Marty is running from future Biff’s henchmen in Biff’s casino. He runs down the stairs for about a story, then jumps over the railing, and runs up an adjacent set of stairs. Are stairs like that a real thing? Why two sets of stairs?
Did some looking around and found some claims that stairs like that do exist. I’m guessing two are needed to get lots of people out in a hurry during an emergency.
It was clearly shot at a real location, not a movie set. So obviously, there was at least one instance.
i’ve seen them in parking garages. one set of stairs goes to the even floors, one to the odds.
mc
We’ve got 'em in the building I work in. The two sets of stairs criscross all the way down, and halfway between floors, a reasonably athletic person would have no trouble vaulting from one set of stairs to the other.
This is done in taller buildings where the entrances to the stairwells alternate floors. This both allows for a slightly more compact arrangement for the stairwell, and more importantly relieves congestion during an emergency evacuation by having half the number of people in each stairwell.
Stranger.
I couldn’t quite remember what that scene looked like, so for anybody else who is puzzled, the scene in question is the first few seconds of this YouTube clip.
Now that is settled, I just watched this with the kids and I have a question about that scene.
Marty runs down, jumps over and goes up to the roof. Once on the roof he acts as though he is waiting on Doc to come and get him. He even says something to the effect of “Come on Doc”. This is a nice bit of action that results in Biff getting knocked in the head with the car door.
But how could Marty have arranged to meet Doc on the roof? It wasn’t shown that he used the walkie-talkie or had time to call Doc on it. The stairs would have been a complete unknown to him. Or was his plan to go up in the elevator?
BTW - the movies have aged surprisingly well. My 10 and 12 year old kids loved them.
Presumably, he and Doc figured from the beginning that it would be easier for Marty to get to the roof from Biff’s penthouse after confronting Biff, than it would be to get back down to the lobby. Marty might have looked for the stairs before entering the penthouse, to make sure he’d know which way to run (Marty surely didn’t expect his confrontation with Biff to end peaceably).
I don’t think the door could have hit Biff. If the car was that close to the building, it wouldn’t have been able to open without hitting it.
There’s literally a link to the scene a few posts up. Biff is both sort of leaning over the edge (and ducks into it at the last second to make it look bigger) and the door doesn’t open up until it’s mostly cleared the edge of the building.
I’m assuming they filmed that scene with an actual De Lorean suspended via a crane next to an actual platform with an edge (carefully measured), and it looks like whoever did the stunts for Biff did actually bonk his head on the door.