Back To The Future. Is this not, in fact, the finest piece of lighthearted sci-fi/comedy ever crafted? It has something for everyone.
Amusing, clever, visually capturing, featuring early eerie performances by Crispin Glover. An energetic Michael J. Fox at his best. Christopher Lloyd doing what he does better than anyone else can.
We smile. We nod appreciatively at the inside jokes written just for the adults watching. I love this film. I just love it.
Cartooniverse
I, too, loved this movie. Certainly not the first film on time travel (far from it), but very, very fresh in its approach. And, yes, the performances are spot on!
YEs…I love this film but for some reason BttF 2 messes up my head. I cannot keep the storyline straight and every time CG tries to explain it we both end in a screaming match because I just don’t get it.
The trilogy on DVD is on my wishlist for Christmas.
IDBB
Clever. That’s the word I would use to describe it. It’s hard to lay out a conflict and resolution as well as they did in Parts I and III. And the little causality jokes. Lone Pine Mall. Eastwood Ravine. Brilliant. Even the name of the town is clever - Hill Valley.
Part II was alright. It didn’t share the same brilliance as the other two, and the plot was not nearly as tight. But it was kind of neat how they reused footage from Part I.
BTTF is one of the best trilogies ever. It is a standard by which many sci-fi comedies will be judged and deservedly so.
I’ve probably seen BTTF more times than I’ve seen any other movie because they play it on basic cable constantly and I never get tired of watching it because it is such a good movie. And although it was filmed in 1985, it doens’t seem dated. The only part that seems dated is he used a DeLorean for the time machine. DeLoreans had a short life span and were never supremely popular.
As a fan of the trilogy, I don’t understand why people dislike BTTF 2 so much. It fits in with the other two quite well. BTTF 3 was pretty good. But nothing beats the orignal.
Achernar, I can still remember the first time I caught the Lone Pine mall sign. I was probably eight, and I pointed it out to my parents (both BTTF freaks), and neither of them had ever noticed. Oddly, I think that was one of my father’s proudest moments. 
I love all three of them. The first is in my Top 5 favorite movies ever, definitely. And no matter how many times I watch it, I always enjoy it. It’s perfect. What more can you say?
I love the whole trilogy. BttF2 may not stand on its own as well as the other two, but I feel it’s an essential part of the story. I liked the careful reuse of scenes with a twist; I always like it when a time-travel story plays around behind events I’ve already seen, giving them new meaning.
I seem to recall that Harlan Ellison wrote a rather negative review of either the first or second movie, then retracted it when he’d seen all three. I haven’t been able to find a cite for that, but…well, if you can get a retraction out of Ellison, you’ve done something impressive.
And I love DeLoreans. I nearly bought one a few years ago, but money was just too tight at the time. Maybe I’ll look again when the time comes to put my current vehicle out to pasture.
Maybe one of you die-hard fans can explain away what I consider an inconsistency in the second film, or at least a double-standard.
Old Biff of 2015 goes back in time and changes history by giving his 1955 self the sports almanac, yet he returns to an essentially unchanged 2015. But when Marty and Doc go back to 1955 to undo Biff’s damage, they see the fruits of their efforts upon returning to 1985.
Why didn’t Old Biff return to the 2015 that would have evolved out of Biff-horrific 1985?
These things weren’t instant. Remember that the photograph slowly disappeared his family members? He was all fucked up when he got back too. He had pretty much written himself out and was experiencing what was happening to Michael J. Fox’s hand while he was playing the guitar (before his dad bunched out Biff in the first one.) Presumably, that whole timeline would have crashed and morphed pretty shortly thereafter. They got out just in time. I guess there is a speed limit to the amount of time it takes to convert a timeline once you’ve changed something in the BTTF universe. I may be reaching here. Haven’t watched em for a while, and I loved them. It was especially cool to see a preview for part 3 at the end of part 2.
DaLovin’ Dj
Wasn’t there an excised sequence that showed 2015 Biff returning the DeLorean (for a reason I cannot fathom - if he’d destroyed it or something, his changes would’ve remained permanent), then fading out of existence? I remember seeing it somewhere, but I don’t remember where.
All is explained on the DVD set. Every perceived plot hole or inconsistency has an answer. It’s the tightest scripted Time Travel idea ever created.
The DVD is also jampacked with cool stuff, the Commentaries being particularly entertaining and informative. Outstanding!
Note: Most of the times and ages in the following speculation are guesswork. Any nitpicks on that basis should be directed to the bit bucket.
He did return to a modified 2015. The thing that makes the plot work for the whole trilogy is the hysteresis effect demonstrated in so understated a fashion by the photo in the first movie. There’s a delay as the timeline adjusts to its altered history, and the effects propagate fairly slowly down the timestream relative to the subjective time of a time traveler.
Marty made his first significant change to the past (interfering with his parents’ meeting) in the early afternoon of his first day in the past; I would estimate the time at around 1:00-2:00 PM. He was unconscious for several hours, but awakened shortly before dinner time. He ran out during supper and went looking for Doc Brown. Sundown on November 5, 1955 at his approximate location would have been at about 5:08 PM, with the end of civil twilight at about 5:35 PM. Since it was full dark, I’d place supper at around 6:30 PM, and Marty’s arrival at the Doc’s place at around 8:00 PM. That means that roughly 6 or 7 hours elapsed between the initial change and Brown’s first look at the photo, which had just begun to change–Marty’s older brother, David, had just begun to disappear. Guessing David’s age to be about 22-23 (he was out of school and had an office job in the modified future), he would have been born around 1962, seven years downstream from the change. That tells us that the changewave covered 7 years in 7 hours; when it reached David’s date of birth, he started fading from everything that happened subsequently. That gives us one data point.
Marty, who was about 16 (and so born in 1969), didn’t begin to vanish until the dance, a week later. That gives us a second data point: the changewave propagated 14 years in 7 days (168 hours).
That gives a slope of 1 year/hour during the initial surge, dropping to .083 year/hour by the end of the week. I would guess (I’m guessing 'cause it’s been too long since I studied calculus) that it’s asymptotically approaching a real-time propagation (i.e. 1 hour/hour). If it’s not asymptotic, eventually the ripples will die out without changing everything, which would play havoc with causality. An interesting side result of this conjecture is that it would theoretically be possible to alter something far enough downstream that the effects wouldn’t catch up before you died of natural causes. You would never experience the modified timeline, but you eventually will have experienced it. But never mind that, never mind that…
The important thing is that even when the propagation is fastest, immediately after the change, it only travels around 1 year/hour. Since it’s going to be at least a year before young Biff can use the almanac, maybe two, the timeline won’t be significantly impacted until a year downstream. Given our approximated slope, that leaves a 1-2 hour window for Old Biff to return to the future and stagger away/vanish, leaving the way clear for our intrepid protagonists to return to the altered 1985.
In short, Old Biff got back to 2015 before the changes reached caught up. That’ll teach you to ask rabid fans a question. 
On preview, I see that others have provided simpler versions. When I get the DVDs, maybe I’ll see how far off I am. Bah, I say. I wrote it, I’m posting it. Maybe it’ll teach me to be less long-winded in the future (not likely).
Given your meticulous attention to detail, I thought you’d want to be reminded that Biff first used the almanac in a significant way on his 21st birthday.
Good work.
I don’t know why some people claims that BttF 2 is not as good as 1 and 3. It’s the strangest of the trilogy.
And it has one of the most weird and heart-pounding scenes I’ve seen in all my life: when the DeLorean dissapears in the middle of the storm and Marty suddenly perceives a vehicle coming right at him…
(my hands really started to sweat!)
Great Scott I LOVE these movies!!
Brilliant. So well done, acting, background, the story
I have the DVD trilogy, and seriously if anyone has the extra money buying this would be a great move. Its not one of those oh so popular shitty DVD’s with the movie and then you get a commentary and trailers for your “Special Feautres”
These all have deleted scenes, which are so good they should not of been taken out, but because they did not advance the story, they got the kick. There are outtakes and 3 commentary’s (which are good) for each movie. There are pictures and even more extras and my favorite was the on screen anticdotes. Where some text appears on screen pointing out cool little easter eggs you may not have noticed the first time…
Sorry, just very very into it all.
Oh and amore all 5 of them were in the “evil” 2015. (Marty, Doc, Einstein, Jennifer and old Biff) Let me try and explain…
You see, as old Biff came back to 2015, Marty and Doc were carrying Jennifer out on the street while Einstein meandered around as well. Biff dissapeared because in the future Lorraine would of shot Biff because…well its Biff. Therefore he could not be existant and dissapeared. Because M, D, E a J were all out on the street the whole universe could of been changed around them and they would not of noticed because there is no reason for that street to have any significant changes in the evil 2015.
“If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious shit.”
I loved the entire trilogy. Smart, original, great script, cool sets and some pretty intense scenes. Christopher Lloyd is one of my all-time favourite supporting actors
Let’s all hum the BTTF theme tune!
…Ok, let’s not
Great post, Balance. But does it create a problem? I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around it, so help me with the math. When McFly punched Biff, Marty’s hand comes back pretty quickly. According to your math, how long should it have taken for the photo (and his hand) to re-establish themselves?
DaLovin’ Dj
Absolutely frickin’ brilliant series. BTTF2 even accomplishes the rare task of being the second movie in a trilogy that doesn’t suck.
back to the future trilogy is no doubt one of the greatest creations of mankind
I’ve been looking for a delorian for over a decade now!