Back to the Future (film): Difference between revisions

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'''Doc Brown:''' "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it [[Rule of Cool|with some style]]?" }}

 

[[Back to the Future (game)|A card game]] has also been produced by Looney Labs; essentially a slightly-simplified version of their ''[[Chrononauts]]'' time-travel card game, the players are alternate-timeline descendants of various characters from the movies, who need to change time to make 'their' universes the real one, before stopping Doc from inventing time travel in the first place and thus preventing anyone changing history again. Yes, [[Grandfather Paradox|you need to use time travel to stop time travel from being discovered]]. Roll with it. Adding to the confusion is that Verne Brown, who ''exists'' because of time travel, is a playable character.

 

 

== Series-wide: ==

* [[Alliterative Name]]: Marty McFly, Clara Clayton, Marty McFly Jr., Marlene McFly, Maggie McFly, S. S. Strickland.

* [[All Just a Dream]]: Subverted [[Once an Episode|once in all three films]]. In each one Marty gets knocked out and comes to in a dark room being nursed to health by a woman he thinks is the mother he knows, believing his recent hardships were a nightmare. The woman inevitably reassures him in a way that tells Marty (and the audience) that it actually wasn't a dream.

** Subverted in the opening of the first game, where it actually was a dream.

** As well as other info of the characters' backgrounds. Including Doc's mother's side of the family growing up in Hill Valley.

* [[Almost Kiss]]: This happens three times in ''Part I'', between Marty and Jennifer (though they did share a brief kiss before she went home with her dad). Towards the end of ''Part III'', the two are finally able to kiss more definitively.

* [[Artistic License Nuclear Physics]]: You can't run a fission reactor on pure plutonium.

** You also can't run a fusion reactor on garbage (well, maybe on organic matter and/or water if you have a way to extract the hydrogen, but Doc threw a metal can in there too). It's a good thing that "Mr. Fusion" is just a brand name, and a play on "[[Bland-Name Product|Mr. Coffee]]."

* [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]: The Libyan terrorists in the first film speak vaguely Arabic-sounding gibberish. In the second film, future-Marty works for a "Mr. Fujitsu"; "Fujitsu" is the name of a Japanese company, but it's short for "Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing"<ref>''Fuji Tsuushinki Seizou'' if you're wondering, but parsed down to ''Fuji-Tsuu Kabushiki-Kaisha''(Stock Company) nowadays</ref>, not a surname.

* [[Berserk Button]]: "''Nobody''... calls me chicken."

** The variation in ''Part III'', where he said "nobody calls me yellow."

** Also, do not call Buford Tannen "Mad Dog." Just don't.

* [[Big No]]: Marty after Doc is shot by the Libyans in ''Part I'', and after finding out that Biff-A married Lorraine-A in ''Part II''.

* [[Book Ends]]: The first time the DeLorean travels through time, it leaves its registration plate spinning on the spot behind it. After the DeLorean makes its final journey and gets destroyed by an oncoming train, the car's registration plate from 2015 is left doing the same thing.

** Early on in Part I, Marty is given a flier by a woman who (along with other volunteers) is attempting to raise money to save the historic clock tower. The scene is played for laughs, but the clock tower becomes a significant part of the movie's climax.

*** The flier comes in handy, too.

** Also in ''Part I'', when Marty hides the DeLorean shortly after arriving in 1955, he is shown putting the walkman he later uses as part of his alien impersonation in the car for no other reason than to establish he has it.

** Marty's "auto accident": first referred to in Part II (during the 2015 segment), then narrowly averted during the finale of ''Part III''.

** Marty didn't do much of that in Part III. Doc, on the other hand...

** In ''Part II'' Marty demonstrates his skill with a gun-based arcade game. This becomes important in ''Part III'', giving him a sporting chance in an [[I Know Mortal Kombat|actual duel]].

* [[Clock Tower]]: Which is used in the [[Race Against the Clock|clock tower finale]].

* [["Close Enough" Timeline]]: There are not too many changes to 1985 when Marty returns there in ''Parts I'' and ''III''.

** Another theory posits that the "chicken" thing is a side-effect of the altered 1985 (cf. "the ripple effect") from the first movie--Marty's father (and, by extension the whole family) is more confident; for Marty, this became overweening arrogance.

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: Doc Brown had the revelation for the flux capacitor on the exact same day Marty's parents met. Exactly one week later on November 12, there was the school dance where the two kissed for the first time, and lightning stuck the clock tower. It also happens that the day of the school dance was also the day Old Biff traveled back in time to change the past. This is virtually [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the second film.

'''Doc:''' "Unbelievable that old Biff could have chosen that particular date. It could mean that that point in time inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance. Almost as if it were the temporal junction point for the entire space-time continuum! On the other hand, [[Lampshade Hanging|it could just be an amazing coincidence]]." }}

** Old Biff's choice of date might be justified in the fact that it was, in theory, the day everything fell apart for him due to getting owned by the school dweeb. Considering Biff's actions in 1985-A towards George and Lorraine, Biff might have been obsessing about that date for a good long while.

* [[Convenient Slow Dance]]

* [[Cool Car]]: The DeLorean. Anyone who grew up in [[The Eighties]] and enjoyed the BTTF movies will invariably hold a sort of unrequited love for them, even though in their unmodified form they're underpowered and don't handle too well. (Arguably, that's part of the joke -- getting a real DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour is about as likely as getting it to travel through time.)

** Other examples: Biff's '46 Ford Super DeLuxe convertible, Marty's tricked-out 1985 Toyota 4x4, and Doc Brown's 1948 Packard Victoria convertible.

* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Doc Brown.

** Speaking of 1955 extras, the character Lester ("I think he took his wallet") was played by an unnamed extra in Part I, who could be seen crouching over Biff. Obviously, as Lester became a marginally [[Ascended Extra]] thanks to Marty's interference in Part II, he was [[The Other Darrin|Other Darrin'd]] for the sequel.

* [[Fly At the Camera Ending]]: The first ''[[Back to The Future]]'' ends with the DeLorean flying up in the air, turning around, then warping through time just as it hits the camera.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: And plenty of it.

* [[Future Loser]]: Everyone at one point, notably Biff and Marty.

* [[Future Slang]]

'''Doc:''' "Weight has nothing to do with it!" }}

** Then, in the actual future and to the writer's credit, the audience could get the meanings of most of them:

"Don't drive '''tranq'd''', '''low-res scuzzball'''!" }}

*** [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Somewhat hilariously]], BoJo has since become a nickname for British Politician [[wikipedia:Boris Johnson|Boris Johnson]].

** Part I gives us George, who starts out as a nerdy loser. Marty is surprised to find that George was very creative as a teenager, and EVERYONE is shocked that George has it in him to stand up to Biff.

** Played straight in Part III, where we find that the eccentric Doc Brown is quite charming when around his love interest, and is a pretty good dancer to boot. [[Lampshaded]] by Marty:

* [[High Concept]]: One of the average film critic's examples -- normally on the level of "Young man goes back in time and [[Grandfather Paradox|Grandfather Paradoxes]] himself, has to play cupid to his own parents."

* [[High School Dance]]: The Enchantment Under The Sea Dance.

* [[Hover Board]]: Picked up in 2015, used in both 1955 and 1885.

* [[Hubcap Hovercraft]]: The DeLorean receives this upgrade at the end of the first movie.

* [[Identical Grandson]]: Plenty of them, and an identical ''daughter''. Yes, it's Michael J. Fox in drag.

* [[If My Calculations Are Correct]]: [[Trope Namers/Film|Trope Namer]].

* [[In Spite of a Nail]]: Only Doc, the McFly family and Biff Tannen have changed upon Marty's returns to 1985; everything else is exactly the same as "before."

** Notable exception: Before Marty travels through time, he meets Doc in the parking lot of the ''Twin Pines'' Mall. After Marty runs over one of Old Man Peabody's pine trees in 1955, he finds himself and Doc fleeing the Libyans at the ''Lone Pine'' Mall.

** Another exception: In ''Part III'', the ravine the train is supposed to cross over is originally called "Shonash Ravine" but was supposedly called "Clayton Ravine" after Clara fell in it (which Marty and Doc stopped from happening). After the train crashes into the ravine and Marty goes home at the end, the DeLorean rolls along the tracks and past a sign that says "Eastwood Ravine." Marty was going by Clint Eastwood in 1885, so "Clint Eastwood" fell into the ravine instead. This is supported: in the Telltale game, if Marty looks at Edna Strickland's newspapers enough, he finds a headline: "Clint Eastwood plunges to death on runaway train."

* [[In the Blood]]: The Tannens.

* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: Marty and Doc.

* [[It Will Never Catch On]]: Amongst other examples: "Ronald Reagan? The ''actor''?" in ''Part I''; "Clint Eastwood? What kinda stupid name is that for a cowboy?" in ''Part III''.

** Part III: "Run for fun? What the hell kinda fun is ''that''?"

** Also in episode 3 of the Telltale game.

* [[Large Ham]]: Christopher Lloyd in spades.

* [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]]: The first twenty minutes or so of ''Part I'', as well as 2015 McFly house portion of ''Part II''.

* [[Lightning Can Do Anything]]

** Biff thinks pointing out his malapropisms is about as funny as a screen door on a battleship!

** Buford Tannen in ''Part III'' is also prone to this:

'''Gang Member:''' "It's dog, Buford. Shoot him down like a dog." }}

* [[Mean Character, Nice Actor]]: Thomas F. Wilson as Biff, [[Identical Grandson|Griff and Buford]] Tannen.

* [["Mister Sandman" Sequence]]: [[Trope Namers/Film|Trope Namer]].

* [[Model Planning]]: A [[Running Gag]]. Doc Brown builds elaborate models of city blocks or canyons to demonstrate his plans to Marty, then apologizes for "the crudity of the model". It also catches on fire, repeatedly.

** Sometimes, however, [[Justified Trope|justified]]: in the first movie, the plutonium needed to power the flux capacitor isn't available, and in the third movie, the fuel line is damaged and the gasoline leaks out, which the car needs to accelerate.

** The DeLorean's habit of stalling in the middle of a road has prevented possible time paradoxes: In the original movie, Marty is forced to disguise the car behind a billboard, being unable to drive it openly through 1955 Hill Valley. At the end of the film, the DeLorean stalls ''again'', preventing Marty from interrupting the shootout at Lone Pine Mall (thus avoiding direct contact with his past self).

* [[Newspaper Dating]]: Marty in 1955 and 1985-A, Doc in 2015.

* [[No Man Should Have This Power]]: Doc Brown repeatedly promises to himself to destroy his own time-travelling technology, which finally happens at the end of movie 3. {{spoiler|(And then it almost immediately turns out that he had built a new one.)}}

* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: For "gigawatts." Not so noticeable to the general public at the time, but over 20 years on, the prefix "giga-" (beginning with a hard "g") [[Tech Marches On|has become commonplace]] for computer-related terms<ref>Gigabyte and gigahertz likely being the most commonly known among the average computer user</ref>, so nowadays it's bound to give even non-engineers pause.

** The look on Doc's face when Buford comes to shoot him on ''Saturday,'' and he realizes that just because he ''died'' in the original timeline on Monday doesn't mean that's when he got ''shot.''

* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]: Doc Brown. He even identifies himself a "student of all sciences" in the third movie.

* [[Our Time Machine Is Different]] because it is a car, and a cool one at that.

** He even says, "I'm more of a peeping tom." in the Telltale games.

* [[Pimped-Out Car]]: Doc made a time machine out a car, and later a train, not to mention the flying abilities.

* [[Prince Charming Wannabe]]: Biff with Lorraine in ''Part I'' and ''Part II''.

* [[The Professor]]: Doc Brown.

** "Read. My. Fax!"; "Gray's. Sports. Almanac!" (''Part II'')

* [[Race Against the Clock]]: Former Trope Namer - the clock tower finale for ''Part I'' reappears in ''both'' sequels, and ''Part III'' tries to outdo it with its own take.

* [[Snowball Lie]]: Doc and Marty are the undisputed masters of using this technique to preserve their cover.

* [[Spear Carrier]]: The couple at the dance amazed at George standing up for himself in ''Part I'', the kids unimpressed by Marty's gun skills in ''Part II'', the train engineer in ''Part III'' who asks if it's a robbery and Doc answers, "It's a science experiment."

** Don't forget Red the Bum, who calls Marty a "crazy drunk driver" towards the end of ''Part I'', and a "crazy drunk pedestrian" in the alternate 1985 in ''Part II''.

* [[Stable Time Loop]]: Interestingly, according to [[Word of God]], as a general rule of thumb, the past is never 'already altered' (hence the inclusion of [[You Already Changed the Past]] below). So officially, [http://www.cracked.com/video_18203_why-back-to-future-secretly-horrifying.html if it seems like a time traveler has become the cause of something that already existed, he has merely replaced that cause], [[Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory|possibly using information gained from the result of a cause that now never happened]]. So originally, Clint Eastwood and Chuck Berry were truly original, Goldie came up with the idea to run for mayor himself, there wasn't a strange sequence of events at the 1955 school dance (let alone two), and Doc Brown was killed by Libyans. Then Marty happened.

* [[Technicolor Science]]: The lightning bolt.

* [[Techno Babble]]: Lampshaded. "English, Doc!"

* [[Temporal Paradox]]: Perhaps the most tropeworthy ontological example is how there are four DeLoreans present in Hill Valley on November 12th, 1955 - the one that Marty traveled back in time with in Part I, the one 2015 Biff traveled back in time with in Part II, the one Marty and Doc traveled back with also in Part II, and the one taking [[The Slow Path]] sealed up in the mine shaft shown in Part III.

** Averted in that each time the DeLorean makes a trip through time, a new timeline is created, one whose primary difference begins with the appearance of the car itself. This perfectly preserves the Law of Conservation of Matter. Calculating all the trips made in the entire series, there are about nine timelines, with Doc and Marty occupying the ninth one by the third film's end.

*** Of course, he also got himself some surgery in the future that made him 20 or so years younger, physically.

* [[Villain Decay]]: Actually invoked with Biff. In the first film, he goes from being George McFly's bullying co-worker to the family's submissive mechanic, all because of George's punch in the 1950s. [[It Gets Worse|He Got Worse]] in the sequel but went back to being subservient by the end of the third movie.

 

== Part I: ==

* [[Blatant Lies]]: Marty's mother in the beginning of the first movie tells him that she never went chasing after boys. When we see her younger self, it turns out that she was instantly enamored with his dad and, due to Marty taking his dad's place due to an accident, all but attempted to force herself on him.

* [[Blown Across the Room]]/[[Gale Force Sound]]: Marty hooks up an electric guitar to a [[Up to Eleven|ludicrously huge speaker]]. He plays a single chord and is physically hurled backwards by the sound (the speaker is destroyed in the process).

* [[Casting Gag]] - Huey Lewis, playing the audition judge in 1985, tells Marty's band that they're "just too darn loud." [[Hypocritical Humor|The band was playing Lewis' own song, "The Power of Love."]]

* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: Huey Lewis exists in the ''BTTF'' universe, as proven by Marty's posters in his room - and so does the audition judge, played by... Huey Lewis.

** Even better: at the end of the movie, Marty's clock radio plays "Back in Time" by Huey Lewis and the News. The song was specifically written for (and contains a TON of references to) a little movie called ''Back to the Future''.

** Lorraine also tells the kids that if her father hadn't hit George McFly with his car in 1955 before the dance, none of the kids would've been born. She also says that she and George fell in love after they had their first kiss at the dance. It's all seemingly useless information that parents just say for no reason, right?

* [[Clean Up the Town]]: Goldie Wilson.

* [[Common Knowledge]]: In-universe example, when Doc Brown is showing Marty how to set the target date on the time machine: "Say you wanted to see the signing of the Declaration of Independence. (sets date to JUL 04 1776) Or witness the birth of Christ! (sets date to DEC 25 0000)" Not only did neither event take place on the given date, "0000" isn't even a year on any calendar — the year before AD 1 was 1 BC.

* [[Contrived Clumsiness]]: Marty "accidentally" trips Biff when they're in the diner in 1955 Hill Valley.

* [[Covert Pervert]]: Believe it or not, Doc Brown. In a deleted scene, the audience is shown some of the contents of the briefcase 1985 Doc was planning to take with him during his time travel expedition; among them was a Playboy Magazine. Upon finding it, the 1955 Doc responds thus:

* [[Delayed Ripple Effect]]: [[Trope Namers/Film|Trope Namer]] - Marty has a week to get his parents together before he'll be erased from existence.

* [[Dies Wide Open]]: Subversion, towards the end.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Among many things, Doc commenting on how Marty's 1985 photo is obviously a forgery, since his brother's hair is missing.

** The following exchange at the beginning of Part I:

'''Marty''': "Yeah, well, history is about to change." }}

** Lorraine says to her children at the dinner the following, all of which she ends up doing to "Calvin Klein":

* [[Former Teen Rebel]]: Lorraine.

* [[Freeze-Frame Bonus]]: In the first movie, 1955!Doc has no less than ''four'' separate watches (one's built into his clocktower model as the clock).

* [[Funny Background Event]]: Stella keeps taking off Milton's coonskin hat, while Marty is taking in the surroundings of the Baines' dining room.

* [[Garage Band]]: Marty McFly's band, which auditions for the school dance.

** That judge? Huey Lewis in a cameo.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Biff, when he sits at Lorraine's table and tries to grope her.

** During the scene where Marty and George are going over the plan of how they're going to get George with Lorraine we have this exchange while George is doing his family's laundry:

'''George:''' Hoh! You mean you're going to touch her on her- *holding a bra in his hand* }}

* [[God Guise]]: Marty uses his radiation suit and Walkman stereo to dress up as "Darth Vader from the Planet Vulcan". He frightens George and threatens to [[Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon|melt his brain]] if he doesn't take Lorraine to the school dance.

* [[Grumpy Old Man]]: Sam Baines.

* [[The Gump]]: Back in 1955, Marty McFly plays Chuck Berry's ''Johnny B. Goode'' when he steps in for Chuck's cousin, Marvin Berry. While Marty is playing, Marvin calls Chuck up so he can listen in on this "new sound." This is arguably more of a [[Temporal Paradox]], though (specifically an example of a "predestination paradox"), as it raises the question of who actually created the "new sound."

'''Doc:''' "Why ''shouldn't'' you be happy?" }}

* [[I Should Write a Book About This]]: And indeed, George does, based on "Darth Vader" visiting him at night in 1955.

* [[Improvised Zipline]]: Doc Brown uses the heavy duty electrical cable attached to the clock tower as a line to reach the ground quickly and fix a break in the line.

* [[Incest Is Relative]]: Parodied, in that whilst Marty knows who Lorraine really is, she has no idea as to his true identity. Luckily for Marty, Lorraine likens kissing him as to kissing her brother.

* [["Kick Me" Prank]]: Biff to George.

* [[Kid From the Future]]: Marty, although his parents know nothing of who he really is.

* [[Limit Break]]: George punching out Biff after Biff laughs at him and Lorraine.

* [[Malt Shop]]

* [[Named After Somebody Famous]]: Lorraine [[wikipedia:Lyndon B. Johnson|Baines]] and her family.

* [[Naughty Birdwatching]]: When George was spying on Lorraine in 1955. Lorraine in the original 1985 even refers to the event as birdwatching.

* [[Nerd]]: Marty's father, although Marty's intervention via time travel turns him into a much ''cooler'' class of nerd.

* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: Biff pushing Lorraine down and [[Evil Laugh|laughing about it]] gives George the [[Date Rape Averted|resolve he needs]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|to punch him out]].

* [[No Accounting for Taste]]: George and Lorraine in the original 1985, at the start of the film.

* [[Nostalgia Ain't Like It Used to Be]]: Compare the film's portrayal of 1955 with that of 1985.

** On the other hand, the film does a good job in showing both the bright, sunny veneer of [[The Fifties]] and the darker, less pleasant aspects underneath without being bluntly [[Anvilicious]].

* [[Oh Crap]]: "They found me. I don't know how but they found me. RUN FOR IT, MARTY!"

* [[One Head Taller]]: The original actress playing Jennifer, who never filmed any scenes, was fired because she was a lot taller than Michael J. Fox.

* [[Parental Bonus]]: After Marty wakes up from being knocked out in 1955, he learns that his pants are "over there... on (Lorraine's) hope chest". Many people who were born after the 1950s may not understand what a hope chest is. <ref>It's a chest that young girls used to keep in preparation for their marriage. The joke here is that Lorraine was already fantasizing about marrying the young man that she did not realize was her future son.</ref>

* [[Percussive Maintenance]]: Marty bashes his head against the DeLorean's steering wheel when it refuses to start. At this, the ignition miraculously turns on.

* [[The Power of Rock]]: Subverted: Marty's guitar solos produce indifference in their audiences.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]:

* [[Prince Charming Wannabe]]: Biff with Lorraine.

* [[Psycho Strings]]: The musical score gets screechy as Marty fades from existence.

** In Doc's lab in the beginning, the amplifier is labeled "CRM 114", which was the code name for a radio device from ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]''.

* [[Slow Electricity]]: Near the end of the film, the lightning crawls down the wire at roughly a walking pace.

* [[Stopped Clock]]: The clock tower stopped after being stuck by lightning, giving Marty and Doc a precise time to use the lightning to time travel.

* [[Time Is Dangerous]]: the DeLorean has to be traveling at 88 miles per hour. Which means that unless you know what's going to be in front of you when you arrive in the new timeline, you're going to crash.

* [[Title Drop]]: Doc declares he has to send Marty "Back! To the ''future!''"

** And again at the end of the movie when Doc comes back from 2015, to pick up Marty and go back to...you know.

** Also the opening, showing off various gadgets Doc has at home.

* [[Turn Out Like His Father]]: Played with in every possible way. People tell Marty he's going to be a loser like his dad, then the past changes and his dad is not a loser but Marty is still destined to be a loser, then that future is possibly avoided presumably letting Marty succeed at a creative pursuit like his dad.

* [[Values Dissonance]]: An in-universe example: "A colored mayor, that'll be the day."

* [[Vanity License Plate]]: The DeLorean has the tags OUTATIME.

** What happened to Doctor Brown's remaining plutonium? did he use it all before fitting Mr Fusion or did he just throw it in a bin somewhere? (which given the general recklessness he displays during the Trilogy is not that much of a stretch)

* [[Who's on First?]]: Marty's attempts to get a Tab, and then a Pepsi Free, at Lou's Cafe in the 50's.

 

== Part II: ==

* [[All Bikers Are Hells Angels]]: In 1985-A.

* [[Alternate History]]: 1985-A.

* [[Book and Switch]]: Biff hides a girly magazine inside the dust jacket of the sports almanac, which Marty mistakes for the real thing. An earlier scene in 2015 established the dust jacket for the purpose of this scene.

* [[Bond Villain Stupidity]]: Apparently, Old Biff told his younger self if some kid or some wild-eyed old man who claims to be a scientist shows up asking about the book, he should sit him down, tell him in exacting detail the event of getting the book, and only ''then'' try to shoot him.

** [[Incredibly Lame Pun|More like a "spider-to-the-McFly" scenario.]]

* [[Breast Expansion]]: Lorraine-A's implants in the second film:

* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: Cafe '80s in 2015 shows '80s TV shows, including ''[[Family Ties]]'' (starring Michael J. Fox) and ''[[Taxi]]'' (starring Christopher Lloyd).

* [[Chalk Outline]]: In 1985-A.

* [[Concealing Canvas]]: In Biff-A's office.

* [[CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable]]: Subverted -- Biff comes to just as someone (named "CPR Kid" in the credits) asks, "What's CPR?", and Marty knocks Biff out again. Amusingly, the "Universal Animated Anecdotes" included in the DVD had to clarify that CPR does not mean [[Too Dumb to Live|punching someone in the face]].

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Compared to Part 1. And. '''HOW.'''

* [[The Easy Way or the Hard Way]]: Directly quoted.

* [[Egopolis]]: 1985-A. A Vatican City of vice, with Biff as Pope.

* [[Fake Shemp]]: [[Word of God|Word of Bob Gale]] says that Crispin Glover got an ego and started making outlandish demands for his return in the sequels. Gale and Zemeckis decided to forget Glover and get creative by using a double actor and some nifty tricks with stock footage and computer effects. It backfired on the producers and Glover sued. The suit was settled out of court and the Screen Actors Guild revised their rules on stock footage use.

** Biff-A is watching ''A Fistful of Dollars'', and crows when [[Clint Eastwood]] showed he was wearing a stovetop under his jerkin, "A bullet-proof vest! Ingenious!" {{spoiler|Guess how the showdown in ''III'' is resolved?}}

* [[Forced Perspective]]: The Lyon Estates site, and the tunnel.

* [[Futuristic Superhighway]]: The movie begins with Doc, Marty, and Jennifer arriving in the year 2015 inadvertently flying against traffic on a highway specifically designed for [[Flying Car|Flying Cars]].

* [[Gilligan Cut]]: Marty needs to get some Fifties clothes:

''Cut to Marty wearing a not-so-inconspicuous leather jacket, hat, and shades.'' }}

* [[God Test]]: Biff challenges his future self to prove that the Gray's Sports Almanac has the results of every sporting event in the next 50 years.

** Plus, the time machine reappeared in the middle of a thunderstorm. From what we could see, visibility was already pretty low due to the rain, so do you think any of the other drivers would have paid much heed to a flash of light and some booming sounds?

* [[Kick the Dog]]: There's a scene in 1955 where Biff gets a hold of a ball belonging to a bunch of kids, and while listening to them plead to have it back, mocks them and then throws it onto a second story balcony.

* [[Mega Corp]]: Biffco.

* [[Money to Burn]]: Biff's image is depicted on the front of his casino doing this.

* [[Off to Boarding School]]: The alternate Marty in 1985-A.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: "Wallet Guy."

* [[The Paid for Harem]]: Biff-A's harem.

* [[Plot Hole]]: Old Biff heads back to 1955, hands young Biff the almanac, and returns to 2015 where Marty and Doc are. If you think about it, this shouldn't be, as after handing out the almanac, he would have started the chain of events leading to the dystopian 1985, and thusly 2015. Therefore, Marty and Doc would have been lost in time, and Old Biff would have emerged in a future where he was on top of the world!

** Or that history changes around Doc and Marty as they carry Jennifer back to where they parked the DeLorean (and they just don't notice). Recall this is what happens to Jennifer and Einstein after they're left in 1985-A in Part II; Jennifer wakes up in the right timeline once Marty gets back in Part III.

** While not explicitly canon, there is a deleted scene of Old Biff collapsing painfully and fading away after returning to 2015, the explanation being that Lorraine shot and killed him sometime around 1995. It's plausible that with Biff dead, his empire dissolves and things slowly return to "normal" by 2015 so that Marty and Doc never know the difference. This would go along with the series' convention that time is always trying to "right" itself, get back on track.

* [[Prince Charming Wannabe]]: Again, Biff with Lorraine in 1955.

* [[Product Placement]]: Most are for "future" products. Mattel hasn't gotten around to making hoverboards...yet. The futuristic Pepsi glass makes it look awfully good, though.

* [[Putting on the Reich]]: S.S. Strickland - Discipline

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: The concept of an altered "[[Bad Future|bad present]]" where George McFly was murdered came about due to Crispin Glover's refusal to take part in the sequel.

* [[Ridiculous Future Inflation]]: Doc gives Marty $50 for a bottle of Pepsi.

** However, this is later subverted when Old Biff steps out of the taxi, and the driver charges him $174.50 for the ride. While this is still expensive relative to the time of the movie's release, it suggests that a future taxi ride only costs three sodas.

* [[Ridiculous Future Sequelisation]]: A holographic advertisement for ''Jaws 19'', directed by Max Spielberg, with the tagline: "This time it's really, ''really'' personal." All Marty has to say is, "The shark still looks fake."

* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]:

* [[Shout-Out]]: One of the '80s antiques is a [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|Roger Rabbit doll]].

** Also, the virtual Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan and Ayatollah Khomeini are modeled after [[Max Headroom]].

** Many references to ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' during the 1985A sequence.

** One of the headlines in the paper in 1985-A reads 'Nixon to seek fifth term', a possible shout-out to Watchmen.

* [[Space Clothes]]: 2015 fashion tends toward the "unbelievably silly" version of this trope.

* [[Stupid Sexy Flanders]]: Admit it, Michael J. Fox as his future daughter Marlene.

* [[Tell Me About My Father]]: Marty, asking Lorraine-A about the alternate version of his father.

* [[They Don't Make Them Like They Used To]]: Implied.

'''Doc:''' "Marty, he's in a '46 Ford; we're in a DeLorean. He'd rip through us like we were tinfoil." }}

* [[Time Travel Tense Trouble]]:

'''Doc:''' "Whatever!" }}

** There's another one, in the middle of the movie:

* [[Title Drop]]: The ending.

'''1955!Doc:''' "Great Scott!" ''(faint)'' }}

* [[To Be Continued]]: Audiences were upset they actually ''showed'' scenes from ''III''. Thanks for the Spoiler Alert, Zemeckis.

** [[Invoked Trope|Deliberately done by Zemeckis]] to ensure audiences that the last chapter would be finished in a matter of months, not years.

* [[Trophy Wife]]: Marty's mother has been coerced into becoming Biff Tannen's trophy wife, complete with unwanted breast augmentation. Though Marty is eventually able to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], the viewer sees that she would have eventually shot him to death.

* [[Uncanny Family Resemblance]]: Michael J. Fox plays all of Marty's future family, [[Crosscast Role|including his daughter]].

* [[Unintentional Period Piece]]: A weird case; the Cafe 80's scene, (remember, this movie was made in 19'''89'''), [[They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste|invokes this trope directly]]. The result was rather bizarre at the time, and still is.

* [[Unstoppable Mailman]]: The Western Union man at the end manages to arrive at exactly the time he was told to.

** Becomes [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] when you note that Needles' favorite sport is Slamball, which didn't exist in 1985, but it does now.

* [[Women's Mysteries]]: Doc mentions this while musing that he won't get to visit [[The Wild West]].

* [[Worst News Judgment Ever]]: Even though Doc's copy of ''USA Today'' is a localized edition (the joke seems to be that they took over the whole newspaper industry), "Youth Jailed" is not exactly cover story material. Especially when you see the other stories from that day.

* [[Zeerust]]/[[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]: Done on purpose; the filmmakers didn't want to try to accurately predict the future, so they just combined Jetsons-esque devices with some obvious jokes (the McFlys have a fax machine in every room of their house, which apparently all print the same message at once). One thing they probably didn't count on, though, was Pontiac no longer existing. As well as Princess Di's death, one newspaper has an article about her becoming Queen.

** Ironically, some of their predictions actually came pretty close. Things like 16:9 flat-screen TVs with the ability to watch multiple shows at once don't sound too crazy in a world with [http://www.google.com/tv/ Google TV]. Hell, think about Marty Jr watching about eight shows at once, then ask yourself: how many tabs do you have open in your browser right now?

 

 

== Part III: ==

* [[Acting for Two]]: Michael J. Fox once again, this time as Marty & his Great-Great-Grandfather Seamus McFly. Also, Thomas F. Wilson portrayed Biff & Buford.

* [[And Starring]]: Lea Thompson.

* [[Back for the Finale]]: George, Lorraine, Dave, Linda, Biff and Jennifer all return for the final scenes.

* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Doc.

* [[Drive-In Theater]]: Featured in a [[Played for Laughs]] scene before Marty leaves for 1885.

* [[Drowning My Sorrows]]: Doc, in the saloon - subverted in that he doesn't actually touch his shot glass. When he finally does gulp it down, he [[Drunk on Milk|passes out instantly]].

* [[Embarrassing Nickname]]: Buford 'Mad Dog' tannen.

* [[Eternally Pearly-White Teeth]]: Averted; Buford and his gang notice and remark on Marty's white teeth.

* [[Everything's Worse with Bears]]

* [[Explosive Overclocking]]: The train, near the end.

* [[Fan Service]]: Michael J. Fox's partially exposed rear in his 1885 pajamas.

* [[Fashions Never Change]]: Spoofed.

* [[Forgotten Phlebotinum]]: Impressively averted. At the film's climax, the hoverboard -- which had been important to the ''previous'' movie -- gets reused.

'''Doc:''' "It's a science experiment!" }}

* [[For Want of a Nail]]: A non-standard example for a time-travel story; the fuel line being punctured by rough terrain leads to the complex plot of getting the DeLorean up to time-travel velocity. [[Fridge Logic|One would think]] that packing an extra can of gasoline for a trip to pre-petroleum times would be a no-brainer, but 1955 Doc is not as [[Genre Savvy]] about time travel as his 1985 counterpart.

* [[Funny Background Event]]: When Doc and Clara return in the time machine train, Doc in the foreground tells Marty and Jennifer to make their future a good one. In the background, for whatever reason, the child playing Verne points to his crotch. It's been hypothesized that the child actor was trying to signal to someone (possibly director Zemeckis) that he needed to pee.

** Marty complains that Clint Eastwood never wore such a ridiculous getup, and Doc doesn't know who that is. They have this conversation in front of a drive-in theater, with a poster for ''Revenge of the Creature'', Eastwood's first film.

* [[Gilligan Cut]]: "We may have to blast!" BOOM!

** This little gem from trying to find where to get the car up to 88

** ''Cut to them standing at the unfinished bridge.''

* [[Going Native]]: Doc has adjusted to life in 1885 ''very'' well.

** Well he did mention how the Old West was his favorite time period.

* [[Greek Chorus]]: The three old-timers who hang out at the saloon.

* [[Hideous Hangover Cure]]: The "wake up juice."

* [[I Always Wanted to Say That]]: Doc with the train whistle - "I've wanted to do that all my life!"

* [[Time Travel Romance]]: Between Clara and Doc Brown.

* [[Title Drop]]: Last lines of the film.

'''Doc:''' "Nope. Already been there." }}

* [[Train Job]]: Not your typical train robbery, either. They want to steal the locomotive.

* [[Trapped in the Past]]: Doc, after realizing he's stuck in 1885.

* [[The Unseen]]: Joey the "Wake Up Juice" man.

* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: The Indians' reaction to the Delorean when Marty arrives in 1885. True, they are being chased by the US Cavalry and one of the Indians hits the Delorean with an arrow, but you would think at least a few of them would stop dead. [[Fridge Brilliance]] sets in, however, when you realize that they were riding horses. Even if they got distracted by the sudden appearance of a car, the animals don't care, and just keep going.

* [[Urine Trouble]]: The first McFly born in America greets his future descendant with this trope.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: 1955 Doc remarks that there were "plenty of worse places to end up than the Old West."

* [[The Wild West]]

* [[Write Back to the Future]]: [[Trope Namers/Film|Trope Namer]].

* [[You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost]]

''(indicates Doc's 1885 grave with his flashlight)'' }}

* [[Young Gun]]: Marty; subverted.

* [[You Talkin' to Me?]]: Marty quotes the speech in 1885.

 

== And notably avoids: ==

** We meet George's family in the novel, and it is implied he is an only child.

** Biff is confirmed to be an only child in the Telltale game, {{spoiler|which ends up foreshadowing the existence of Biff's brothers Cliff and Riff in an alternate timeline where Kid Tannen never went to jail.}}

** Part 1: '''Lou:''' "A colored mayor, that'll be the day."

** Also in Part 1, one of Biff's gang calls one of the band's members a "spook", which is a largely forgotten racial epithet for a black person.

*** Not averted in the video game, however. Trixie Trotter sings the classic song "I Don't Care," but the lyric "Of a clever race descendent" is changed to "I am my own superintendent."

**** Actually, that's the way [[Judy Garland]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Q3gd6S1as sings it in In The Good Old Summertime] so it's possible that's the version Telltale happened to use.

** He then proceeds to screw it up by {{spoiler|giving himself only a few extra minutes, thus allowing him to make it back to the mall parking lot just in time to see Doc get shot.}} [[Justified Trope]] in that he was worried about screwing up the ''present'' timeline as badly as he had just screwed up the past (if he prevents himself from going back in time, for example, he would not exist anymore). Doc mentions the implications earlier in the film.

* [[Time Crash]]: In the films, Doc was concerned that causing an unresolvable time paradox or having someone encounter his or her past self could potentially destroy the timeline. In the Telltale game, he implicitly admits that he was wrong and that time is stronger than that. Now, ''history'', on the other hand...

[[Category:The Fifties]]

[[Category:Hugo Award]]

[[Category:Film]]

[[Category:Film Westerns]]