Back To The Future at 30

The original movie poster for Back To The Future

Thirty years ago today, the first movie in the Back To The Future trilogy came out.

And thirty years ago this weekend, I went to see this movie, starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. There was a good amount of buzz that surrounded the lead up in the weeks before it’s first run release. Steven Spielberg, famous for so many movies 10 years into his professional career, attached his name/company as a producer, which gave the film a nice boost of recognition. Often times people think he directed the movie, which he did not [that honor belongs to Robert Zemeckis].

Most people knew Micheal J. Fox from the TV series “Family Ties”, which if anyone knows the story of casting him as Marty McFly, that was a balancing act of time and negotiations. After viewing the film for the first time, I was blown away by how cool it was. How intense some of the scenes were in the back and forth time travel. And of course the ending only increased my anticipation to want to see the next film in the trilogy, which came out in November 1989, more than 4 years later.

The movie spent 11 weeks at the top of the box office and was the top grossing film of 1985. It went on to make almost $400 million in worldwide box office receipts.

And tonight, I sat down with my wife to watch the movie on Blu-ray to celebrate this anniversary. I never tire of this movie and I often quote lines before they are uttered by the actors on the screen. I think the idea of this movie and it’s two sequels holds up so well over the years. Nothing seems really dated and I can sit down and enjoy all two hours of the run time each and every viewing.

I Am McFly

Back to Halloween 2012 when I dressed up as Marty McFly

Soon after the movie came out and people were going to see it in the theaters, the idea of a Marty in a major motion picture was something that family and friends picked up quite fast. Soon, I was nicknamed “McFly” just out of pure association with a name like Marty. I certainly didn’t mind it one bit and relished in being lumped in with a great movie role.

Jump back to Halloween of 2012 when I finally decided what my costume would be that year – the long overdue of me dressing up like Marty McFly. I documented the day in a blog post..

2015 Future Items Not Found

Thirty years ago, I, along with many others, thought we would have flying cars, hover boards and maybe time travel. Well, maybe not real time travel, but hey, a movie fan can dream of a reality. But seriously, at least the hover board surely could have been commonplace by now. And while we do have some prototypes today, why haven’t we seen some of these future creations come to life sooner? A food hydrater would surely be something a modern society would have embraced. We do have fingerprint entry for doors and as a feature function on our smart phones. Do we have to wait another 30 years for everything else? Great Scott, I certainly hope not.

At least one thing we can assure not to see in the future are any remakes of the film, at least if the two Bobs have their say in their lifetime.

Movie Magic

So who else out there is a Back To The Future fan who saw the movie opening weekend?