Back to the Future (film)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.



These things about Back to the Future (film) are subjective - not everyone will agree with all of them.

Series-Wide

  • Awesome Music: Robert Zemeckis said in an interview that he felt the story wouldn't stand up on its own, so he told composer Alan Silvestri to make the music as big and memorable as possible to make up for it. And you know...he may have been right.
    • "Back In Time," "Power Of Love," and especially "Doubleback" deserve special mention!
      • And "Johnny B. Goode" too. "Earth Angel" as well: or is that Heartwarming Music?
      • It's both.
    • Alan Silvestri's score for the train sequence in Part III is nothing short of brilliant. It uses the standard BTTF leitmotifs as a baseline; it throws in a drum beat that sounds like a train chugging; it intertwines the action themes, the tense themes, the love themes, the Western themes; and it ends with pure power.
  • Better on DVD: Parts II and III actually make greater sense when watched back-to-back.
  • Crazy Awesome: None other than Doc Brown, arguably one of the coolest mad scientists in any form of fictional media.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: "CPR Guy" from Part II. And for a short time in the fandom, the scarecrow that Marty runs over in Part I.
  • First Installment Wins: The first is iconic. The second and third are good, but definitely not remembered like number one.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: Played straight by the infamously awful games released for the NES and Genesis. Averted by the Telltale game and Super Back to the Future Part II for the Super Famicom, which sadly was only released in Japan.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The Time Machine itself, from the fire trails to taking off into the sky at the end of the first film. The second movie pioneered a computer controlled camera to make complicated panning shots with Michael J. Fox playing three roles at a time, and you can't tell any difference.

Part I

Part II

  • Nightmare Fuel / Mood Whiplash: In the space of a few minutes we go from their colorful, Zeerusty vision of the future to an utter Crapsack World where presumably all of America has become a Wretched Hive out of Mad Max.
  • Complete Monster: In a way, 1985-A!Biff. The guy's much worse there than anywhere else.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In Part 2, the USA Today in 2015 talks of the U.S. preparing for Queen Diana's visit. Unfortunately, in 2015, she had been dead for 18 years.
    • Then again, that also assumes Elizabeth II isn't around in 2015. She actually reigned until 2022.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Even though Japan Takes Over the World by 2015, the Toyota (formerly Studebaker) dealership bizarrely now sells Pontiacs. Pontiac folded in 2009.
    • However, before Pontiac went under, they did the Matrix/Vibe crossover car project... with Toyota. Zemeckis was in the ballpark...
    • When Marty first arrives back in the alternate 1985, he tries to enter his bedroom through the window and crawl into his bed, only to find out that an African-American family is now living in his house and is none too pleased with their bedroom intruder. This was kind of funny originally, but has become absolutely hilarious due to the similarities between it and the recent memetically mutated bedroom intruder incident.
    • Also, one of the newspaper's "Newsline" items refers to a female President. The way things are shaping up, that can only mean one thing...
    • Borderline example: a broadcast has the Cubs finally winning the World Series. The adversary is the "Florida Gators", as Florida was the biggest state outside the MLB... and now they have 2 teams!
    • As of 2012, just three years before the fictional setting in the movie, there IS now an MLB team that adopted Miami into its name.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Biff. He may not be too smart, but with one simple plan from an older (and more experienced) Biff to help his younger self, he starts an empire from successful "gambling" that allows him to start several companies (most highly nuclear power plants that generate enough pollutant to require a waste reclamation sub-industry; hmmm). Considering how he claims he "owns the police," he can certainly manipulate a lot, and he's definitely a bastard.
  • Newer Than They Think: Although it seems like hoverboards should be a staple of sci-fi as old as jetpacks and flying cars, which have both been in stories since at least the 1930s, this is actually what introduced them.

Part III

  • Genius Bonus: When the Colt salesman tries to get Marty to shoot the Peacemaker, he forces it into his left-hand (causing the first shot to miss completely, being Marty's weak hand) The Colt Single Action Army was actually originally designed to be fired left-handed while riding a horse. It's minor, but this gun-nut appreciated the attention to detail.
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