That’s the thread I was thinking of. Thanks.
Marty brings a DVD of plans for the time machine, and all the technical papers Doc has written for the past 30 years.
“What’s a DVD?”
“Well, maybe we can Google it?”
“What does applying the principles of a number that’s 100 digits long have to do with this?”
“I mean, look it up on the Internet.”
“What’s an Internet?”
“Um, where’s your computer?”
“Marty, the only computer in Mill Valley is located in the bank, which closed at 3:00 in the afternoon, just like it does every day.”
The Delorean was supposed to be the lightweight, exotic sports car for the masses.
The modern equivalent would be the Lotus Elise. The Tesla is basically an electric Elise.
Make it a hybrid, and there’s your perfect base car. After all the DeLorean in the movie was a gas/plutonium hybrid. Heck, it’s almost like modern hybrid cars were designed to be time-travel friendly.
The DeLorean was also built in a way which was supposed to improve the journey. Perhaps carbon fibre would be even better.
All the more reason to expect it soon. Dukes of Hazzard, *Charlie’s Angels, Nikita,*etc etc etc…
The DMC-12 was a one of a kind “actor” who played the time machine. Replacing it with a Tesla, $250k Aston Martin, or even a Hummer would be the equivalent of replacing Michael J Fox with Shia Labeouf. Actually, Shia might have the chops…
Nah.
Anyway, the timing was perfect for production of BTTF. The disparity of a one of a kind, Irish, sports car to the usual boxy 1955 fare is unbeatable both as what seems right for the “future-shock coolness” that’s needed for the car, but also the futuristic-quirky aspects that make that car seem suitable as a chassis for a time machine. Low profile. Minimal design. Angular, no curves. Gull wing doors. Two-seater. Why, even the stainless steel construction makes the flux dispersal-- beep beep --WATCH OUT MARTY!
Also. There is no band that would be considered cooler by today’s standards, that the teens of 1981 wouldn’t be mortified by. Shit. We had the Sex Pistols already.
I’m thinking this particular time-travel gag/story is only effective for that very particular, but critical, era in human history: the technology boom and cultural revolution during the 3 intervening decades, relative to 2011/1981, was vastly more pronounced.
I rather doubt even the most hickish resident of 1981 America would look at an exotic 2011 car and think it was an airplane - without wings.
Although a MacBook Pro would blow their fucking minds. And with the internet… Oh wait…
“Space shuttle? You’re still using those?!”
“Alright then, Future Boy, who’s the president of the United States In 2011?”
“Barack Hussein Obama!”
"HA! A Muslim?! Who’s the vice president… Muammar Gaddafi?!"
“Doc, you better back up. We don’t have enough road to reach 88.”
“Roads? Oh yes, in 2041, there’s a ton of repair work.”
“Still?”
“Yep. And yeh, your kids are assholes.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
There’d be a scene where Marty needs some information. Of course he’s unable to look it up online. So Doc takes him to the local library. After dealing for hours with card catalogs and microfiche readers, Marty rants to Doc about how much better things will be in the future when there’s google and wikipedia and all the information in the world is available in your home.
Then the camera would pull back to a table of nerds overhearing the rant and have them saying, “That would be awesome. We should do that.”
Lou: You gonna order something, kid?
Marty McFly: Ah, yeah… Give me - Give me a TaB.
Lou: Okay.
Dad hooks up the Atari 2600 to the console TV… “Whoo hoo hoo, kids! Now we can play Asteroids while eating dinner!”
“Ha! Asteroids! I love this one… it’s a classic!”
“What do you mean it’s a classic? It’s brand new.”
“Well, I used to… uh… be a beta tester.”
“What’s a beta tester?”
“You’ll find out.”
Two words:
Death Metal
Seriously, the '80s was right in the middle of all the crap about metal being “satanic”. What better than to shock everybody with singing that actually sounds like they might imagine a demon would sound?
“Hey George? Where ya been?!”
“Last night, Glen Beck came down from the planet Foqsnooze and told me that if I didn’t take Lorraine out that he’d melt my brain.”
“Alright George, let’s just keep that between you and I.”
True that. However, by that time, it was still mostly the same group of people who were mortified by such music: The baby boomers… who would now be staffing the school.
By the 80s, any music that pissed your parents or teachers off was embraced. Misfits, Black Sabbath, Metallica, etc.
Granted, not nearly as obnoxious as death metal, but still, probably wouldn’t phase a bunch of students like Marty’s guitar solo at the Dance. Not with all the pot everyone was doing.
Hell, you could go back to 2003 and get that reaction!
Ha!
The problem is we have a lot of the same tech, just more advanced. So someone from the past wouldn’t be as dazzled/baffled, ie cell phones- cell phones existed in the eighties. If you showed them a smartphone, they’d be impressed, but probably assume that’s the direction cell phones were going (smaller, more features, cheaper, etc).
Similarly, a car that ran on gasoline and electricity wouldn’t seem so amazing, since its combining two things that already existed.
The internet would probably be the biggest gag fodder. Maybe also text messaging/email:
“Shoot, E-mail probably doesn’t even work around here [fiddles with smartphone]”
“Sure it does, it works just fine! give me that, I’ll show you”
[hands smartphone, looking rather incredulous]
"It just needs one thing [puts stamps on phone, throws it in a street mailbox]
:smack:
Lorraine’s little brother: Do you have a video game console?
Marty: Yeah, we’ve got four of them?
Lorraine’s little brother: Wow, really?
Lorraine’s mother: Come on, nobody has four video game consoles.