# It was 25 years ago today that Marty McFly went back in time. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411 "2010-10-26T16:12:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/21 "2010-10-26T19:13:03Z")
FTW, to what date was the flux capacitor set? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/22 "2010-10-26T19:14:57Z")
I’m kind of puzzled 25 years is a big deal for this movie too. Wouldn’t 30 have been better? We’re just going to be making noise about it again in 5 years, and it’ll be more relevant then. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/23 "2010-10-26T19:15:48Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > What’s the deal? You’re too old. The golden age of all fiction (not just science fiction) is twelve, but some serious memories can also be formed before that. The advent of video and cable serves to extend a movie’s influence over a longer period of time, to the extent I can have deep memories of watching a film released the year I was born, but once you leave pre-adolescence a lot of the magic leaves you. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/24 "2010-10-26T19:16:08Z")
> [@5\_time\_champ](#): > > FTW, to what date was the flux capacitor set? The day the flux capacitor was invented, duh. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/25 "2010-10-26T19:23:35Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > You’re too old. > > The golden age of all fiction (not just science fiction) is twelve, but some serious memories can also be formed before that. I was 23 when I saw it. Many, many times. Maybe I was still 12 emotionally. Sincerely, -Calvin Klein ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/26 "2010-10-26T19:29:14Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > It was his density. > [@Bosstone](#): > > Weight has nothing to do with it! > [@joebuck20](#): > > There’s that word again, ‘heavy’. Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth’s gravitational pull? Ah, but it’s all relative. Few men who dream of time travel realize how close one might come to unwittingly meating their mother. _ **Ick!** _ _ **- Jack** _ ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/27 "2010-10-26T19:29:20Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I was 23 when I saw it. Many, many times. Maybe I was still 12 emotionally. > > Sincerely, > -Calvin Klein I was 28 when I saw it. And 20 when I saw Star Wars, as it was just called then. No Episode IV or A New Hope. And there was no stinkin’ Enterprise - A, or B, or C, or any other bloody letter. Get offa my lawn. Signed Clint Eastwood ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/28 "2010-10-26T19:31:31Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] I want my flying car! [/QUOTE] I don’t think it’ll happen. I think that in his his quest to put his life on the right path, Marty Mcfly inadvertently ruined the future. Picture this scenario: Robert Rutherford III, the heir to the Rutherford fortune, a brilliant but listless twentysomething billionaire is on his way home from yet another all weekend bender. Even though his IQ is off the charts he has resigned himself to a life of idleness, debauchery, and spending the Rutherford fortune. Suddenly a black pickup truck hits his white Rolls-Royce. Robert is badly injured and spends the next few days in a medically induced coma. After waking up and realizing that no one but his loyal valet came to visit him in the hospital, Robert vows to clean up his act and save his father’s now crumbling legacy. With new found vigour he slowly raises Rutherford Industries from the ashes into the massive economic powerhouse it would be today. Personally overseeing and developing such projects as hover technology, portable fusion devices, self drying and fitting clothes, ultra-dehydrated food, dust-repellent paper, and much more, the name Robert Rutherford III becomes a house hold name often mentioned in the same breath as Einstein, Newton, or Stephen Hawking. Robert Rutherford III’s genius and humanity has inspired mankind to reach further than ever before. For the first time in human history the thought of world peace and universal prosperity doesn’t sound so far fetched. All because of a fateful car accident on October 27, 1985 that forced one of mankind’s greatest geniuses to reevaluate his life. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/29 "2010-10-26T19:41:02Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I was 28 when I saw it. I saw it on… on a re-run. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/30 "2010-10-26T19:52:59Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > I don’t think it’ll happen. I think that in his his quest to put his life on the right path, Marty Mcfly inadvertently ruined the future. Picture this scenario: > > Robert Rutherford III, the heir to the Rutherford fortune, a brilliant but listless twentysomething billionaire is on his way home from yet another all weekend bender. Even though his IQ is off the charts he has resigned himself to a life of idleness, debauchery, and spending the Rutherford fortune. Suddenly a black pickup truck hits his white Rolls-Royce. Robert is badly injured and spends the next few days in a medically induced coma. > > After waking up and realizing that no one but his loyal valet came to visit him in the hospital, Robert vows to clean up his act and save his father’s now crumbling legacy. With new found vigour he slowly raises Rutherford Industries from the ashes into the massive economic powerhouse it would be today. Personally overseeing and developing such projects as hover technology, portable fusion devices, self drying and fitting clothes, ultra-dehydrated food, dust-repellent paper, and much more, the name Robert Rutherford III becomes a house hold name often mentioned in the same breath as Einstein, Newton, or Stephen Hawking. > > Robert Rutherford III’s genius and humanity has inspired mankind to reach further than ever before. For the first time in human history the thought of world peace and universal prosperity doesn’t sound so far fetched. All because of a fateful car accident on October 27, 1985 that forced one of mankind’s greatest geniuses to reevaluate his life. Ah, nice fanwank (golfclap). ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/31 "2010-10-26T19:57:04Z")
It was the last movie I saw with my first true love. Fond memories. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/32 "2010-10-26T19:58:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I saw it on… on a re-run. What’s a re-run? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/33 "2010-10-26T20:35:16Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Make like a tree and get out of here. 😃 Eh, you’re funnier than a screen door on a battleship! ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/34 "2010-10-26T20:46:26Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > This is all over the news. I don’t get it. The Blu Ray DVD version of the films just came out (or will be out very soon). Marketing baby! To keep this more on topic, I credit BTTF with inventing the term Slacker. I know I started using it because of the movie and only found out later it was “hip” in the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/35 "2010-10-26T21:14:56Z")
“You mean this sucker is nuclear!” ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/36 "2010-10-26T21:43:20Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > This is all over the news. I don’t get it. I love the movie–I was a kid when it came out and thought it was really great. It’s a movie I can watch over and over and never get tired of. But I am nothing compared to some of the die-hard fans out there. They have BTTF costumes, memorabilia–some of them even drive Deloreans. They have pretty much every line in the trilogy memorized. (I never cared for BTTF 2 or 3 all that much myself) Also, BTTF is constantly gaining new young fans since parents view it as a family-friendly movie. It has action and adventure and humor, without resorting to crudity and over-the-top violence and gore. I’m a teacher and I often discover that some of my students are big BTTF fans. “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/37 "2010-10-26T22:15:27Z")
I often teach students using various props and frequently preface my remarks with, “Please excuse the crudity of this model - I didn’t have time to build it to scale or to paint.” ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/38 "2010-10-26T22:23:14Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I enjoyed it well enough but I don’t think that it was in any way groundbreaking or special. > > What’s the deal? What is special about the films is that in the middle of a glut of mindless 'Eighties teen comedy this one stands out as being clever, well plotted, and eminently quotable. It is one of the few films to successfully integrate science fiction and comedy together effectively; despite all of the technobabble, the film is almost entirely consistent to its self-defined rules. This and _Galaxy Quest_ are the films that the misbegotten Hollywood _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ wanted to be. It is a fun enough film that it is superficially enjoyable, while it also has enough pop culture references to be a neat intellectual jigsaw puzzle. “Oh… one other thing. If you guys ever have kids and one of them when he’s eight years old accidentally sets fire to the living room rug… go easy on him.” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/39 "2010-10-26T22:40:42Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > What is special about the films is that in the middle of a glut of mindless 'Eighties teen comedy this one stands out as being clever, well plotted, and eminently quotable. This. The movie is just perfectly done in almost every respect. It’s not about whether it’s a sci fi, comedy, teen flick, or what it is. \*\*It’s a wonderfully made movie. \*\* It’s Hollywood big budget cinema at its very, very best; a great script, great dialogue, hilarious jokes, great characters performed by perfectly cast actors, great action set pieces. The film is, quite simply, flawless. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/40 "2010-10-26T23:04:02Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > I love the movie–I was a kid when it came out and thought it was really great. It’s a movie I can watch over and over and never get tired of. But I am nothing compared to some of the die-hard fans out there. They have BTTF costumes, memorabilia–some of them even drive Deloreans. They have pretty much every line in the trilogy memorized. (I never cared for BTTF 2 or 3 all that much myself) You can actually buy parts to customize a Delorean to look exactly like Doc Brown’s time-travel machine - complete with a “Mr. Fusion” reactor. > **[BTTFDeLorean.com](https://bttfstore.wordpress.com/)** > > Back to the Future, Props, Models and Memorabilia... Or, if you’re strapped for time, you can rent a replica BTTF Delorean. [http://www.deloreantimemachine.com/gallery.php](http://www.deloreantimemachine.com/gallery.php) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411.md?page=3)