Back to the Future (film)/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Part I

  • George McFly punching Biff after delivering a perfect "Get your damn hands off her!": great. George McFly pushing off the redhaired kid who tried to cut in, thus saving all three of his future children, followed by Marty playing "Johnny B Goode", ending in a heavy metal solo: insanity.
    • In fact the exact moment when Marty is alive again as his father kisses his mother and ensures eveyone's future, thus causing Marty to instantly return to playing the song "Earth Angel" is easily one of the most triumphant moments in cinema, ever.
  • After working so hard to connect the cables on the clock, the bottom cable suddenly pops free -- and there's only a minute to go. Doc despairs for a moment, then gets a determined look. He reconnects the bits he has, then LOOPS THEM AROUND THE HANDS OF THE CLOCK AND SLIDES DOWN, retrieving the other end and connecting it JUST AS THE LIGHTNING BOLT HITS. Awesome.
    • Let's face it, there's a reason this scene is in all three films.
  • How can we forget "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need... roads." The line is awesome enough, but when you consider that the Doc has turned a Time Machine that he invented into a flying car AS WELL?
    • In fact, this line was so cool that Reagan incorporated it into his State of the Union address that year. He was a fan of the movies; when Doc disbelieves that an actor could be President, Reagan had the White House projectionist rewind and play the line again.
  • "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"
  • "If My Calculations Are Correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit."
  • Marty's fight with Biff, and the chase scene afterwards. It ends with Marty avoiding getting crushed between a truck and Biff's '46 Impala by running up the hood, through the car seats, and off the trunk, with Biff and his gang getting buried in manure.
  • Real-Life Example: One of the execs wanted to change the name to "The Spaceman from Saturn" due to the comic book that the kids on the farm are reading when Marty first makes it to 1955, thinking that no one would get the title Back to the Future (it doesn't take a genius to figure out the Fridge Logic there). The writers were stuck and really couldn't say anything, but Steven Spielberg on the other hand said this at a meeting: "We got the joke you sent us, it was hilarious." The uproarious laughter pretty much squashed the idea.
  • A small moment, but "Who're you calling spook?" is pretty awesome.

Part II

  • Sort of a combined one for Doc and Marty. Marty, faced with a gun by the 1985-A version of Biff Tannen, steps off the roof of the Pleasure Paradise. Biff walks forward slowly, muttering "Idiot." Cue Marty rising up, standing on the hood of the DeLorean, and Doc opening his door just in time to whack Biff in the face with it. "Nice shot, Doc" indeed!
  • Back in 1955, after Marty realizes he's just followed a false trail and gotten nothing but Biff's dirty magazine.

Doc Brown: Marty, the entire future depends on you finding Biff and getting that book back!
Marty: I know! I just don't know where...
[Sounds of Biff and George's fight in the parking lot from Part I]
Marty: OF COURSE!!!

  • The scene in which Marty surreptitiously makes his way to the stage and climbs the ladder onto the rigging, to drop the sandbags on Biff's goons to prevent his past self from being beaten up and the universe from being destroyed.

Part III

  • When Marty McFly finally overcomes his Berserk Button and decides not to fight Buford Tannen over being called a 'chicken' -- because, in Marty's words, "He's an asshole! I don't care what he thinks!"
  • Doc shooting Marty down from Buford's attempt to hang him with his telescopic rifle definitely qualifies. "It'll shoot the fleas off a dog's back at 500 yards, Tannen -- and it's pointed straight at your head!"
  • Marty returns the favor for the above later by preventing Buford from shooting him. Not only was it a frisbee throw (using an actual Frisbee pie plate!), but he hit Buford's hand just as he pulled the trigger, and the only casualty was Doc's hat.
  • And there's also the fact that he shows up at the end of the movie in a TIME-TRAVELING FLYING STEAM TRAIN. Let's face it - Doc's COOL.
  • In a real-life example, the story of the restoration of a genuine, screen-used Delorean to its former glory after years of neglect.


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