Back to the Future Part II

Back to the Future Part II
Original film poster
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Produced by	Bob Gale Neil Canton Executive producers: Steven Spielberg Frank Marshall Kathleen Kennedy
Screenplay by	Bob Gale
Story by	Robert Zemeckis Bob Gale
Starring	Michael J. Fox Christopher Lloyd Thomas F. Wilson Lea Thompson
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Dean Cundey
Editing by	Harry Keramidas Arthur Schmidt
Studio	Amblin Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	November 22, 1989 (1989-11-22)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Gross revenue	$331,950,002
Preceded by	Back to the Future
Followed by	Back to the Future Part III

Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 science fiction action-adventure dramedy film and a sequel to the 1985 film Back to the Future. Like the previous film, it was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. Part II and the third installment of the trilogy, Back to the Future Part III, were filmed back-to-back, with some of the scenes of Parts II and III filmed concurrently, and released six months apart. Although released in 1989 and 1990, both films continued to portray 1985 as the present, due to them directly following the events of the first film.

Part II follows the continued adventures of Marty McFly and "Doc" Emmett Brown as they use their time-traveling DeLorean to travel into a retro-futuristic version of 2015, a dark alternative 1985 and the principal setting of the first film in 1955. The film ends with a cliffhanger that is resolved in Part III.

Plot

On October 26, 1985, Dr. Emmett Brown arrives from the future and tells Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker that he needs their help to save their kids in the future. They depart in the flying DeLorean time machine as Biff Tannen accidentally witnesses the departure. They arrive on October 21, 2015, where Doc electronically hypnotizes Jennifer to sleep and leaves her asleep in an alley to keep her away from his plan. Meanwhile, Doc has Marty pose as his son, Marty McFly, Jr., to refuse a robbery from Biff's cybernetically enhanced grandson, Griff Tannen, which would result in the arrest of Marty Jr. and his sister Marlene for breaking him out of jail, and that these events would cause more downward turns for the McFly family. Marty refuses the deal, but Griff goads Marty into a fight; Marty escapes the fight and leads Griff and his gang on a hoverboard race across the courtyard square, ultimately resulting in Griff and his gang crashing through the courtyard windows and changing the future history as they are promptly arrested instead of Marty Jr. On his way back to meet with Doc, Marty purchases an almanac detailing results from major sporting events of the last half of the 20th century. Doc discovers the purchase and lectures Marty on trying to profit from time travel, but before Doc can dispose of the sports book, they are forced to follow the police who have found the sleeping Jennifer and are taking her to her future home. Old Biff, overhearing the conversation and recalling the DeLorean from 1985, follows with the discarded book.

Jennifer wakes up in her future home and hides while the McFly family has dinner together. She overhears that Marty's life, as well as their life together, is less than they expected due to a car accident that Marty was in in 1985. As she watches, older Marty is goaded into a shady business deal by his friend Needles and is immediately fired from his job, as announced by numerous faxes (one copy of which Jennifer keeps). While escaping the house, Jennifer meets her older self and they both faint; as Marty and Doc run to retrieve the younger Jennifer, Old Biff steals the DeLorean, travels back in time, and returns. Marty, Doc, and Jennifer return to 1985, unaware of Biff's actions, and leave Jennifer on the porch at her home.

Marty and Doc soon discover that this 1985 has changed dramatically, as Biff Tannen has become incredibly wealthy and converted Hill Valley into his own personal paradise: a chaotic dystopia. Biff has killed Marty's father and has forced his mother Lorraine to marry him; Doc has been committed to an insane asylum. Doc finds evidence of the sports almanac and Biff's trip to the past in the DeLorean, and tells Marty he needs to learn when the younger Biff received the almanac so they can go back and correct the timeline. Marty confronts Biff regarding the almanac; Biff explains that he received the book from an old man on November 12, 1955, the same day as the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" and the lightning storm that struck the clock tower. Biff also reveals that the old man told him to watch for Marty or Doc looking for the book, and attempts to kill Marty. Marty escapes with Doc, and with new information, the two return to 1955.

Marty works undercover to trail Biff; he is present when Old Biff arrives to give Biff the book, but is unable to retrieve it. Marty is forced, with Doc's help, to try to get the book back during the dance, being careful to avoid undoing the events that he had already corrected in his previous trip. Eventually, Biff leaves the dance, and Doc and Marty follow him silently, Marty using the hoverboard while tethered to the flying DeLorean by a string of banners distracts Biff long enough to grab the book, causing Biff to, yet again, crash into a truckload of manure.

With the storm approaching, Doc is unable to set down the DeLorean, and instructs Marty over walkie-talkies to burn the almanac. Upon doing so, their evidence from 1985 returns to what they expect, and all appears to be well. However, as Marty watches, the hovering DeLorean is struck by lightning and disappears. Immediately afterwards, a courier from Western Union arrives and gives Marty a 70-year old letter; Marty discovers the letter is from Doc, who ended up in 1885 after the lightning strike caused the time machine to malfunction. Marty races back into town and finds the 1955 version of Doc, celebrating the success of having sent the earlier version of Marty back to 1985. Doc is shocked and faints when Marty approaches him.

Cast

• Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly Sr., Marty McFly Jr. and Marlene McFly
• Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett L. "Doc" Brown
• Thomas F. Wilson as Biff and Griff Tannen
• Lea Thompson as Lorraine Baines (McFly/Tannen)
• Elisabeth Shue as Jennifer Parker (McFly)
• James Tolkan as Mr. Strickland
• Jeffrey Weissman and Crispin Glover (original Back to the Future footage) as George McFly
• Billy Zane as Match
• Casey Siemaszko as 3-D
• J.J. Cohen as Skinhead
• Flea as Douglas J. Needles
• Neil Ross as Biff Tannen Museum Narrator (voice)
• Elijah Wood makes his film debut as video game player.
• Jason Scott Lee appears as Whitey, a member of Griff's gang.

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

Development

Zemeckis states that initially Back to the Future was not destined to have a sequel, but its huge box office success led to the conception of a second installment. At first Part II was to take place in 1967. "Mr. Fusion" was to be destroyed, and Marty and Doc Brown would have to fly the DeLorean over a canyon.^[1]

A major stumbling block arose when negotiating Crispin Glover's fee for reprising the role of George McFly. When it became clear that he would not be returning, the role was rewritten so that he is dead when the action takes place in the alternative version of 1985.

The greatest challenge was the creation of the futuristic vision of Marty's home town in the year 2015. Production Designer Rick Carter wanted to create a very detailed image with a different tone than the movie Blade Runner, saying he wanted to get past the smoke and chrome. Rick Carter and his most talented men spent months plotting, planning and preparing Hill Valley's transformation into a city of the future.

When writing the script for Part II, writer and producer Bob Gale wanted to push the ideas of the first film further for humorous effect. Zemeckis admits he was somewhat concerned about portraying the future because of the risk of making wildly inaccurate predictions.^[2]

Production

It took two years to finish the set building and the writing on the script before shooting could finally take place. During the shooting the appearance of the "aged" characters was a well-guarded secret. Their look was created using state of the art make-up techniques. Michael J. Fox describes the process as very time consuming, “it took over four hours although it could be worse”.^[2]

The film was also considered one of the most ground-breaking projects for Industrial Light and Magic. It was one of the effects house's first forays into digital compositing, as well as the VistaGlide motion control camera system, which enabled them to shoot one of the film's most complex sequences, in which Michael J. Fox played three separate characters, all of whom interacted with each other. Although such scenes were not new, the VistaGlide allowed, for the first time, a completely dynamic scene in which camera movement could finally be incorporated. The technique was also used in scenes where Thomas F. Wilson's character (Biff Tannen) had to interact with a younger version of himself.

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 made demands for his contract the producers felt were unreasonable. Glover reportedly refused to budge, so he was dropped from the picture. Glover later insisted in a 1992 interview on The Howard Stern Show that he and Zemeckis had some "creative disagreements" over the character, and felt that the director simply wanted an actor who was more pliable.

Replacement of Claudia Wells

Claudia Wells' scene at the end of Back to the Future (top) was reshot with Elisabeth Shue for the beginning of Back to the Future Part II (bottom).

Claudia Wells, who had played Marty McFly's girlfriend Jennifer Parker in the original Back to the Future was to reprise her role, but turned it down due to her mother's ill health. The producers cast Elisabeth Shue instead, which required re-shooting the closing scenes of Back to the Future for the beginning of Back to the Future Part II. The re-shot sequence is a nearly shot-for-shot match with the original with only minor differences such as the dialogue scene where Doc Brown noticeably hesitates before reassuring Marty that his future self is fine - something he did not do in the original film.

It was nearly 10 years before Claudia Wells returned to Hollywood, with a starring role in the 1996 independent film Still Waters Burn. She is one of the few actors not to make an appearance during the 2002 "behind the scenes" documentaries on the Back to the Future trilogy documentaries on DVD.

Rumors and urban legends

As a joke, Robert Zemeckis said during a television interview that the hoverboards (flying skateboards) used in the movie were real, yet not released to the public due to parental complaints regarding safety. A number of people thought he was telling the truth and requested them at toy stores. In an interview, Thomas F. Wilson had said one of the most frequent questions he is asked is if hoverboards are real, to which he replies that they were guided by invisible wires, along with being asked if he fell into actual manure (he did not; it was peat moss). After the release of Part III, Zemeckis explained in another interview that all of the flying scenes were accomplished by a variety of special effects techniques. There was even a high demand for the Nike tennis shoes Marty wears with automatic shoe-laces, which fans thought to be real. Nike eventually released a real version of their Hyperdunk Supreme shoes, which appear similar to Marty's shoes, in July 2008; fans dubbed them the Air McFly.^[3]

After the Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series, and again in 2003, when the Marlins defeated the Cubs in the NLCS (and subsequently defeated the New York Yankees in the 2003 World Series), rumors circulated that the movie predicted the Series' results;^[4] however, this was not the case. In the film's future news broadcast, it is announced that the National League Chicago Cubs beat the American League team 'Miami Gators' based in Miami, which has an alligator logo, in the 2015 World Series. Aside from the incorrect year, the mascot of the team mentioned does not match that of either current Florida-based team, the Florida Marlins or Tampa Bay Rays. At the time the movie was filmed, Florida did not have a Major League Baseball team of their own, but the Miami-based Marlins played their first season in 1993.

In addition to foreseeing the birth of a Major League Baseball franchise in Florida, the film accurately predicted a number of technological and sociological changes, such as the rise of ubiquitous cameras, influence of Asian nations over America (though this was certainly already on the rise at the time of the film's release), flat panel television sets mounted on walls, the ability to watch six channels at once, and increased use of plastic surgery.^[5]

Robert Zemeckis also said in an interview that Marty and the Doc were originally going to travel back to 1967 rather than 1955 to recover the almanac from Biff, saying that this would allow the viewers to "see the hippies and lava lamps". This was later scrapped after it was decided that it would be too costly and time consuming to rearrange the set a fourth time to reflect a fifth decade.

Release and reception

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

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 Universal Pictures released only six months later. On December 17, 2002 the studio released all three movies in a three disc DVD and three tape VHS boxed set which sold extremely well when it was released, despite having widely discussed widescreen framing problems, which had led to an unpublicized product recall.^[6] The film received mildly mixed to positive reviews including a 'fresh' score of 64% from Rotten Tomatoes.^[7]

Home video release history

• March 18, 1990 (VHS & Laserdisc)
• July 4, 1991 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc)
• December 8, 1991 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc)
• March 23, 1995 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc)
• June 7, 1998 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc - The Last release of CD & Laserdisc)
• March 15, 2002 (VHS & DVD)
• May 7, 2006 (VHS & DVD)
• October 26, 2010 (Blu-Ray)

Awards and Accolades

The movie won 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, a Young Artist Award, and the Favorite Movie Actor (Fox) and Favorite Movie Actress (Thompson) at the 1990 Kids' Choice Awards. 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.

Back to the Future Part II ranks 498 on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.^[8]

References

External links

• Official Universal Pictures site
• Back to the Future Part II at the Internet Movie Database
• Back to the Future Part II at Allmovie
• Back to the Future Part II at Rotten Tomatoes