In this classic science-fiction series protagonist Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels from 1985 to the hyper-realistic future of 2015. October 21, 2015, to be specific which, despite the numerous iconic dates and times visited in the Back to the Future trilogy (ibid, 1985 to 1990), gains additional significance as screenwriter Bob Gale chose this date as the most absurd prediction for when the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series and for being namedas “Back to the Future Day”, a day to both celebrate all things Back to the Future and all things science.

Released: 22 November 1989
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Budget: $40 million
Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson, and Elisabeth Shue

The Plot:
Moments after undoing a mistake he made in the past, high school student Marty McFly (Fox) is whisked away to the futuristic 2015 in a time-travelling DeLorean built by his eccentric scientist friend Doctor Emmett “Doc” Brown (Lloyd). However, while in the future, Marty inadvertently creates an alternate, dystopian version on 1985 and must return to 1955 to set the timeline straight.

The Background:
Back to the Future began life as a passion project for long-time collaborators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, who were looking to bounce back after a few critical and commercial failures. And bounce back they did! After refining their script and securing their first choice for the lead, the duo not only made the sleek and futuristic DeLorean one of the most iconic vehicles in film history but also produced a massive commercial and critical success that is now recognised as one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made. Although Zemeckis never planned to make a sequel, a follow-up was all-but-inevitable given the first film’s success, which initially led to scripting problems as the director felt hampered by his decision to have Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer Parker (now played by Elizabeth Shue), in the DeLorean with him and Doc. After settling on the basic plot, Zemeckis and Gale were then flabbergasted when star Crispin Glover demanded a pay rise to participate in the sequel, which directly led to his role being recast and greatly reduced. To save money on production costs and take full advantage of Fox’s extended break from Family Ties (1982 to 1989), the filmmakers made the then-usual decision to film Part II and Part III (Zemeckis, 1990) back-to-back, which put Zemeckis under a great deal of strain.

In designing the look and technology of the then-far-off future of 2015, the duo chose to have some fun with the concept rather than produce another dystopian future, and many of their technological and sociological predictions for the future eerily came to be true. Industrial Light & Magic were behind the film’s groundbreaking practical and visual effects, which included digital compositing and motion control cameras to splice characters into events from the first film and even into the same scene, a purposely-bad holographic shark, all the slick futuristic conveniences, and refining the time travel effects. Although it fell a little short of its predecessor’s $388.8 million box office, Back to the Future Part II made just over $332 million and was widely praised for its humourous take on the future, time travel mechanics, and for its entertaining escapism. The film’s darker aspects, sidelining of Jennifer, and some make-up effects were criticised but, in the years since, Back to the Future Part II has rightly taken its place as both a cult hit and one of the best sequels ever made. Naturally, the third entry followed six months later and became the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1990, but Back to the Future Part II also lived on in the short-lived cartoon series, comic books, and videogames that followed and reused much of the technology and elements pioneered in this movie.

The Review:
I’ve long held the belief that Back to the Future Part II is not only superior to its predecessor, but also the best film in the entire trilogy; as much as I enjoyed Back to the Future, and as pivotal as it was to my childhood, Back to the Future Part II held so much more appeal to me as a kid. It had flying cars! Hoverboards! All kinds of nifty, visually interesting futuristic gadgets and technology, and that immediately made it far more appealing that the first, which was stuck replicating the 1950s and thus not as imaginative for a wide-eyed sci-fi fan such as myself. Not only that, but the film explored alternative timelines, offering an easily accessible explanation of this concept and delving into a darker version of the town and characters we’ve followed over the course of the films. Finally, it revisited the events of the first film from a new perspective, splicing current-day Marty into scenes from the past in a way that was mind-blowing at the time, and featured one hell of a cliff-hanger ending that had me salivating for more back when we first taped the movie off the TV. It’s one of those rare sequels that’s everything appealing about its predecessor, but more; everything that worked is expanded upon, the stakes are higher, the characters given more nuance, and all the visuals and action are improved by the noticeably bigger budget, resulting in what is legitimately one of my favourite science-fiction films of all time.

The movie begins with a complete recreation of Back to the Future’s finale; Marty has returned to 1985 from his hijinks in 1955 to find his life and family changed for the better and is just about to take his big, shiny new truck for a spin with his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker (Shue), when Doc literally bursts into the scene and whisks them away to 2015 to solve some drama with their future kids. Having already experienced time travel in the first film, Marty is no stranger to the DeLorean’s capabilities but even he is shocked to find that the plutonium reactor that powers the Flux Capacitor has been replaced by “Mister Fusion”, a waste processing system, and that the car can fly thanks to the future tech enhancements. Marty’s first priority, however, is Jennifer’s safety; giddy at the prospect of seeing their future life together, which she fully believes will be perfect and happy, Jennifer naturally has many questions and Doc is forced to render her unconscious to avoid her learning too much about the future. Though trusting in his eccentric friend, Marty struggles to wrap his head around their mission since Doc is reluctant to reveal too much information to him, but takes the place of his future son, Marty Junior (Fox), to keep him being arrested after being set-up by the bullish Griff Tannen (Wilson). Despite a few hiccups along the way, Marty is successful, and therefore has the time to explore the futuristic Hill Valley; he purchases a copy of the Gray’s Sports Almanac with the intention of profiting from the sports statistics contained within and is admonished by Doc for his behaviour. Remorseful for betraying Doc’s quest for scientific curiosity and knowledge, Marty is left devastated when the almanac falls into the hands of the elderly Biff Tannen (Wilson) and, after his own trip though time, results in a nightmarish alternate timeline (1985b) where his beloved father, George (Jeffrey Weissman), is dead, his mother, Lorraine (Thompson), is married to Biff, and Doc has been labelled clinically insane.

Thanks to us following the present version of Doc throughout the film rather than his younger 1955 counterpart, Doc is also somewhat expanded upon; still an enthusiastic and energetic mad scientist with a passion for discovery and scientific curiosity, Doc is nevertheless driven to intervene in his young friend’s future after seeing how Marty Jnr’s mistake destroys their already fractured family. Intimately aware of the dangers of messing with causality, Doc plans to intervene in the least destructive way possible and to both keep the future vague and stress how interfering with the timeline can lead to temporal paradoxes that could unravel the very fabric of reality. While Doc built the time machine with the express purpose of exploring the depths of human knowledge and evolution and as a means to answer the universal question of “Why?”, Future-Biff’s perversion of the DeLorean (and the timeline) leads Doc to conclude that time travel is far too dangerous and resolves to dismantle the time machine to never again risk the safety of reality. Unfortunately this revelation comes when the timeline has already been horribly altered; aghast to find that his 1985b counterpart has been committed and his laboratory has been ransacked, Doc fervently tries to convince Marty that the only way to fix 1985 is to travel to the past when the timeline was skewed, since travelling to the future would only show them the inevitable conclusion of 1985b. While back in 1955, Doc provides advice and support to Marty via a walkie-talkie but is unable to directly assist since Marty’s forced to infiltrate the Enchantment Under the Sea dance at the high school, but he proves a dab hand and swooping in with the DeLorean for a last-minute save and excels at emphasising, overemphasising, and reemphasising the importance of their mission to retrieve the almanac from Biff.

Although Marty’s adventures in the past left Biff a meek and humble car cleaner, Hill Valley’s most notorious bully remains a thorn in his side throughout his film. Future-Biff might be half-crippled by arthritis, but he remains a lecherous, cantankerous antagonist who routinely mocks Future-Marty’s failings and weasels out of anything resembling hard work. Having witnessed the DeLorean flying away at the start of the film, Future-Biff is intrigued when he overhears Marty and Doc’s conversation about the almanac and follows them to steal the time machine while they’re dealing with Jennifer. Travelling back to 1955, Future-Biff takes Marty’s plan to profit from sports events and perverts it, handing the almanac to his sceptical younger self and thereby altering the future, transforming Hill Valley into a dangerous, crime-infested hell hole where Biff reigns supreme as a tyrannical tycoon. Having amassed a fortune and a reputation as the “Luckiest Man of Earth” thanks to the almanac, the Donald Trump-like Biff sets up a toxic waste reclamation business, polluting the town, and builds a luxurious casino/hotel, corrupting politicians and the police department so he can do anything, even murder George McFly, without repercussions. Having forced Lorraine to marry him, Biff traps her in an abusive relationship where he makes her augment her body, slaps her about, and threatens to cut off and condemn her children to jail if she doesn’t do as he says. Narrowly escaping Biff’s wrath, Marty does everything he can to get the almanac out of 1955-Biff’s hands but the bigger, far stronger, and far more vicious bully is easily able to overpower the spritely McFly at every turn, and is even wily enough to take his future self’s warnings to heart and keep the almanac on him and at all times, and violently fights to keep Marty from getting it, even going so far as to attempt to kill the teenager during the film’s. climatic car case.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Back to the Future’s creators have mentioned more than once that they regretted having Jennifer along for the ride, and it’s pretty clear that they didn’t really know what to do with her, which is a bit of a shame. She could have acted as an audience surrogate for those who haven’t seen the first film but, while she spends big chunks of the film unconscious so Marty and Doc can have their futuristic adventure, she’s still quite important to the plot. After being discovered by some cops, they mistake her for her future self and take her to the McFly family home in 2015, where she’s stunned to see her future kids and dismayed to learn of Marty’s future troubles. This, however, is mainly for our benefit; Doc is aware of Marty’s future, but Marty doesn’t learn anything about it until mid-way through the next movie, meaning that Jennifer is mainly there to provide us a glimpse of just how depressing Marty’s current future is. Lorraine is similarly side-lined in the film; a central aspect of the first move, she’s turned from a rebellious teen and jaded mother to the victim of a cruel and controlling husband. Once again finding comfort in booze, Lorraine’s alternative self only has brief flashes of defiance; Biff’s physical and financial intimidation constantly keep her submissive, to the point where she defends him since he provides security for her children, and Marty cannot condone seeing her so mistreated and subservient. While I can fully understand the argument that the women get the short end of the stick, Lorraine did have a huge role in the first movie and the plot here is more concerned with following Marty and Doc’s desperate attempts to set the timeline right, which by its very definition means that we don’t need to spend extended periods of time with 1955-Lorraine and we’re told not to worry about Jennifer’s fate since their actions should ensure her safety, though I feel they both still serve an important role in motivating Marty to undo the damage he caused to the timeline.

Marty’s character is greatly expanded upon here; before, he was a good-natured kid who was desperate to be a rock star and, while the same is true here, he’s also given a trigger point: whenever anyone accuses him of being “chicken”, he sees red and instantly rises to the challenge to prove he’s not a coward. This causes him to go off-script when impersonating his son, leading to a fist fight and a hoverboard chase across Hill Valley, and Jennifer is later distraught to learn that his future self ended up breaking his hand trying to prove himself to Douglas J. Needles (Flea) and consequently ended in a dead-end job and up a shell of his former self. Although he has two kids and is married to the love of his life, Future-Marty is a haggard man who’s lost his youthful zest; their house is a shambles and full of malfunctioning future tech and his kids aren’t particularly ambitious, and all because rising to the bait cost him his greatest passion (music) and caused a “chain reaction” that fundamentally altered his character. This trigger is also what screws up his elaborate and desperate attempts to retrieve the almanac from Biff in 1955; no matter how many times he tries to walk away, Marty is constantly compelled to confront anyone who accuses him of cowardice, no matter what’s at stake. This stems from his complicated relationship with George; as established in the last film, George was a career milksop who never stood up for himself and Marty was adamant to be the exact opposite, and that continues through to his character here, which makes sense since he hasn’t had a chance to acclimatise to the new life he made for himself after the last movie. Marty is thus understandably devastated to learn that his father was murdered in 1985b and his heartbreak is only exacerbated at seeing his mother reduced to a submissive tramp under the abusive thumb of the tyrannical Biff. Fiercely protective of his mother, Marty doesn’t hesitate to launch himself at Biff or to confront him directly over how he acquired the almanac in the first place, which gives him the hope and the lead he needs to undo the nightmarish alternate timeline he unwittingly created.

Although it probably seems quaint now, Back to the Future Part II offers a refreshing perspective on future society; rather than depicting 2015 Hill Valley as a dystopia, it’s actually pretty close to a utopia. The streets are clean, the air is clear, and people are serviced by many creature comforts and futuristic conveniences: there’s the flying cars, obviously, the automatons and holographic servers at fuel stations and diners, special glasses that easily allow one to view multiple television channels at once, pizzas that expand in the microwave to feed a family of six, video calls, and financial transactions and home entry is easily handled by a thumbprint. Of course, we see much of this in everyday life now, making Back to the Future Part II’s version of the future both startling similar and disappointingly separate from the modern world, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows in the future. While the weather can be predicted down to the second, the skyways are hazardous and overpopulated with flying traffic and the once-affluent Hilldale is now a rundown place of squalor for “tramps, hobos, and zip-heads”. For those who enjoy a good dystopian tale, Back to the Future Part II has you covered; 1985b is a nightmarish town where crime, murder, and fear run rampant thanks to Biff’s reign of terror. Sirens wail, the chalk outlines of the dead line the filthy streets, the few decent people in town are forced to bolt their doors and defend themselves against Biff’s cronies and other undesirables, and the town is so overrun by bikers and punks that it’s barely recognisable. It’s thus a relief to return to the pristine world of 1955; in following Biff throughout the day, Marty sees new sides to his tormentor, indicating that his abhorrent behaviour is a result of his grandmother’s overbearing and abusive influence, while also getting to witness his father’s dramatic character moment (which he missed as he was locked in a car boot at the time). Though tempted to stand back and observe his big performance from the first film and witness his young parents express their love from his new perspective, Marty remains focused on retrieving the almanac; however, this is easier said than done as he has to go to elaborate means to avoid being spotted, but he proves to be nothing but adaptable in fulfilling this objective.

This is accomplished through a fantastic use of cinematic techniques; Back to the Future Part II definitely upped the ante in terms of visual and practical effects, with the DeLorean regularly flying, hovering, and landing and the depiction of future technology like the holographic shark, the various hoverboards, and Marty’s snazzy future clothes but where it really impresses is the complex camera techniques to allow multiple characters, all played by the same actor, to seamlessly appear in the same scene. While some of these shots are more obvious than others, such as Future-Biff meeting 1955-Biff and Doc running across his 1955 counterpart thanks to a convenient obstruction separating the two composited shots, it’s still amazing to see Michael J. Fox portray his older self, his son, and his daughter around the dinner table in one unbroken shot. Similar methods are used to splice Present-Marty into footage old and new from 1955; he clambers on a gantry over the stage where his younger self is playing “Johnny B. Goode”, observes the dance (and, later, the final goodbye between Marty, George (Crispin Glover), and Lorraine), and takes out Biff’s cronies just as young Marty finishes his set. The film is certainly ambitious with its special effects and goes all-in with the hoverboard and flying car concept, first in the big chase across 2015 Hill Valley and in the finale, where Marty desperately tries to snag the almanac from Biff. Although he receives a few good punches to the face and is almost left a bloody smear on a tunnel wall, Marty ultimately succeeds and once again sends Biff ploughing into a manure truck. As Doc circles overhead, unable to land due to the lightning storm, Marty is elated to find that burning the almanac has changed the future for the better, but his joy is short-lived as the DeLorean is suddenly struck by lightning, apparently vaporising Doc. Thankfully, a letter immediately arrives from a mysterious Western Union employee (Joe Flaherty) that assure Marty (and the audience) that Doc is alive and well in the Old West, having been transported back to 1885 thanks to the screwy time circuits and the lightning bolt. Marty thus races to recruit the 1955 Doc in helping him rescue his friend and return to 1985, but the shock of seeing his young friend suddenly return after just sending him back to the future causes the younger Doc to faint, ending the film with one of cinema’s greatest cliff-hangers.

The Summary:
As I mentioned, I absolutely love Back to the Future Part II; for me, it’s better than the original in every way, and it remains my favourite entry in the trilogy for its fun depiction of future society and the bleakness of its dystopian second half. The original is a classic in its own right, and hugely influential, and definitely laid the groundwork for bigger and better things, but I can’t help but find it far more pedestrian compared to its far grander sequel. And it’s not even just that Back to the Future Part II throws all these impressive practical effects and complex camera techniques at you; it expands upon Marty’s character, giving him an edge and a quick temper that make him more than just a wide-eyed kid trying to undo a fantastical mistake. The exploration of Marty’s future is a fascinating look at how young dreams can be crushed by bad decisions and the inevitability of time and the toll it takes on even the most enthusiastic and determined individuals, to say nothing of the horrendous hellscape that Hill Valley becomes due to Marty’s brief flirtation with selfishness. 1985b showcases how dangerous and disruptive time travel can be and it’s only by revisiting the last film that the protagonists can get things back on track. These moments make for some of the most entertaining and visually engaging scenes not just in this film, but the entire trilogy; as much as I love exploring the conveniences and advances of the future, watching a slightly older, slightly more experienced Marty desperately trying to retrieve the almanac while avoiding being spotted and overcoming every obstacle makes for some tense and exciting scenes that outdo anything seen in the first movie. In the end, Back to the Future Part II takes everything that worked in the first film and expands on it wonderfully; the themes, messages, and even the events of that movie are both elaborated on and tackled from a unique new perspective. The sheer visual spectacle alone makes it the clear favourite for me, but throw in a desperate race to undo a disastrous alternative timeline, some of the trilogy’s most impressive and ambitious effects sequences, and a tense climax and you’re left with one of the most enjoyable sci-fi romps ever put to screen.   

My Rating:

Fantastic

Are you a fan of Back to the Future Part II? How do you rate it compared to the other two films and which of the trilogy is your favourite? What did you think to the film’s depiction of the future and the advances made to the DeLorean? Did you enjoy the plot regarding the alternative 1985 and the way the movie revisited the events of the first film? If you had a time machine, what year would you travel to and why, and would you use it for financial gain? How are you celebrating Back to the Future Day today? Whatever you think about Back to the Future Part II, feel free to share your thoughts below.