Back To the Future 2: What Happens When a Joke Ending Becomes a Trilogy

One bad decision, one stolen book, and Hill Valley fractures into three versions of reality. We’re jumping back into Back to the Future Part II to talk about why this sequel still feels like a magic trick you can’t fully solve, even when you know exactly what’s coming. Marty McFly and Doc Brown aren’t just time traveling, they’re sprinting through consequences, and the movie somehow makes 2015, 1955, and an alternate 1985 feel like one tight, escalating story.

We dig into what makes the future so memorable: a bright, playful take on 2015 that avoids the usual dystopian gloom, plus all the details that turned into real-world “predictions” debates, from video calling to screen-heavy living. Then we follow the almanac twist into the darker timeline and talk about how the movie keeps the tension high by constantly flirting with paradox, especially when Marty is forced to sneak around the events of the first film without being seen.

On the craft side, we nerd out over how they pulled it off: motion-controlled camera moves, split-screen composites, practical hoverboard work, and the careful staging that lets Michael J. Fox play multiple characters without the illusion falling apart. We also get into the messy behind-the-scenes history, including the Crispin Glover likeness lawsuit and how it changed industry rules, plus why Thomas F. Wilson’s Biff performances are the secret sauce of the whole chaos.

If you love time travel movies, 1980s sci-fi, or movie trivia that actually changes how you watch a film, come hang with us for this deep dive. Follow the show, share it with a friend who quotes “Great Scott,” and leave a review so more people can find us.

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Transcript

Welcome And Listener Callouts

Joe 0:17

Welcome to Have You Seen the Movie Podcast, where every movie is a premiere.

Dylan 0:23

This week we're jumping back into the DeLorean for Back to the Future Part 2, a sequel that goes to the future, the past, and an alternate 1985, all in one movie.

Joe 0:33

If you're enjoying the show, make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast app and leave us a five-star rating. It really helps us grow.

Dylan 0:40

And we want to hear from you. Text us your name and a movie suggestion using the link in the description.

Joe 0:46

This week's movie Back to the Future, part two, is rated PG for sci-fi action, mild language, and some intense sequences. That's not suitable for little ears. We hope you'll tune in next week.

Dylan 1:01

Okay.

Why The Sequel Was Not Planned

Dylan 1:03

So I didn't realize that they ha it wasn't like the Back to the Future Two. It was like part two. Part two. That's kind of interesting. Yeah. Okay. So when did the first one come out? 85. And then this came out in 90? 89. Okay. Yeah. It had the words on the beginning of the screen, but you know. Okay. So then did they like go into this? Did they finish the first one knowing that they were going to continue filming more?

Joe 1:47

Um no. They actually, so they had no idea or how do you call it, great dreams of having a franchise of any kind. Wow. You know, George Lucas had prequels and all this stuff just to do one movie. Right. And they were just like, oh, let's just throw in a gag at the end where we have Doc come back and they have to go right off on their great adventure, you know, at the end. And so they really did not have that idea in mind.

Dylan 2:23

So they wrote the ending of the first one, and then they're like, oh shoot, we have to now go back and figure out how this is going to play into the next ones.

Joe 2:35

Yeah, they had to backtrack and go, okay, what do we do with the girlfriend? What's the storyline with the kids? Like, yeah, you know, and flesh all that out and then have other ideas to continue this sequel.

Dylan 2:48

Well, and I really thought the girlfriend was actually going to play into this one a lot more than she did.

Joe 2:55

Yeah, it yeah, they definitely have her in it until they could justifiably not have her in it. Right.

Dylan 3:04

Right. Did they not want to pay her to be in it as much?

Joe 3:09

Or I think because the major characters were Marty and Doc, they wanted they wanted that to be. Right, and Einstein. No. I think that's partly why. And then um yeah, just trying to figure out what to do with everything. Yeah. So after loving the first movie, what were you hoping the sequel would do?

Dylan 3:38

So man, the first movie sets it up that they're like just taking off into the future to hunt down his kids.

Joe 3:50

And I hunt down his kids.

Dylan 3:54

Well.

Joe 3:55

Is this Terminator?

Dylan 3:58

Yeah. Well, they were what was it?

Joe 4:02

They were going to like essentially save his kids or rescue them from utter disaster.

Dylan 4:11

That'll ruin his whole family.

Joe 4:13

Yes.

unknown 4:14

In a world.

Dylan 4:15

I really liked how as soon as they went into the future, though, it was like all the flying cars in the year 2015. Yes. Yes. Like, hmm, it was a different 2015 than I remember. Yeah.

Joe 4:30

Oh yeah. I love the memes now of Griff and it says, Can you believe we dress like this in 2015? Yeah.

Dylan 4:41

All right. Well, if you haven't seen it in a while, here's a quick setup. Moments after the events of the first film, Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to the year 2015 to prevent a future family disaster. But when an old enemy gets hold of a time machine and changes history, Marty and Doc must race across multiple timelines to restore the future before it gets lost forever. But yeah, like I loved all of the throwbacks to the first one. Just the exact race sequence around the square and like it's history repeating itself in the future.

Joe 5:22

Yeah.

Dylan 5:24

So he goes into the eight the 80s cafe and it's so funny because it's quote unquote futuristic.

Joe 5:33

Yeah.

Dylan 5:34

But it was like, I don't know if like kind of in the in the 80s, that's what they thought the future was more going to be like. Yeah. Or

Imagining 2015 Without Dystopia

Dylan 5:43

what.

Joe 5:43

But yeah, you know, just kind of sidetracking on that, I think about how a lot of restaurants now are just being automated where you walk into whatever fast food and there's a screen and you know pick what you want, and then you go and you pick it up, and they're still human beings, but essentially that's what he that was the like fleshed out right, you know, right.

Dylan 6:09

So yeah. Well, and it kind of makes you think of Tomorrowland, Disneyland, and uh in Disney World, because that was you know, the when did it open? The 50s?

Joe 6:24

Yeah, the 50s.

Dylan 6:25

You know, the 50s version of the future, yeah. And I think it's so interesting to see their idea of the future versus our current idea of the future, just how times have changed like that.

Joe 6:40

Yeah, the huge thing that Robert Zemeckis talked about was he never wanted to do a sequel in the first place to anyone. Really, like he wanted it to stand on its own, but one and done, done and dusted. Yeah, but he never wanted to do a movie about the future either, because most of the movies about the future were dystopian and dark, and things were run down. And so when they came to approach doing this, they said, Well, let's take all the cars from different movies. So there's some from Blade Runner, there's one a movie called The Last Star Fighter, where it sort of looks like a DeLorean. Yeah. And it's in there. There's just a lot of different movie cars that they put in there for the future, and then made their own, and then made it light and made everything bright and bright colors and things like that, so they could go against what the normal future looked like.

Dylan 7:37

For yeah, yeah, that's crazy. I noticed the one car in there that really looked like the DeLorean, and I was asked if that was like supposed to be the future version of the DeLorean, yeah.

Joe 7:51

And I think that movie, I'm almost positive that movie came out between Back to the Future and Back to the Future 2, and so it was kind of modeled after the DeLorean, but to bring it back in there was really cool.

The Almanac Twist And Alternate 1985

Dylan 8:04

Yeah, that's hilarious. So, what was your first time watching Back to the Future part two like? Well, back in 1989, back in my day.

Joe 8:16

Back when I was nine or ten. Oh man, I that movie is like the best I can compare it to is when the original Marvel movies came out, and everything you you anticipated everything with Captain America, and then when it finally came to the Avengers Assemble or whatever, it was that exciting. It was like, and for me, it was you know, there was so much anticipation, yeah, that I just I love future movies, I love time travel already. I'd seen different movies with time travel in it and everything, and so it just I was so excited, yeah, and it just it blew my mind, you know. I sat in there and just like yeah, and I don't know. There's I think there's a rare amount of people who have seen this and like, oh, it's not as good as the first one.

Dylan 9:13

I'm just like, oh yeah, what kind of surprised me about the movie is that I loved the way that they went to the future and then Marty was going to take the almanac back, uh-huh, and then din it, yeah, and then the old Biff stole it out of the trash can, yeah, and was like a time machine, yeah. So he goes back, gives it to his younger self, and then they go back to the alternate reality, 1985. Yeah, thank you. And so yeah, I was like, that's such a great way to play that out, yeah.

unknown 10:00

Yeah.

Dylan 10:01

So, and then for them to go to the past then to correct the timeline, yeah. And I really thought that some of those scenes were like shot during the first one because the way that it was just all rolled together, yeah, the way they did it, uh-huh, it just so good. I was yeah.

Joe 10:23

There were there was a lot that went into it, and we'll talk more about that. But yeah, it's very ambitious, and the when they got to kind of writing it, they first started out as doing a three-hour epic called Paradox. Oh, yeah, yeah, which would have been cool. I would love to see a paradox cut, you know. Yeah, and I think in the original timeline and sequence, they go to the 60s, and then basically they have to go back to the 60s to to recover the almanac, and then at a certain point, somehow the consummation of Marty is in balance because they're supposed to go on this trip to where and so yeah, say no more, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Birds and the bees. Um, and so he has to go back and try to fix things, but they felt like it was too recovering what they already covered, yeah, and so they decided to make it a little more darker, and because the future is light, but then the alternative 1985 is super dark. Yeah, I love the fact that Strickland's carrying a shotgun in his house with his pajamas on.

Dylan 11:49

Yes, that was great.

Joe 11:50

Yeah, the amount looking at Back to Future One and I mean knowing part three was supposed there was kind of supposed to be one movie. Well, going back to that, they decided at first they were like, hey, we're gonna do a three-hour epic, and they were like, No, it's too long, you need to cut it down. So then they went back to the drawing board and they were just like, let's just write everything we can. And they ended up coming with two two movies, yeah. And so they went to I think it's Sid Scheinberg, the head guy that wanted to call the previous movie Spaceman from Pluto. And he's like, I don't, I don't care about it, I don't care about a part three, I want part two at this point, and you need to work on it, and blah, blah, blah. So they decided on how they could budget to make the two and then have an overall story arc that pays off at the end. And so there's a lot of little Easter eggs in part two that pay off in part three. Yeah. Yeah. And things that, yeah, things that kind of go back and forth. And whereas, like in the first one, there was a lot of little payoffs, you know, you know, they set things up and then they kind of tear them down. And so they just do a brilliant job of taking two movies and doing that with, yeah. And especially when you consider it kind of like the way Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2 were that was there were supposed to be one movie, and so then when you watch it together, it just I love doing that.

Dylan 13:27

Yeah, maybe we'll have to do like a Patreon series of just watching the movies and like pointing out all of the stuff, yeah.

Joe 13:39

Yeah.

Performances And A Casting Lawsuit

Dylan 13:41

So let's talk about characters. All right. So you've got Marty McFly played by Michael J. Fox. Yeah. I loved in this one that he like played the multiple versions of himself, yeah. You know, of Marty, I should say.

Joe 13:59

Best of Future 2, starring Michael J. Fox, Michael J. Fox, Michael J.

Dylan 14:03

Fox, and Michael J. Fox. Yeah, and all of the near misses, if you will, of him seeing himself. Yeah. Which is great.

Joe 14:14

Yeah, that that's yeah, nothing to jump ahead, but like he plays his kids, and then that whole the first sequence where he's doubling his son, it's just it's just so great the way that they filmed everything and put it together, and he has a totally different personality, you know. When he comes back from the thing, he's like, Since when have you become the physical type? Yeah, right. So it's so great. And then yeah, the I just love that whole the way they filmed the whole 50s stuff, where even Doc kind of sees himself and he has to, you know, and play it off. The cool thing is when the cop comes in part one and he's oh, that's some fat fancy equipment, don't touch it, you know. Oh, what are you doing? He's like, uh, weather experiment. And so then in part two, he it kind of shows him telling himself to say weather experiment. The cool thing is, and this is this wasn't, I don't think this was intentional, but when he's setting up in part one, setting up everything, a guy there's a guy in the back with a trench coat and a hat in a bike.

Dylan 15:26

Oh, really?

Joe 15:26

Yeah, and so it feels like it was already there, you know. Oh, that's awesome. It's sort of like the feeling of in '85 at the beginning when you look at the clock tower and the ledge is broken, it's almost like time is already, and so it's just kind of cool to think about with how they use that, and then later on he's the time continuum. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and so then all the cool parts of he's watching himself play guitar and sing the hitting Biff from a different angle, and you know, yeah, yeah.

Dylan 16:01

So yeah, you touch just touched a little bit on Dr. Emmett Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd. I loved that he played a bigger part in this movie, yeah. Because I really felt like with the first one that I felt like that was kind of lacking. Yeah. Like I just wished there was more of him. Uh-huh.

Joe 16:23

So I was I was really glad that yeah, and he totally there's so many times where he just swoops in and saves Marty. Yeah. And there's been all these internet uh theories of like, you know, Marty has died X amount of times, and so he needs to keep going through. Yeah. Which I've never watched it. My brother told me not to watch it, but I guess Rick and Morty is based on that premise. Oh, really? Yeah. Huh. Yeah.

Dylan 16:52

Yeah. When when uh Marty jumped off the roof, you know, jumped off the roof.

Joe 16:58

Yeah, yeah.

Dylan 16:59

And then I was you watch him raise up on the hood of the DeLorean, then had that thought. I was like, I wonder, like, how many times Marty died? You know, okay, he jumps off the roof, great. Oh, he he just he hit the ground.

Joe 17:18

Yeah, yeah. Splat.

Dylan 17:22

Right. Yeah.

Joe 17:23

How many times did he get squashed by the 50s car? Right. Just so sad.

Dylan 17:32

And then you have Biff Tannen, or old Biff or young Biff, Griff played by Thomas Wilson. I that was great. Yeah. That was such a good performance. Yeah, I know.

Joe 17:50

It the amount, so I heard that he had to do his old makeup, he had to get there at three in the morning, do the makeup, yeah, and then do the filming, and it was like an 18-hour day every time he had to film. That's crazy. So to dial into that old crotchetiness is probably pretty easy, but yeah, it's he does such an amazing job. I think that's why it's he's one of those guys you love to hate because he's just so yeah, so good in it.

Dylan 18:26

Yeah, yeah. I love that he old Biff was like correcting young Biff on the joke. Yeah, yeah, make like a tree and get out of here. It's leave. Make like a tree and leave. You sound like an idiot.

Joe 18:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of my favorite quotes is just the McFly. Hello, McFly. Which I used to have that cane. Yeah, they used to sell it at Universal. Funny. Yeah, wish I still had it. Although I do have Griff's hat still, yeah. All right, so Jennifer Parker, who this time was played by Elizabeth Shue. And I always kind of joke that in Marty's alternate 1985, after things happened in 1955, he got to get the girlfriend from the karate kid. Oh, because that's what Elizabeth Shue had played prior to this. Oh, okay. She did other things, but that was like her the big role adventures with babysitting and all that. But the previous actress had some family issues that she couldn't come and do it. Oh, okay. I didn't even realize there was a different idea. Oh yeah. So then Leah Thompson came back to play Lorraine. Alternate 1985 Lorraine, future Lorraine. And the big kind of the big thing was I know you could see it in your notes, but how do I ask this? Your George McFly. Did you notice anything different about him?

Dylan 20:14

He was a little two-dimensional.

Joe 20:16

If we can get Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd back, we'll we're on a good trajectory. And then they made sure they can do that. And then they went to each cast member, even the extras, because they wanted best friends come back, that kind of thing. So they wanted to make sure everybody would come back. And so everyone was up for coming back except for Crispin Glover. And he wanted to negotiate his contract. So George McFly. The producer said that he wanted to get what the leads were getting. So what Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox were getting.

Dylan 20:56

But you're not a lead character.

Joe 20:58

Yeah. And they had already had like Christopher Lloyd was a successful actor before all of this. Right. He was on taxi, he was on a bunch of stuff. Michael J. Fox was did family ties, and that was huge at the time. And so they were like, no, this is this is ridiculous. Crispin said that the deal that he was given or offered initially was half of what Leah Thompson and Tom Wilson were gonna get.

Dylan 21:29

Oh, really?

Joe 21:30

So not even equal, but half. And so he all he was asking for was I just want to get what they're getting paid because we're having equal screen time.

Dylan 21:40

Right.

Joe 21:41

And even before the whole process started, they had more ideas of George being in it and doing other things. And so so they really wanted him back, but he wouldn't budge. And so all this kind of so they decided not to have him, Bob Gell. Said, you know, we gave him an offer, we said you have two weeks to accept it. He didn't accept it and kind of rejected it all. So what happened was they went ahead and used his body double, which his name is Jeffrey Wiseman.

Dylan 22:15

Oh, okay.

Joe 22:16

So this would result in a lawsuit. They used Crispin's face molds from the first movie on the new George.

Dylan 22:25

Oh, interesting.

Joe 22:27

So uh Wiseman was wearing his prosthetics, like all the molds that they originally made for the first movie. He was wearing Crispin's prosthetics.

Dylan 22:36

He was wearing his face.

Joe 22:37

Yes. They also used unused footage from the movie in the last act. And so uh deleted scenes that were from part one, they added into part two to kind of give it a different angle and different scenario. And so he had a lawsuit against his likeness, and it was a it was legal to use the old footage because he had already committed to that, right? Got paid for that, but it was not legal to wear, you know, essentially pretend to be another actor and wear these molds. And so Jeffrey Wiseman knew Crispin before filming and kind of was friends with him prior to everything else. So he actually helped with photo evidence for the lawsuit. And uh, you know, makeup chair and and all that kind of stuff, right? And he had photos from the set and everything, and so he brought all that to the lawsuit and uh helped him, helped Crispin kind of win with that. Uh, and there was so much evidence that they it didn't even go to court, it just they settled court. And so there were new laws that were added to the Screen Actors Guild to prevent any of that from happening. And you know, his point was just, you know, I just want to basically, you know, have a fair shot at it, and I don't think this is right. And so he only got like 700,000. And in the scheme of things, of all the if you think about how much Bax Future makes, right? You know, and it was just the point of hey, this is not right. So yeah, and so he didn't come back, which is unfortunate because yeah, I I quote even the new George when I'm quoting the movie. I don't know how many times I ever tell my wife, you're right. And the other the other thing about the future George was that they already had in mind to contrap that uh that uh you know how he's hanging upside down the whole time. Yeah. Because they thought, well, if first it's funny, they thought, and then they thought if we get another actor, then he'll be upside down and people wouldn't be able to tell. Huh. And but if we if Crispin came back, then we would torture him by having him upside down. So yeah.

Dylan 25:05

Yeah, I just thought with that is that they were like had the prosthetics trying to make him like look older. Look older. Yeah.

Joe 25:17

Yeah. But even in the 50s, where they couldn't do close-ups, they made sure that things were kind of blurred out, but he's he still was dressed up as as George. Yeah, yeah. They reshot a lot of the different scenes from different angles and stuff in that. So when Marty's looking out the window onto the parking lot to see the things going on, he that's a new actor. So funny.

Music Cues And Soundtrack Choices

Dylan 25:44

Yeah. All right, Joe. We gotta talk about the moot the music. The what? Let me try that again. All right, Joe. So we've got to talk about the music. Well, I guess we do.

Joe 25:59

Yeah, well, I guess we do need to talk about the music. So Alan Sylvestri came back and rescored some things. He took a lot of the original themes and kind of embellished them to be kind of more with the tone of this movie where it gets darker, and he wrote a lot of original themes for it. And then they were just some added, I would say some added oldies. The song Papa Loves Mambo was added, which I guess I think originally they wanted that song where Mr. Sandman plays. Oh, yeah. And I guess they couldn't get the rights to it at the time, but then when they could, they added it to the scene where Biff's driving and it's playing in the background. And so they they added so Beat It is in it in the future, and Michael J. Michael G. Fox, Michael Jackson really loved the first movie, yeah, and wanted to find some way to help out or be in it, or the next ones, and so he gave rights to his likeness so that an impersonator could come in and so you hear beat it in cafe 80s, and then when in the alternate alternate 1985, the room that he goes into that's not his is covered in Michael Jackson posters like thriller. Yeah, I saw that yeah, because that was the pinnacle of the 80s, too. Right. Another cool song that shows up Sammy Hagar in the alternate 1985, in the middle of when they're in the middle of the chaotic uh Trump Tower, Hill Valley, I Can't Drive 55. Yeah, that was a huge song in the 80s, and it was cool that they just kind of used it as a throwback. Yeah. So and then, of course, the repeats of Night Train and Mr. Sandman and all those to give that 50s feel. Yeah, yeah. Earth Angel, the redo of Johnny Be Good. Yeah, which I could tell that they in order to get that sequence longer, he had kind of a longer solo and then I think I owe I can't play it, but I have it memorized.

Shooting Tricks Behind The Timelines

Dylan 28:16

All right. So I think we should talk about how they pulled off this whole movie. Just with revisiting scenes from the original movie and such an interesting concept to be able to play with. Yeah.

Joe 28:31

Yeah, it was a lot of work because they had the 1950s Hill Valley, they had the future Hill Valley, and then they had the Alternate 85, you know. So they had um all these hurdles that they had to do, and normally movies don't always film in chronological order, right? And so they had a lot of figuring out, okay, we gotta shoot this, we gotta shoot that. Yeah, and one of the biggest things was that they had to for the 80s or for Hill Valley, they shot one side of the street of 55. And so if you think of the whole court what courtyard, yeah, the left side where Biff's car is, they could they only shot on that side, and behind it, if you were to pan the camera over, you would see the alternate 1985. Oh because they were trying to, it was so dirty and so run down that they had to do, they had to work really hard to make it look that way. So they could only shoot a section of that street, so that and even if you look at the angles like where Biff is behind the tree and everything, you can only see past so much. Yeah.

Dylan 29:54

So and they still have that the square set, right? Yeah. So is that actual set like divided out like that, or is it all just the kind of classic hill valley scene?

Joe 30:11

Yeah, it's a classic hill valley now. I remember when they were filming it and you went to the back lot tour that it was future for a long time. Yeah, I think they ended on the future because it was that way for the longest time, and it was so cool to me. Yeah. To be able to just drive through there and look at everything and and see what they did. Yeah, yeah. The cool thing is that they had people from ILM working on the special effects and things like that, and they you see it a couple of times, but in the future, you see these cars flying around, and then you see one come down, and then it kind of coasts in. Yeah. And they did the blue screen type matting where the first part is a model, and then when it comes past the certain seam, it's a real car coming down a like a little ramp.

Dylan 31:14

Cruising down the ramp.

Joe 31:16

Yeah, and so then it gives the feel of it landing. Yeah. And they also did that in 1985, the alternate 1985, when they come back, and there's basically a tree or a light pole, and it you see it kind of coming down, and then it just comes through. Yeah. So and they just had to figure out like basically Zemecos was like, this is what we want to happen in the scene. Right. And they're like, okay, we'll figure it out. So how do we make that happen? Yeah. They came up with a computerized camera called the Vista Glide. And so what it would do would you could program in the camera movements for each scene. Oh. And so if you were doing doubles, it would have the perfect if you had a person, you know, it would not be as straight on. And so they had the perfect shot of everything where it would blend in perfectly because it was just computerized and was you could reshoot a scene and have it do the same thing. So that whole the future sequence when Mart they're at Marty's house and everybody there's like three three Michael J. Foxes and all that, it's just all split up, and they would have doubles kind of sit in so that you can have a natural reaction or to what you're saying, but then they would they would compose it all and put it all together. Yeah. Same thing with with Biff when he's in the future talking to himself. Like the per they said it couldn't have been any more perfect because that car naturally had a split between and so you have Michael J. Fox jumping from screen to screen in the background, while I guess the magazine when they toss it in back is actually animated. Oh, because they didn't have computers, were very they they used um computers on the hoverboards in order to get the wires out of the screen. But that was like the extent of the amount of computers that they had.

Dylan 33:24

Yeah, yeah. That I feel like the practical hoverboard, like it looked good, but there were definitely times where you could tell uh-huh like that he was just like holding up his foot that the hoverboard was attached to.

Joe 33:42

Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there was a lot of times where in the hoverboard sequence where he's going around the courtyard and everything, that they put like wood planks for him to actually skateboard on.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Yeah.

Joe 33:54

Yeah. So then he would glide, but look like he was gliding anyway, but he was a natural skateboarder, so he just did that. Yeah, and there's like on deleted scenes and extras and stuff. There's test footage of all the doing the whole that whole sequence, yeah, yeah, with stunt doubles and stuff. So it's pretty cool. Any questions?

Favorite Scenes And Fun Cameos

SPEAKER_02 34:18

You gotta pause it.

Dylan 34:20

Yes, I do have a question. Yes. What would you say one of your favorite scenes is? Because for me, I loved the shots of Marty sneaking through the events of the first movie, yeah, and just thinking it back on the way that the first movie was framed, and you're like, oh, I could totally kind of picture this happening of Marty sneaking underneath the window of the car.

Joe 34:52

Yeah. Yeah. Man, I just as a kid loved the concept of the future, the idea of all the things that could happen. The amount of things that this movie sort of sort of predicted, but I think people it's kind of like one of those things where you see the idea and you're like, I'm gonna make that happen. Yeah. Still we're still on the edge of flying cars, but we're almost there. But yeah, just the concept of things like the Google Lens in in the dinner scene where they're watching all TV and she's on the phone and that kind of stuff. We haven't got the the uh rehydrators yet, but we use the air fryer. Most a lot of people have air fryers, you know, and so it's just really cool, and that that's where the future for me was really my favorite part. Yeah. I think man, the Strickland scene where you can see, you know, the other side of the high school in that street. I've been on that street, so it's like really cool to see. Yeah, yeah. Uh, what about you anymore?

Dylan 36:06

Well, I love the the lightning strike at the end because I feel like that just bookends the first and second one. Yeah.

Joe 36:19

And with that, I think for me of the trilogy, one of my favorite scenes, well, one talking about the lightning strikes, you can almost add up everything going on and thinking about everything going on in the courtyard as things are going on with Biff and the DeLorean kind of, you know. Yeah, and so everything's like in the back of your mind. But my favorite part is they show him take off and then he runs right back. Yeah, it's just so like to me, that was just so mind blowing. Oh my gosh, like, and even Daga's, you know, what are you doing? I just sent you back. I know I'm back from the future. Great Scott. Yeah, that that just for me was just mind-blowing.

Dylan 37:11

Yeah, the hoverboard chase, too, like just the way that they completely like mirror the first movie. Yeah, yeah, it was just so good.

Joe 37:21

Yeah, every nuance of that where they essentially repeated, even when he loses control of the skateboard or he loses control of the hoverboard, and he goes up this little kind of ramp thing and he flips over, and then he bumps into people, and he goes up to the the kid, hey, I'm gonna borrow your hoverboard. Hoverboard, yeah. And then my favorite is just that whole thing of the Griff's friends hooking on to the bulldog and or pit bull, yeah, yeah. And then they go through that whole sequence, and at the end, he's here, here's your hoverboard bag, and she's like, I got a pit bull now. No, thanks.

Dylan 38:02

I got a pit bull.

Joe 38:03

Yes, that was great. Yep, just such a great setup, like, and it's it doesn't feel like all these ha things happening, it doesn't feel like a redo, it just it feels so fresh, yeah. Especially since you don't know it's gonna happen. So a couple of extra things about the future is some honorable mentions. You become an actor and you do extra parts, and you just hope that those go into becoming a more successful actor. Yeah, one of my favorite parts in there is Jason Scott Lee is one of Griff's friends or cohorts. Yeah, and he's the one who says, the first guy says, you know, you bojo, you can't, you know, hoverboards don't work on water, and then he goes, You need power. I just love that part, and I've always loved that part. And he would go on to play Bruce Lee in Dragon. Oh, and it was just when when he came out, I was like, Yes, like it's just awesome. The other honorable mention is when Michael J. Fox is playing Duck Hunt. Duck Hunt wasn't actually an arcade game, it was just they put it in there to set up something in the future movies. But one of the kids that is in it is Elijah Wood, who would go on to play Frodo.

Dylan 39:27

Oh what did the kids say? It's like um using your hands, that's for babies or something.

Joe 39:37

You mean you have to use your hands? That's a baby's toy, yeah. And he's just what cool thing about the the 80s store that he goes to is Robert Zemeckis was in the middle of filming Roger Rabbit when they started the production on the second one. Oh, okay. And so two things with Roger Rabbit. The actor who voices Roger Rabbit. Yeah, yeah. The actor who voices Roger Rabbit is the guy who says, I wish I could go back and bet on the cubbies. Oh yeah. And then he plays the guy, the mechanic in the 50s that you know gets all the manure out. And then you see in the window there's a little stuffed Roger Rabbit in there.

SPEAKER_03 40:25

Oh, really?

Joe 40:26

Yeah. And then there's VHS tapes of Jaws one and two. Yeah. And then right above is a different colored JVC video camera that Marty used. It's a blue one instead of a red one. Oh. And then right above that is Marty's original jacket from the 80s. So it's like quick blink if you miss it type of stuff. Yeah.

Dylan 40:53

That's wild. Yeah. Ooh. Speaking of Jaws, yeah, the holographic shark was hilarious.

Joe 41:03

Yeah. I love the fact that he's like, ah, and then he goes, shark still looks fake. Yeah. Yeah. They homage to Spielberg. And they just thought they were gonna make jokes about the future and every everything they could come up with, they were gonna throw in there. And they just thought the ridiculousness of doing so many sequels of Jaws that it becomes Jaws 19 or whatever.

Dylan 41:31

Well, what was it? Back for real this time or something?

unknown 41:34

Yeah.

Joe 41:35

This time it's personalized, something like that. Yeah.

Cultural Impact And Time Travel Logic

Dylan 41:39

So, what would you say would be like the cultural impact of this movie?

Joe 41:45

Oh man. Well, they talked about how the best sponsors you can get would be in fast the fast food industry because they have a way bigger advertising budget. Let me guess. Pipsy. Well, that's one of them. They have a way bigger advertising budget. You get to have preview clips in their commercials, and they'll do that for free. Yeah. So they said the probably most fun they had was the deal with Pizza Hut. Yeah. They said it was so good that they brought in a whole working kitchen on the Hilldale set, like refrigerators, like the whole nine lines. Wow. And they also brought a food stylist to make sure that the pizza looked great. And whatever pizza, the whatever the reject pizzas were, the crew got to eat.

Dylan 42:42

That's crazy.

Joe 42:44

So that influenced. I remember when they had when Pizza Hut was giving out these the futuristic glasses that everybody's wearing in the movie, they made replicas of those and gave them out. Like if you bought a pizza. Yeah. That's great. So it was just, and I think I think at the time Pizza Hut had Pepsi already. So it was just kind of hand in hand, you know. Then, you know, the self-lacing shoes were in all actuality. When you see the shoes, they're these shoes that are screwed down to boards that look like asphalt. Oh, yeah. Underneath was all the kind of puppeteering stuff that you would use for animatronics. And so then when he would go to zip his shoes or lace his shoes, they would use these animatronics to lace everything up. And the same thing with the jacket that they just had all these motors and things inside that would just bring everything back. Yeah. Yeah. So the other thing too is that a lot of people, I forget the names, but a lot of scientists point to Back the Future as being one of the most accurate time travel movies or series that's out there because you need energy to make it happen. They said 1.21 gigawatts would not be enough. I didn't say gigawatts, even though that's the correct term. Because Doc, he is a doctor, says gigawatts. But it wouldn't be enough energy to do that. But it still has the concept of motion and energy and things like that. And a lot of time travel movies will have the person go in a dream and all of a sudden wake up in, you know. Right. Yeah. Or Bill and Ted, they go in a telephone booth and then all of a sudden they're in Rome or something. And so they actually did the practical of, yeah, we're in a car, but we're it's only to get to 88 to create this energy so that everything you know falls into place, but you're still in the same, they go from hill valley to hill valley, they don't go from you know right. Yeah. So the other thing that is kind of has been debated but has been confirmed by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis is that Biff's alternate 1985 is modeled after Donald Trump. Yeah. Because at the time, you know they act a lot alike. Yeah, they do. But at the time, he had Trump Tower and had bought all these buildings. So it was just news. It was like really present. So if you got it, you got it, you know. Yeah. And if you know, if you're any if you were not living under a rock at the time, you totally got like this is supposed to be like Trump, you know. So funny. Pre-president.

Ratings, Memories, And Final Question

Joe 45:40

So did this sequel live up to the original? Or maybe it even surpassed it?

Dylan 45:47

Ooh. I don't know if it surpassed it, but it's right there alongside it for sure. It definitely lived up to the original, though. Yeah. It really makes me want to uh fast track the part three. Yeah, I know.

Joe 46:01

And for me, I'm in the same. I just to cleanse my palate, I have to watch it within a week because I just needed to come to completion. Yeah, back when uh I was watching it with my nephew and we watched it over uh Skype or whatever, like it was kind of real, uh, what do you call it? Not realistic. Um surreal. Surreal. Yeah. It was kind of surreal because we're FaceTiming and watching Bath of the Future. And uh Back of the Future had essentially the idea of FaceTiming when when needles and all that, you know, it's like there's so many things in there that just yeah.

Dylan 46:45

I think on an overall rating, I'd probably give it a nine out of ten, though.

Joe 46:49

Yeah. Did I give the original ten?

Dylan 46:53

Probably. Yeah. That sounds like something you do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe 46:57

I think I'd give this a ten, too. Yeah. It just especially as a kid, again, going back to being able to see the filming of the movie.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

Yeah.

Joe 47:08

I remember there was one night when so we lived in Almani, California at one point. And there was one night where my mom came home and she said, Hey, she was late, and she worked night a night job, and so she was a little late. And we're like, Hey, you know, where were you? Whatever. And she's like, Well, they're filming Back to the Future around the block from us. And so Hilldale, I basically lived around the block from Hilldale, and where they were filming Marty and Jennifer's house. Yeah. And it was a brand new, like, you know, kind of subdivision that they had just built. Uh-huh. And so they the location scouts jumped on it and got to got to film there. And so that for me was huge because it's just a memory that I have of like that movie, the anticipation of that movie was just yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, that's good.

Dylan 48:04

All right. Well, thanks for listening to Have You Seen the Movie Podcast.

Joe 48:08

Make sure to follow the show on your favorite podcast app. And if you're enjoying it, leave us a five-star rating. It really helps the show grow.

Dylan 48:15

And we want to hear from you. Text us your name and a movie suggestion using the link in the description.

Joe 48:21

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Dylan 48:26

We'll be back next week with another movie premiere.

Joe 48:30

So, Dylan, if Doc handed you the keys to the DeLorean right now, what's the first year you're punching in?

Dylan 48:36

Oh, 1985.