The Zone

It's always bothered me how Marty's hair changed between the first and second films. You'd think if there was any detail they replicate with relative ease, it'd be that one.

by **TheButcher** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:45 pm

From Variety:
Christopher Lloyd goes back in 'Time'

Dave McNary wrote:Christopher Lloyd's returning to the topic that made him a star, signing to appear in an Imax film tentatively titled "Time, the Fourth Dimension," produced by 3D Entertainment Films.

3D's Jean-Jacques Mantello ("OceanWorld 3D") and Richard Gabai ("Insight") will co-direct "Time," with a release set for spring 2012.

Much as he did in the "Back to the Future" trilogy, Lloyd will portray an eccentric professor who will explore and explain various dimensions with a focus on space-time.

Pic will include a variety of 3D filmmaking techniques, including special effects, computer-generated images as well as time-lapse and high-speed photography.

"Time, the Fourth Dimension" will have a running time of about 45 minutes. It's part of 3D Entertainment Distribution's recently announced plan to offer 3D films for Imax exhibitors, to be launched next summer with "Air Racers 3D: Forces of Flight" and "Patagonia Wilderness 3D" next fall.

by **RogueScribner** on Tue Oct 12, 2010 7:01 pm

Eric Stoltz footage to be on Back to the Future Blu-ray!

by **Fried Gold** on Tue Oct 12, 2010 7:07 pm

RogueScribner wrote:Eric Stoltz footage to be on Back to the Future Blu-ray!

You mean....when they said "Every bit of archive footage is on this DVD" a few years ago.....they were lying?

by **TheButcher** on Tue Oct 12, 2010 7:58 pm

From THR: VIDEO: Eric Stoltz as the original Marty McFly - Never-before-seen clip of the first 'Back to the Future' star

See Eric Stoltz As Marty McFly In BACK TO THE FUTURE!!

by **TheButcher** on Wed Oct 20, 2010 12:39 pm

Eric Stoltz Sounds Off About Marty McFly and 'Back to the Future'

by **TheButcher** on Tue Oct 26, 2010 8:09 pm

Why Doc Brown is the real villain of Back To The Future

by **TheButcher** on Sun Nov 14, 2010 11:40 pm

The Biff Tannen Museum:

by **Tyrone_Shoelaces** on Tue Dec 07, 2010 2:24 pm

New videogame: Back To The Future's Trailer Will Have Your Emotions Running at 88mph

by **Fried Gold** on Fri Feb 04, 2011 2:04 pm

by **Cpt Kirks 2pay** on Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:29 pm

I can only remember George doing newly scripted stuff for the futuristic stuff. Back in '55 it was entirely stuff from the first film they use, right? Crispin Glover makes it seem as if new scenes/angles were shot for the second movie of him in '55, intercut with '55 stuff from the first film. What gives?

by **Hermanator X** on Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:46 pm

Cpt Kirks 2pay wrote:I can only remember George doing newly scripted stuff for the futuristic stuff. Back in '55 it was entirely stuff from the first film they use, right? Crispin Glover makes it seem as if new scenes/angles were shot for the second movie of him in '55, intercut with '55 stuff from the first film. What gives?

There were new angles and stuff, back in 55, which showed Marty prime in the proximity. Also, he stands there silently at the door, somewhere near the end of the movie, back in the present, and its blatantly a dude in make up.
I watched em a few weeks ago,.

by **Cpt Kirks 2pay** on Fri Feb 04, 2011 4:11 pm

Hermanator X wrote:
Cpt Kirks 2pay wrote:I can only remember George doing newly scripted stuff for the futuristic stuff. Back in '55 it was entirely stuff from the first film they use, right? Crispin Glover makes it seem as if new scenes/angles were shot for the second movie of him in '55, intercut with '55 stuff from the first film. What gives?

There were new angles and stuff, back in 55, which showed Marty prime in the proximity. Also, he stands there silently at the door, somewhere near the end of the movie, back in the present, and its blatantly a dude in make up.
I watched em a few weeks ago,.

Aaahhhh OK. Mr Body Double then. Hah, which ironically, even if they DID have the actual actor here n set, they woulda got a body double to do anyway, as actors can be a lazy bunch sometimes. Mr Ethics git pah my ass. He just wanted to sue and get rich without even having to work on that film or any other. He knew he wasn't needed for those scenes yet he still took them to court for something he didn't need to do. Just for money.

Typical USA lazy bastard.

by **Fried Gold** on Fri Feb 04, 2011 6:21 pm

Cpt Kirks 2pay wrote:I can only remember George doing newly scripted stuff for the futuristic stuff. Back in '55 it was entirely stuff from the first film they use, right? Crispin Glover makes it seem as if new scenes/angles were shot for the second movie of him in '55, intercut with '55 stuff from the first film. What gives?

They were going to just use the footage with the actual Crispin Glover without paying him for "appearing" in the film.

by **TheButcher** on Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:13 pm

From THR:
Nike Expected to Announce 'Back to the Future'-Style Self-Lacing Sneakers Thursday
McFly's Closet

by **TheButcher** on Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:15 pm

The 2011 NIKE MAG - It's About Time

by **TheButcher** on Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:21 pm

El Delorean de Volver al Futuro en Cabildo y Juramento

by **Fievel** on Thu May 16, 2013 8:54 pm

Son of a Biff!

by **Fried Gold** on Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:03 pm

by **RogueScribner** on Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:48 pm

Bob Gale does do anything BTTF!

by **Fievel** on Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:43 pm

Fried Gold wrote:

Honestly, the ending of BTTF 1 has always bugged me in the way that he talks about in that interview. I get what they were going for, but I think it would have been a much better film had they just been the same ol' family in the same house/jobs/etc.... just a lot happier.

There was some Creepy Facts About Back To The Future thing somewhere on the internet I read and one of the things was that the family that Marty McFly returns to in 1985 are really complete strangers that he's never met before, which is true. How is that a happy ending?

And I get the gag of making Biff an indentured servant, but really.... wouldn't a really happy ending have been for him to have learned his lesson and to have become a nice guy over the years?
(I know, I know, it wouldn't have served the story..... or the sequels.....)

And hey, what about this:

'Back To The Future' Then & Now Photos Show How Prophetic The Movie Was

Although I think they should have used this picture (or a better one from this scene) for George/Crispin Glover

by **Fried Gold** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 9:44 am

Fievel wrote:Honestly, the ending of BTTF 1 has always bugged me in the way that he talks about in that interview. I get what they were going for, but I think it would have been a much better film had they just been the same ol' family in the same house/jobs/etc.... just a lot happier.

I suppose it's a way of showing that George McFly, by punching a bully in the face, became a more successful and confident person overall...

There was some Creepy Facts About Back To The Future thing somewhere on the internet I read and one of the things was that the family that Marty McFly returns to in 1985 are really complete strangers that he's never met before, which is true. How is that a happy ending?

Yeah, I've read about that too. He's created a timeline with entirely different parents, but who apparently happened to have the same/similar children.

And I get the gag of making Biff an indentured servant, but really.... wouldn't a really happy ending have been for him to have learned his lesson and to have become a nice guy over the years?
(I know, I know, it wouldn't have served the story..... or the sequels.....)

It's not like they identify Biff as having a moment or reason for being a bad guy. He's just shown to have always been a bad guy. So there's no reason to suggest why he's changed in character at all by being punched in the face one time. (and doesn't older Biff in BTTF2 revert back from being a subservant to being a bad guy again?)

As you say, having Biff become a character who learns his lesson would be more satisfying. Or he just shouldn't be involved with the McFly family any more.

by **SooperPooperScooper** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:20 pm

its only a film stop moaning

by **RogueScribner** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:29 pm

It was the '80s. Of course a Reagan-era movie equated money with happiness.

by **SooperPooperScooper** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:37 pm

AND WHEN WAS MONEY A BAD THING TO GIVE HAPPINESS?

by **Fievel** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:56 pm

RogueScribner wrote:It was the '80s. Of course a Reagan-era movie equated money with happiness.

And there's the simple truth of it!

Fried Gold wrote:and doesn't older Biff in BTTF2 revert back from being a subservant to being a bad guy again?

...which then goes against the radical character change at the end of BTTF 1.... That version of Biff is almost like a stereotypical black character from early film. Almost expect him to call George McFly "Massa" and make the wide-eyed "Oh" face. Then all of a sudden he becomes some grizzled, cantankerous asshole in the future? That's a couple of serious character changes in one person.

Must have been something in that manure that was dumped on him.......

Random thought - In that interview video, Crispin Glover seriously looks like he should be Viggo Mortensen's brother.

by **Fievel** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:58 pm

SooperPooperScooper wrote:its only a film stop moaning

Normally, when people give me direction on my moaning, they buy me dinner first. Perhaps a drink or two.

by **TheBaxter** on Tue Aug 13, 2013 11:55 am

Fried Gold wrote:
There was some Creepy Facts About Back To The Future thing somewhere on the internet I read and one of the things was that the family that Marty McFly returns to in 1985 are really complete strangers that he's never met before, which is true. How is that a happy ending?

Yeah, I've read about that too. He's created a timeline with entirely different parents, but who apparently happened to have the same/similar children.

i always wondered if the new alternate-future version of marty mcfly would've turned out different, then all of the sudden one day he's replaced by the old marty mcfly, leaving his parents wondering about his sudden personality change. i think that would've made for a better sequel.... this wealthy and successful family whose son one day changes from stuck-up preppy snotty kid to nice, perky kid who plays guitar and rides a skateboard, and how they struggle with this sudden change in personality, taking him to doctors and psychiatrists to figure out what is wrong with him. i envisaged the final scene of a post-lobotomy marty mcfly being locked away in a padded cell, mumbling "i must get back... to the future. i must bet back... to the future" over and over while drool drips from the side of his mouth.

but that version probably wouldn't have done very well at the box office.

by **TheButcher** on Fri Feb 28, 2014 11:03 am

Keepin' It Reel - Crispin Glover Talks Back to the Future

by **TheBaxter** on Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:03 pm

crispin hellion glover is a national treasure.

by **TheButcher** on Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:14 am

Doc Brown Apologizes for 'Back to the Future' Hoverboard Scandal

by **Spandau Belly** on Tue Jul 29, 2014 9:16 pm

I saw these movies for the second time in my life the other day because they were showing all three in a row up on the big screen. I'd seen them when I was a kid and thought they were okay, but they didn't have the impact they seem to have had on a lot of other guys, so I figured I'd give them another shot. The stuff I remembered, and liked, best from my childhood viewing was the future stuff from the beginning of part 2. It had lots of gags and crazy inventions and was really overthetop, so watching it again now I can see why that part popped out to me the most as a kid. As for the rest of the series, I could tell you the basic plot of the first one involved Marty McFly travelling back in time and his mum falling in love with him, and that the third one was in the wild west. That's it.

I can definitely see why the first one is such a beloved classic. I liked it a lot more this time. It tells a nice small story with lots of laughs, some action/stunt stuff, and the characters are a lot of fun. The ending was a bit overthetop, what with smarmy yuppie George McFly subjugating Biff into slavery and all. Also, if a dude tried to rape my wife I don't think I'd hire that guy to work around my house washing my cars 'n shit, even if was to rub my dominance in his face. But I guess that's just me. But yeah, really nice movie.

Somebody somewhere has probably already pointed out how this series has a lot of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE in it, the way it uses alternate reality with light comedy to deliver a nice message about family and keeping perspective on what's important. And the second one where Biff is Scarface is totally like the part in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE where Potter turns the city into Potterville. Zemekis probably avoided setting BTTF at Christmas to avoid comparisons.

The second one is pretty clever. The overthetop stuff at the beginning is still pretty funny. I like seeing Biff as a self-styled Scarface. The way the second half wraps itself around the first movie is, in my opinion, masterfully executed. If I have any problem with Part 2, it is probably the personal arc they set up for Marty this movie, and the fact that they don't resolve that arc until the next film. Marty's arc this time is that he's easily baited into doing reckless things whenever somebody taunts him. For starters, I just don't buy it. Michael J. Fox plays Marty with too much of an upbeat confidence for me to believe this guy is so insecure and hot-tempered. Maybe Eric Stoltz could've sold that aspect of the character better. Also, dragging this plotline out over parts 2 and 3 was a bit much.

The third one is still fun, although quite a step down. For starters, there's nothing of personal interest for Marty. There's no real hook. The first one had the hook of what it would be like for a teenager to meet his parents when they were teenagers. The second one had the hook of a teenager seeing himself as a middle-aged guy. The third one, Marty just wants to get out of the west. There's nothing there for him. Sure, he meets his ancestor, but he doesn't really seem to take anything from that.

Part 3 tries to make Doc the main character and takes on the daunting and ill-advised task of making Christopher Lloyd a romantic lead. They go about this by dropping a woman in Doc Brown's lap and having her instantly find everything about Doc Brown to be dashing and attractive. So Part 3 is mostly Doc Brown's romance and the series' running gags, which are starting to go a little stale by the third go round.

All and all, this is a nice little series. The pieces in the first one definitely all fall into place the neatest to tell a fun story that is upbeat and heartwarming without becoming schmaltzy. The second one is a lot of fun, it has some cracks in it that become full fledged problems in third installment, but the series never disgraces itself.

by **Lord Voldemoo** on Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:57 pm

TheButcher wrote:Doc Brown Apologizes for 'Back to the Future' Hoverboard Scandal

I think it's real this time.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/ever-wanted-to-soar-on-a-board-like-marty-mcfly-100566560479.html

Not quite up to Back to the Future standards, yet, but it has potential! Someone shell out $10000 for one of these, please, and then let me play with it.

by **so sorry** on Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:21 am

Lord Voldemoo wrote:
TheButcher wrote:Doc Brown Apologizes for 'Back to the Future' Hoverboard Scandal

I think it's real this time.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/ever-wanted-to-soar-on-a-board-like-marty-mcfly-100566560479.html

Not quite up to Back to the Future standards, yet, but it has potential! Someone shell out $10000 for one of these, please, and then let me play with it.

The sound coming out of that thing is horrendous.

by **TheButcher** on Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:19 pm

so sorry wrote:
Lord Voldemoo wrote:
TheButcher wrote:Doc Brown Apologizes for 'Back to the Future' Hoverboard Scandal

I think it's real this time.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/ever-wanted-to-soar-on-a-board-like-marty-mcfly-100566560479.html

Not quite up to Back to the Future standards, yet, but it has potential! Someone shell out $10000 for one of these, please, and then let me play with it.

The sound coming out of that thing is horrendous.

Watch Tony Hawk Ride a Real 'Back to the Future'-Style Hoverboard
Get ready for your mind to be blown

by **TheButcher** on Fri Jan 30, 2015 3:57 am

The Dark Time Travel Paradox At The Heart Of Back To The Future

"Run for it Marty!"

by **TheButcher** on Fri Oct 09, 2015 2:03 am

'Back to the Future' Screenwriter: I Never Could Have Predicted Smartphones
"Part of what makes the movie still so watchable, even as goofy as some of the stuff is, is that everybody understands that we're having fun with it," said Bob Gale, screenwriter and co-producer of the trilogy.

Ryan Parker wrote:Of all the futuristic ideas screenwriter Bob Gale came up with for Back to the Future Part II, there is one piece of modern technology he never imagined possible in 1989: the smartphone.

"It's the Swiss Army Knife of today," he said. "The fact that everyone can have one device that's a computer, that's a camera, that's a recording device, that's a calculator, that's a flashlight ... we didn't think of that."

In an interview with THR on the Universal Studios backlot, Gale talked about the future he and director Robert Zemeckis envisioned for their character Marty McFly, who will arrive on Oct. 21, 2015, according to the film.

Some of the ideas for gadgets were just the Oscar-nominated pair goofing around — like the food hydrator — but other inventions Gale knew would be a reality in the not-too-distant future, he said.

Added Gale, "I would have bet that the flat-screen TV and the Skype-like communication — I would have put money that we would have that."

Gale, a co-producer of the trilogy, also knew that people in 2015 would be nostalgic for the '80s, he said. "You're always going to be nostalgic about what happened 30 years ago."

In recent years, there has been a push to develop the technology seen in the film, especially hover boards and power shoelaces. Just in the past week, Pepsi announced it will make a limited-edition bottle from the film, and Universal released a fake trailer for Jaws 19.

Gale is happy his art has inspired reality, but he said he is shocked some inventions that were gags then actually exist now.

"The fact that we have drones that can take news pictures — now that was just a joke," he said. "We weren't seriously thinking about how that technology would work, but wow," said Gale. "They don't walk our dogs yet, but that'll happen."

There was one aspect of the future that Gale and Zemeckis purposely avoided: the music.

"That was a very deliberate choice," said Gale. "That was one we knew we would get wrong and that when people would watch the movie much later on, it would make everyone groan."

Stars Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd never balked at any of the futuristic ideas during production, said Gale.

"Part of what makes the movie still so watchable, even as goofy as some of the stuff is, is that everybody understands that we're having fun with it," said Gale. "We're not saying, 'We're going to seriously try to predict what life is going to be like in the year 2015,' no."

As for the technology Gale wishes existed — that's fusion energy, he said.

"That would mean that we would have limitless energy that would be extraordinarily cheap," he said. "That would solve so many problems in the world, but I don't think that's going to happen."

Now that 2015 has arrived, Gale is thinking about what technology will exist in the next 30 years.

"We've got a serious doctor shortage that is on the horizon," he said, "but when we're able to have devices at clinics or even at home that can instantly analyze your blood, take your vital signs, do a retinal scan right there ... they'll be able to do a better diagnosis with all this equipment than a regular doctor would be able to do."

by **RaulMonkey** on Wed Oct 21, 2015 11:34 pm

Happy Real BTTFII Day BTW!!

by **TheButcher** on Thu Oct 22, 2015 9:52 am

RaulMonkey wrote:Happy Real BTTFII Day BTW!!

by **TheButcher** on Thu Oct 22, 2015 9:54 am

Everything Wrong With Back to the Future 2

by **so sorry** on Thu Oct 22, 2015 9:57 am

I watched a good bit of the first one and about a half hour of the second one (before I had to turn it off...its so bad).
Good trip down memory lane. Its fun to see the country have such a positive reaction for a day based solely on a movie made decades ago.

by **TheBaxter** on Thu Oct 22, 2015 9:59 am

oh, the irony!

by **TheButcher** on Thu Oct 22, 2015 10:12 am

Eric Stoltz ‘Back to The Future’ Footage Might Be Released

Jack Giroux wrote:According to the film’s co-writer, Bob Gale, there’s a chance more of the Eric Stoltz Back to the Future footage will see the light of day.
I’m not going to say never. We did not destroy the footage, because we expect that sometime, in some future anniversary, we may let it get out there. They may see it sometime. I’m not going to say for sure, much less when. But I will say that we had the opportunity to completely destroy it. And we did not. So, it does exist in a vault somewhere.

Most double-dip Blu-ray sets aren’t worth buying, but if the special features on another Back to the Future boxset include more of the original actor’s performance, it’ll be worth the purchase. Gale also had this to say about Stoltz’s serious take on Marty McFly:
I have seen all of the Eric Stoltz footage, and we would not be having this conversation! The movie would have been released. But it would not have caught on the way it did. I don’t think it would have been successful enough to make two sequels.

by **TheBaxter** on Thu Oct 22, 2015 12:19 pm

i wonder what the odds are on which we'll see first: Eric Stoltz's BTTF, or Jerry Lewis' The Day the Clown Cried

The Zone

Well, which one?