People would be making fun of him for wearing dual polo shirts and newsboy cap.
He would show Doc video of his future self recorded on an iPhone.
You might even be able to work in a gag involving Barack Obama. In the early 1980s Obama was a student at Occidental University in Los Angeles. Supposing Hill Valley is in the vicinity of L.A., Marty could run into him at the cafe and say “Barack Obama! You’re going to be president!” to which, of course, the cafe owner would say “A colored president? Pfft, that’ll be the day.”
I’d be really curious to hear any ideas on what car would be used in place of the Delorean. You’d need something looked somewhat exotic (that has style, as Doc would put it), but also utilitarian. The Delorean, with its stainless steel finish, fit that bill perfectly in the '80s, but I can’t think of any car today that would seem appropriate.
The car would be a Smart Car or Prius. Marty wouldn’t carry any cash. He would ironically be wearing tight jeans and Chuck’s, and his out of place “life preserver” would be replaced with a keffiyeh. He’d be a snowboarder, and he’d improvise one in 81. He’d scare his father with a smartphone playing Two Girls One Cup. He’d win and then lose the students at the dance with a White Stripes song when he takes off on the solo.
I can’t think of a not-yet-dedicated road like John F. Kennedy Drive that he’d ask his grandfather about.
Be glad they aren’t. Setting aside the fact that Michael J. Fox isn’t exactly in prime movie-making shape these days, if they wrote a sequel now it would be a piece of utter crap starring Shia LaBeouf as Marty’s hapless nephew. With aliens shoehorned in somehow.
By the time we get out of the eighties, the nineties are going to make the sixties look like the fifties.
delorean -> hummer
johnny b goode -> rap. possibly soulja boi or dougie also
heavy -> banging
life vest -> grill
reagan -> schwarzenegger
goldie wilson -> tiger woods (a black golfer? that’ll be the day)
skateboard -> scooter
Because it’s already coming out in a videogame version. The first episode is free. And using CGI gets rid of the problem of recasting. There’s one person who was recast, but I bet you can’t even tell who it is without outside information.
Goldie Wilson wasn’t famous, he was the Mayor of Hill Valley. He has to be someone who Marty is likely to encounter locally. Maybe if he (or she) was a different minority in an unlikely position, such as a transsexual Mayor.
No, colored went out in the late 60s. Archie Bunker was one of the few people saying “Colored” by the 70s. He’d say black. Even the Billboard charts changed from R&B to Black. Which was odd when Hall & Oats went to the top of the Black Charts
What was that recent thread we had about the difference of 1955-85 and 85-2015? I think we established way more change(culturally) from the 50’s to the 80’s.
We had a thread on this once and I believe it was **Sam Stone **who explained, in pretty substantial detail, why “Back to the Future” worked for 1985-1955 but would not work today.
I can’t remember all his arguments but it basically amounts to the fact that the delta between how society changed from 1955 to 1985 was more obvious than from 1981 to 2011. Furthermore, people’s expectations of the future in 1955 were perhaps a bit more idealistic and out of this world than they would have been in the more jaded, post-Vietnam America of 1981.
You could still do it but it’s unlikely you’d capture the sheer magic of the original.
I agree and I think the answer is the amount of documentation the two eras have. As video becomes cheaper and easier and more pervasive, there is more available to see which makes you feel like that era never fully went away. I would say this started in late 60s early 70s and rose experientially and now, with everyone having a video camera in their pocket, it has probably reached saturation levels.
