Back To The Future (1985) - Full Reaction

Happy ending... except... now they have to go... Back to the Future!

Terry Yelmene

One of my all-time favorite movies, and top 5 trilogies. It was truly groundbreaking, for me as a 5 year old when I saw I could not get enough.

JohnnyUtah

A pop culture phenomenon. "If you're going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

Clay F

I don't know if you'll see this comment but i just realized the head tilt might be a Zemeckis trademark because he also has Forrest Gump and his son do it when they're watching Sesame Street.

Watched this reaction a second time and noticed something I didn't the first time. Cassie, when Doc Brown is backing the time machine out of his truck, Einstein (the dog) does the typical dog head tilt thing....so did you. LOL

Chris Reise

Really late to this one, but if you visit oreillyauto.com and in the search bar type in "121g" you will find a secret.

David RedEagle

I wish I would have checked out this video before renting it.

Doug Watson

Fantastic

Scott

Here's a fun fact: Ronald Reagan loved Doc's reaction to his presidency so much he had them run it back and play that part again. (it was in the White House screening room, so he could do that)

Texas Anla'Shok

If you notice in 1985 before marty went back to 1955 Goldie Wilson was already mayor it shows on the van to elect mayor Goldie Wilson thats why Marty said thats right hes going to be mayor

Chris Pollard

PIB, the original casting of Marty was Eric Stoltz. They had been shooting for 4 weeks when he was replaced with MJF so a lot had to be re-shot There are few quick shots of the Eric Stoltz version left in the final cut of the film. One is when Marty is in the diner and meeting his dad for the first time in 1955 and he punches Biff. If you look closely you'll notice three things: "Marty" looks like Eric not Michael, Tom Wilson (Biff) looks thinner and more tired do to the shooting schedule, and the time of day is different. One of my (many) favorite parts of BTTF pt.1 is when the Pinheads audition for the straight-laced teachers with an alternate version of "Power of Love". The man with the bull horn who rejects them is Huey Lewis of "...and the News" fame who sings "Power of Love". Also, the Pinhead's base player is the base player for Huey Lewis and the News. And Huey was right, "I'm afraid you ARE just too darn loud"

Kevin

Okay, try it again! Sorry about that 🤦

Cassie

Alright and thanks for replying back so quickly

josh

Hey Josh! Let me figure out what's going on. Give me just a minute!

Cassie

hello just wondering do you have a link to all your videos for some reason i cant watch the recent video you posted

josh

Thanks very much for the kind words. I didn't realize how much I had to say until I started writing. Yeah, as you said during the reaction, the movie does take some liberties with how time travel works in regard to common thought. As far as I know, it's consistent within its own universe though. Yes, the Marty we know was raised by the "original George and Lorraine". The Marty who goes back in time at the end of the movie was raised by the confident, non-alcoholic, healthy relationship-having parents, and our Marty essentially "time jumps" into his life. Luckily, it appears being friends with Doc and doing the exact same process to travel to the past remained the same despite the entirely different timeline. Like I said: liberties. But I guess there is a certain logical consistency to it. I won't spoil anything about the others, but I hope you enjoy them. Three is probably(?) my favourite. Likely from how much I watched it on VHS back in the day. Take care.

Derrick C. Shields

Jay, I am one of the people who like the second one just as much. But more so in the second half. I won't say why as to not spoil her.

Armchair Wizard

Ok, this is the best comment ever, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts and perspectives. I love what you said about MJF, you are so right he isn't the classic teen heartthrob but is cool and confident and you totally love him as the viewer. Also, this makes so much more sense now about there being two timelines, I didn't know if the first doc was already wearing the bulletproof vest and wasn't actually dead when Marty first peeled away and went back in time. It does play with your mind for sure, but this makes more sense. I hope in the next two we get to see more of the life Marty returned to, with his parents and siblings seeming to be a different version of themselves, but Marty was still raised by "the old George and Lorraine" right? Thanks again for being here and chatting!

Cassie

I love finding facts out like this from my viewers who have the coolest knowlege of these movies. I wonder who the original Marty was, you are right, it seems like it could have ony been MJF! I'm excited to watch the other two, and see what it brings us!

Cassie

So, I'm gonna write this part here first since it's more relevant. If you want clarification on questions you had about the movie's time travel, read the last few paragraphs. The main reason I like BttF is Marty McFly. I watched a lot of this series as a kid. Like, between the ages of 8-14. I remember we had BttF3 on VHS specifically for some reason, but neither of the other two, so getting to watch those felt like a big treat. Anyway, I always thought Marty (and Michael J. Fox's performance) was the epitome of what "cool" was. At different points in my life, I'd rewatch these movies and find another reason to love him. First, Marty is NOT an action star. Heck, he's not even a typical teen movie star. Marty would definitely be the third or fourth guy to die in a Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th movie. He's not particularly strong or confident - though he looks that way compared to George. But despite things like obviously being intimidated by Biff, he knows how to throw a punch and isn't afraid to stand up for himself. Plus, he's capable of rather dexterous maneuvers like how he avoids being rammed by Biff's truck. I definitely wasn't thinking this at 10 watching this movie, but looking back, it was clear the movie was saying "hey, never mind Biff's awful personality, you don't even need to LOOK like him (strong and athletic) to be capable and cool". It's one of those things that you realize probably actually had a HUGE impact on you at the time, but you never appreciated it until after it had done so. Second, is something you actually mentioned. How Marty and Doc met is never expanded upon to much detail, at least not in this trilogy. I actually really like that. It implies Marty is just a friendly guy that doesn't mind becoming basically best friends with a mad scientist. Very 80s, sure. But also kind of admirable. Doc himself is funny and a source of comedy, but their friendship is never mocked or implied to be "ridiculous" by the movie. It's genuine and you can see it in how they interact. Something that took a little longer for me to notice is how uncharacteristically vulnerable Marty can be, compared to movies at the time. When he's talking to George about his writing, George basically repeats, word for word, Marty's worries about sending his audition tape into the record company. This ties back into my first point: yeah, George is the guy (literally) wearing a "kick me" sign on his back; he's the laughing stock of the movie. But at the same time, the root of all his insecurities, from his social issues to his self esteem, is also one that the "cool dude" at the heart of the movie has: being rejected, whether it's by a music label, your peers, or the girl you like. A very important point that these movies make is that being "cool" does NOT mean never doubting yourself. Everyone doubts themselves. That's not what's important. As the Doc says to Marty, who repeats it to George and George says it again at the film's end: "if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything". That's what cool is. Wow, apparently just being asked "what makes BttF special to you?" sends me off on an essay-length adventure. Huh. Anyway! The time travel stuff. A few times in the reaction, you mention being confused about the rules of this movie's time travel and whether events were or weren't retroactively affected by the past. So, I remember Spielberg (or maybe Zemeckis?) himself clarified this point after the movie came out: there are two distinct timelines in the movie. The Marty and Doc Brown who we see at the beginning of the film are not influenced by time travel in any way. Therefore, Doc Brown definitely dies at the hands of Libyan terrorists the first time. Also, this means that a "second Marty" was not watching those events happen along with us. This is most easily proven by looking at the sign outside of the mall during the start and end of the movie. When Marty first shows up to the mall twenty or so minutes into the film, the sign identifies it as the "Twin Pine Mall", so called because as Doc points out, the land was owned by Mr. Peabody who "had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees". Then, Marty goes back in time, ends up in Peabody's field and while fleeing from Peabody's shotgun, he smashes one of the pines with the car. Then, at the end of the movie, when Marty shows up to try to warn Doc about the danger, we can see the sign has changed to "Lone Pine Mall". Two distinct timelines. So, any reference the movie seems to make about events in Timeline One happening because of Marty's trip to the past are untrue. To be fair, the movie isn't totally clear on this, especially for a first-time viewer. But the existence of two distinct timelines proves this to be the case. Doc did in fact get shot to death initially; Marty did not inspire Chuck Berry to write Johnny B. Goode; and Lorraine did not name her third child "Marty" because of the mysterious stranger who visited for a week. The first is just normal "changing the future" stuff, and the second two are just the film being cheeky and winking at the audience. This is all just as well though, because a big issue with time travel movies can be the "bootstrap paradox", or "Beethoven's paradox". Say you go back in time and want to visit Beethoven, and you bring his most famous symphonies with you so you can talk to him about them. But when you get there, the man you know as Beethoven has just died in his bed of natural causes; also, there seems to be no musical equipment or instruments anywhere in his house. He clearly did not compose these symphonies. Not wanting the genius of these musical works to go to waste, you submit his symphonies yourself under his name and travel back to the present. So, the question is: who originally composed Beethoven's symphonies? A lot of time travel movies will use this writing trick as a "wow" effect: You travel back in time to stop some horrible calamity, but in doing so, you inadvertently cause that very thing to happen! Oh, no! But if the only reason you went back in the first place was to stop it from happening... and YOUR presence in the past was what caused it... then how did it happen in the first place? It's a question without a real answer, a paradox. As far as I know, the BttF series never causes one of these paradoxes, and thank goodness, because it's one of the most avoidable and most annoying plot holes in fiction. YAWN.

Derrick C. Shields

p.s. In my opinion, the third installment is a lot of fun too, but you have to plod through the second movie to 'get' the third. I've heard other people say they liked the second, so I guess it comes down to personal taste.

Jay Kawala

1:37:10 into the reaction - exactly! In fact, the role of Marty was recast after a few weeks of shooting the movie because the original actor was playing the role too 'straight'. The comedic timing that Michael J. Fox brought to the role - especially with Christopher Lloyd (Doc) made this one of the most fun movie experiences of the eighties. Of course it helped that I was eleven years old at the time. Thanks for taking us on a bit of a time travel ourselves. I love this movie.

Jay Kawala

Also fun fact, the mall scene was shot at the Puente Hills Mall in City of Industry Southern California. I live very close to there and have shopped at that mall. On the 30th anniversary of this film's release, they had a drive in movie showing in the parking lot of that mall. Really cool.

Armchair Wizard