Back to the Future Part II

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Back to the Future Part II
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Produced by Steven Spielberg
Written by Robert Zemeckis,
Bob Gale
Starring Michael J. Fox,
Christopher Lloyd,
Lea Thompson,
Thomas F. Wilson
Music by Alan Silvestri
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) November 22, 1989
Running time 108 min.
Language English
Budget $40,000,000 USD
Preceded by Back to the Future
Followed by Back to the Future Part III
IMDb profile

Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 film and is the second part of the Back to the Future trilogy. It is the sequel to the first movie in the trilogy, Back to the Future. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. This movie and the third part of the trilogy, Back to the Future Part III, were filmed simultaneously and released six months apart.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story continues with Marty McFly and Doc Brown as they now leave 1985 to go into the year 2015 to stop Marty's kids from destroying their lives. Since Jennifer has seen the DeLorean, they take her along, but Doc tranquilizes her because she asks too many questions about the future, and no one is allowed to know too much about their own destiny or future. Marty's son, Marty Junior, is approached by Griff Tannen, Biff's grandson, and his gang and is asked to join in a robbery. According to Doc, this event eventually leads to the disruption of the entire McFly family. Marty impersonates his son and tells Griff he will not join in. The gang gets angry and chases after Marty. Using a hoverboard, he manages to escape them, and as a result, they crash into the courthouse and end up in jail, thus preventing the robbery. While Marty is in 2015, he finds an antique store with all sorts of memorabilia from the 20th Century, among which is the "Gray's Sports Almanac 1950-2000," containing all sport scores for that time span. Wanting to get rich when he goes back to 1985, Marty buys the almanac, but Doc catches him and puts it in the trash, berating Marty that he did not build a time machine for such trivialities as making money. Old Biff overhears the conversation and takes the almanac.

Jennifer, still tranquilized, is found by the police, mistaken for her future self after thumbprint identification, and taken home. Hiding in a closet, she sees her family life is far from ideal. Then, old Marty gets a phone call from his colleague Needles (played by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, who will appear also in Back to the Future Part III under the same role), who goads him into cooperating in a profitable but illegal scheme. But their boss at CusCo, Mr. Fujitsu (The Jits), was listening in, and Marty promptly gets fired. Doc finally finds Jennifer and gets her out of the house, after she briefly meets her future self and both faint from the shock of seeing each other. While Doc is rescuing Jennifer, Old Biff steals the DeLorean and travels to some point in time. Just before Marty and Doc return with Jennifer, Biff apparently suffers a heart attack when exiting the DeLorean (a deleted scene showed him vanishing). Doc then decides that when they return to 1985, he is going to destroy the time machine, believing that it has only caused disaster and misfortune.

Promotional poster of Back to the Future Part II featuring the De Lorean DMC-12.
Enlarge
Promotional poster of Back to the Future Part II featuring the De Lorean DMC-12.

Returning to 1985, referenced to as 1985A, the fictitious timeline created during the film, Marty and Doc see that their time is not what it used to be. Hill Valley is now dilapidated, crime-infested and corrupt. Biff has become a rich and powerful man, and is now married to Marty's mother, Lorraine. Doc has been committed to a psychiatric hospital and Marty's father George was murdered in 1973. Because of all of this, 1985A is sometimes referred to by fans as "Hell Valley," after an apt graffiti alteration to the "Welcome to Hill Valley" sign. Doc discovers the bag the Almanac came in and old Biff's fist-shaped cane handle, revealing Biff had given the book to himself, thus changing his future. Marty confronts Biff to find out when and where he got the almanac, which turns out to be on November 12, 1955, around the time of the events in the original movie.

Chased to the rooftop, corrupt Biff taunts Marty by mentioning he was the one who killed his father. Marty, pretending to be exasperated, 'jumps' from the roof. Doc in the (hovering) DeLorean catches him and knocks Biff out with the gull-wing door. Then, the two of them go back to 1955 - the exact set of days from the first movie. In a series of events that closely matches the first movie, the newer version of Marty manages to keep Biff's cronies from beating up his other version, and several times comes close to obtaining the almanac. Eventually, Biff drives off in his newly cleaned car. Hanging onto the side of the car with the aid of the hoverboard, Marty finally grabs the almanac and is rescued by Doc from being overrun by furious Biff's car and Biff crashes into a truck full of manure again. As the rainstorm from the end of the first film begins, Marty burns the almanac to cinders, thus repairing his future. As revealed earlier in the film, Doc accidentally turns on the time circuits while taking off, which were malfunctioning and flashing the "Destination Time" as January 1, 1885. As Doc attempts to land the DeLorean, the car is suddenly struck by lightning, activating the flux capacitor and sending him back to the year 1885. A few seconds later a Western Union delivery man appears with a letter. The letter was given to Western Union with the explicit instructions to deliver it to Marty "at this exact location, at this exact minute, November 12, 1955." Marty tears open the letter to find out it is in fact from Doc, trapped in 1885. This is Doc's 1885 letter to Marty. Marty rushes off to find the contemporary 1955 Doc, who has just succeeded in sending the other Marty back to the future in the first movie. Upon seeing that Marty has returned from the future, Doc faints and the screen fades out with the words, "To be concluded...".

[edit] Deleted footage

In scenes deleted from the film, an older Biff Tannen fades out of existence (much like Marty was in the original movie when interfering with his parents' meeting) once arriving in the future, having been erased from existence in that time period. This can be explained for two different reasons. First, these events created a time paradox. Having created an alternate timeline by giving his younger self the almanac, the old Biff from 2015 no longer exists, now that 2015A will become part the 1985A timeline. Another possibility is that Lorraine, in 1996 of the A timeline, shoots and kills Biff. These events are never implied in the trilogy, although Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale suggest this theory as a way of explaining Biff's "disappearance."

The scene is notable in that Biff started to fade out as Marty and Doc Brown flew off in the DeLorean and only disappeared completely after the sound of the "time burst" is heard. Presumably, had Marty and/or Doc discovered Biff's cane head in the time machine, which Biff broke off when he exited the car, they could have aborted the trip to 1985 and restored the timeline. Had this occurred, Biff would have faded back into existence, much as Marty did in Part 1, after his father kissed his mother.

While exploring 1985A's run down Hill Valley, Marty encounters the High School which is fenced off and in ruins, following the fire mentioned by the 1985A equivalent of Principal Strickland.

While in 1985A's run down Courthouse Square, Marty encounters the 1985A version of his brother Dave; a drunk and ramshackle bum. This scene appeared in the 1989 novelization.

[edit] Release details

Back to the Future Part II earned $27 million in its first weekend of U.S. release (November 22, 1989) and $118 million total US gross – $332 million worldwide. However, this was still short of the first film's gross, and the film experienced a drop of over 50% in its second weekend, a steep figure at the time. The same fate occurred in Part III, which came out only six months later. On December 17, 2002 Universal Studios released all three movies in a three disc DVD and three tape VHS boxed set which sold extremely well when it was released.

[edit] Main cast

The characters of George McFly and Jennifer Parker were played by actors different from those of the original film, requiring that some previous scenes be reshot.

[edit] Replacement of Crispin Glover

As Bob Gale states in the DVD commentary, actor Crispin Glover was asked to reprise the role of George McFly in this film. Glover indicated interest, but demanded a salary the producers felt was unreasonable. Glover refused to budge, so he was dropped from the picture. As a result, the writers introduced the idea of "killing him off" into the story. During all scenes in which the George McFly character appears in both this film and Back to the Future III, he is played by Jeffrey Weissman and seen wearing sunglasses, from the back, upside-down, or in the background out of focus. This was to prevent audiences from realizing that George McFly was played by a different actor. However, producers also recycled various scenes from the original Back to the Future that included Crispin Glover's portrayal of George McFly. Glover sued Universal for compensation, on grounds that his contract for the first film did not allow subsequent uses of his portrayal of George McFly. Universal settled and new Hollywood rules were written regarding the derivative use of actors' works.

[edit] Rumors and urban legends

Marty, from the ankles down, riding a Hoverboard in 2015
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Marty, from the ankles down, riding a Hoverboard in 2015

During an interview, director Robert Zemeckis jokingly said that the hoverboards (flying skateboards) used in the movie were real. A surprising number of people thought he was telling the truth and demanded them at toy stores. After the release of Part III, Zemeckis had the opportunity to explain in another interview that all of the flying scenes were accomplished by suspending the boards using wires. There was even a high demand for the Nike Sportshoes Marty wears with automatic shoe-laces, which fans thought to be real.

After the Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series, a rumor began to circulate that the movie predicted the Series' result; however, this was not the case. No mention is made of Florida winning the World Series at all, and the only mention of a Florida-based team is in a news broadcast which announces that the National League Chicago Cubs beat an American League Miami team with an alligator logo (not a marlin) in the 2015 World Series (a joke at the Cubs' expense; they had not won the World Series since 1908, the Marlins have since won the world series in 1997 and 2003). The Marlins did not begin play until the 1993 season. The Cubs have still not won since 1908, although they did come close to beating the Marlins (Miami) in the NLCS in 2003.

[edit] Café 80's

The Café 80's is a fictional restaurant located in downtown Hill Valley in the 2015 scene. The restaurant is of 1980s nostalgia motif and features Max Headroom-style video waiters with depictions of Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and Ayatollah Khomeini. To the left of the restaurant, there is a Wild Gunman arcade game; to the right of the restaurant, there is a Pac-Man arcade game. The building is painted with Miami Vice-inspired pastel colors. The counter with the Pepsi logo is inspired by Japanese design. The Cafe was situated in the same building that housed "the saloon" in 1885, "Lou's Cafe" in 1955 and "Lou's Aerobic Fitness Center" in 1985. According to an early script for the movie, the Cafe 80's is owned by Biff's future son, Biff Tannen, Jr.

[edit] Awards

The movie won a Saturn Award for Best Special Effects for Ken Ralston (the special effects supervisor), a BAFTA Film Award for Ken Ralston, an internet-voted 2003 AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award for the trilogy DVDs, a Golden Screen, and a Young Artist Award. It was nominated in 1990 for an Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Most visual effects nominations were due to the development of a new computer-controlled camera system, called VistaGlide, which was invented specifically for this movie — it enables one actor to play two or even three characters in the same scene while the boundary between the sections of the split screen and the camera itself can be moving.

A closer look at VistaGlide

[edit] Trivia

  • When reading a newspaper from the future, one headline refers to Queen Diana (referring to the late Princess Diana) coming to Washington while another headline refers to the President of the United States as a female. Bob Gale jokingly said (on the audio commentary) that he had no idea about the 1997 death of Princess Diana but said he probably should have taken it into possibility.
  • As Bob Gale mentions in the audio commentary, he said that the trailer appearing to advertise Back to the Future Part III was taken from the device used to advertise The Four Musketeers within The Three Musketeers.
  • In the alternate 1985, the newspaper that had the story about Doc being declared insane had an article titled "Nixon to Seek Fifth Term; Vows End to Vietnam War by 1985"". When the original 1985 was restored, Doc was featured as being commended (instead of committed) and the Nixon article was changed to "Reagan to Seek Second Term; No Republican Challengers Expected". This was a reference to Alan Moore's acclaimed comic book series, The Watchmen. It should be noted that Reagan won his second term in 1984.
  • Many of the cars that appear in the future scene are modified for the film or concept cars. Examples include Ford Probe, Saab EV-1, Citroën DS, Pontiac Banshee Concept, Pontiac Fiero, Volkswagen Beetle and Biff's BMW 633CSi.[1] Also appearing is the StarCar from the 1984 film The Last Starfighter.
  • When the DeLorean is struck by lightning and sent backwards in time, flames in the shape of a backwards number 99 appear in the sky. This is the same fire trails that appear when the time machine disappears at every occurrence of time travel. The reason for the twin loops in the sky is the DeLorean doing a backflip in the air due to the power of the strike.
  • The original script for Back to the Future Part II had Marty and Doc Brown go back to 1967 instead of 1955, had Mr. Fusion destroyed, with Marty and Doc Brown having to fly the DeLorean over the Grand Canyon. (See the original draft in External Links)

[edit] Video games

Several video games based on the movies were released. See Back to the Future video games for a list.

[edit] See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] External links


Back to the Future trilogy
Back to the Future | Back to the Future Part II | Back to the Future Part III
Timeline | Hill Valley | Animated Series | The Ride | Video games | Characters
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