10 things you NEVER knew about Back
to the Future!
Welcome back to Behind the Screens, the series where I’ll be
talking about some of the most popular movies, TV shows, games and more and
teaching you 10 facts about each that you likely have never heard!
Back
to the Future is one of those rare film trilogies where each installment
can be considered a bona-fide classic in its own right. The time-travelling
adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown are a rarity in that none of the three
movies are a true weak link, and each are strong films on their own as well as
in the context of the trilogy. As is to be expected they’re also hiding lots of
fun and interesting secrets, so let’s find out what the DeLorean has under the
hood!
1. Steven Spielberg saved the title
While Back to the Future is one of the most iconic names in cinema these
days, studio execs were unsure if it would sell back when the first movie was
in development. The title especially was a huge point of contention for them,
as they believed a movie with “Future” in the title, primarily because they
thought this would lead to the movie being unfairly compared to sci-fi films of
the time. Instead they suggested what they thought would be a better name:
“Spaceman from Pluto”.
Because that name definitely wouldn’t
inspire some sci-fi comparisons.
Producer and movie legend Steven
Spielberg swooped in to save the day, writing a letter back to the execs
thanking them for their excellent joke and telling them it made the entire crew
laugh. Unwilling to admit they’d been serious, they let the original name stay.
2. Michael J. Fox wasn’t always Marty
McFly
While Michael J. Fox was always
director Robert Zemeckis’ first choice for the part of Marty, he was
unfortunately met with a scheduling conflict with the sitcom Family Ties. With Fox unavailable, TV
star Eric Stoltz was hired in his place.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before
Zemeckis realized that Stoltz didn’t fit the part at all. He took everything way
too seriously, leaving little humour in the role (which is what you always want
from your star in a comedy movie). He also refused to pull his punches in fight
scenes with Biff Tannen, leaving actor Thomas Wilson with bruises after every
scene. Zemeckis quickly excised Stoltz from the movie and an agreement was made
with the producers of Family Ties to
bring the right actor to the part.
3. Back to the Future II introduced a
revolutionary effect
Back
to the Future II marked the first ever movie to feature two actors playing
different characters interacting with each other in the same scene. This is
most obvious in the scene where 2015 Biff talks to 1955 Biff about the sports
almanac, but it’s also used in the scene where Marty is hiding in his house in
2015 and when 1955 Doc and 1985 Doc are working together. The 2015 house scene
was especially difficult to shoot, with Fox having to shoot the scene at least
three times to make it look right.
4. A time-travelling Easter egg
We all know the scene where Marty
first arrives in 1955 and crashes into the farmhouse, but did you know that
there’s a fun nod to another series about time-travel in there?
According to the credits, the farmer’s
name is Mr. Peabody, and his son’s name is Sherman. This is, of course, a
reference to Mr. Peabody and Sherman,
the cartoon dog and boy duo who jumped through history on adventures.
5. Robert Zemeckis didn’t intend on
making any sequels
While the first movie seems to end
with a tease for Back to the Future II’s
plot, according to Zemeckis this was initially one final joke to end the movie
on. According to him, if he was planning on the sequel he wouldn’t have had
Marty’s girlfriend go with them, as she didn’t have much of a place in the
story. This is why she is knocked out and removed from the story so quickly in
the eventual sequel, because Zemeckis couldn’t figure out a way for her to organically
gel with Marty and Doc’s adventure.
6. The original design for the time
machine inspired an infamous scene in a different movie
Before deciding on the now-iconic
DeLorean time machine, the filmmakers went through plenty of options as to what
would be the most original everyday object to turn into this fantastical
machine. One of the earliest ideas was to have it be a refrigerator, but this
was scrapped out of fears that kids would start climbing into their own fridges
after seeing Marty do it in the movie.
However, the idea lives on in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull in the much-mocked scene where Indy survives a nuke by climbing in a
fridge. Spielberg left this in as a reference to the original idea for the time
machine.
7. A fun callback at the end
This is a fairly well-known secret,
but it’s such a good one that it’s worth keeping in here.
We all know that the iconic scene
where Doc introduces Marty to the DeLorean takes place in a mall parking lot.
What’s so special about that? If you notice, the mall is named “Twin Pines
Mall”. Again, nothing really special…until you reach the end of the movie when Marty
returns to warn Doc about the Libyans. Here, the mall’s name has been changed
to “Lone Pine Mall”.
This is because, upon first arriving
in 1955, Marty runs over one of two side-by-side pine trees. Without the twin
pines existing anymore, the mall’s name changed in the future!
8. The filmmakers got their timing
almost right
This is a small one but a cool one.
From the time that Marty meets up with Doc at the clock tower to the time
lighting strikes it, nine and a half minutes of film have passed. This is
extremely close to how long it takes in-universe to get Marty home. He meets up
with Doc at 9:56 PM and the lightning strikes at 10:04, which is 10 minutes
exactly. They missed perfection by just 30 seconds.
9. Doc’s shirt from the second movie
makes a return
By this point we all know that Doc’s
steam train-themed shirt was a sly hint as to what time period the franchise
would be heading to next, but did you know that the shirt makes a return later
on in the franchise?
When Marty and Doc are stealing the
train in the climax of Back to the Future
III, Doc is using the shirt as a balaclava to disguise himself as a bandit.
10. The film was made in record time
Nowadays it can take movies years to
be made. From the end of filming to release the latest Star Wars movie was in production for just shy of two years. This
was not the case for Back to the Future.
The time between the end of shooting
and the release of the movie in theatres was just 10 weeks. These days it would
likely take that time to just render the CGI in a single scene. The
post-production team’s jobs were perhaps made easier by the fact that there are
only 32 special effects shots in the entire movie, and several of them were
practical.
That’s all for this installment of
Behind the Screens! Tune in March 21 for the next one!
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