Two Days Late; Two Dollars Short aka Back To The Past

Just about anyone who was a child in the 80s would remember the year moviegoers got a glimpse of the year 2015 in 1989 with the follow-up to Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future. In a clever twist from the first movie, where our hero Marty McFly found himself trapped in the past and therefore had to get–wait for it–back to the future, he now has to go to the future-future, all the way to October 21, 2015.  Of course, then he ends up having to go back to the past again through the events of the first movie without letting anyone, including himself, know he’s there.

Needless to say, Tim and I watched Back to the Future Part II on Wednesday.  I hadn’t seen the movie in several years, and I personally think it’s the weakest of the trilogy.  Then again, that’s saying something like Return of the Jedi or Star Wars: A New Hope is the weakest of its trilogy.  (I’m going to stick my fingers in my ears and go la-la-la-la-la about the prequels.)  Still, Back to the Future Part II has some interesting ideas, such as the time twisting going back to 1955 (again) to prevent a disastrous 1985 thanks to events that take place in 2015.

I think the actors all had a blast in their roles, especially Michael J. Fox since he also got to play both his son and his daughter. (He actually made a fairly convincing woman. 😉 )  I noticed Tom Wilson really getting into his role as the future Biff Tannen and his grandson, Griff.  Even though most of the actors had to play themselves (or descendants) at different ages, I think they handled it very well.  I loved the scene when 2015 Biff Tannen interacted with the 1955 Biff Tannen.  Though obviously split-screened, Wilson took it in style and convinced me he was really in two places at once.

A lot of people have already compared the real 2015 to the 2015 as they imagined it back in the 80s, so I won’t touch on it much myself.  Still, I found it interesting to see how we envisioned the future back then, much like people did in the 60s with things like The Jetsons.  Sadly, flying cars as the main mode of transportation are still not yet a thing, though I understand there have been some leaps in the technology.  While some of the clothing, such as self-adjusting and heating is still kind of out of our grasp, most of the fashion wasn’t completely off the mark. (This is California we’re talking about.)  And hoverboards. Sigh. Still working on those as well.

Like the original Star Trek, some of the technology has come to pass like screens on the wall and teleconferencing.  We have movie franchises that seem to go on forever, though thankfully not Jaws. (Shark still looks fake.)  And though I know the Cubs haven’t won the pennant, they’re kinda close?

At the end of the day, we have to chalk this up to a wacky science-fiction movie where the writers tried to imagine how things would be thirty years in the future.  Like a lot of speculation about what’s to come, it missed a lot more than it hit, but the fact that it showed some things that actually have made it to reality impresses me.  Back when I was 10, I never would have thought that anything like I saw in this movie could have happened in my lifetime.

October 21, 2015 only comes once in our calendar, so godspeed, Marty McFly, and I’m glad you were able to save your future by coming to it, even if you didn’t visit our timeline.  Next time, bring us some hoverboards too, okay?