How to Ruin Back to the Future
My wife is probably going to hate me in thirty years.
I’ve seen, and own, quite a few movies. In fact, we have a DVD collection so large, when guests come over, their reaction to it is usually somewhat between “apprehensively impressed” to “Oh, I’m in the house of a crazy person.”
I do my best to thin the herd once in a while, just to alleviate her fears that I belong on Hoarders. It’s a healthy thing, after all. At certain times in your life, it’s important to take stock of the things you own and say, “Nobody really needs to own the Special Edition of Howard the Duck.”
Still, some movies are classics, and I won’t be parting with them anytime soon. And, even if the house burned down, I know the script of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off by heart. Which leads me to another reason my wife may one day decide to chloroform me and drop me off naked and starving in a forest someday: I’ve seen some movies so many times, I can no longer watch them like a real person. I need to recite dialogue, ask questions, and crack jokes.
Case and Point: We’re watching Back to the Future the other day (ironically, it was on cable), and I picked up the following nuances:
1) Why did the Libyans bring a rocket launcher with them when they came to hit the Doc? Isn’t that—no pun intended—overkill? It’s not enough that they’re going to leave a dead body in the parking lot of Lone Pine mall at 1:34 in the morning, they have to explode him in the process? And where do you get a rocket launcher in 1985? Did they get it in America, or did they bring it over on the plane with them from Libya? I realize that security was a bit more lax pre-9/11, but a stewardess is bound to notice something like that:
STEWARDESS: Sir? Is the rocket-propelled explosive device on the seat next to you yours?
TERRORIST (broken English): Yes. I feel a bit embarrassed to admit this, but we have to kill an American pig-dog who told us he was building a bomb, and instead gave us some pinball machine parts. It really fooled us until we went to detonate the bomb and all we got was a message that said “TILT.”
STEWARDESS: Well, I’m afraid you’re going to have to check that. It’s too big for the overhead compartment. Also, please extinguish your cigarette until we reach cruising altitude.
2) I can understand that George McFly standing up to a bully gave him the confidence to be a better man. What I’m not sure about is why knocking him out-- and then, fifteen minutes later, shoving a cackling red-haired kid on the dance floor-- elicits one girl to ask him if he’s interested in being class President. Can you imagine if that was the standard for American politics? If we elected politicians based on their ability to kick ass, Ron Paul wouldn’t stand a chance.
(And, in case you’re wondering, Romney is an inch taller than Obama, and probably has a bit of weight on him. On the other hand, Obama is younger and more athletic; plus he looks like he’s got a quick jab.)
3) Is nobody worried, at all, about the implication that Marvin Barry’s phone call to his cousin Chuck led to him plagiarizing the song “Johnny B. Goode” from a white kid? What’s the message here? I thought the whole point was to not talk about, or affect, the future in any way.
DOC (finding Marty’s letter in his pocket): “What’s the meaning of this?!”
MARTY: “You’ll find out in thirty years!”
DOC: “It’s about the future, isn’t it?! It’s information about the future! I’ve warned you about this, kid! The consequences could be DISASTEROUS! Unless… you create an alternate reality where black people stole rock and roll from white people instead of the other way around! THOSE consequences would be HILARIOUS! Now, get in that car while I invent ZIPLINING!”
I would tell you more in regards to how I ruin this movie when we watch it, but my wife is standing next to me shaking her head. It’s just as well, I suppose. It’s late, and I should get to bed.
Although… I hear something.
Is the car running?
And what’s that strange smell?
James Thomas
11:53 am on Sunday, July 15, 2012
No Patrick,
You lucked out as successfully as I did in finding the right woman to marry. She won't hate you in 30 years, you will. I don't exempt myself from this criticism either.
Brad
10:50 am on Monday, July 16, 2012
how about this one. In the beginning of BTTF 3, as Marty is getting ready to go back to 1885, he says to Doc "won't I hit that billboard with the Indians on it". Doc says "Marty, you're not thinking 4th-dimensionally. You'll be instantly transported back to 1885 and that billboard won't be there".
My question is, how come Marty doesn't realize this. By this point in the trilogy, he's already time-travelled about 4 or 5 times. How did he suddenly forget how the time machine works?
Patrick Giusto
10:17 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I always thought Marty meant the car (in the present) wouldn't have the distance to get up to 88 prior to hitting the sign, and they were having a miscommunication (because Doc was thinking the car would already have gone back in time by then). The REAL stupid thing is both of them thinking he could go back to the Old West wearing a pink, frilly cowboy outfit that the members of the Village People would have found tacky.
tom m
11:28 am on Monday, July 16, 2012
How come during the first film, when Einstein travels through time, the DeLorean is covered in ice...and every other time they travel there is no ice?
Patrick Giusto
10:24 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I thought you made an excellent point here. Although, I've always thought the ice was intermittent througout the trilogy, not just a one-time occurrence. Like: it sometimes is there, and sometimes not. Still, why the differences?
Because I am the nerd I spoke about in this piece, I went looking for an answer. The most plausible I uncovered were (basically): 1) it wasn't that big a deal, and the moviemakers decided it was too much of a hassle to do it every time (which indicates a level of sloppiness those movies aren't known for), and/or 2) the Mr. Fusion device lessened the amount of ice on the vehicle in parts two and three (which is not an airtight theory either, no pun intended).
Sadly, we are NOT having the most-nerdy discussion about this topic, as I found someone who said:
"I would hypothosise that the icing of the DeLorean was, in fact, a Bose Einstein condensate, rather than ice, formed by the time machine traveling faster than light,"
So, in case you're reading these comments and you think Tom, "Peter," Brad, and I are the nerdiest people in the world, I will simply say: "There's always a bigger fish."
tom m
5:14 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
its funny that you bring up Mr fusion .....at the end of the first movie he installs the Mr. Fusion device which allows him to fly BUT in the third movie he needs to use a train to push him (why not fly)
Patrick Giusto
5:59 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Doesn't Doc say something about the time circuits running on Mr. Fusion, but the engine running on ordinary gasoline or something? I guess that means it wouldn't start in the first place...?
I like the third one, but it jumped the shark a little.
joe ponikarovsky
1:14 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
patrick is correct regarding mr fusion powering the time circuits, and that the power needed to get up to 88mph has always been normal gasoline.
however, patrick is incorrect about the third one. it was excellent, just not as much so as the first two. that's not a shark jump.
James Murphy
1:52 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
joe but at the end of the 1st one doc throws garbage into the mr fusion and it lifts up in the air then flys down the street so he should have been able to fly to 88mph
joe ponikarovsky
2:02 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
james, mr fusion just powers the time circuits:
"Marty: Yeah, no big deal, we got Mr. Fusion, right?
Doc: Mr. Fusion powers the time circuits and the flux capacitor. But the internal combustion engine runs on ordinary gasoline; it always has. There's not going to be a gas station around here until some time in the next century. Without gasoline, we can't get the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour."
also: http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Fusion
James Murphy
2:47 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
joe --outstanding answer !!! I would stand corrected EXCEPT the car lifted off and flew down the street making a humming propulsion sound with jetlike afterburners as it flew past http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKLs9ynZEH0
joe ponikarovsky
2:54 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
james: are you claiming that it's not an internal combustion engine then?
James Murphy
2:59 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
I think it is a plot hole that they smoothed over in 2-3 to make it work
the video shows jets under the car lifting it up and an afterburner as it flew past
Cuddy
5:43 am on Friday, July 20, 2012
I think you're missing something guys. It was mentioned in the early part of BTTF 3 that the lightning scrambled the flying circuits, and the car would not fly again.
Doc: "The car flew?"
Marty: "Yeah, you had a hover conversion done in the early 21st Century."
Peter Venkman
11:39 pm on Monday, July 16, 2012
James - We all appreciate you being nice to Patrick. I respect the fact that you most likely disagree with a great deal of what Mr. Giusto concludes, but we are all just trying to keep it civil here. We don't want to mess with no reefer addicts.
Now let me give you a nickel's worth of free advice, young man. This so-called Mitt Romney is dangerous. He's a real nutcase. You hang around with him, you're gonna end up in big trouble.
Calvin Klein
James Thomas
9:25 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Mr Venkman,
I have no idea how you got to what you said from what I posted. Non- sequitor seems to be the mildest term that could describe your post.
Patrick Giusto
10:15 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
All of it was a reference to the movie. "We don't want to mess with no reefer addicts" is what Biff's gang says to the band in the parking lot of the dance when Marty gets locked in the trunk. The "nickel's worth of free advice" part is what Principal Strickland tells Marty about Doc at the beginning. And the Calvin Klein part is pretty self-explanatory to anyone who's seen the movie, or Michael J. Fox in his tighty-purples.
"Peter": that was a brilliant comment that made a group of us laugh when we read it. Now when someone asks if you're a god, you (can) say yes!
James Thomas
11:31 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I will consider myself schooled.
Tom Stephan
9:42 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Hmmm......corrections: Fifth paragraph -- the correct expression is "Case IN Point" -- "and" would (and does) make no sense.
"Scene 3" -- Doc's second line: spelling error! The correct spelling is DISASTROUS
James Thomas
9:48 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Once a teacher, always......
Peter Venkman
10:11 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Once a tea-bagger, always
Robert Bodi
10:19 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Peter, above you state that you are trying to keep it civil, and then you use a pejorative sexual term to reference a particular group of community activists? Civil? I think not.
-Bob
NO TO BODI 2012
11:11 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Mr Bodi - What an unfortunate name to choose for yourselves. I was referring to the destruction of the tea into the Boston Harbor. My reference was not uncivilized or sexual. What are you some kinda creep - no wonder the westlake residents didn't want you around those school kids!
Last night, Darth Vader came down from Planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't vote for Mitt Romney, that he'd melt my brain.
James Thomas
11:31 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Mr. Venkman
The term "tea party" is the one that references the Boston Harbor incident and is what you should have used. The one you did use does have uncivil connotations and Mr. Bodi is correct.
joe ponikarovsky
12:31 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
what a brilliant post. i welcome any and all discussion surrounding this glorious trilogy of films (not to mention other brilliant classics such as our friend venkman's wonderful films).
regarding point #1: my guess is that the rocket launcher was included because, well, it's the 80's and everything was over-the-top in movies. that's what makes movies like this amazing.
my question, now and ever since i saw this film as a child, is how the hell do they know the exact *second* that the clocktower will be struck? i know the flyer says: "precisely at 10:04 pm" (or at least, that's how doc reads it) but are we to take that as the exact *second* of 10:04 pm? and come on, lightning travels faster than that; they'd need to know down to the millisecond or lower. but i digress...again, it was the 80's so just as with the ability of the libyans to import a rocket launcher to the states, we have to take a leap of faith that doc and marty had the *exact* right time.
Patrick Giusto
1:43 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
That's always been a major plot-hole to me. I know I'm only half-suspending disbelief here (since I'm 100% ok with the concept of a DeLorean that travels back in time), but that seems like an easily fixable problem within the script. Maybe the lady who shakes the change-can in Marty's face could have said something to the effect of "the clock's second hand is frozen at exactly..." or we could see more detail on the flier or something.
By the way, thanks for the "brilliant" comment, but these are definitely the types of discussions that kept me out of all the really good parties in high school.
Debbie S.
4:32 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I love Back to the Future. I was lucky to have visited Universal Studios on a family vacation the summer before the movie was released when filming was over but the sets were still up. The tour guide described the premise and the movie and I remember thinking how neat it all sounded. Our family couldn't WAIT to see the movie because we'd seen so many of the sets in person!
Patrick Giusto
6:08 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
That's awesome! I would imagine anytime you can make a personal connection to a film before it comes out that you're pretty much a guaranteed customer. A friend of mine has a bit part in the upcoming prequel to the Wizard of Oz ("OZ: The Great and Powerful"), so I'm definitely going to see that when it comes out. And how many people in Cleveland went to see the Avengers just because it was shot downtown?
Selfishly, I'd love to see a lot more films shot in Cleveland. Maybe they could do a flick where a supervillain blows up the Free Stamp.
James Murphy
6:29 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
debbie your family lives the charmed life, since most of your replies to many posts include we did this or that "on a family vacation " too
Debbie S.
7:07 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Patrick - I have yet to see Avengers, but you are right - I WANT to, just because it was shot in Cleveland (and many folks have told me it was a good movie to boot).
James - My dad was a teacher and my mom was a substitute teacher, so we would camp in the summers as a family because they considered travel to be an important part of our education. That particular summer was two years after my 8 year old sister had died, so my parents were keen to give the family a long break and we were gone 2.5 months traveling a loop around the entire country. So yes, I have seen LOTS while traveling on vacation and we save pretty diligently now to be able to give my kids similar educational experiences.