Scene Anatomy 101 03.19.08: Back to the Future

Posted by George H. Sirois on 03.19.2008

The Space-Time Continuum and You: Part 1 of 3



It's been a constant in film for many decades, especially in the science-fiction genre, but it's also been used in dramas, comedies and action flicks. That constant is time travel, and it is responsible for some of the most memorable films in the history of the industry. One of those is what we'll be discussing here, the first part in a trilogy of films that was never meant to actually be a trilogy and a film that had its time machine built into… a refrigerator.

That's not a typo. When the writing team of Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis set out to make their own time travel story involving a kid going back to see his parents at his age, they had originally come up with the idea of the time machine made as some kind of chamber. Thankfully, that idea was jettisoned and they switched the time machine to be a vehicle.

After the storyline was put together and a draft of the screenplay was written, Zemeckis set his focus back on his floundering directing career. Even with Steven Spielberg producing his movies, the poor guy just couldn't catch a break. That is, until Michael Douglas came along and offered Zemeckis the chance to direct Romancing the Stone. Once that became a hit, everyone wanted to get this new script that the two Bob's had been developing. Wisely, they chose to stick with the same producer that had faith in Zemeckis from the beginning and gave it to Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment.

After a very interesting production process – one in which the original star Eric Stoltz was replaced after several scenes were already shot – the resulting film was released to the public in the summer of 1985. It was a smash hit, one of the highest grossing films of the decade, and you know it as…



Each film in the Back to the Future trilogy showcases a major element that has taken place in almost every other time travel story before it. They show the crucial moment where a character has to convince another that he's from either the past or the future. They show the results of someone messing with the space-time continuum and the new reality that our characters become stuck in. And, as time travel stories become confusing, a mistake rears its ugly head.

But let's take things one at a time here and just focus on a character revealing his original time to another character. As our scene begins, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) has been introduced to a time machine built into a DeLorean by his friend Dr. Emmitt L. Brown (Christopher Lloyd), and had to use it to get away from the Libyans that shot "Doc" for swindling them out of their plutonium. When Marty hit 88 mph in the car, the time machine – specifically the Flux Capacitor – and suddenly, he was in Hill Valley, California on November 5, 1955.

Completely confused about how he's supposed to get back to his own time, Marty looks up "Doc" since he would be the only person who could help him. Of course, he's looking up the 1955 version and that man would have no idea that Marty McFly even exists. And that's obviously because Marty doesn't exist yet.

Before Marty can reach "Doc," he encounters both of his parents in very interesting situations. After the young man who would be Marty's father – George McFly (Crispin Glover) – falls off a tree while spying on Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson), the girl would be Marty's mother, Marty pushes him out of the way just as a car drives up. We learned in the first act of the film that George was supposed to get hit with the car and Lorraine would feel sorry for him and go with him to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. But that didn't happen because Marty thought he was doing a good thing by saving his father.

Since it was Marty who got hit, the amorous feelings that Lorraine was supposed to feel for George wound up going to him instead. Marty wisely leaves the Baines' house before anything really sickening could happen. Now that he knows where to go, he walks up to the house owned at the time by Dr. Emmitt L. Brown.

Marty knocks on the door and the door opens a crack. We can hear a strange humming noise coming from inside the house. The door shuts and then opens up wide to reveal the 1955 version of "Doc." He's just as wide-eyed and excitable as he was before, and his hair is just as frazzled as it was in 1985. He's exactly the same, except with less wrinkles and this "Doc" is wearing a large metal helmet with blinking lights on his head.

MARTY: Doc?

Doc grabs Marty by his sleeve and pulls him into the house.

DOC: Don't say a word.

As Marty struggles, Doc pulls him over to a large computer that's making a lot of 50s style hums and whistles. The computer is made up of a large grey metal plate with various dials on it.

DOC: I don't want to know your name. I don't want to know anything about you.

MARTY: Listen, Doc – Doc…

DOC: Quiet! Don't tell me anything. Quiet!

MARTY: You gotta help-

Doc holds up a long wire with a suction cup attached at the end.

DOC: Quiet.

Doc then slams the suction cup on Marty's forehead. We're now about to see the reasoning behind a computer of this size.

DOC: I'm gonna read your thoughts. Let's see now.

Doc turns a few dials and then starts to sense thoughts coming to him.

DOC: You've come here from… a great distance.

Marty immediately reacts to that.

MARTY: Yeah! Exactly!

Doc cuts him off.

DOC: Don't tell me! Uhhh… you want me to buy a subscription to the Saturday Evening Post!

MARTY: No!

DOC: Not a word, not a word, not a word now.

Doc looks at how Marty is dressed. As far as 1950s wardrobes go, they have yet to latch onto the vest that looks somewhat like a life preserver. So that's what Doc chooses to go with, which is the same item that several other characters have already pointed out ever since he got there.

DOC: Uhhh… donations! You want me to make a donation… to the Coast Guard Youth Auxiliary!

Marty's heard enough.

MARTY: Doc!

With a quick tug, Marty snaps the suction cup off of his forehead. No point in beating around the bush any longer. When Marty speaks, he's speaking a little slower just to drive the point home so hopefully Doc can get him home.

MARTY: I'm from the future. I came here in a time machine that you invented. Now I need your help to get back to the year… 1985.

Doc takes a step back and looks up at the ceiling. His eyes are now as wide as saucers as he takes all of this in.

DOC: By God.

Doc then grabs Marty by his shoulders and smiles at him.

DOC: Do you know what this means?

As Marty watches him, suddenly Doc's smile drops and he yanks the large metal helmet off his head.

DOC: It means that this damn thing doesn't work at all!

We can see Doc starting to go into a temper tantrum about yet another of his inventions – all that hard work and money spent – becoming completely useless. This is obviously not the first time that something that he has created has failed him, but Marty needs Doc's help about an invention that actually works. Well, at least it got him to this year.

MARTY: Doc, you gotta help me. You're the only one who knows how your time machine works.

Doc puts down his helmet on the desk and looks up, confused.

DOC: Time machine? I've never invented a time machine.

It seems that Doc needs more convincing, so Marty pulls out his wallet and holds up his driver's license. He also pulls out of his wallet a picture of him, his brother and his sister. This picture winds up being a crucial tool in the film since it gives Marty a time limit to fix the damage he did to his timeline by pushing George out of the way of Lorraine's father's car.

MARTY: Okay. All right, I'll prove it to you. Look at my driver's license. Expires 1987. Look at my birthday for cryin' out loud. I haven't even been born yet! And look at this picture. My brother, my sister and me. Look at her sweatshirt, Doc. "Class of 1984?"

Doc's still not convinced, and he's using Marty's brother's hair in the picture as his excuse for it.

DOC: Pretty mediocre photographic fakery. They cut off your brother's hair.

MARTY: I'm tellin' the truth, Doc. You gotta believe me.

Okay, time for one major test that this kid may not expect.

DOC: Then tell me, "Future Boy." Who's President of the United States in 1985?

MARTY: Ronald Reagan.

That's it! There's no way this kid's from the future. Not with an answer like that.

DOC: Ronald Reagan? The actor?!

Doc quickly grabs a bunch of blueprints from his desk and shouts accusingly at Marty.

DOC: Then who's Vice President? Jerry Lewis?!

Just as a quick aside, when President Reagan was watching this and that line was spoken, he laughed so hard he asked the projectionist to stop the film, rewind and show that part again. He was always a huge fan of Back to the Future and even quoted the film in his State of the Union address for 1986.

Doc quickly runs out of his house towards his lab, with Marty still running behind him.

DOC: I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady!

MARTY: Wait a minute, Doc!

DOC: And Jack Benny is Secretary of the Treasury!

MARTY: Doc, you gotta listen to me!

Doc runs into his lab and forces Marty from coming in.

DOC: I've had enough practical jokes for one evening! Good night, "Future Boy!"

Doc slams the door in Marty's face, and all of a sudden, the story that Doc told Marty just several hours ago in 1985 comes to him. While Doc was keeping Marty from coming in, Marty noticed that this version of his friend has a bruise on his head. If nothing else would convince Doc that Marty's telling the truth, this definitely would since that very bruise was caused earlier that day.

MARTY: No wait, Doc! Doc! Th-the bruise! The bruise on your head. I know how that happened. You told me the whole story. You were standing on your toilet hanging a clock, and you fell, and you hit your head on the sink! And that's when you came up with the idea for the Flux Capacitor…

Marty leans against the doorway as he finishes the story.

MARTY: … which is what makes time travel possible.

The door suddenly flies open as Doc stares wide-eyed at Marty. He finally has Doc's attention.

Doc drives Marty to the Lyon Estates sign that would soon be the entryway to Marty's neighborhood in the 80s. As it is now, there's just flatland.

MARTY: There's something wrong with the starter… so I hid it. Here.

Marty pulls a cover off the car, revealing it to the man who would later invent it. Doc is cautious as he looks around it, as if he is wondering to himself how the hell he could have created something this magnificent.

Doc holds up a drawing that he put together that day to Marty.

DOC: After I fell off my toilet, I drew this.

Marty nods as he sees the picture. He knows exactly what it is.

MARTY: Flux Capacitor.

Marty turns on the time circuits and the flux capacitor comes to life. Doc's eyes go from wide-eyed curiosity to total euphoria. His smile can be seen from a mile away.

DOC: It works!

Doc grabs Marty by his shoulders as he laughs victoriously.

DOC: Ha-Haaaaaah!!! It works!!! I finally invent something that works!!!

Marty nods and smiles back at Doc. Finally, they're both on the same wavelength and they know what has to be done.

MARTY: You bet your ass, it works.

DOC: Somehow we've gotta sneak this back to my laboratory. We've gotta get you home!

From then on, the objectives of Marty and Doc become all too clear. First, they have to figure out how to get the time machine to work without the use of plutonium. Then they have to set up the proper mechanics to harness a bolt of lightning, which is the only kind of electrical power that equals plutonium. But first and foremost, Marty has to repair the damage that he has done to his timeline.

Naturally, all three of those objectives are accomplished in the most entertaining ways imaginable. But there's one thing that we didn't know, since all of the action took place in 1955. What happened to the 1985 Marty knew when he first saved George McFly from getting hit by the car? Did it become a completely different reality for a period of time? Did George and Lorraine suddenly find themselves living a different life before Marty could help them get back together in time for their big kiss on the dance floor?

Well, next week we'll be able to see just how someone's actions in the past can affect the present. Or in this case, we'll see what happens when someone takes something from the future, gives it to someone in the past and causes a complete change in the present.

Gotta love time travel movies.

Until next week, Class Dismissed!


-- George H. Sirois