Back to the Future (1985)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Released July 3, 1985

Written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale

Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB

"Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent thirty years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.

Without question, I think Back to the Future is one of the mostly widely seen movie from the 80s. It is still common for people to question your life choices if you haven't since the movie before. Which is amazing to think about because it is 33 years old and people still enjoy it. In fact, when it came out in 1985 it was the top grossing film that year, according to IMDB.

This is one of the movies, among my list, that I think people use as a template for typical 80s fashion. You have the faded jeans, tennis shoes, flannel/button up shirts, teased hair, vests (the life preserver), suspenders, walkman, and jean jackets. Given, Marty is in the past a lot more than he is in the 80s, but you still get a very clear taste of that 80s style. Especially, when he gets to the past and people make fun of the way he dresses. Such as Marty's "life preserver" aka orange vest and his Calvin Klein underwear. Let's be honest, even now, if you saw someone dressed from the 80s, you would think they are weird too because those styles were a little out there. So I don't blame the people in 1955 who thought he was a walking alien with his style.

In this movie, I also love seeing how different life was. Kids would walk or ride skateboards to school more often than driving. It was safer to be able to walk places. They would listen to music on their walkman instead of on phones. The funniest thing I find, though, is the idea of doing homework. Now, this happened back in 1955 when Marty met his parents so it is even more prevalent. I am talking about how Biff tells Marty's dad (George) that he needs to copy George's homework because the teacher will notice the differences in handwriting. It is so funny to me because I rarely ever turn in assignments anymore that are not done on the computer. So cheating has become so much easier with the use of computers, since you don't have to worry about people's handwriting. It is one of those things that you don't think about until you hear someone talk about it and then you realize how different the past was.

Something I really want to know, is how Doc Brown is a doctor? What is he a doctor of? I would guess physics, but I don't know if they ever say. But he seems pretty...strange to be a man of higher education. I am also concerned why Marty's parents let him run around town and spend more time with Doc Brown than his own family? I know his parents are clearly weird and don't pay too much attention, but your son is walking around with what many people see as a crazy man. Now don't get me wrong, he is not really crazy because he did invent a time machine, but he is...different. I also really want to know how Marty met him in the first place and why he hangs out with him. Based on his character, Marty doesn't seem too scholarly, so he can't be around Doc because he likes science. 

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Doc. Ah....Are you telling me that you built a time machine...out of a DeLorean?" This is one the most quoted lines of the movie and to be honest I never understand the connotation. Now I am admitting it now, I don't know anything about cars, so is a DeLorean a good or bad car? The way Marty says it makes it seem like a junky car, but then Doc's responses "if you are going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with style." This makes me think that it is a nice car. I don't know. But I guess that is just one example why this movie is so good, you don't have to understand all the jokes or the explanations to love the movie. Fun fact, once the movie was released their were body kits made for DeLoreans in order to make them look like the time machine from the movie.

Now, this is the only movie in my list that has a sequel, but I feel it's important to mention since the second movie is when Marty and Doc Brown actually enter the Future. It was only three years ago that Marty and Doc landed in the year 2015 and I remember all the hype that was around it. All the things that they had predicted that came true and most of them not coming true. The one thing they got right was that the Chicago Cubs were in the play-offs! Sadly they didn't win the World Series as predicted, they saved that until the following year, 2016 (yes I am a huge Cubs fan). But I think it is more interesting to think about all the things they had predicted that were wrong. Such as having hover boards (real ones, not the ones that kept blowing up), flying cars, and the automatic tying shoes. Which to be fair, I remember reading something that they did make a few of those shoes that looked as they did in the movie, but only a few people received them. I found this clip from Jimmy Kimmel that shows just how wrong the movie was about the future, but yet we don't really care because it is still fun to see what people used to think 2015 would have been like. 

Marty: "Hey, Doc, we better back up. We don't have enough road to get up to 88."

Doc: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."