co-writer Bob Gale when he was going through his father's high school yearbook and wondered if he and his father would have been friends if they went to school together. This led him to exploring with co-writer and director Robert Zemeckis the idea of a film that shows a character interacting with his parents in the past, and one of the film's great innovations is the way it introduces audiences to the concept of the "time-travel paradox", wherein the past is not a fixed canvas but a malleable one susceptible to alteration. The audacious idea that altering the past could lead to dire consequences is explored with both gravity and humour in Back To The Future.
Lead character Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is a typical teenager living in Hill Valley, California, in the 1980s who becomes friends with the eccentric inventor Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd). Fox was initially unable to commit due to his obligations to the TV show Family Ties, but producer Steven Spielberg's persistence and willingness to work around Fox's schedule led to his casting. One day, Doc Brown reveals to Marty his latest invention: a time-traveling DeLorean car that runs when it reaches a speed of 88 miles per hour and uses plutonium as fuel. During a test run, terrorists who initially provided Doc with the plutonium kill him, and Marty accidentally activates the time machine, sending himself back to the year 1955. In the past, he meets his parents, George McFly (Crispin Glover) and Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson), who are still teenagers, and accidentally interferes with their first meeting, endangering his own existence. Marty must then find a way to ensure that his parents meet and fall in love, so he can return to the present.
While time travel had been a theme in previous films, Back To The Future popularised the idea of the "butterfly effect", where even the smallest actions in the past can have significant consequences on the future. Throughout the film, Marty faces several challenges, including getting to know a younger version of Doc Brown, navigating the social dynamics of the 1950s and trying to get his parents together while avoiding altering the course of history too much. Marty helps his father, George, gain confidence and stand up to Biff Tannen, a bully who tries to take advantage of him and who harasses Marty's mother. The film reaches its climax with the iconic "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance scene, where Marty plays guitar and ensures that his parents kiss and fall in love, securing his existence.
In a tense finale, Marty has to race against time to reconnect the electrical cables that will power the DeLorean and return him to the future. The film's DeLorean time machine and its iconic flux capacitor became symbols of time travel in popular culture, and the movie's blend of humour, coming-of-age story and thrilling action set it apart from other sci-fi films of the time. Back To The Future was a critical and commercial success on its release and spawned two sequels, Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990). The film's influence on popular culture is immense, with references and homages appearing in various forms of media, while the phrase "Great Scott!" used by Doc Brown quickly became an iconic catchphrase.
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