Back to the Future Part 2 opened in 1989 as the middle chapter of
the classic time travel trilogy, continuing Marty Mcfly's time
hopping adventures in Hill Valley, the film made a ride
through a utopian 2015, a dystopian 1985 and the originals
19551 of Hollywood's most beloved sequels.
My name is John, and the guys who'd sell their souls for a
great sports Almanac are Matt. It's leave you idiot.
Make like a tree and leave. And Westie.
We must succeed. Where we're going, we don't need
roads. ATRM are talking flying
Deloreans, flying skateboards and proof that no matter what
year it is, the shock still looks big.
Hello and welcome to all the right movies.
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It's the Mechus. It's J Fox.
It's Lloyd. We're sending you back Back to
the Future Part 2, the sequel to one of the biggest films of the
80s, and we're tackling it in full.
We are. Before we fire up Mr. Fusion,
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Don't hold us there. Back to now, though, and we're
talking Back to the Future Part 2.
Yeah, So, Wesley, why are we getting into it?
Well. I mean, we're getting into it
because it's a classic in every sense of the word.
Has been a classic. I can't remember if I went to
the cinema, say this one. I definitely saw the third one
in the cinema, right, Remember that?
And I definitely saw Last Crusade in the cinema.
So I must have seen this same year.
Yeah, 89, wasn't it? So I've seen it so many times.
It's just almost like, God bless you.
It's just like, you know, that T-shirt you can't throw away
that's just your favorite doesn't fit you anymore and it's
all faded, but you just, you just can't get rid of it like.
That Fight Club jacket used to have and wait every time we went
out. Still got it, can't get rid of
it, but this was like the ultimate rewatchable film as a
kid. It was just constantly on and
constantly entertaining, and I just love the characters and I
love the set pieces and I love the fact that it just referred
to the first one so much. I don't know if I love that as
much now, but we'll get into that, I think.
Can you have too much of a good thing?
Yeah. So for me, like, watching it
from a really critical point of view has changed it slightly,
but it's still lots and lots of fun.
It's still a really, really excellent, excellent film.
It's still really accomplished and I still thoroughly enjoy it.
So yeah, let's get into it. Yeah, I'm coming from a very
similar place, I think, Westie. I mean, when you're talking
nostalgia, this might be the one for me or one of the ones.
So I thought it might be up there.
Definitely, yeah. As a kid, this was far and away
in my favorite Back to the Future film, and it was for one
reason, basically. I'll talk about that as we go
and how my opinions have also changed in the last few decades
a bit, but I think this one had to be talked about at some
point, surely. Yeah, yeah.
I don't think the opinions have changed.
I think they've just swayed towards being slightly more
mature about cinemas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But direct sequel to one of Hollywood's most popular films,
A crazy reality jumping narrative which is interesting.
A crazy behind the scenes production story doing things
technically that no one had ever done before.
There was massive cast, controversies and lawsuits.
So even if you don't like this film, the story that we're about
to tell is pretty fascinating. Yeah, there's a lot to get it.
And we should have a right or laugh telling this one.
I don't think so. Definitely.
Yeah, and obviously hoverboards. Coolest thing ever.
Yeah, you can't do without that. That's fantastic.
And Matt BTT FP2. Yeah, I mean, this is an
interesting one for me, this because when you put the Paul
up, John in the Wall sequel themed, this is the one I was
least familiar with. And I do remember seeing it at
the cinema at the time and I remember as a kid just being
very confused by it all. That's fair enough.
Yeah. Can't just switch off and enjoy.
It can, you know, I definitely can't.
What's this about? Even when I was insufferable, I
wasn't sure it made sense. It was quite dark compared to
the first one and it didn't even have a proper ending at the end.
I was like, well, I have to come back again just to get a
resolution. So.
And it's not one I've revisited a lot because I don't revisit
the trilogy as a whole a lot. It's usually the first one for
me and I'm kind of happy with that.
Or like like indie, for example. But it's going to be interesting
because this one, it is divisive and it splits opinion a lot on a
lot of things. So it's going to be really
interesting to see where we all come out with this one.
Yeah, definitely. Well, Back to the Teacher Part 2
was released on November the 22nd, 1989.
Produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Universal
Pictures. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, it
was written by Bob Gale, based on the story by GAIL and
Zemeckis and was filmed in and around Los Angeles.
It stars Michael J Fox as Marty, Marty Junior and Marlene McFly,
Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown, Thomas F Wilson as Biff and
Griff Tannen, Leah Thompson as Lorraine Baine's McFly Tannen
and Elizabeth Shue as Jennifer Parker.
Why play 1 character when you can play it loads?
Just the one for sure there, just the 1 character.
But let's go. Should we?
Yeah, absolutely. We weren't sure whether to start
with the final scene about the future or the first scene of
Part 2. Turns out.
Same thing we're. Going to do both at the same
time of. Course we can't.
The beginning. Back to the Future Part 2 opens
right where the first film left off before whisking us off to
the future. We're going to be talking the
2015 sequences in Hill Valley and Hilldale, But first, it's
1985 Hill Valley to pick things back up.
Yeah, so the film does begin as the first one ended.
Doc Brown and the DeLorean come screeching into Marty's front
yard while lied and rambling about the future before we
unbef, watch our Jiro and Marty's girlfriend Jennifer
heading off to their next adventure.
Yeah, first thing of the sequel. Does it do the job, Wesley?
I think it does because it was the last scene of the of the
first film, which is probably one of one of my favourites of
all time, to be fair. I mean what an end and that is.
One of the best. They could have just left it and
just you've been like, yeah, that's incredible as a film,
just as a wanna. But they have to come back to
this scene, you know, Elizabeth Shoes in there now.
BIFF needs a little bit of an entrance and just to see what's
going on. But this is purely entertainment
over any kind of subtext or context or anything that they're
trying to go for. The first film was the opposite
of that. I think it had a real emotion
and had a real depth and tried to explore the characters.
This is just wants to have a lot of fun and I think that's what
this first scene does because the performances are a little
bit more loose. It's just a little bit more
cartoony, just a little bit more lean back.
Yeah, yeah, I. Mean, I love that look that
Marty gives Jennifer when Doc gets out and he's just like,
sorry about this guy. Yeah, he's really embarrassed.
Yeah, yeah. He's like, we're just straight
and set up that lovely bit Mr. Fusion, we're going back.
We don't need roads, we know about that.
But I think it was really well done because some of it I had to
really watch again and go. Was that a shot from the first
one I did to put that back in? Because the lighting is just
perfect. Everything is just framed really
well. But at the same time, you I
didn't really question the second Jennifer.
It was still well done. Yeah, yeah, I was.
I should just stands the same way and walks into the frame
exactly the same way. You've got to like re watch the
first one again and go. That was just so well done and
well put together. Right.
We're ready to go now. I've been reminded here.
We'll go. It's a great, great opening
scene, man. I think it's a better final
scene, but we're still excited. It is, yeah.
I like the opening shot. We get the title card, seeing
the date over like a black screen, and then the kind of
transition into the film is Marty sliding the garage door
open. That's really cool.
Yeah. And what?
He looks a bit different. He's got different here a bit.
Yeah, yeah. Jennifer always looks very
different. Different face.
I'm the same though. I'm pretty sure.
And I watched this over and over again as a kid.
I never realized there was a different actress.
I'm sure I didn't. Didn't for a while.
Don't look exactly the same, obviously.
In those silver shades. He's like Brett the Hitman.
Hot. Fantastic, yeah.
A nice little bit of setup with Beef when he sees the DeLorean
takeoff and disappear. Like what the hell is going on
here? Which sets up old Beef in 2015
seeing flying to Lorean. I'm not seeing one of those
since and I love beef screen. I just track suit and burgundy
turtleneck. Always a treat.
Oh yeah, it's fantastic. But I wanted as well to talk
about the opening credits, which kick in straight after Biff
delivers that line. It's like a helicopter shot sort
of flying through the clouds. It's like that Superman 2
trailer. It is, yeah.
But just hearing the Allen Sylvestre main theme swell up
over it, I could like burst into tears.
It just does something to me. But quite clever.
We I think was the makers to pull us back into the first
film. Works a treat on me anyway.
Yeah, yellow credits as well, I've got to mention that.
Yeah, yeah, yellow logo. There you are.
Yeah, I mean some, because he's just done an impeccable job
really of recreating a scene from the first film to use in
the second film with maybe slightly diminishing results in
some ways. And that's probably not the last
time we're going to be saying that if you have this episode.
Yes, agree. Yeah.
Bob Gale said that after the first film came out, Universal
had received thousands of fun letters asking what happened to
Marty and Doc in the future, and that dictated how to start the
sequel. He said they knew they had no
choice but to go to the future and show us Marty and Jennifer's
kids, which led to problems as they couldn't figure out a way
of writing Jennifer into the story without taking her away
from Marty, which, yeah, that's the original problem, isn't.
It exactly, yeah. They did kind of paint
themselves into a corner, I think.
But the end of the first film, not written to set up a sequel.
But it is, You said it was such a great final scene, isn't it?
Something's got to be done about your kids.
If there's never been a sequel, The end of the first film will
be one of the best endings ever to a film.
I think, yeah, I agree, yeah. And Claudia Wells played
Jennifer in the first film and had planned to come back for the
sequel, but around the time filming was due to start, her
mother was sadly diagnosed with cancer, so she chose to care for
a mother instead, and a casting call went out for a new
Jennifer. Yeah, a shame she couldn't come
back. I think that someone who was
seriously considered to replace Claudia Wells was Nicole Kidman.
Wow, Right. Yeah, Apparently she was
recommended as the mechas by Billy Zane, who's in the film as
much. Obviously.
Yeah. After he'd worked with her on
Dead Calm, of course. Calm.
Right. Yeah, She was ruled out, though,
because apparently she'd be too tall for Michael J Fox.
She wouldn't tower over. I think it wouldn't be.
Quite a common problem I imagine.
Yeah. Pulled off with Tom Cruise and
Far and Away though. And Elizabeth Shue's career was
on the up at the time because she'd been in The Karate Kid and
cocktail, starred in Adventures and Babysitting, and was
therefore cast. Claudia Well said.
She was flattered and honored to be replaced by Elizabeth Shue.
She was great, obviously, yes. I just wish she had more to do.
Yeah, yeah. Feels like a massive waste to
have her and just like knock her out.
Twice. Exactly.
And Marty and Doc for Jennifer like shit.
Yeah, they do. Leave her on a box of crates and
just lying on the porch while they're all flying around in the
middle. Or you.
I don't remember bars being on these windows.
Well, that's a bit of a red flag, isn't?
It listen. She'll be fine that.
Should be fine. Fucking during the DeLorean it
were flying car was one of the film's biggest effect
challenges. ILM built a remote control 115
scale miniature that had folding wheels.
This was used for numerous flying signatures and for close
up driving and cockpit shots. They used a practical rig.
A DeLorean body shell was mounted on moving platform and a
separate fibreglass DeLorean was also built for flying and
landing shots. It was lifted and lower than
hydraulic motion to create the appearance of the car.
Amazing. Yeah, you can kind of tell that
there's Titan and Deloreans coming in to land and we just
see part of it. It looks like it's on a forklift
truck or something. It kind of like wobbles into the
frame sometimes. Yeah.
Yeah, but that's the first scene.
The gang's all here. Jennifer not following?
Unfortunately, no. And 2015 awaits.
OK, let's check it out. Should we?
Let's do it. We arrive in 2015 in the middle
of a flying freeway. How terrifying does that look?
Yeah, fine. Yeah.
Dog knocks out Jennifer with no warning whatsoever.
And they sat down in Hill Valley.
Doc explains the issue with Marty Junior.
He's about to be arrested, leading Marty and us into Cafe
80s, a hoverboard chase round the square, and Marty perched in
the great Sports Almanac. There's something very familiar
about all this, Matt. Isn't there just?
How is the future? Well, yeah, I mean, that's where
it's very familiar. I mean, this cafe bar, a member
of the McFly family getting into trouble with the tannins again.
I mean, the more things change, the more things stay the same.
I guess that's what people say. But you know what, that's fine.
It's it's the recurring theme in the film.
You know, it's these patterns that occur over and over again.
What's interesting about this in terms of predicting the future,
though, is how it predicts that huge boom in 80s nostalgia.
I mean, the music, the iconography, the arcade games I
can play here. I mean, at the time, I guess the
drug was or ha ha, imagine all the things we've grown up with
are still popular in the future in the not relics of the past.
But it's true. You've got this huge boom in
industry behind 80s nostalgia. I mean, you know, lots that
comes through, you know what people vote for, for us to
cover. So how intentional or not it was
in this, I don't know, but they've absolutely nailed that
particular part of the future. Definitely.
Yeah, definitely a good point. I said at the start, when I was
a kid, there was one specific thing that made this my favorite
Back to the Future film, and it was this 2015.
Loved it, and I still do. The 2015 Hill Valley set is just
brilliant. Seems set as the first film
clearly, but with lots of futuristic touches and like a
lake in there. Because usually when Hollywood
does the future, it's often disturbing.
But this isn't, not in terms of how it looks anyway.
I think it's utopian if anything.
Yeah, it's very colourful, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, it's a bit cartoonish.
It's a bit like the Jetsons I think it is not so much that you
don't accept it. There's some great little
touches are like all kids in the future where the trousers inside
out for some reason, but that do you remember Crisscross that hip
hop duel from the 1990 the wall, their jeans back to front going
to make you jump. Yeah, the future was right.
Nice to see Biff in there when he's an old man.
As soon as Marty walks in the cafe, Biff just starts giving
him loads of shit about his dad. Well, himself, even though at
the end of the first film, weren't they like best mates?
He was all like, oh hi Marty and now loser.
Still putting blacks on the cars wrong.
An early sign this one might not be quite as detailed in the
writing as the first film. Maybe.
Yeah, not really. But I'm not that bothered
because then Griffin is gang walk in and I love them.
But I do have some questions. How unhinged is Griff?
He should not be out walking the streets.
He's totally psychotic. And why does Data, the gang
member have a chicken recording on his chest plate just like
ready to go got? Everything got everything on
there, touch of a button. It all seemed like they're like
massively just on this real cocaine Bender and just really
awful. From the try to roll Martin
Junior end of the heist he says I'll discuss it with my father
and grips like wrong answer. McFly.
And you throw them over the bar. It's insane.
So I mean, there's not too much going on that makes total sense
sometimes, but I just love it. Yeah.
I think we're going to be doing quite a lot of script
forgiveness with nostalgia in this one.
Yeah, we're going to have to just the read the visual
references really work over the context.
I mean, that antique store for a start.
There's so many bits in that window that are fantastic.
He's got the JVC player though, if you've noticed that.
The same video camera. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's got his guest denim jacket that he wore in the 1st.
One right. I think Roger Robertson there as
well. Yeah, so some really lovely
little touches. It's worth a pause and having a
look. It is, yeah.
It's really cool. In the 2015 Hill Valley that
we're talking about, there are references to other films.
Marty interacts with the holographic ad for Jaws 19,
which is always great, and we can see the marquee.
It says it's directed by Max Spielberg Stevens.
Real life son who was four years old at the time, also say cars
from other science fiction movies.
There's a spinner, a type of flying car from Blade Runner,
and we can say the star car from the Last Starfighter part on the
street as well. Yeah, that's a great little.
Not that, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
There's a slightly bizarre film reference when Marty Junior
almost gets run over crossing the street.
I'm walking. Here, I'm walking here, I'm
walking here. Obviously Dustin Hoffman at
Midnight, Cowboy. I'm just not sure why it's in.
There one of the most miserable films ever made.
That's just make him straight in.
There, Graphic 80s was designed by John Bell, the visual effects
art director and concept designer on the film.
He said he took inspiration from the visual brand of Swatch, the
watch company. Bold clashing colours, random
geometric shapes and playful typography.
Yeah, you can see. That's nice.
You definitely can see that Swatch thing in the colour
palette and stuff gone yet, but I think the reason he did that
was because the hoverboard made by Mattel, but in first versions
of the script it was going to be made by Swatch.
All right. I still love that hoverboard
design. I know that pink. 10 It's
beautiful, it's so good. And the Cafe 80s Weirdest
digital avatars. On the screen we see Michael
Jackson, Ronald Reagan and Ayatollah Khomeini.
Jackson was apparently very cooperative with letting his
lightness be recreated, and he was portrayed by E Casanova, who
called himself the number one Michael Jackson tribute artist.
He wrote a rubber mask with me, but Bob Gale said he looked more
like Jackson without it. BBB for chicken.
And beat, it's playing when Marty walks in, isn't it?
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
But it was digital. Wait, as clearly inspired by Max
Headroom on the the CD character from 80s TV.
Yeah, it's pretty much some of the 2015 tech still like years
beyond those like flying cars. And some of it looks totally
terrible by today's standards. Yeah yeah yeah another thing in
Cafe 80s see Marty play a video game called Wild Gunman.
Wild Gunman was a real Nintendo like gun game, but the full
outside arcade version was built just for the movie and one of
the two boys who was unimpressed with the game was an 8 year old
Elijah Wood in his first film role.
Yeah, Video Game Boy too. He's credited as right.
It's for babies. You have to.
Use your hands. But that's the set of Part 3 in
the fact that he's a bit of a Wild West sharpshooter, I think
isn't. It Yeah.
Definitely. So I'll go straight on from
there. We're into the power board
chase. He stands up for himself.
This is a little bit of a nod that is very familiar lovely.
I'm I still a gig to think this is still cool Well as well, and
I'm absolutely fine with that. To be honest.
It's just a great setup and a great callback.
It's just not quite as impactful as the original that it's based
on. But I just that's because
everything that it's based on, it's so good.
And I remember the first time singing this and all the
different times I've seen it since I've just been waiting for
this scene to happen and that this is where the film starts
for me. When that hoverboard comes out
is that little girl little girls?
I use your hoverboard. Hoverboard.
It's great. I love the science of it, the
mechanics of it. You know, he gets on the back of
the car, there's the music ramps up and that starts kicking in,
but then they spin around and then they're straight after him
again. So like, they're a little bit
more experienced. Yeah.
He's really lucky to find that rope in the back of the car.
Great. Swings around straight over the
lake. And I think that's the whole
reason they just built this lake in there, because when they need
a setup. Oh, definitely, yeah.
How else are they going to break this down?
And you just think that's a really nice aesthetic leg.
I wonder what that's there for. You'll find out.
Yeah, it's great. It's just he's there and it just
stops. But there's just that line
reading those supposed to work or more, unless you've got power
and he's just not so. Intense in those guys.
And he just did the look on his face and he doesn't change his
expression. He's just crazy.
These guys are straight out of Escape from New York.
They are, yeah. Escape from Hill Valley, Yeah.
Escape from Hill Valley and it's then, well, you need power.
So who's got the most powerful hoverboard?
Like what else is Griff going to use that for?
He's going to the shops, he's not going to use a hoverboard.
He's got a car. What does he need that for?
But he's still got the biggest one everyone hooks on.
She doesn't want it back, so he gets to keep it.
I was always jealous of that. I was like, I want one of them
but it doesn't really work on water so I can't really take to
the marine part. Stranded in the middle of Marine
Park. In the middle of the marine
park, Swans attacking, going at your ankles because your
hoverboard didn't work. Just like I don't need one
because I've got a Pitbull now. If she goes on that, she's
getting whiplash, her head's coming straight off.
She's about six or seven years old.
Flame powered as well. Flame.
She's. Going to kill herself the first
time you watch this. I mean, it was a joy to see
these things again, really is. But I think I've seen it so many
Times Now that I'm kind of like push the just just a little bit
more. But still, I mean just the
invention of the hoverboard and then powered laces has not been
better I don't think. Yeah, I think you're right,
Wesley. I think objectively the
filmmaking of the same scene in the first film with a couple of
notches above this one, probably, yeah.
But what elevates this is just the hoverboard, isn't it?
It's just so cool. Yeah.
Absolutely. Yeah, there's lots of little
callbacks where mirrors the first film named Marty hanging
off the back of the car and let me borrow your hoverboard.
That's all cool, but because a nice little narrative touches as
well, all Biff clocks the two Marty's so he knows he has a
time machine. Marty buys a sports Almanac and
then Doc just bins it. So it's setting up all the
dominoes around this little action scene, which is all
likely doing, I think. Yeah, I mean, and then the first
one he just invent skateboarding.
So Marty replied. Just invent.
A culture Invent everything Invented Rock'n'roll.
But this is still great. And creating the effect of the
hoverboard needed a lot of special effects and tricks.
So for the waste of shots of Marty on the board, Michael J
Fox was riding an ordinary skateboard.
The short wear Marty is stranded on the lake.
The hoverboard had a mirror on the bottom which was hidden by
reflecting the water and full body flying Shots used crane and
cable rigs that touched the back of a truck and Fox and Tom
Wilson were suspended on a harness.
They were filmed from the moving truck and a special post
production tool called Wiram was created by ILM to allow the
wires to be digitally removed from the shots.
Yeah. Yeah, so once Fox was in the
harness, his shoes were permanently attached to the
hoverboard, so he couldn't take them off.
And there's behind the scenes shots of crew members having to
carry him around because he couldn't walk with a hoverboard
on. Yeah, any.
Experience toy soldiers from like, Toy Story.
Exactly. Yeah.
The footage of them working on that.
Yeah, and there is some pretty obvious compositing shots in
there I think as well. Not all of it looks great, but
I'm fine with it. No, Yeah.
That's the thing, isn't it? What we've got to really be
careful of is going. This is based on the scene in
the first one. How good is that scene in the
first one? Yeah.
Exactly. Thought about the let's just
stick with that. But yeah, I mean, there's some
great moments. And Griff's Pitbull hoverboard
that was originally going to be called Mad Dog and that was to
foreshadow Buford, Mad Dog, Tannen Biff's ancestor and the
antagonist in Part 3. Why did they change that?
That's much better. I don't know.
It's much better, yeah. So Griff's gang, as we spoke
about, insane, insane bastards, but they are theater.
Whitney and Spike, of course they are.
Data is played by Ricky Dean. Logan Whitey is played by Jason
Scott Lee, who went on to play Bruce Lee in Dragon, the Bruce
Lee story, and he's fantastic. And that really, really good,
yeah. And Spike is played by Darlene
Vogel, who had a condition that made our eyes two different
colours. And Zemeckis wanted to
exaggerate the effects of Vogel bought a red contact lens in one
eye. Yeah.
Don't just keep it natural, Rob. Just.
That could have been anyone then.
Yeah. Yeah.
Funny, in Cafe 80s when Spike grabs Marty, you know, by the
crotch and he's like, oh. You got no scope.
Again, Griffs gang are good, but why weren't they played by the
same guys who played Biffs gang members?
Well, exactly. I know that.
Seems a bit of a crazy choice as well, yeah.
I think this gang members are a bit more bumbling idiots on
there. Yeah, yeah.
These, these were a bit more efficient, I guess in the
future. And filming the scene where the
gun crashed through the courthouse window, Darlene Vogel
was replaced by a stunt double, and she was called Cheryl
Wheeler Duncan. But when the film did, there was
a technical error. And instead of going straight
through the window, Wheeler Duncan smashed in one of the
concrete pillars and dropped 30 feet to the floor, ending a
blind in a pool of her own blood.
They didn't reshoot the scene, and you can see a hitting the
pillar in the film. Thankfully, though, she wasn't
permanently injured. Yeah, you can, yeah.
At first they apparently thought she was dead because there was
that much blood. For years I thought that must
have been a dummy, because you see, I like bounce off the
pillar at some speed. It should.
Clip the pillar and then it cuts, doesn't it?
Yeah, that must have been terrifying to see that.
She was OK though, thankfully, yeah.
No one was injured in the tower inferno, but.
Some nearly dies, yeah. Before we move from Hill Valley
to Hilldale, we've had a question in from one of our ATRM
patrons. OK, it fits perfectly in 2015
Hill Valley and it comes from Matthew Williams.
Hello, Matthew. Hello, Matthew.
So Matthew says the hoverboard, self drying jacket and the
expanding pizza are etched on my memory from this film but are
unfortunately still not close to reality.
Which past films do you think have come closer to predicting
the future? And what would be in your top
three lists of future gadgets designed in films?
Right. So what do you think, Rusty?
Good future tech from films. Well, I mean the three that I
think have come close to predicting the future.
Firstly, I think Terminator with the rise of AI, especially
Terminator 2, dangerously close, the targeted advertising, the
minority report, that's kind of getting there.
I think that's going to happen very, very soon, if not already
on Instagram. And unfortunately everything in
children and men, which was spoke about recently is is
predicting the future. The gadgets.
I've always loved this kind of stuff, but the the neutralizer
and men in black. Oh yeah.
I wish that exists. Just white people's minds.
Great. We were out last night.
Weren't we're just look into this.
Sorry about me. Any flying cars, particularly
the spinner? Oh yeah, definitely.
That's amazing. And the fire burst and guitar
from the Doof Warrior in Mad Max Lovely.
That amp on the top of a truck. I know you could possibly do
that now but I would like to just buy one.
And also in this the one that no one mentions is the sleep
induced algorithm generator that puts Jennifer to sleep.
Of course, yeah. Stick it through your face.
How long do you want? A couple of hours?
Bang, you're asleep. Yeah, Minority Report, that's a
good one that holds up. They also predicted the kind of
user interface with those kind of gesture controls, Tom Cruise
flinging stuff around. Yeah, they did.
Yeah, Yeah. But I mean I think 2001 the
Space Odyssey might be the gold standard.
Like tablet computers, video calling, voice activated AI that
was all decades before it was created as well As for gadgets.
My 3 would be that time turn I think from Harry Potter.
Let's you go back in time. Easy peasy.
OK, right. Watch the Grand National jump
back 20 minutes. Bob's your uncle.
Yeah, and my top 2 are both from Star Trek, obviously.
Obviously. 2nd the replicator. Any food, any drink, anything,
just materialize that with thin air so you never want for
anything. Number one, I've got the
holodeck, so that's a room that can create any environment or
like scenario you can imagine, right?
If I had one of those, I would just never leave.
Fair enough, you'd find my skeleton in there.
Never could replicate your skeleton for five years?
Replicate. Yeah, I mean, in terms of like
predicting the future, I think her did a really great job of
predicting the future about kind of AI assistance with names and
personalities and how people genuinely seem these days are
getting attached to them. And wasn't it open AI who wanted
to really use Scarlett Johansson's voice and she
wouldn't let them? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I mean life imitating out there and then top three
gadgets. I mean one from this film, I
don't know, everyone says the hoverbots, but the one for me is
it's just in the background very quickly.
But you know where you say that dog being taken for walk and
it's just attached to like, yeah, yeah, yeah, drawn type
device that would be so useful, like when it's pissing it down
outside. You lazy bastard, you're not.
Going to pretend it's anything other than all go on, because
that can take. I'm not getting wet.
No way. And then the last one I just
loved, you know, the exosuit in District 9.
Oh yeah, that he has at the end. That's amazing match from
walking around in that. That is cool, I love that.
And that is 2015 Hill Valley Flying Cars, Cafe 80s,
Hoverboard and the Greatest Sports.
Alman Actor take us to Act 2 first door.
Should we check out the other side of 2015?
Let's do that. We should.
After Jennifer was found unconscious by two police
officers, she's taken home to Hilldale.
Here we see the full McFly clan, all Lorraine and George,
middle-aged Marty and Jennifer, and their kids Marty, Junior and
Marlene. Marty gets fired, Jennifer runs
into herself, and Old Biff steals the Lorien.
A lot going on. Hilldale Map The address of
success or the address of success.
I mean, this scene when Jennifer goes to the Mcfys, this is a
tough scene to swallow for me. Like it's tricky when you get an
act of playing multiple parts as to how believable it is.
I mean, we covered Doctor Strangelove not too long call.
Peter Sellers delivers a master class in how you do it.
This is no master class I'm afraid here.
With with some of these. Slammed.
Well, Michael Chavox, he's great as the multiple Marty's, but
when he comes downstairs as Marlene as well, it's so
unconvincing with that voice over the top of it.
It didn't. Just Oh yeah.
Yeah. It always takes me out of the
film. It's like I'm watching the
clumps or something like that, they said.
I know of it. I'm not sure why they didn't
just have Leah Thompson playing Marlene.
And then Lorraine and George turn up and obviously all get
into all the crisp and glove and stuff later, but George was
hanging upside down like one of those really fancy kebabs he can
get. It's on the thing instead.
It's just all too silly. I mean, I think the make up is
not aged well at all in this film for trying to convince you
like these people are old in this whole scene.
Just players. I'd like too much of A pundit
mind for me and I just think Get Me Out of the scene.
I want out of this future for more reasons than one.
Right. I'm not sure this scene is
totally necessary to the plot, to be honest, no.
Absolutely not. But I think it's just a joy.
I love Marlene appearing at the top of the stairs that close up.
You meant to notice Michael J Fox, I think.
I don't think it's meant to be like Peter Sellers, but it's a
pizza hydrator for me. Secondary to the hoverboard,
that thing. Who wouldn't want one of those?
Just ignoring all of the performances that fucking.
Pizza hydrator or you're straight in there with the
pizza. Obviously, that's no surprise.
Well Lorraine uses to cook the pizza.
How good does that pizza look? It looks does look good to be
black and deck. I need to open the take away on.
Definitely. Finally, Elizabeth Shoe gets
something to do. And if anything just goes to
prove that we should get even more of AI.
Think it's funny when she sees the wedding photo and just like
Chapel. Oh, love.
And then when she runs into herself, 47 year old Jennifer
shouts I'm young and 17 year old Jennifer shouts I'm old.
And they're both just pass out. That's great.
Yeah. But other sequence, I think it's
fun. And yes, Jennifer's biggest
moment in the whole trilogy, probably.
Yeah, I mean, this scene is just there to set up the end of
three, isn't it? With needles.
I was hanging McFly. Chicken and then he decides to
go the other that's why he can't play guitar he's done this
before we're setting up 3 so right you've touched on this
already John Neil go so the motivation for the pizza
hydrator was financial universal and struck A sponsorship deal
with Pizza Hut so told to Megas and GAIL to have to write them
into the script. This is why we also see Pepsi,
Nike, Mattel, Texaco and a lot of other recognizable brands.
Yeah. I mean, product placement often
gets criticized, but what works quite well here I think is it's
a make us went to all these companies and said we're
basically easier to redesign your logos and products to look
like something futuristic. How do you think it might look
in 30 years? You can't go out and buy it.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this.
Isn't going to make us go and buy a drill.
Yeah, it also gets us furious. And everyone goes for the green
pepper. Who's leaving the pepperoni?
Everyone's leaving the pepperoni.
It's the wrong site to go for. Yeah.
And the concept designer responsible for lots of the
future tech was Edward 8th. He created the pizza hydrator by
taking a normal countertop oven and making it look more playful.
He also designed a dozen variations of risk communicators
and there they said in many ways I've predicted smartwatches of
today. And he also designed the
futuristic Texaco petrol stations.
And he told Smecas the McFly home should have a giant
aquarium where he could harvest real fish.
But Smecas said no as he thought it was too lavish for a middle
class family. Yeah, the hydrator cooks the
pizza in about 3 seconds. Yeah, it's all one shot.
As well as how they did that was Leah Thompson put the tiny pizza
in the hydrator, closed the door and the huge pizza was a touch
of the ceiling and that was then released and dropped down.
So when she opened the door again, there it is, just really
simple, but it works. Yeah.
Yeah, it does. Yeah.
So while film in the kitchen scene where the McFly family are
eaten, fruit please. Incredible that you have the
fruit, please absolutely practice.
Just when that comes down. There's too much fruit, too much
fruit for anyone. Absolute SAP body junior isn't.
He he's awful. Yeah.
Phone. It's needles.
It's really an earthquake actually struck California at
that time. The cast and crew all felt the
rumble and carried on. And when Zemeckis watched the
footage back, you realized you couldn't tell as none of the
props moved. So that's the actual take in the
film. Wow.
Yeah, the sound stage, you're being locked off and everything
was kind of glued in place for reasons to do with some effects
magic, which we'll talk about. But the earthquake is really
noticeable on the set, apparently.
But you can't tell in the film because everything kind of moves
together. Right, right.
Imagine the whole table just like a split apart.
Just leave that in, the bigger pizza comes out.
One of the two police officers who bring Jennifer home after
the Finder unconscious are Officer Foley and Officer Reese.
Foley is played by Stephanie Williams, who became known for
TV roles later on, and Reese is played by Mary Ellen Traynor,
who was Roberts Max's wife at the time.
Yeah, she's not just off Mary Ellen Traynor, The Goonies,
Lethal Weapon, Die Hard. In 1989.
She was like the sequel queen. She was in Back of the Future
Part 2 and also Lethal Weapon 2 and Ghostbusters 20.
Wow. So from that moment, we've got
needles when they find out the phones ring and then the kids
have just got the glasses on. It's just the equivalent of them
sat on the phones at the table now.
Yeah, Yeah, just you've got a message started.
So right, I'll go through. So then he has to take the call
and just how quickly he falls for being called a chicken just
starts to piss me off every time.
It's not that bad to be called. Are you chicken?
Yeah, I'm actually fuck off. And the job's more important.
I mean, financial security. And yes, I'm a little bit scared
of things. It's absolutely fine to admit
now, but I think back in the 80s it was masculinity.
And if you're scared of something, I mean, that's just
his stick, isn't it? But I think they just use that
as this ace up the sleeve. And I just don't think it's as
big of a card as they think it is when they're playing it.
And then there's that booming. Not Fry.
Hilarious. That outrageous?
What a reaction. And it's just, but what I
noticed about this, can you? I was talking about this scene
when you watch Needles go to hang the phone up.
He kind of looks to the corner and smiles as if they're in the
same room. Oh.
Yeah, right. Completely setting Marty up.
So you guys, I'll see you there. And maybe there was more of this
scene. Maybe, yeah.
But that like, read my Facts is just absolutely brilliant.
And it just comes out of every single fax machine that they've
got, all of the different places.
But the video call, it's all just teams, isn't it?
And they've absolutely nailed that.
And I love all the little details when it comes up with
like what the favorite food is and what they don't like.
And it's like doesn't like sushi and fish, loves beer, Scotch,
just all these little moments that come in.
I think that was so really well done.
Look. This at yours on that West of
the end. Mine so, but actually I don't
know. It's a great scene, but slightly
pointless, all of it. It is a bit, Yeah, this nice
little satire there through those huge video screens, I
think as Martin Junior watches like 6 TV channels at once.
Yeah. So kids concentration levels are
a rock bottom, it looks like. Yeah.
And the TV's got like a screensaver that cycles through
classic art like Van Gogh. And that's something the TV's do
now. Yeah, it is.
Yeah, like a fireplace and stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like Marty's boss, though.
Ito T Fujitsu, played by James Ashida.
He's crazy hilarious. And Martin, he's all desperate.
Like, no, it was a sting. I was setting him up.
I'm fired. I can't be fired.
You're 2 ties from Audi as well. Yeah, exactly.
I love that. I would not do anything to piss
that guy off. I'm sorry.
Oh, definitely. No, it's terrifying, Westy.
What, not what what? So as we touched on there, Flea
plays Needles and it's more well known as the bassist in the Red
Hot Chili Peppers and the band was touring at the time and Flee
had to fly in to shoot his scenes and had only slept for
two hours the night before. He said he didn't watch the
films for years after they were released and since called Part
2A. Multi million dollar piece of
trash. Wow, surely 2 hours sleep's good
going when you're in the Chili Peppers though, wasn't?
It at the time, yeah. Late 80s, yeah.
Peak Chili Peppers. He also said that in the rush to
get to the set, he lost a jumper, especially given to him
by his grandma. Right.
Well, no wonder he's upset. Yeah.
Two hours sleep and you lose your jumper.
Happens to the best of all here. Yeah.
And a TV special called The
Secrets of the Back to the Future trilogy was released to
promote the trilogy in 1990. And short some scenes cut from
the Part 22015 sequence. One was Marty coming across a
destroyed Hill Valley High School and another was after
Biff returns to 2015 in the De Lorean, he starts to fade from
existence and then vanishes. But that was caught when test
audiences didn't understand it. But we do still see part of that
scene with Biff Semen to be in pain when he gets out of the
car. I always wondered why he was
doing that. Yeah, yeah, but this whole
Hildale sequence is therefore basically one major plot point,
which is old Biff stealing the De Lorean.
Yeah, I mean, that's a good idea, but I think most people
know there's a huge plot hole there as well, isn't there?
Yeah, because Biff goes back to 1955, driving changes the
timeline, as we'll find out. But when he returns to 2015, he
doesn't travel into the new timeline.
He comes back to the one that we're already in.
And the time travel rules of the whole series tell us that that's
not how it works. Because in the first film and
Marty goes back to 1985, his family have changed.
Yeah, when they go back to 1985, like everything's changed, I
guess that scene was there. Try and cover that.
But even then it's not following the rules still.
Not really. Should he have like transformed
halfway then and just come back as Rich Biff?
When he traveled back in 2015, she traveled into the 2015 where
Biff has changed the world. What exactly?
So he would come back as Rich Biff.
I guess he would come back as himself.
Yeah, right. OK.
I think I may have been better than coming back, seeing what
he's done and regretting it. But I don't think Biff's that
kind of character. Is he NO0?
Death to this guy? I mean, I know it's not primer,
but that does bother me a bit. Like pothole.
Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah.
And that's that on 2015, Marty saves his kids, Jennifer has the
strangest afternoon of her life, and somewhere in 1955, the
timeline's been messed with. It's all a bit mad, so we should
probably get into the director to see what he was thinking.
Yeah, yes, please. The director.
The director of Back to the Future Part 2 back from the
original was Robert Zemeckis. This was his sixth feature film
after I Want to Hold Your Hand, Used Cars, Romancing the Stone,
Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
He was hot stuff in Hollywood at this point, wasn't he, Matt?
Yes, he really was. How would Roberts Omega do
directing Back to the Future Part 2?
I mean, the thing about him for me is I can't think of one of
the big name director who's got such a great streak of early
films, but like the latter half of his career I just find so
forgettable. Like I can't remember the last
time I saw at the cinema or the last of his recent films that
I've watched more than once. And I think the reason for that
is he became obsessed with story gimmicks in challenges, with
special effects, rather than telling a great story with
emotion in wit and characters, which is what he used to be
great at. And I think that relates to he,
because this feels like it's almost like the halfway point
for him here. There's a lot of very clever
technical work going on, particularly in the latter 3rd
when you've got characters interacting with past selves and
past timelines and you can see that's the stuff that's really
got him excited. But I do think that comes at the
expense of the story beats. I mean, it's an incredibly high
bar to live up to, obviously, but you just think of the iconic
moments from the first knocking Biff out, the kiss, Johnny B
Goode. No scene here has that level of
emotion or humour, No, but I also think he's got one eye on
Part 3, which is more satisfying on those terms.
There's more human, there's more heart in that is using this part
to get us there while giving himself something to challenge
himself, which is all the technical stuff.
And I think that's the balance that he has here.
As a trilogy, he's telling a great story across it, but in
this particular one, that story isn't finished yet.
So this one feels like he's a smart excited about the effects
work and the challenges and the gimmicks than anything else.
Yeah, I find Robert Zemeckis a slightly strange one as a
director because it always kind of surprises me that he isn't
more of a household name because he's got, like, Romancing the
Stone, Back to the Future, Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump coming up,
massive hits like Oscar winners. And most people probably don't
know who he is. Yeah.
Never really comes up in conversations with great
directors. I know he's maybe not as
consistent as the biggest names, but he's got the big hitters, I
think. Yeah.
And here on Part 2, I think what I probably find most impressive
is just the scale of what he had to pull off, because Part 2 and
Part three were made at the same time, basically, which we'll
talk about, but he'll be sleeping a few hours a night,
flying back and forth between locations.
And Part 2 does have a blip or two here or there like we've
been talking about, but I think that's mostly in the writing.
As director, I think it does feel like he's in control and
got a hold for the most part on this huge production.
And what I always think about Zemeckis is that like, it's Paul
Spielberg. He's not necessarily a big
artistic director. I think of him as a storytelling
director. And of that, I think he is one
of the best. He uses all the technical
wizardry that's there. He does it here as well, but
it's at this point not usually for the sake of it.
It is usually in service of the story, like Jennifer coming face
to face with herself. Like we talked about.
There's some serious effects work in that shot, but I never
think about it. I'm just kind of in the moment.
And I think that understanding of just good old fashioned
storytelling is one of the things that separates your
Spielberg's from your Michael Bays and Zemeckis.
For me, it's definitely on the Spielberg end of that spectrum.
You'll see that I think mostly in Part 2.
And that's no bad thing. Yeah, I mean, I've thought about
this and it's like really hard to pinpoint a Zemeckis film.
What is a Robert Zemeckis film, then?
What is it at its core? I'm just imagine sitting.
I would have played with someone just going, who's your favorite
director? And they go Robert Zemeckis and
I'll go. So what do you like exactly
then? Because he's done everything
like across the board. I don't know.
I kind of put my finger on it. I know what I mean, yeah.
But I think what he does have is a lot of rules, and I think he's
a very consistent director and I think he has a lot of control
over set pieces. I think he can really direct set
pieces without you knowing that's necessarily over
directed. He definitely doesn't over
direct and these films are really enjoyable, but I don't
know what his motivation is. I don't know where he gets the
energy to do pull or express, but I think in this film he does
have a lot of rules. He does have a lot of control.
It shows how considerate he is as a director, but also how much
he pushes the boundaries. I think every film that he's
done has pushed stuff just a little bit further than it
should need to go, which is great.
Yeah, so the first Back to the Future film that had been the
highest grossing film of 1985 in Universal obviously wanted a
sequel as soon as possible. So Mechas and GAIL weren't keen
at first as they thought sequels.
We usually just retreads of the first film.
But things changed when the studio delivered an old maiden,
which was head of Universal, said Sheinberg, telling them a
sequel was going to be made with or without them.
So Megan said that didn't like sequels because they were
retread of the original. Amazing.
They still made it as close to that blueprint as possible.
Yeah, well, as Megan Gill's original contract with Universal
and Amblin gave the Lords of Creative Control, Yeah, but
Universal had distribution rights and obviously the
finances to go ahead and take it to court if they had to.
So as Megan Gill didn't have a massive choice really.
Yeah, yeah. That's why they said they'll
never do a remake and they're never going to do another
sequel. Like it's it's never, ever going
to happen. Yeah, yeah.
Which is fair enough. So they struck a deal instead,
they said we'll do a sequel on the following basis.
We need to have deals in place for Michael J Fox and
Christopher Lloyd. As long as those guys assigned,
we'll figure out a sequel. Nice it.
Would have been pretty terrible if J Fox hadn't came back,
wouldn't it? Yeah, list the garage door open.
It's Eric Stalls. Back the stalls, tail between
his legs, wasn't Mecca's. Yeah, I'll sort that out.
That's exactly what I would tell this fucking asshole right now.
So once the Meccas and Gale started coming up with ideas
they had told Universal that actually wanted to make a
trilogy. Universal greenlit a budget of
$40 million for Part 2, more than twice the budget of the
original and another 40 million for Part 3.
There's an overall production cost obviously, doesn't it?
But signing off 2 sequels back-to-back, that was pretty
much unprecedented in Hollywood at the time.
So new ground for the likes of Lord of the Rings later on and
apparently one of the inspirations for this shooting.
The second and third films back-to-back with 20th Country
Fox. They produced The Three
Musketeers in 1973 and when there were production problems
it ended up being split into two films and The Four Musketeers
came out in 1974. Universal were keen to avoid
similar issues which is why they agreeing that 2 sequels at the
same time. Right.
Yeah, so one of the issues on The Three Musketeers that the
cast had only been paid for one film.
So when I was split into two, they went to the Screen Actors,
GAIL, and demanded to be paid for two films, Right.
And I mean, the cast was like Oliver Reed and Raquel Welsh.
They've done away Charlton Heston.
So not cheap, no. Exactly, they put the trailer on
the end of the third one as well, didn't they?
Which influenced this? That's right, yeah.
Right. Yeah nice.
The production for Part 2 and Part 3 lasted 11 months and pre
production took two years to build the sets and write the
script. Part 2 was being edited while
Part 3 was being filmed and Zemeckis was overseeing both.
During the final three weeks he barely slept.
Every day he would finish filming Part 3 in Northern
California, then get on a plane to LA where post production on
Part 2 was taking place, and then he get another plane at
4:30 AM to be back on the set in time for Part 3 shooting.
Mean. I'm exhausted just hearing that.
That's crazy. And Fleas got a big moan.
Velocity jumper. If you want the dream job of
being a Hollywood director, they'll make you work for it
because you're. Absolutely, yeah.
The costume designer on the first film had been Deborah Lynn
Scott, but Smecker's replacing for the sequels with Joanna
Johnston after he worked with her on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
She had to design for various time periods, but she said the
most difficult was the 2015 sequence.
Yeah, she said she was terrified of the prospect of designing the
clothing of the future, which makes sense.
I mean, during 1955 or like the Wild West.
You've got photographs of the reference or Clint Eastwood
films in this case, yeah. And Johnson then said her
creative philosophy for the 2015 wardrobe was that men and women
would be equal in society, which is where the idea for Mardi's
Nike Mag power lacing tubes came from.
They were designed by Tinker Hatfield, who were designed the
Nike Air Max. Yeah, when Molly puts them on,
they, like, lace themselves. How cool was that?
The first thing you saw isn't. Yeah, But the way they did that
was actually really simple because the triad was stuck to,
like, a fake floor. And when J Fox put them on and
there was a crew member below the fake floor, we just pulled
the laces tight and then turned on the, like, logo lights.
Same thing with when the jacket resizes.
Crew members just out a shot pulling on cables, and then
that's some sound effects imposed in it.
Yeah, it all works. Maybe magic?
And there was some other interesting details in the
costumes. The shirt that Doc wears for
most of the film has a design with horses and trains, and this
foreshadows the climax of Part 3, where Marty returned to 1985
by fitting a De Lorean to a locomotion.
Yeah, you had a family doing 2 films at the same time, I think.
Tell you what outfits outrageous though.
Marty's inconspicuous get up in 1955 shades and leather jackets.
Yeah. Sticks on like a sort though.
Could look more sis if he tried. Looks like Kinicky.
The production designer on the first film was Lawrence J Paul,
but Zemeckis replaced him for the sequels with Rick Carter.
He'd worked with Steven Spielberg on The Goonies and the
TV anthology series Amazing Stories, and Spielberg
recommended him to Zemeckis. He also said the biggest
challenge was creating the sets for the 2015 Hill Valley on the
first film. The Hill Valley set was created
on the Universal back lot and ended up being damaged.
So for Part 2 they had to clean the setup and restore it all.
They've done so much damage first time around, it cost more
to rebuild it than to build it in the first place.
I think a lot of the cost would dig out the 60 foot by 80 foot
square for the lake and then they filled it with 80,000
gallons of water. For one hoverboard not working.
Exactly, Yeah. To nearly kill someone.
A nice little touch as well with the ledge on the clock tower.
The dock broke in the first film where he nearly falls off it.
That's still broken in 2015. All right, I've noticed that.
No Oscar nominations was a Mecca for best director.
No best pitcher nominations either.
What a huge surprise. Maybe.
No. For us though, in the vision,
the logistical achievement and the managing various looks,
feels and tones. Some good blockbuster sequel
making from Robert Zemeckis here.
Very much. Yeah, he's ticking the boxes
he's made in the studio, happy and the audience.
I think that's all he can do with the sequel, yeah.
The cast. Robert Zemeckis was working with
a returning cast he knew Untrusted.
We've talked about Elizabeth Shoe stepping in with Jennifer
already, and it will be getting into Tom Wilson, Leah Thompson
and Christopher Lloyd shortly, as well as telling a very
contentious tale about a previous cast member.
But we start with the man carrying the whole thing.
We do so Michael J Fox is back as Marty McFly, the time
travelling Hill Valley teenager. We see Marty drag to the future,
then an alternate present, then the past chasing down that damn
sports Almanac. As if that wasn't enough, J Fox
also plays Marty's son and Marty's daughter, as well as an
older and slightly younger version of Marty. 5 rolls
Westie? Yep. 5 for the price of one,
yes. What do you make of MJF as Emma
Mccaff? I think he's fully dedicated in
this film and he's having a great time, which makes us have
a great time. I think he's totally underrated
for the star quality that he brought, especially at this
time. He was just such a presence on
the screen and he just sold everything because he just felt
so relatable. I felt like I was Marty McFly,
like he was my age. He's a slacker.
It's great. It was just that kind of early
Bart Simpson, I think, kind of impression that had on people.
And I think J Fox just plays that beautifully.
And like we said, he's great as Marty Junior.
I think he's absolutely fantastic.
When he goes into Cafe 80s, he's just transformed.
Just totally different. He's just his whole body
language is different. He's to me, and that's
different. His voice is different and he
has great physical comedy, especially in this film.
Some amazing moments when him and Strickland are on the porch
and he's just pointing the gun down.
He said no, no, no, no. I'm from school.
That's right. That's.
Really funny. He understands where the camera
is, he understands what an action film is, he understands
Back to the Future, he understands the world and he's
just playing it with just absolute relish and he's loving
it. And because he loves it, we love
it just as much. Yeah, I love Michael J Fox.
Yeah, he's amazing. For as long as I can remember.
I mean, my love from basically comes entirely from Back to the
Future with a dash of Teen Wolf as well to.
Be a Teen Wolf, I would say it has to be in there.
I think it's easy to overlook just how much he's doing
technically 5 roles like we said, but obviously it's the
present teenage Marty. He's playing for like 90% of the
film or something. But I think pretty impressive is
that even the size and the different roles in some ways
this is a harder film for J Fox in the first one because in Back
in the Future, Marty just kind of cool teenager out of his
depth like a fish out of water. But he's funny.
He's playing the guitar, he's skateboarding, he's likable.
And the plot's pretty straightforward.
Get your parents together, get back to 1985.
Here the plot is total chaos. He's in 2015, then he's in
Pottersville. I mean 1985 a dog causes.
Then back in 1955, try not to bump into himself at three
different like worlds really. And like we said, there was some
total shifts between them and J Fox has got to be the kind of
anchor through all of it. The 1985 5A stuff especially.
There's one or two scenes there which do have real dramatic
weight. Yeah, it's probably the dark, as
the whole trilogy goes. And JFR, great comedy guy.
We know he proves he does have those more dramatic chops when
he needs them as well. Yeah, but what he's best at is
the comedy. I think he's one of the best
comic actors I've seen. His line delivery is always
superb. But the bits I laugh at most are
almost always his reactions. Yeah.
Like in Cafe 80s, that bit when he punches Griff and Griff,
like, kind of grows in front of him like a robot.
We can just see Marty's eyes sticking over Griff's shoulder.
And J Fox does this thing with his eyebrows, which I always
laugh at. So yeah, multiple roles.
But if the main teenage Marty doesn't work, none of it works.
Yeah, exactly. And Michael J Fox makes it work
easily. He's just great to me.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, always great as
Marty. I mean, he does make it seem
like this film follows straight on from the last one without any
gap, even with the slight difference in the hair.
I mean, he's certainly just seen four years older, so he bridges
the two films really nicely as he's seen, though it is a bit
more manic, this film from Marty.
He kind of gets flung from pillow to post a bit, so he
doesn't quite get the great character moments like he does
in the first one, like building the relationship with George,
etcetera. There's none of that.
This one, he's just much more reactive to stuff because that
narrative goes all over the place, but he keeps you engaged
constantly. You want to follow him
throughout this. And obviously, like a lot of the
actors see, you're playing multiple roles.
And I think Puff Marlene, which I mentioned, I think he does
them all really well. I do think though, and again,
we've mentioned this, this character note of getting really
angry if someone calls him chicken.
That's just bizarre. Just seems to come out of
nowhere. And it just seems like a
convenient way to get him into fights and arguments.
But Puff Matlow, he's Marty McFly, so he just can't go wrong
with him. Yeah, absolutely.
God. As we mentioned, one of the
Maxis conditions for making the sequel was that Michael J Fox
returned as Marty, so him coming back was never in doubt.
Fox wanted to do it, but the stumbling block was the salary.
So for about the future he was paid 250 grand, and for the
sequels he was reportedly paid 5 million for Part 2 and another 5
million for Part 3. Wow.
No wonder he's enjoyed himself. 5 for the price of 10, yeah.
A million a character. Exactly.
I mean, the difference was he wasn't just ATV actor from
Family Ties anymore. He was now a movie star, wasn't
he? And he had leverage to negotiate
because the makers had basically said he wouldn't do it without
him. Yeah.
Production or wasn't easy for Fox.
The final season of Family Ties was filming at the same time as
Part 2, so his shooting schedule for the first few months was
filming Family Ties during the day and Part 2 at night, meaning
he was living on a couple of hours sleep at night.
He went through the same thing on the first film, didn't he?
He did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's interesting because J Fox said that he wasn't
contacted by the studio about the sequel.
He only found out there was going to be 1 when the VHS tape
to the first film start coming out with To be continued at the
end. All right, right.
So he got straight into the aging to find out what was going
on, right? Tell him I won five for the
price of 10. And there were also some family
events he had to deal with. Sadly, during filming, Fox's
father passed away and Fox said he's actually taken some of his
dad's mannerisms while playing middle-aged Marty.
And also during filming, Fox's wife Tracy Pollan, she gave
birth to their first son, Sam. Yeah, she was also in Family
Ties. Crazy pollen.
Yes. And there's another little
personal touch. J Fox ads as well.
He's a vegetarian, pretty famously so.
The part where Marty Junior picks the pepperoni off the
pizza that came from Michael J. Fox.
Nice. Nice.
Good. Just had the green pepper one.
Yeah. Everyone couldn't reach, could
he? I don't know this is a fact, but
I'm pretty sure one of their moments from his dad would have
been when he comes in the house and he's like hello, hello.
Dad's home. Dad's home.
That's such a dad thing to do, to say hello twice.
Hello. Hello.
No major award for Michael J Fox for his work here or anywhere
else Is Marty McFly no. For us, though, we love Michael
J Fox and what he brings is possibly rarer than Oscar win.
Yes. Oh yeah.
There should be some kind of special award for this kind of
performance. The Michael J Fox Everyone Loves
Them Award. Yeah, exactly.
The role model without necessarily being a role model
award. Like Michael J Fox, Thomas F
Wilson is back for the sequel He plays psychotic future boy
grief, but his main role is Biff Tanner, the antagonist of the
piece. We see old biff steeler DeLorean
young biff receive and failed to keep the sport dominac and
middle-aged biff after he's turned hill valley into his
pleasure paradise. Yeah, Still, though he hates
Munir OST, he does house Tom Wilson as the various bad guys
I. Mean Tom Wilson is just the bad
guy of this world, isn't he? He's just unrelentingly bastard.
You don't realize it because you think he's just pulling up to
the three guys. He's with her, he's playing up
the Lorraine or he's just playing up.
But when my he's trailing him and he just picks that ball up
off the kids. Go get it.
And there's nobody.
He's not trying to impress anybody, but he's just doing it
to be an asshole. And then he walks above the
street and knocks the kids cup off for no reason whatsoever.
This is an absolute piece of shit, but he plays it with so
much relish. And the thing I get from these
performances from Thomas F Wilson, he's like, I think he's
just sat before all the filming started, he looked at the
contract he's got and just went, this is going to be me because
I'm going to be so typecast doing this character.
I don't think I'm going to get any other options to be able to
do anything different. So I'm just going to absolutely
dive into this. He is really good and really
incredible, but I just can't see him having much more range and
being cast in anything else because he just owns this
character so passionately. But the thing I love about Biff
and Griff and all the characters that he plays is that there's no
explanation of why he is the way he is.
There's no back story. He's just straight down the line
bully. But The thing is, he doesn't
make it into a stereotype. I think Thomas Health doesn't
plays him with this real kind of originality.
I feel there's not a bad guy like Biff or Griff.
Like he's even. Griff's totally different.
He's just a step up from Biff, but he does it so well and like
I say it, he's just the bad guy and he knows his place.
He's not asking for anything else.
He's just going to play it to the absolute best he can.
I think he plays him really, really well.
It's just a real shame that he played him so good, he couldn't
really get anything else. Yeah, I think Biff is just
fantastic. He's so.
Funny. In the first film, he's like
you, classic school bully. He pushes George McFly around,
kicks him in the pants, tries on with Lorraine and gets what's
coming to him, as bullies do in films anyway.
And he's great. But here they do develop them
because old Biff in 2015, he's like smart enough to figure out
what's going on in rewrite history. 17 year old Biff, We'll
see that he might not have a happy home life with his
grandma. That's a nice little character
detail, I think. And his grandma, Gertrude
Hannon, we don't see her, but that's Tom Wilson doing her
voice voice as well. All right, Jason.
But as the antagonist, Biff goes from being a problem in the
first film to kind of the problem here.
He's the guy that Marty now has to beat.
I think all that elevates him massively as a villain.
Yeah, I think Biff's a much better bad guy than he gets
credit for. And I also think Tom Wilson
doesn't get the credit he deserves either, because I think
he's superb playing three versions of Biff.
He just played each version slightly differently, but I
totally buy each version as being the same character.
Yeah, I think middle-aged Biff, especially in 1985 A, he's
brilliant. Yeah, because Biff till now has
always been slightly cartoonish. I mean, Griff is very
cartoonish, but 1985 A, Biff is just horrible.
He's arrogant and aggressive. He's obnoxious.
He's violent with Lorraine. He's a murderer.
Yeah, he totally is. That bit when he's like, take a
seat, sit down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's about as much patience as he's got.
Yeah, yeah, Oliver, when he says to McFly as with the same gun,
great. You did it better than that,
obviously. Obviously.
But it's not funny anymore. I think that's a big ask of Tom
Wilson, who's a comedy actor mainly, but he shows as well
that he's got the chops. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And also what I like is that you can tell Tom Wilson is having
the time of his life in this film.
He's loving it. Yeah.
And rightly. Great bad guy, great
performance. To me, more credit to beef
talent than Tom Wilson, please. Yeah.
Two, right? Yeah.
I mean, I'll look this now just
kind of runner rank these performances from top to bottom.
I mean, top is obviously still 50s Biff because he's just got
that real dramatic weight remove.
Like this guy's a genuinely nasty piece of work.
He's not like like a team novel bully this guy.
You believe he will run Marty off and kill him at the end.
Yeah, you're doing the best with this guy.
I think second, that's the old Biff because he doesn't have
that threatening physicality anymore.
But you can see he's got instead this can I even streak instead?
And he's sharper, definitely sharper, the young Biff.
And he's developed that instead, which makes him just as
dangerous. When he's hitting money and
creating, yeah, it's just like, hello.
Festival is king. Just hit people I'm mad with,
yeah. Yeah, I can't make a fist
himself to. To love that I think 8 is
ultimate 80s Biff, I mean a horrible piece of work and you
can see how out of control as Eagle has got now.
And I absolutely believe at that point Biff would have murdered
George because he knows he can get away with it and he will do
anything that he wants. I think Glass is definitely
great for me and it's very scenery tuning, it's very OTT,
it is quite annoying to be honest.
So performances not all quite on the same level, but overall he's
great and as you've been saying, a really underrated bad guy.
Yeah. Yeah, I think he must have been
underweight. Yeah, in. 1985 A Biff is like,
it's proof that he's intelligent when he's got sadism involved
and he's got a reason to be intelligent.
Yeah, it's a really good motivation for the character and
really well done. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's really
good. Tom Wilson was always issuing to
play Biff, though he was lowest paid of the original cast
members, he was apparently paid 350,000.
Lee Thompson got 650,000. Wilson said that Bob Gale
briefed him for the role of 1985 a biff by giving him photos and
stories of the American tycoon Martin Davies and said look at
Davies eyes there were like a great white shark.
And GAIL had also said he took inspiration from Donald Trump,
which, yeah, it's obvious now. Yeah, he was AUS oil magnate
Barton Davis. You won 20th Century Fox at one
point as well. Oh, really?
Right. Yeah, and the Trump thing.
Yeah, you can see it. Yeah, it's the same painting
behind him, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And 1985 a Lorraine. Her look was apparently based on
Tammy Fame Messner, the TV American evangelist from the
80s. You can see that as well once
you know. OK, right.
But playing three versions of Biff and Griff was more
challenging for Tom Wilson than the first film.
He wears prosthetics to play middle-aged and old Biff, and
Wilson said it took six hours for the make up artist, Ken
Chase to turn them into both of them.
They would start at 3:00 AM to be ready in time for the days
filming. And on days when there were
shooting scenes that had multiple versions of Biff in the
same scene, Wilson would shoot the scenes as the older
character first, spend 90 minutes having make up removed,
then go back to the set to perform the scene again as the
younger character. Yes, like when Old Biff gives
Young Biff the Almanac, or when Old Biff talks to Griff and Cafe
80s them. Seems that's a crazy schedule
though, yeah? Oh yeah.
Insane. Yeah.
No major award for Tom Wilson, but according there was some
performance Oscar for me. Yeah, yeah, why not?
Amazing everything you need from the talent family tree and a
very good bad guy. Great.
We've talked about Michael J Fox and Thomas F Wilson, but they
are some of their face is worth discussing before we move on.
Yep, Christopher Lloyd returns as Doc Brown, the man who
started all the time travel shenanigans, and Leah Thompson
is back as Lorraine Baines slash McFly slash Tannen Marty's
mother, who appears in all timelines in different
incarnations. So I see how important are they
to the film. I'll go for Christopher Lloyd
first of all. I think he's just absolutely
fantastic. He just owns the character, like
we've said about the other actors in the film, but he
really does add this depth, this scientific depth, and then this
moral compass. And he's like battling them both
as like what's right morally to do or what's right and going to
be proven scientifically. And it's always his moral
compass that wins over science. It's always Marty's in trouble.
Let's be honest. He's soon getting arrested.
He probably deserved. He's a fucking idiot.
He is an idiot. Why bother going back and seeing
something's got to be good about your kids like everyone else is
all right, I. Don't like his multi coloured
cap either. No.
Well, there you go. Let's get it all out.
Let's get all on the table. But I think Lloyd just totally
sells that. He can tell he cares.
Him and Jay Fox were just very, very close.
Still on now. It's always so lovely to see
them together. But they'll have such a
chemistry, and I'll see it from the end of this film.
When he turns around, he looks and he goes.
There's only one man who can help me now.
You know that he means it. It gets me.
Like he's a good punch every single time.
He just brings just such a warmth to the screen, and he
always has. Absolutely love him as Doc.
Yeah, as a character, Doc's kind of a plot device as much as
anything, because he's the means by which Marty travels through
time in the 1st place, then at the end, his vanishing sets of
Molly's rescue mission in the third film.
But Lloyd's experienced enough and good enough to make the part
more than that, and often through humour.
I love it at the start in 2015, when Doc takes off his like,
aging master of his actual face. He looks no different.
How do I look? You look great doc.
Replaced his spleen as well his call on.
But yeah, Lloyd brings a warmth in the film.
There's a warmth in Doc and Marty's relationship.
Lloyd and Fox have far better chemistry than you could expect
them to throw them together. Yeah, that's fair in the whole
trilogy and it's a key part here as.
Well, oh, absolutely, yeah. I'll talk about Leah Thompson
because I feel a little bit sorry for her because I think
she's the one who gets underserved.
Yeah, with the script here, to be honest, in the writing and
the multiple roles as original, Lorraine, just an absolute
sweetheart. But you just don't get to see
enough of her and she has nothing to do, you know?
And then alternate 80s Lorraine, I mean, it's all a bit grim and
horrible, which is obviously the point and she can only play
that. But it is still quite depressing
to see that character being reduced to that by Biff.
But then when you see you're playing like old Lorraine, it's
like, has Leah Thompson ever seen an old person before in
real life? Because she just does this like
weird shuffling and squeaky voice, which again, I mean, that
old sequence, like I've said, I don't really like it takes me
out of it. So yeah, unfortunately it's just
a mix baggy for her in terms of what she delivers because the
script doesn't really give her anything meaningful to do.
Yeah, she doesn't play his pivotal, the part in the plot
here. She doesn't.
The first film, obviously. I still like the character
though. I like Leah Thompson.
I love it, yeah. I think 1985 year Lorraine's
maybe the most memorable because obviously she's not happy with
like, the monster that is Bitch. Yeah, she's an alcoholic, She's
being abused. It's pretty awful stuff.
I think Thompson's really good with it because she doesn't shy
away from it. She gives it some weight.
Yeah, but a bit like Tom Wilson, Leah Thompson's playing multiple
roles and they're all very different.
The difference with her is she must only have about maybe 15
minutes of screen time to do it in, so that's not easy,
especially when Lorraine's on driving the plot.
But I think every scene she's in, she elevates.
I like Leah Thompson and Lorraine a lot.
Absolutely. I think 1985 a Lorraine is very,
very similar and reminds me of the original Lorraine from the
start of the first part of the. Yeah, and just that really
downtrodden and like a little lost puppy.
What Lorraine, What amazing. And just, you know, Joey's still
going to prison. I don't help Joey for a change.
Yeah, he. Definitely needs help.
Yeah, you've. Been in jail about 30 years.
Must be a mass murderer. Actually don't help this guy.
Lee Thompson plays Lorraine across multiple timelines, as
we've discussed, and there was a problem with the 1955 version
because the sequence at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance
involved shooting scenes from the first film from a different
angle, they needed to use the same costumes for continuity,
but the dress Lorraine wore at the dance couldn't be found
anywhere. Lee Thompson late I admit to
Zemeckis that she'd taken one of them home first time around to
keep. So she went home and had to get
it and wore it for the film, tail between her legs.
Still that I keep it, thankfully.
Yeah. Brilliant.
And Leah Thompson said that she took us keepsake from this film
as well. Lorraine's fake breast implant
from 1985. Yeah.
But I think that was more because it was based on a mold
of her own chest, so she didn't want anyone else getting them,
which is fair enough. Yeah, that is fair enough.
Understandable. Now there is another story
relating to the cast of Back to the Future Part 2 that you can't
not talk about when telling the story of this film, isn't there?
Here we go. Yeah.
That revolves around Crispin Glover.
He played George McFly in the first film, a big role, but did
not return this time around, although the character does kind
of. Yeah.
Matt, you're going to regale us
with what happened, I believe. I am so the first film because
it hadn't been written with a sequel in mind.
None of the cast members were tied to sequel contracts, so for
Part 2, it's Meccas and Universal.
They struck deals with all of the original cast members apart
from Crisp and Glover, and Glover has said the problem was
the offer. He was offered $125,000 to
return as George, which was less than half what every other cast
member was offered. Yes.
So depending on who you listen to, the story is very different.
Glover says the offer was insulting.
Bob Gale says that Glover's wage demands were pretty much the
same as Michael J Fox's, and he wanted final script approval as
well. So very different accounts.
Wow, final. Script approval.
And Glover also said the reason he was low balled was personal.
On the first film, Glover had questioned the ending to
Zemeckis. He said that Marty ended up
getting the truck he wanted and the Mcclice, being better off
financially, made money the reward when it should be about
love. Yeah, I think we were problems
throughout the first film. I've heard Zemecki see the
Glover was like a wild card and his performance had to be reined
in constantly. It sounds like maybe he wasn't
that keen on working with him again.
But though, well, if he comes back for less than everyone
else, maybe it's worth it. Yeah, fair enough.
Yeah. I wonder if he would have got
any more screen time, because that sounds about right for the
amount of screen time we'll see the character have in the
finished film. Exactly.
Yeah. So yeah, with no George for Part
2, Zemeckas and GAIL came up with a few workarounds.
They dug out unused footage of George from the first film and
used it for some cutaways. They wrote him out of 1985 A
entirely by having Biff murder him off screen.
And in the 2015 and 1955 sequences, George is kept in the
background and played by an actor called Jeffrey Weissman,
wearing prosthetics to make him look more like lover.
Yes, to keep him in the background.
Or in 2015, he's upside down in that hovering medical device to
help his back. That'll do it.
The Ortholev it's called. I could have one of those.
Too, right? Like Matt just said there.
Jeffrey Weissman replaced Glover as George, but later said he
didn't have a nice time on set. He said that when Michael J Fox
first saw him in the George McFly makeup, he said Chrisman
ain't going to like this. And when Leah Thompson's mother
visited the set, Thompson introduced Weissman to her
straight away, as this is the guy playing Crispin.
Yeah, Oh, what a kicker. I mean, it's not his fault
that's not really on, is it? Nah, but Jeffrey Weissman did
say that the other cast members later apologized to him and he
seems to attend cast reunions and stuff now.
So right. Water under the bridge, I think.
Fair 1. So Glover then took issues with
the universal's actions. Understandably, he wasn't happy
with him using footage of him without pain.
And when he found out Jeffrey Weissman prosthetics had been
made from molds of Glover's face, he filed A lawsuit against
the producers of the film on the grounds that they neither owned
his likeness nor had permission to use it.
Yeah, those prosthetics were based on the mold that had been
created to turn Glover into middle age George.
The start and the end of the first film smashing through that
ball of peanut brittle. Yeah, greasy hair.
You don't need those anxieties and headaches.
But Glover ended up dropping the lawsuit after the case was
settled out of court for $765,000 by Universal.
And because of this lawsuit, the Screen Actors Guild introduced
new rules saying studios cannot use likenesses of actors without
their consent. Fair 1.
Yeah, landmark case in the industry, and I mean with deep
fakes and AI in the years since, those are rules that definitely
had to happen at some .0. God, yeah, definitely.
Apparently, Glover's attorney said to the judge of the time,
things may happen in the future that will make this important.
Wow, he was right. Yeah.
He was. How much did he know?
And then what does Crispin Glover do?
Charlie's Angels. And then Charlie's Angels.
Full Throttle is weird in them films.
Yeah, very. Weird.
Really weird. Well, yeah, Saying that, it does
seem like it's a magazine Glover made-up because in 2007 the
magus didn't animate in motion capture version of Beowulf, if
you remember. Oh yeah, yeah.
In that, Crisp and Glover plays Grendel like a main character,
all right. Right, not fair enough then.
Before ending on the cast, it's time for more input from our,
ERM, patrons. Michael Smith's here and he has
a question on the cast. Hello, Michael.
So Michael asks, if you want to
remake the Back of the Future trilogy today, who were you
casting as Marty and Doc? And in the future version of
Hill Valley, what would replace the hoverboard and the George 19
hologram to make the world feel just as imaginative for today's
audience, right? Michael suggested walk a score
bell for Marty. Oh, nice, right.
Yeah. Yeah, but what do we think,
Wesley? I mean, it's been said before,
but I think the obvious choice is Tom Holland.
Yes, for Marty McFly, I think that would be in there for me.
Definitely on on the hoverboard. He's got the chops to do that.
Then Diaz, Jennifer, obviously. Obviously, yeah.
Basically just the cast of the Odyssey.
Remake it Back of the Future and I would go a little bit further
out there and go for someone with a little bit of comedy
chops, but with that a great amount of style.
So I'll go for Jeff Goldblumer's doc.
Nice. I think that would be really
good. That would be cool to replace
those things of Jaws 19 and hoverboards.
I would say it's probably going to be Avatar 19.
It comes out some kind of blue hologram that fills the street.
And replacing hoverboards would just have to be jet packs.
Lovely. Any style of jet pack.
Why not report whatever, whatever works.
A Mattel jet pack would be great.
Just a little baby version. It doesn't fly over water, yeah.
But yeah, I'd love a jetpack. Yeah, I mean, Tom Holland's a
great show because I'm sure I've seen a deep fake trailer with
someone's used technology to put them in there.
So I would go get Matarazzo who is Dustin from Stranger Things.
All right. Oh nice.
Because I think out of all the kids in that series, I think he
had the most natural kind of charm and likeability.
And I think you get quite a different Marty with him.
So I think he would work really well.
He was the only actor in that series apart from Steve Get
Stevens, Doc. Great head.
Yeah, great head. And then for Doc Brown, I'd go
for Sam Rock Brown. I think he could bring something
really different to that. I think he could nail.
Yeah, that would be great. He'd be so unhinged.
Really unhinged. Yeah.
And then I thought for replacing hoverbots, I think I would just
take the other fan favorite from this film and upgrade it so
you'd have hover trainers instead.
Nice. And I think replace straws.
I'd replace how with John Wick because I think even in 90 years
old Keanu Reeves will still be kicking ass and.
Yes, you definitely will, yeah. Yeah.
And that's the cast section for Back of the Future Part 2.
Michael J Fox carrying the film as effectively as ever, Tom
Wilson building a family dynasty of villains, and Christopher
Lloyd and Leah Thompson bringing in the kind of warmth good
supporting actors can. Yeah.
Pretty great ensemble cast. It's fantastic.
It's been great, yeah. All the Right movies will be
back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by
listening to this episode. Sponsors thanks for listening to
our sponsors. Now back to the show.
The middle. The second active Back to the
Future Part 2 sees things getting very, very dark in Hill
Valley. We're going to talk Marty and
dark heading back to 1955 and into the events of the first
film. But first, it's 1985 A.
It is. So thanks to Old Biv's trip down
memory lane, Marty and the dark return to an unrecognizable
1985. Yeah, we see beef, pleasure,
paradise, a big Lorraine, a murder, George and our heroes
pissing together. What's gone wrong?
So, Matt, what do you make in 1985, eh?
I mean, this is absolutely horrible.
Horrible for everyone, horrible for us.
Sick. I'll it's really sick evil.
No one's happy here. I mean, this bit with Lorraine,
I mean, obviously riffing on the scene from the first film again,
where unconscious Marty is being looked after by Lorraine.
And I know the whole first film did have that kind of incest
subtext to it, and that was handled very carefully.
But I'm watching the scene and I just want Marty to stop being
obsessed with his mother's breasts.
Like he can't stop staring at them.
Like, all right, I get the point.
Is that Marty or is that Michael J?
Fox, well, exactly. The news was surprised.
You know, there's other things going on here that he should be
alarmed by. I mean, when you consider how
wholesome Lorraine is in the first one and now she's just
gaudy and trashy and a drunk. It's just heartbreaking, really.
Like, say, it goes into the the dark places this film.
And then you take this scene with how Lorraine has turned out
without George, and you get that great exposition at the start
that explains how Biff got into this position.
And this is so influenced by Pottersville from It's a
Wonderful Life. Oh, yeah.
Just, you know, a lot more emphasis on cleavage than you
got in that film. Yeah, just a bit.
Depends where you look. And you've looked very
carefully. Yes, I hear.
Yeah, 1985 A It's the first time the trilogy really explores this
part of time travel, like what happens if things get changed,
like, for the worse. And I think it's classic part of
the future style storytelling because it starts funny live
when Marty finds his family don't live in his house anymore.
The guy bursting with a baseball bat.
And Marty's like, I got the wrong house.
Damn right you got the wrong house.
I could have been really close to the bone if it wasn't.
Michael J Fox has been so innocent and.
That yeah, yeah, yeah it. Could have been like really
sinister that, yeah. Greatly Strickland as well,
armed to the teeth like Arnold in commando.
Yeah, but then just the kind of gradual horror of what's
happened sets in. Jennifer again, just a bummed on
the porch like a sack of spuds, just like I should be fine,
whatever. But the scene with Biff and
Lorraine that you're just talking about there, Matt,
that's where the drama starts to kind of land because Biff's
arrival throws the doors open like you're supposed to be in
boarding school, you son of a bitch.
It's massive. Switzerland.
Yeah.
Packed off someone. She hates him.
I wouldn't have. Zemeckis might have had some
reservations about Wilson playing this version of the
character, but then when he saw this, he must have been like,
yeah, great. Oh, fantastic.
Yeah, yeah. In 1985, a BIFF mentions Marty's
brother and sister Dave and Linda.
Neither of them are seen, but a scene was shot with Mark
McClure, who plays Dave in the first film where he runs into
Marty outside Biff's Pleasure Paradise and he seems to be a
homeless drunk. And the scene was planned where
Linda would be seen working as a prostitute to settle death.
Jesus. The actors who played Linda,
Wendy Joe Sperber, was pregnant and couldn't do it, so the scene
with Dave was removed. Thank God they didn't make her a
pregnant prostitute as well. I'll be.
Really. Yeah.
That all sounds a bit much, yeah, doesn't it?
They're both back for part three though, aren't they?
They're all back to normal. Thank you.
Yeah, that's fine. Yeah.
Is that why they put red in there is the drunk and he's
like, you're crazy drunk pedestrian.
Well, he's in the first film, isn't?
He he is, but that's why he comes back as like the cameo
possible, yeah. And there's some interesting
details throughout 1985 year that a blink and you'll miss
them. One of them is Biff's Pleasure
Paradise is built on top of the Hill Valley Courthouse.
Yeah, you can see the old clock tower behind the neon sign of
Biff. He's like lighting his cigar
with $100 bill. And there's a video playing at
the Pleasure Paradise which tells the back story of how Biff
came in the money. And we see that Lorraine is
Biff's third wife, the first who've been Marilyn Monroe in
Jane Mansfield. Outrageous.
Money or not, I've no idea how Biff pulled that off.
No, it's. Charismatic when he wants to be.
And inside this penthouse, 2 porn film tapes can be seen in
the background. They're called Black Taboo and
The Plane with Fire and a Real porn films, but they both have
an incest theme which is possibly why they were chosen.
Well. Well, any good matter?
Yeah, first one's all right. Second one you can skip.
I've still got your second one, I'll bring it back.
Cheers. So from there, we'll have a big
exposition scene where we'll find out exactly what's going
on. And then Ma, he's got to come
back and find out exactly what's going on from Biff, which I love
this sequence. He's sitting there watching
Fistful of Dollars 1964. Love that.
He's a great flick. I love this flick in that
moment. But I do love this exposition
that you get from Biff. It's a really good moment where
he's really selling the character and really believes in
what's going on and really believes this story that he's
telling him. And there's just that lovely
little twist where he's just sitting, you know, if a wide out
scientist or a kid comes back and he picks the gun up and then
just points at him. But again, I mean, Marty could
have killed him with that. He throws.
I always find that shot really weird.
Like was it reversed or speed up or something?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Because he ducks out the way and
it sticks in the chain blowing. Into the Yeah.
That's a really Tom and Jerry. But it's great that we'll find
out what's going on here and then we'll get the bumbling
idiots back. They're fumbling around all over
the place. They're absolutely fucking
useless going after him. I love them shots up the stairs.
It's all quite reminiscent of what we've seen before, but it's
it's staged slightly differently.
I've always loved it when he goes up with the roof then
changed his mind. Marty, he goes down, jumps over
the stairs. I've always loved that bit.
I don't know why. I don't know why either, but out
Fox's now we're going. That's really excellent.
If I'm ever in that situation, I'm going to definitely forget
to do that. It's run all the way down
screaming, and I just looked at those little details in the edit
where, you know, how is Biff going to figure it out?
Like this could have been really complicated as a set piece, but
again, it's just the rest of the film that's incredibly
complicated. This you can follow quite
easily. There's the door shutting like
we're leading you to it. He's on top of the building,
right? Suicide will be really easy.
That didn't find the bullet that killed you, old man, even though
we're kind of no at this point. Great.
Great sequence, great exposition, great explanation of
what's going on, and just really carries you into the next act.
Yeah, because just before this again, Marty going to George's
grave, don't we? That's massive, that proper gut
punch. Yeah, it's real.
It's a wonderful life moment that isn't.
It OH. Yeah, yeah, just where the
lights hit and the gravestone, it's like exactly the same.
It is, yeah. And Doctor Visual explanation of
the opener timeline on his chalkboard.
That's one of the clearest pieces of exposition I've ever
seen. I love it.
It was like when Chris Nolan was describing Memento.
Have you seen that video? Yeah, yeah.
Exactly the same. And then Marty V Beef is great.
I love how best watching A Fistful of Dollars in the
Jacuzzi with a couple of girls. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Obviously said to Part 3 in the bulletproof vest trick.
When you win the Aries word, all that stuff.
Yeah. And Beef chasing Marty about the
place in his Robin slippers is ludicrous.
But I love the shot when Molly's on the edge of the building and
Beef's hand holding the gun just appears in the shot.
Yeah, I've really got that. Yeah, the mirror that later on
when he's looking at his mom and dad and beef just comes into the
frame of the side profile. Yeah, yeah, right at the end by
something through the window. Yeah, yeah.
I love that shot as. Well, their moments fantastic
from Zimax. Well, that's all time done in
1985. A Marty finds out when when Biff
picked up the Almanac, and you're not going to believe
where we have to go next. I don't believe it.
Old Beef took the Almanac back to November the 12th, 1955.
It did. Marty and Doc know very well, so
back they go. The aim is to retrieve the
Almanac. But before that we have a few
scenes with some more familiar faces, don't we?
So back in Hill Valley 1955, Doc hides the DeLorean and Marty has
1 mission. Find Beef talent.
How does it play out for you, Westie?
Is that wonderful? Something inconspicuous.
I love that little moon where he's got money from every, like,
era that's all lined up. It's not about money for him at
all. So that's why he's like totally
against the Almanac, because you can just get it.
It's not a problem. Yeah, but that's slide into
frame from J Fox pulling that aerial from.
I'll tell you what then, walkie talkies are pretty fucking good.
I. Know really good.
Cover anything, any ground but document, Doc.
Yeah. Well, what?
I Yeah, but I can hear you over anything.
And they're literally just as small as I was so, so upset.
You remember Centurions? Oh, yeah.
I had Centurions walkie talkies that were in the shape of them,
and they didn't work from room to room.
No, I couldn't talk to my brother upstairs or downstairs.
And I was like, I've seen back in the future too.
This shouldn't be this depressing, but I'll get on to
them later on as well. Like we've said, F Wilson's
performance here as Biff, just, he's walking through the town,
going to get his car back. He's got no friends.
Biff's just got a problem with everybody.
This guy's fixed his car. It looks brand new.
And then he's moaning about the price of the oil.
He said I should have free oil if it's $300, then throws it in
the back. Great bit of physical comedy
from Jay Fox when it hits him and you know it's right in the
groin areas, right? And then he sees Lorraine and
you think there's nobody here, he hasn't got his lackeys around
him. Maybe he's going to try and be
nice. Horrible.
Straight up. You'd look better wearing
nothing. What?
That's his first line straight in there.
I'd like to think this was the one that Lynn Thompson not to go
home and get and bring back and pull out the box and do it in
the school, which is great. And that really works.
And then there's one of me finest bits of dialogue that
I've not mentioned yet when he talks about a screen door in a
battleship. Oh yeah, hilarious.
Because then it just cuts to Marty's like screen door in a
submarine. You.
Dog, dog you. Love that.
Just that delivery is absolutely fantastic.
Great scene. And like we say, it really shows
how nasty Biff is because he's not trying to impress anyone,
and that's the worst kind of bully.
He's just really trying to impress himself, which is even
more terrifying, yeah. Yeah, well, just before they
head back in 1955, we get the set up of Part 3, don't we?
Because the DeLorean dashboards on the Blink and she was 1885 on
the I've. Got to fix that.
Yeah. When he's bashing it, yeah.
I like it when Marty's like Doc. What if we don't succeed?
We must succeed and the glory and vanishes end of acts great,
but being back in 1955 is a treat.
Like immediately just a feel of the place, like dripping with
nostalgia and getting to see all these off screen moments from
the first film. So good.
A bit picking his car after the manure truck being an absolute
sleeve with Lorraine. Obviously it's better the more
you know the first film, but I think it still works if you
don't. Oh yeah, yeah.
There's a great bit of visual setup as well when we're CBF
driving through the tunnel. That becomes really important
later on, obviously, and that's something that the magazine deal
do brilliantly through the whole trilogy, laying tracks for
things that pay off later on. Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, at this point it just feels great to be back in 1955,
I think. Yeah, yeah.
It's got no spatial awareness whatsoever.
Has he? Like anything could be in that
card. He's got no clue what's going
on. How would you know more?
He's in the backseat. You don't.
Know that there's a DeLorean behind him on the last.
Scene. Anyway.
And then after this, you get maybe the most pivotal scene in
the whole film of Old Biff. Given Young Biff that Almanac,
can you see obviously what spirals on for me?
What about this scene though, is that even Old Biff is annoyed by
Young Biff? Just getting the cockpit head.
Just has no time as younger self whatsoever.
And I do think this is one of the best scenes that utilises
the idea of characters overlapping their own timelines.
Old Biff knowing how to turn on the engine in the car, that's
such a great touch to convince younger Biff to go with them and
listen to what he has to say. Yeah.
And Wilson is so good in this film.
He somehow generates great chemistry even with himself.
When the bickering, those two, you just think, well, that's got
to be two different actors. Surely you can't be that good
with yourself. My quarter at the top, it's make
like a tree and leave. You sound like a damn fool when
you say it wrong. And he gives them the slap
across the head as well. All right, then leave.
But it's great storytelling as well.
I think it's such a good idea to have something so innocuous.
It's just like a sports Almanac being key to this horrific
future. That's all it takes to change
the future completely. This one little book simply
because it ends up in the wrong hands.
And when young Biff realizes all Biff is telling the truth and he
doesn't know these scores. And this is true.
I love how dark mark an ominous music gets at that point.
Yeah, yeah, I like how the meat of how young Biff turned around
was. Speaking of Terry, the mechanic.
Yeah, and all best just, like sitting in the driver's seat.
Yeah, you're like, get the hell out of my cargo, man.
I love all the little touches between young and old.
Biff. Like you said, Matt or Biff
knows how to start the car. Also, he knows where he lives.
He knows that he doesn't have a safe.
All that stuff. And we're really good.
If gets into an argument with Terry, the mechanic who fixed
his car after the manure incident in the first film.
This isn't the first time we see Terry in this film, though.
He's in the 2015 sequence as an old man.
He's the guy who asks Marty for a donation for the clock tower
and then talks to him about the World Series and gives him the
idea about buying the sports Almanac.
Yeah, put a little money on the cubbies, that guy.
Yeah, yeah. I've always thought his makeup
was terrified. Yeah, it really is.
Oh yeah. Also, Terry, do you know what
we've played by? I want to know.
It is Charles Fleischer, the voice of Roger Rabbit.
Ah, yes, it is. Yeah.
Yeah, the guy in the basement of Zodiac.
Yeah. Scary guy.
Yeah. Yeah, nice.
That's why I thought he's made. It was terrifying.
He's just terrified in. General, Yeah.
So as we've seen to convince young Biff to use the Almanac,
Old Biff players and predicts the result of a UCLA in
Washington football game on the radio.
And that game really took place on November 12th, 1955 and ended
with UCLA kicker Jim Decker hitting the last second field
goal to win. Biff listens to some other
results later on while driving, and those scores are real as
well. Love that it is slightly
convenient that that last minute match winning goals happening
just as they turn the radio on. Yeah, but fine, really.
Convenient. It's not convenient in this
film. You're like, what are you deaf?
Oh man, you lose. Oh yeah.
And that is the middle of Back to the Future Part 2, The biff
horrific 1985. A laid Bay on Marty back in
1955, threading his way through the first film.
The omelets within reach, The enchantment of the sea dances
Insight. Yeah, we're set up for some
ending, aren't we? We are indeed.
Indeed, yeah. The crew.
Time to talk about the people behind the camera.
On Back to the Future Part 2. We've covered Robert Zemeckis,
director, so now it's under the composer Alan Silvestri and the
director of photography Dean Kundy.
But we're starting off with the writing, so the credited screen.
Right on. Back to the Feature Part 2 is
Bob Gale, with story credits going to GAIL and Robert
Zemeckis. They'd been a writing
partnership since the beginning. I Want to Hold Your Hand, 1941
Used Cars, Back to the Future, all products of the Z&G collab.
And here GAIL penned the script while Zemeckis was away
directing Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Yeah, sounds like a lonely gig, Matt, but how was the writing on
Back to the Future Part 2? I think it's got some of the
strongest elements of the film, but also some of the weakest
parts, to be honest. I think where it's strong is
when it really leans into the time travel element and the
effects of it. So those rules were established
in the first, but this one really plays with them.
What if we go forwards, then backwards and then backwards
again? How does one affect the other?
And watching all these, like, ripples and repercussions of
Mardi and Biff's actions across the timelines, that works really
effectively. That kind of shakes out for the
nub about this universe that we know.
Like, as we've been talking about that alternate 1980s
timeline, which is definitely Pottersville for me.
It's a Wonderful Life. Yeah.
That's a really great way to take this.
Yeah. And then to overlap that back
into the 50s, where Marty not only has to save the future by
getting the Almanac back, but also ensure he doesn't mess with
what he achieved first time around, gives it a double
element of jeopardy. And that works great as well.
I think where it doesn't work so well, it's basically what we've
been seeing. Some characters owned to serve
by the material, some don't get enough to do.
There's some kind of conflict and stuff here.
Like, Doc in the first film was just so adamant that nothing at
all could be changed about the future because that's the first
wheel of time travel here is to say, oh, Marty, he gets in
trouble. Should we go sort that out and
change everything so he has a better life?
Right. OK, where's that change come
from? So I think Gail's done some
great work here because he's really cracked the note of where
the group go next with this and really explore the ramifications
of time travel. It's just the character stuff
has left a little bit wanting. Yeah, I agree.
I mean, it's a time travel film, obviously, but even then, the
narrative structure is still pretty mad.
And what I like is what I said earlier.
It just throws us straight in. There's no runway, no roads.
Within minutes we're in 2015 in the plot, like flying along.
In terms of that overall structure, it seems to me a bit
like they came up with maybe two or three ideas that they really
like, like the 2015 feature of the alternative 1985, then going
back into 1955 and just kind of thought, what the hell, let's do
them all and we'll fit them all in there.
I like those ideas as well, especially going back into the
events of the first film and we're playing some of those
scenes. I think that's a great idea and
so engaging to watch when you know the first film.
So I like the ambition. I'm a big fan of how it ended
up, but there are some issues as well for me.
The script for Part Part 2 feels a bit rushed in a way the
original film doesn't. We mentioned the plot all around
best time travel shenanigans, not following the film's own
rules. But there's a more basic plot
all to me because the key incident of the whole plot is
Doc turning up at the start telling Marty he has to save his
kids. I mean, OK, fine.
Yeah, but why do you have to travel into the future to do it?
Surely just tell them and then carry on and prevent it from
happening when it happens. Yeah, time travel's not needed.
So awesome missteps in the writing, but a lot of it gets
right as well, like the 1985 years section that does have
dramatic weight. It's not just a plot beat.
It's like what the world looks like when one terrible person
has like unchecked power. So it's kind of a cautionary
tale. So I like the writing on the
whole. Great ideas.
The execution of the screenplay does fall somewhere short of the
first film though I think. Although to be fair that is a
very high bar. To be fair, it.
Is yeah, yeah, I think Bob Gale had a little bit of free reign
and maybe thought he could try and rewrite the story a little
bit. And I think Zemeckis might have
come back and said. Yeah, Yeah, I think so.
I think we need some rules and we need to establish exactly
what we've done. And I think, like you said
earlier on, John, I think they did paint themselves into a
corner. And I think this would have been
more of a frustrating session than an enjoyable 1.
I think it would have just been how do we solve these problems
that were set up for ourselves to create something that's
entertaining, but also for fans of the first film.
And they do that in both of the films by repeating set pieces
and just adding new bits to them.
Lee Thompson blessed, she just basically has the same script in
this film as she does in the first one, with a few added
bits. Let's take a revisit.
And it's good. And it works because it is very
nostalgic and people like it. And I think there was long
enough between the first film and this one for people to
forget about it. But for me, yeah.
I mean, there's plot holes, there's issues.
There's all of this kind of continuity that goes out the
window. But I think they've sat down and
they've shook hands on it. And Zemeckis and GAIL went,
we're just going to make this entertaining.
Do you agree? And he's just went, yeah, it's
going to be some character development, but that's not
going to be the forefront of this.
This is going to be an entertain roller coaster.
And I'm pretty sure, you know, Spielberg's produced this.
He's going to have something to say.
There's going to be a lot of people coming back to this.
There's, you know, there's money riding on it.
The first one was a real success.
This one needed to shine. And I think it does.
But I just cannot believe that this film is under 2 hours long.
I always go put this on. I think this must be 3 hours
long. It's so much packed into this to
go so many places and so many setups and so many set pieces
and so many ideas. So the writing is fantastic, but
it's it's definitely not the best thing about the future too.
Yeah, I would agree. So Bob Gale wrote the screenplay
for Part 2 while Smecas was making Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
like we said. So when Smecas got involved,
there were pretty big changes made to the script.
Thought they might have been. Of course they were.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, knowing Zemeckis, Gale
would have been writing and thinking he's going to come back
and change all of this. Yeah.
So I might as well write something.
Yeah, just put it down just in case.
But I think you knew that that was always going to be the case.
So one idea that got scrapped was for an action scene in the
2015 sequence based round a futuristic spot called SLAM.
It would be played in an anti gravity chamber and combined JLE
handball and roller Derby, but it was removed for budgetary
reasons. Right.
Yes, Slam ball still listed as one of the sports on the back of
the Greatest Sports Almanac. Oh wow.
OK. Yeah, going to Needles hobbies
as well. I think he's in the slam ball if
you watch out. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
He is. He is good sport.
Yeah, sounds interesting. But if that was taken out for
the hoverboard sequence, I'm glad they did.
Yeah, too, right. Yeah, we've already got roll up
ball. I think it's pretty much the
same thing. Yeah.
And Zemeckis also said he wanted to add a fourth act.
It's set in the Old West, a fourth act.
This massively ballooned the script, and it was.
It's at the point which Zemeckis and Gale realized they needed
two films. Because it's a great idea to go
back there. Yeah, all paid for at once.
That we thought about the first but not last film series to kind
of do that. I'm watching that the 4th act.
Yeah, just changing screen writing.
Yeah, just just insane, yeah. And the biggest change to Gale's
original script, though, was around the time period we see in
the first draft. Marty and Doc don't travel back
to 1955 to retrieve the Almanac from Biff.
They travelled back to the 1960s.
Yeah, 1967 to be precise. It was Flower Power and Sergeant
Pepper. Or like Summer of Love stuff.
Right, OK. Yes, the plot was Marty again
runs into a younger version of his parents.
Lorraine is now an anti Vietnam protester and flower child and
George is a college professor at Berkeley.
In meeting them, Marty accidentally stops Lorraine and
George going on their second honeymoon, the result of which
is that Marty is never conceived and he has to fix things.
Just moving the goal posts about two inches to the left.
Just the same as the first film, yeah.
Let's stick Vietnam in the background.
You please roll over Beethoven at the end to get Lorraine and
George to do it. Also in this version, Doc had a
enlisted help from his younger self to help fix the Miss
Diffusion device which powers the DeLorean.
And at one point, with Vietnam as the backdrop, Marty was
arrested for not having a draft card.
Right. Lorraine posts his $500 bond,
and that's what stops the second honeymoon.
Could you say he was in the Navy with his life preserver jacket?
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, there's another plot all
Yeah, and apparently the younger version of Doc was like a
massive pothead. Right.
On the doobes constantly I. Could say that.
Listening to Donovan in the 60s. But when some Mecca's read this
draft, he said the plot was too close to the original film and
that by 1967 Lorraine would just be too old to be a peace and
love hippie. He had the idea you've gone back
into the events of the first film, so told Kale to scrap 1967
and replace it with the 1955. Right, Bob, into Bob Dylan not
to go electric, Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it would have been
cool to say Hill Valley in the 60s, to be honest.
Yeah, it would have been, but you can see that already, can't
you? It's not like it's a massive
surprise. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So maybe just save all the bangers on the soundtrack for
Forrest Gump. Yeah.
Absolutely, yeah. Know what sort of recognition
for Bob Gale on the writing winner that year was Thomas
Shulman for Deadpool Society. Right.
And not Oscar worthy for us either.
Maybe, but in coming up with some great time travel based
ideas and executing most of them.
A good piece of blockbuster sequel writing, yeah.
Good bit of entertainment writing, definitely.
The composer run Back to the Future Part 2 was Alan
Silvestri, his 26th feature film credit.
He'd already worked on classics like Flight of the Navigator,
Predator and The Abyss, as well as the mechas hits like
Romancing the Stone, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the first Back
to the Future film. Yeah, back for the sequel, Matt.
How does Alan Silvestri's work land this time around?
I mean, if you've got the hits, just play the hits, right?
Yeah, yeah. Two, right?
Yeah. Is the music great?
Yes, because it's the music from Back to the Future and you'd be
feel not use it again. It's like, you know, talking
about a Bond film, you've got that theme tune to drop in.
It does so much heavy lifting for you.
And it's the same the music here because it takes you back to
what you heard in the first film and it's always going to have
that resonance and that power. And yes, there were definitely
nuances and fresh pieces. And here I mentioned the music
when old Biff is talking to young Biff about the sports
result, and that ominous music works really well.
But everything has just grown off that original skull, which
was incredible first time round. So can't really say it's an
amazingly original soundtrack because it's just keeping
coherent with what's already been written.
But it's obviously still great and it's just a case of, well,
the hard work has been done already.
Yeah. Exactly.
Yeah, like we're saying the main themes back.
That's one of my favorite themes in any film.
Well, yeah, exactly. More than does it's bit in the
first film, and it's the same here.
What's different here I think though, is that there are tonal
shifts that Sylvestre has to deal with.
Like the bright energy of 2015 goes straight into that
desperate 1985 A. That's probably the first time
in the whole series where Sylvestre has to go dark with
his music and the score. 1985 A becomes like staccato and it
does go darker that like 4 Nord brass piece that runs whenever
were with Biff in the pleasure paradise.
That's the most noticeable new piece of music.
It's like a proper villain theme that.
It's for Borden, isn't. It Yeah, yeah.
And then back in 1955, Sylvestre has to take us back into the
first film without just duplicating what he did.
So it's like 1 composer, but he's also had to create three
different worlds in terms of the music.
I think he does that. I don't think you can see
Sylvestre's works up there with the first film because that's
the way he created that main theme and that way classic
twinkle sting. But sequels are always
different, and I think what he brings, yeah, is still very
good. Yeah, I mean, so he doesn't
really have a lot to do here. I mean the third one, he makes a
real impact because he changes that score and it's not a real
Western theme and a Western vibe and really has to step before
that one. But this, I think he just looked
at these two projects and thought, oh, Part 2, I've got to
do about 30% more and that's it. And then 100% on three, but 70%
already done for the first film. It's not what he uses and or
necessarily what's in Mex uses, it's where he uses them and for
them emotional beats and for the set pieces, it really elevates
those, really brings it into that battle of the future
universe. And I think it's good that they
didn't rewrite it because they could have, they've got
Sylvestri could have just said take that theme and make it a
little bit different. I'll just change it completely
and not use the same one. But again, Matt's right.
You know, if you've got the hits, you play them.
They know what they had, they could repeat it and they did and
they did it really well. When that opening theme comes up
with the front of the film, that's all you want to hear.
That's all you want to see. It's got to go a little bit
darker and a bit more, but you can't lose the blueprint.
And I think that's the thing with everyone behind the camera
that had a blueprint, that had a set of rules.
It's a great soundtrack, but if I'm looking at them on vinyl and
I can have Battle of the Future One or Battle of the Future 2
and buy Battle of the Future One every day of the week.
Yes, definitely. And then right at the end here,
it'd be just before the credit. He slips in that little Western
morty for Part 3, doesn't he? Yeah, yeah.
That's a nice little touch. The music makes references back
to the first film in other ways. After 2015, Marty has been
fired. He's playing his guitar in the
living room. He's not playing it very well at
all, but you can tell he's playing the main riff from The
Power of Love by Hugh Lewis in the News, the theme song from
the first film. He's playing it that badly, I
think that wouldn't have even have to pay rights for it.
It's almost unrecognizable. Yeah, the callbacks in the first
film as well. The score for the hoverboard
chase is very similar to the piece for the skateboard chase
in the first film, but it's been developed.
It's a bit more intricate this time around.
Yeah. Yeah, it is.
And as well as Sylvestre score, Zemeckis had Universal license a
number of classic pop songs that we hear in the film.
When Marty goes in Cafe 80s, we can hear Beat It by Michael
Jackson playing in the background.
Yeah. Yeah, I love that song.
Yeah, who doesn't? Another Eddie Van Halen
reference? Because in the first film, Marty
plays a team of Eddie Van Halen when Georgie's asleep to freak
him out, doesn't he? Yeah, yeah, And Eddie Van Halen
plays the crazy guitar solo on Beat It.
Yeah, first take as well, then just left.
Couldn't remember how to do it. Sword in played and just left.
Amazing, amazing. And when Marty is walking around
1985 A, the scene is scored by icon Drive 55.
And that's a Hard Rock song by Sammy Agar.
Sammy Hagar, former lead singer in Van Halen.
Yeah, there you go. Would have loved to come here
from those guys like a futuristic band in 2015 or
something. Yeah, it.
Would have been great. The wild stallions.
Flame coming out over on hoverboards.
Amazing. Oh, that.
'D be great, yeah. And then when we go back to
1955, we hear Mr. Sandman like we do in the first film, and it
often gets credited as the Cordets version.
But it's not. It's actually the version by the
four Asus release in 1954. Very nice.
Great to hear it. Most were in the first film,
probably, but as a piece of music that in a film that's
purpose, it's to like set a scene or replace, that's one of
the best I've ever heard. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Whenever we gather the opening of that song anyway, I picture a
1955 Hill Valley. Yeah, yeah.
Like Pavlov's dog or something. Yeah, speaking around the corner
of the end of it. And we hear another time period
song in 1955 when Biff is driving to the Enchantment Under
the Sea dance Papa Loves Mambo by Perry Cuomo as playing on the
car radio. Great song.
Yeah, so apparently Papa Loves Mambo was the Mecca's first
choice to use in the first film instead of Mr. Sandmann, but he
changed his mind. All right, So that's why it's
used here. Right.
Yeah, yeah. Glad to change it though.
Mr. Sandmann's like perfection, yeah.
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, new Oscar nomination
violin Sylvestre score. The winner that year was Alan
Menken for The Little Mermaid. All right, I guess Sylvestre
wouldn't be eligible anyway because he.
He uses a lot of pieces. Obviously, he's probably.
Not like Hans Zimmer with June, too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But as a sequel score that
evolves in music from the original.
Some good work from Roland Silvestri here.
Yeah, great work. Knew exactly what he had to do
when he did it. I'll be at 30%.
It's time for the visuals on Back to the Future Part 2 and
the directory of photography was Dean Cundy with his 36th feature
film credit, Halloween, Escape from New York, The Thing,
Romancing the Store, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Oscar nominated three previous films.
Was The Megis and he shot the first film.
Yeah. Pretty good.
Fit for Back to the Future Part 2 then.
Wasn't he Westie? Well, obviously a perfect fit.
He knew where everything was going to go and how everything
had to look and how everything was going to be.
And it's very Dean Cundy and a lot of people don't talk about
how talented this guy is. I mean, he pioneered a lot of
what to make us needed to see. I mean, just coming from Roger
Rabbit and then doing this, some of the effects at the time, I
feel like some of them are a little bit rushed because the
story feels a little bit rushed. But there's elements of all of
his early work, the stuff he did but can't.
I mean, there's elements of like Escape New York, like I've said,
you know, when the when we first went 1985 A and I think Dean
Connie was just perfect at being a cinematographer.
Like I said earlier, where you don't notice the cinematography.
You don't look at a film and go, that's a Dean Conde film.
Yeah, because he's just invisible, much like Zemeckis is
invisible. I can't really tie down what a
Dean Conde film is because he can do anything.
And what he does is he really, he sets more of a tonality than
he does set a look. He sets more of a feeling.
He sets more of an atmosphere. At the end of the day, his Max
is a director and his head is up there thinking of ideas, same as
Bob Gale. And he needs people to pull it
off. And he can still come back and
say, can you shoot this scene, the opening scene or the the end
scene of the last film? Now it's the opening scene.
But come have that shot by shot, frame by frame, light by light,
and make it again, do again four years later.
And he's like, yeah, no problem. That's incredibly hard to do.
It's just wonderful stuff and it's wonderful to see.
Yes, some of it has an edge. Well, I don't think that's his
fault. I think it was just a little bit
too fast. But yeah, it's beautiful.
Yeah, one of the biggest challenges here I think is it
couldn't. He has to make the same studio
back lot feel like 4 different worlds really.
And he does 2015 to 1980 fives 1955, the all field distinct.
Obviously production design plays a big part in that as
well, like we've talked about. Yeah of course, but Kundi's all
over it. The 2015 sequences are shot to
be very warm and bright and then 1985 A is like the opposite,
basically the framings tighter to make everything more
claustrophobic. Pitch black as well isn't.
It yeah, yeah, like impressive looking.
Seems to be a lot of long lenses.
So it looks almost like hill valleys, like closing in on
Marty in certain shots. It's got a real surveillance
kind of vibe as well as if you're watching it through
through a security camera, there's a lot of high angles, a
lot of really uncomfortable high angles.
There is, yeah. I mean, that's not production
design. Is it that cinematography?
Yeah, that's putting the camera somewhere where you feel
uncomfortable. You don't quite know.
Why? And this was specific shot
choices that always stand out to me.
The single shot, the cemetery where we see Marty at George's
grave, that's one of the best pieces of blocking in movement
in the film. The way it reveals Doc in the
background is great. Yeah.
And that bit when they first arrived in 1955 to get the
Almanac, Doc's kind of explaining the plan for the
audience, basically. But Marty and Doc are both,
like, running towards and away from the camera.
Really weird to make an exposition seem more interesting
to look at, presumably. But I always laugh at it.
It's just so odd. Yeah.
But yeah, some big challenges for Kundi here as DP.
And he pulls them off to my mind, as he tends to do.
Absolutely. It's like the music for me.
It's about keeping it consistent, you know?
Why would you hire someone else when Kundi knows this world?
He knows the Mechus, knows his methods, what he wants, and you
don't want it to look any different from the first really.
So why would he go somewhere else?
And I think the other benefit of that is because Cundi comes into
this with that kind of advantage.
Zemeckis can then give him those challenges, such as the same
actor appearing in different roles at the same time, but to
the level that hadn't been done before.
And the thing that for me has to be the main take away from what
Cundi does here. It was an immense challenge.
It's step up from the 1st and he just roasted it because all
those elements, it just looks completely seamless.
Yeah, seamless. That's the word for it, I think.
Yeah. And recreating some scenes from
the first film caused the logistical challenge, as the
full details around setups in the first film hadn't been
documented anywhere, so the camera crew were often doing
setups from memory and couldn't, he said on the first night of
film. And they were recreating the
climax scene where lightning hits the clock tower and Marty
goes back to 1985, he said. They were struggling to get the
same lighting until somebody said somebody wished it would
have been me. Like I said that.
I remember that we had a light over in that doorway and another
crew member remembered the exact filter that went over the light
to give it that look amazing. Just one light in the doorway
and that changes the whole thing.
It's how important it is. Team F out then.
Nowadays you'd probably expect all that to be documented
somewhere I'd imagine. So you just refer back to it
then. Maybe sequels weren't so
commonplace or they just thought just set it up and then tear it
down fine. Yeah, I mean, the damage that
did so much damage, the hill valley itself didn't there.
So yes, they had to rebuild it anyway.
True, and the biggest technological innovation in the
film was the combination of cinematography and special
effects, with some actors playing multiple roles.
There were times an actor needed to appear in the same scene
twice, sometimes in the same frame.
Previously, this would have been done with dual photography,
where the camera would be locked down so they could just split
the frame down the middle. But some mechas wanted to move
the camera, so effects studio ILM came back from the first
film to develop a camera system called the Vista Glide.
Yes, there was 4 main sequences like you're talking about, Matt,
where actors needed to act with themselves at like length
basically. Yeah, that's Tom Wilson.
There's Griff and Old Biff and Cafe 80s.
Yeah, the 2015 McFly in our scene where Jay Fox is playing
Marty Senior, Marty Junior and Marlene Old Beef giving young
beef the Almanac in 1955 and Christopher Lloyd appears in
1955 Dock on 1985 dock in the scene of the clock tower as
well. Yeah.
So lots of thinking through was needed, it sounds like.
The bits that didn't use the Vista glare love though, when
they're just just blocking it in its old school.
And you've got when the old Biff gives young Biff the Almanac and
he shuts the garage door and then he just his arm comes out
and it's someone else's arm and he can tell.
I love bits like that, but it's like, let's not even try and be
clever. I've had enough.
Let's just get the scene done. And working on Roger Rabbit,
some Echos had come across a system where computer controlled
camera combined live actors with animation.
So based on that, ILM mounted a 35 mil Vista vision camera on a
computer controlled Dolly O. Basically the scene would be
shot once by a human camera operator and the computer would
record every tilt, pan, focus change, etcetera basically every
move and they would then shoot the same again with the Vista
gliding control and it would mimic the moves from the first
shot exactly. Yes.
So the scene where Biff gives Biff the Almanac, the film with
Tom Wilson playing old Biff and then has the makeup removed,
changes costume to young Biff and they shoot it again with the
Vista gliding control and Tom Wilson's wearing earphones and
the played in the dialogue from the first take.
So he's timing spot on when he's talking to himself, basically.
All right, nice. And then ILM would then take the
two shots and composite them together in post production,
placing old and young Biff in the same shot.
There is an error in that scene, if you've noticed, you've got to
really look for it. But when Old Biff gives Young
Biff the Almanac, there was some sort of compositing problem in
Old Biffs hand disappears for a second or something.
Right? Skywalker, right?
Which makes that scene even more amazing that Wilson pulled that
off because you can't act next to a double if you're going to
just replace them, so you can't have someone there to react
against. And also when he throws the
almond out, that's definitely CGI.
Oh yeah, you can tell that. 100% yeah another piece of stand out
CGI. Although I've just mentioned the
almond out being CGI is stand out for a totally different
reason. ILM worked on the holographic
shark in 2015 that promotes Jaws 19.
The visual effects supervisor was Ken Ralston and he said they
did several versions of it that got better each time, but they
ended up using the first one because they like the fact that
it was more messed up and glitchy than the other ones,
which I love that. Yeah, it does look really good.
Yeah. At one point the hologram was
going to advertise Godzilla 2015 instead of Jaws 19, right?
And there was a Godzilla film in 2014. 2014, yeah.
Oh, that's right. Yeah.
It's Galve Edwards one. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So they would have been close,
but yeah, changed to Jaws this time.
It's really, really personal at the time line.
Yeah. You know, Oscars for Dean Cundy
for his work here. ILM were nominated for best
visual effects, though they lost out to the Abyss, which was also
ILM. So.
All right. Show offs, Yeah.
We're not going to care. Yeah, fine Abyss was amazing.
And that is the crew. Huge production, huge team on
Back to the Future Part 2 and in Bob gear, the screenwriter Alan
Silvestri's composer Dean Cundy's DP and ILM creating
innovative effects to make us had some team helping him out
certainly did. And you can see it.
You can see every minute of it. The end.
Into the final act of Back to the Future Part 2, and Marty is
back in 1955. The climax is coming where Marty
finally reclaims the Sports Almanac before Docker's
lightning struck back to the past.
But first, we're revisiting some familiar moments.
Yeah, so the enchantment of the sea dance.
Marty heads back to Hill Valley High to find Biff and the
Almanac. Same night, same dance, same
punch. But it's all a little bit
different, isn't it, Mark? A little.
Bit different. What do you make of it?
I mean, I'm not quite convinced of the wisdom of framing these
scenes against all the amaze and scenes from the first film,
because I think I just like to watch the first one again.
Yeah, too, right. But it's so good to see
Strickland again back in the 50s, still kicking ass.
He's really funny. Yeah, great.
He's making his coffee Irish because, you know, none, none of
the kids can see him do that. That's brilliant.
And it's just like such a reminder for the great comic
actor Michael J Fox. He's like when he gets his
fingers jammed between the desk and the.
Chair, you know, Oh, he's great. Comedy one O 1.
But he does it so well, and I'll always love the scene like this
where they've managed to combine the highest of stakes, which is
the future of Marty in the future of Hill Valley with the
smallest action. Imagine he's just stealing a
magazine off a desk. That's all he's got to do to
save the day. It's not like he's having to
diffuse a ticking bomb or anything like that.
And I think that's just really smart writing.
And I think the other bit of smart writing is when Strickland
drops it in the bin because you think, well, is that it?
That can't be it. That's too easy.
There's got to be something here, some twist.
So that revelation that Biff has ripped the cover off and it's
been oh, La La la the both reading instead.
That's really well done. And again, Fox's is so funny.
Oh La La, oh La La. Brilliant.
Great thing. I love the way when he's
flicking through the book it starts with like loads of
writing and. Then it gets in the pictures.
Afterwards he's like, oh, I thought I had it definitely
doing. More than the actual recreations
of the scenes from the first film, I like all the off screen
scenes from the first film like Strickland watching Beth Paul
liquor into the punch. Yeah, they're the best ones,
yeah. And then taking the almanacrome
outside, all that kind of stuff for me, like, you're a slacker.
I love all that. Yeah.
And the scene in Strickland's office, that's one of the best
of those moments, I think. Yeah.
Marty think he's got that Almanac finally with oh La La,
but a few seconds before that Strickland, he has a noise.
He walks the door and we get this awesome camera move where
Marty's hiding under the desk and the camera like spins round
the set to reveal exactly where Marty is compared to Strickland.
Small thing, but I love that he probably couldn't the expertise
would like how to use space in storytelling.
There's been a great shot when Marty's on the phone and Doc
saying he's got no idea where Biff is and there's a focus
pulled from Marty to what's happening behind him outside in
the window. George is about a deck Biff
great. It's a split that up to that I
think. Yeah, I think it is.
Yeah, must be. Even better, I just loved
actually both things. I just don't know where he is.
Yeah, and then we'll see the punch again.
And it's great because Marty takes you.
I went off base when he's basically unconscious.
If chases him when he gets up. And that guy is like, I think
you took your wallet. I think you took his wallet.
Who was that guy? Twice.
Whoever he is, he's far too old to be in high school.
Absolutely them for the rules when the ladies.
Like Greece? Exactly.
And the Oh La La magazine, that's a French Glamour magazine
that was made-up for the film. The cover is a flipped image of
an English actress called Venetia Stevenson, taken from
the cover of the July 1955 issue with Swank, the men's lifestyle
magazine. Daughter of Robert Stevenson,
the director of Mary Poppins. Venetia Stevenson.
Oh wow, right. Oh, La La.
I'm not sure if the Governor Stevens permission or they just
steamed in like with Crispin Glover.
Yeah. Fair enough.
Yeah, Yeah. Another nice little detail in
that scene, actually, is that Strickland's got an American
flag on his desk and it's got 48 stars, which is correct for
1955. Of course, Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, after this moment we'll go back and it's Johnny Be
good again and we'll see it again, but from a different
angle, which is fine. And then you realize the three
idiots are going to then beat up old Marty.
Well, not old Marty, young Marty.
And he can't get back the dog. And the whole thing is going to
be a paradox. And it's just, is this a step
too far? Maybe.
Is there a bit fat on this? Maybe.
And doesn't make us a little bit bored.
Yeah, because I just want to see Johnny be good.
I don't want to see Johnny be not so good CGI when he's
crawling over the background. He's just on the ladder.
And I just don't like them original shots being put in to
be like, wasn't this scene great?
Sounds great on the page. Imagine just saying this, right?
He's Johnny be good again. But they're going to nab him at
the end of the song. So other Marty climbs over and
drops sandbags on them just as he does the big bend at the end
of the song. Perfect timing and.
That's great that. Yeah, yeah.
Brilliant and it just sounds so good on the page.
I love the way the stagger time here and he's looking at his mum
and dad through the window and and when Biff comes into the
frame. That's a great show, yeah.
Absolutely fantastic. But what is fantastic is when
that door hits Michael J Fox in the face, because that really
hits him in the face. He goes for it.
And the fact that he knocks himself out, I think is
excellent. I do love it, I think it's
great, but every time I watch it, it just feels like it
belittles the original because I'd rather watch that instead,
like Matter. Yeah, when I watch you, I do
feel like it's just another excuse to get Johnny B Goode
back in there. Well, definitely, yeah.
It's a great track, but another great shot I like with the Vista
gliders. When Part 2, Marty comes off the
stage, he goes down the stairs and out the door, but then it
pans back to shore. Part 1, Marty coming off the
stage. Yeah, the Vista light obviously
gets one shot. Yeah, it's totally seamless.
So I do like that. Yeah.
So that's the enchantment of the sea dance.
Marty gets the Almanac, and then Biff takes it back.
Time for a final showdown, it looks like.
Right, another one. Let's do it.
It all comes down to this. Biff leaves the dance in his
car. He has the Almanac and Marty and
Docker after him in the flying DeLorean, the final face off
seizure tunnel, the hoverboard, and a classic Back to the Future
trope, the menu truck. Yeah yes.
Big action scene to end the narrative Mat, how is it?
I love the same of the scene because it's the most original
scene in the film. I think in terms of a big set
piece. It's one that doesn't rely on
the previous film to kind of refund or anything.
And it's great to see the De Lorean used for something else.
And it's not just getting people, you know, to the future
back into the past, but it's also not the magical solution.
I mean, sure, that can sneak up on Biff, but that's all.
I just love that line you get from talk about how if they did
try to like land on a bit, you'll RIP through.
It's like tinfoil. That's the difference in the
cast. That's a great line.
I mean, we've kind of mentioned already, like Biff just has no
perception of what's going on around him.
He has no idea what's behind him, somehow completely misses a
Hovrand de Lorean Marty jumping off, clinging on the back of his
car. That doesn't cause the the car
to move or change in any way, shape or form, but that's fine.
He could have been really cocky. When he's picking it up from the
mechanic, He's like, I need to put the rearview mirrors in.
He's like, I don't need rearview mirrors.
Yeah, he's got that kind of carrot in a way.
He'd say I don't need mirrors in my car.
You know, you're going to hit yourself.
I've got a kill switch and I don't need it, which would have
explained that totally, but he's just a fucking idiot, isn't?
He, he's an absolute. Yeah.
Because you think he knows this car apparently, like inch by
inch, so you'd think he feels someone hanging on to it.
But what I really love, though, is just how well this scene is
pierced. It's not mile a minute.
It's like the scene in Strickland's office.
It's about creeping up, being cautious, just trying to sneak
the Almanac out of the back of the car.
He doesn't need narratively, to have a confrontation with Biff
whatsoever because it's not about that.
But of course, when he does, it's great.
I mean, as I've been saying, Biff is genuinely a cycle, like
he is trying to kill Marty here, trying to crush him against the
tunnel wall. And then the Almanac ends up on
the windshield. And then of course, something
else is coming the other way. So Marty's got to flip out the
way of that. And I love that just when he
flips over the car to grab the Almanac and the music kicks in.
That's absolutely brilliant. But then Bips gaining on him and
then just the classic last minute rescue from Doc with the
kind of penance hanging down that he grabs onto.
Superb stuff. It's it is.
It's the absolute high pound the film for me.
Yeah, having the reaction sequence, yeah, that's section
where Marty's like creeping around the outside of BF's car.
It's pretty tense because the almanacs right there.
Yeah. So tense, and Marty's like,
inches away from it. It's such a simple setup, but it
works well. And the tunnels are sent.
That piece, though, because it's all been kind of set up earlier.
Like we said, yeah, it's a great setting for the scene.
Yeah. And Marty doing a flip over the
bonnet on the hoverboard is ludicrous.
All got cobot but then he's kind of like stranded in the tunnel
like miles from the end that shot and Biff coming up from the
mom down. That's great yeah.
And great set up where Marty just misses the truck when he's
hanging on the off the car on the hoverboard and that ends up
being the manure truck that Biff then crashes into yeah.
And this I think is the last time in the whole series that
was see Biff. Oh.
Yeah, probably is, yeah. Very sorry to see him go
obviously but a perfect way to went from you hate manure.
Yeah, yeah, wouldn't shit, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I kind of fault
it. I just it does seem to just go a
little bit too long for me. Can't fault anybody has a fault.
No, but like I can't fault it from the from the point of it
being in the film. But for me personally, it feels
too much like like a diluted diet version scene of like the
truck scene from Raiders, Right, Right.
It's a bit fatty. I would have liked this to have
been Doc who had to get it and Marty was flying the DeLorean.
What dog on the hoverboard? Yeah, and it mirrors against
what he's doing at the clock Teller.
All right, OK. And I think that would have
been, let's just make it short, and it would have been a bit
more interesting. Yeah.
And then Marty has to take over. He flies the DeLorean, and then
Marty has to get out the tunnel or something else where it was
both of them. So I feel like Doctors
disappears. He does.
Yeah. And then there's a great lack of
peril because it's Marty McFly. It's the end of About the Future
Part 2. And he isn't going to die, is
he? You know, I mean, I don't want
to fault it, is what I should have said.
But it does feel like it's just a little bit too much fat for
the end and I want it to just be a little bit quicker.
Slammed. Not slammed me.
You want me to slam something, I'll slam something.
The bottom line is I've seen it too many times that it's just,
it's lost that any sense of excitement because I know, I
know what happens next. Yeah, And this sequence was shot
using the Griffith Park Observatory tunnel in Los
Angeles. It's actually a lot shorter than
the tunnel in the film, so some effects tricks we used to make
it appear longer. They shot it on a wide angle
lens, changed the roof lights to be unevenly spaced, and added a
painted backdrop at the far end. And this all combined to make
the tunnel look about five times longer than it actually is.
Oh nice. Sounds like Wiley Coyote
painting a tunnel on the side of a Cliff for over, Yeah.
Like Roger Rabbit? Yeah.
Well, yeah, that tunnel to make us new, because that's the same
tunnel that Eddie Valley and drives through and hoofing Roger
Rabbit to reach Toontown. Is it right?
Ah, right. Imagine it came out there.
Yeah, really weird that. Would have made more sense.
And we're done with Part 2. Not quite though, as we still
need to set up part three. Yeah, dog struck by lightning in
the DeLorean and is up back to the 1885 Old West leaving our
Danumon. First a Western Union van man
arrived with a letter telling Marty what's going on.
Then Marty goes to get help from the only man who can help him.
Yeah. So how do things get wrapped up
West here? I absolutely love it when he's
like the lightning hits the tree 1st and sets that up and you
think, oh right, great, OK, you don't want to get struck by bang
and he's just that cut to nothing and he's gone and
there's just the spiral of the flags coming down.
I'm half expecting that what you're talking to work because
I've been so good throughout the whole.
Yeah, you can travel across time.
Yes, through space and time. I'm all right, Marty.
Like, where are you? Battery runs out.
But I do absolutely love this sequence because it just slows
right down here and it's great shot.
When that car turns up, there's just the headlights in the
floor. He gets out.
It's really film noir. Are you Marty McFly?
I've got something for you. And he could have pulled
anything out of his pocket. And then it just has a really
playful vibe. It's just really, really great.
But the thing that really grates on me is like, just get in the
car and read it, because that's going to get soaking and the ink
is going to ruin my. Anxiety is through the roof.
I'm like, don't just hold it next to the light, he said.
It's from the Doppler. We'll need more information than
that, but it's great. It's just wonderful.
I was like, he's alive. The music swells up, the guy's
asking if he's needing the help and he's like, there's only one
man who can help me. And that cook with the lightning
to dock with the clock tower to absolutely fantastic.
Because you can tell this is the bit that both GAIL and Zemeckis
have locked down. They know that this is where
they're getting do. Yeah, yeah.
They know that this is the really good meaty bit.
And we've just been through the bits of the fat to get here.
And they've been playful with when dragged it out in a little
bit too long. But I love this because this is
exactly what you want from the end of the film.
Yeah, I like the way they show us everything is snapping back
to normal. Like visually, like Biff's
matchbook changes in front of our eyes from pleasure paradise
to auto detailing the newspaper showing George's alive again.
That's all great. It would.
Have taken me more than one match to burn out though in that
wind. Yeah, I always freak out about
that as well. And.
I like how when the Loreen vanishes or leaves that, like,
flaming 99 in the sky. Yeah, yeah, I guess that's
because we had flying. Those are the tracks made by the
spinning wheels. But then when Dog vanishes and
this mysterious guy turns up, how filling was this and the way
it looks? Oh, it looks fantastic.
Do you don't think that vapor trails would have been better as
288? But probably, yeah, definitely
much better I. Would love that, yeah.
I remember the first time I saw this, when the guy turns up in
the car, I'm like, what's going on?
Yeah, yeah. It's just so engaging.
Yeah. And the Western Union LED scene.
This was the last thing filmed for Part 2.
The Western Union man was played by comedian Joe Flatty, a
veteran of the legendary Canadian comedy show SCTV, and
Flatty's casting was deliberate. He previously worked with
Zemeckis and Gale on used cars in 1980.
Right, nice doc putting loads of faith in Western Union there.
Just keep this for 70 years, will you?
Yeah. Imagine doing that over here.
You have no chance. Absolutely screwed.
You'll probably get it if you said can you send this tomorrow
and they'll get it. 70 years low and the De Lorean is sent to
1885 because of the dashboard malfunctioning, which we spoke
about earlier. But it wasn't always this way in
the original script. This is great old man Peabody
from the first film. He was in a mental institution
for claiming that he'd seen a spaceship when he saw the De
Lorean in the first film, and as soon as he is released he sees a
fly in DeLorean and fires his shotgun at damage in the time
circuits. This is the reason the
destination time display flickers to read 1885.
Bob Gale said the scene was dropped though when the actor
Will here wasn't available. That's the only reason that
wasn't short because he wasn't available.
Imagine to him coming out, You killed my pine.
Yeah, take that, you mutate him. Son of a bitch.
No Pines wall. And then we end where we started
with the replay of an amazing scene from the first film.
Again, funnily enough, Chris Floyd thought, I mean, he plays
it so well, his reaction going from that pure joy that he's got
Marty back. Just like the timing's
wonderful. His shock and confusion when he
just turns up again. That's really, really funny.
And I can't remember when I first saw this.
If I knew there was going to be a part three.
I really can't remember. I presume that knowledge was out
there to some extent, but obviously it's easier to end on
a cliffhanger back then as it would be now.
But it's one hell of a cliffhanger.
I mean, when that to be concluded comes up.
I mean, I've got issues with this film, obviously, but all
the same, come on, let's go. I'm ready for that next one.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
That final shot is one of my favorite endings in just about
any film. I think Marty, like, vanishes in
the DeLorean Dr. the victory jig in the street, and then in the
background, Marty comes sprinting around the corner.
Yeah, it's just brilliant. But that musical stab, Yeah.
Really good, just such a great payoff.
When is that Korean shot and it just comes across the whole
street? It's probably just like screams
in his face. And after the final title cards
is to be concluded, as we've talked about, the film ends with
the trailer for Back to the Future Part 3.
And GAIL later said this came from The Empire Strikes Back,
which got some criticism when it ended on a cliffhanger.
And again, this was inspired by The Three Musketeers, which
advertised the Four Musketeers at the end of it.
Yeah. Yeah.
First thing you see is that huge RIP off of that shot from Once
Upon a Time in the West when the camera pans over the top of the
train station to reveal yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's an unbelievable shot to be there.
So yeah. And that is the end of Back to
the Future Part 2 because defeated, the Almanac is burned,
the timeline is restored, and the dock is stranded in 1885.
But there's a plan that's the end of that time in Part 3.
But shall we talk about how this film was received?
Yeah. Reception and awards.
Back to the Future Part 2 hit cinemas on November the 22nd,
1989. In terms of how it did, well,
who needs a greatest sports Almanac when you've got Matt's
box office Almanac? Oh yeah.
So fill us in, please, Matt. It's just the cover though.
He's got oh La La in the middle of it.
You don't want to read actual content.
I can't read them out loud. It's got Swank in the middle.
So Back to Future Part 2, made on a production budget of $40
million and grossed 118.9 million worldwide.
At the Academy Award, it received one nomination, as
we've said, Best Visual Effects for Ken Ralston, Michael
Lantieri, John Bell and Steve Galway, but lost out to the BIS.
Not as big as the first film, but still healthy profits, with
one more film to come as well. And a few years later, in 1998,
the Vista Glide System itself received a special Technical
award at the Oscars. Right.
Recognition, the last wonderful. And to build anticipation for
the film, a behind the scenes TV special Aid in the US on
November 17th, 1989. It was hosted by Leslie Nielsen
and had behind the scenes footage, cast interviews and
clips from the finished film. During this make us have made a
joke that hoverboards were real and being suppressed by parent
groups concerned about safety. This led to Mattel being
inundated with calls from people trying to buy a hoverboard.
I Remember Me dad shown as a clip in in the paper of that.
Really wow. I didn't see the actual thing.
He's like oh look, hoverboards are going to be real.
I was like, no. Wow.
I've waited ever since then. Yeah, well, apparently rumors
also spread their child had been killed testing one.
Yeah, tell her in the middle of being sued, so the Mega said
they come out and they take it all back.
Apparently it's. Probably that young lass on the
Pitbull slammed into the courthouse wall.
Well, back to the critics and we have got Roger Ebert first as
usual. What do you think Arman Rog gave
the film out of four? He's going to go like 3 1/2.
I don't think he's going to give it full work.
I'll go 3. It was three stars out of four.
And Roger said Part 2, for all of its craziness, lacks the
power of the original. The story of the 85 film has
heart to it. The time travel in that film
involved Marty's emotional confrontation with his parents
as teenagers. Yeah.
Part 2, on the other hand, is mostly zaniness and screwball
jokes. But on that level, it's fun.
Yeah. You agree with that?
Yeah, I think so, yeah. 100%. Yeah, I don't think any of us
are claiming it's better than the original.
No, no, it's impossible. Jonathan Rosenbaum in the
Chicago Reader gave a negative review.
He said the problem with all the time travel hijinks is I in
order to make the plot even semi intelligible, the writers have
to make the frenetic action strictly formulaic.
Elizabeth Shue was not too unconscious early on so she
won't interfere with the little boy games.
And Fox briefly playing his own sister in drag only adds to the
rampant misogyny. Wow wow.
I mean she was getting knocked out and left is not great.
Rabbit misogyny is a strong take I think.
Yeah, it is a bit. It's a bit far I think.
And finally, Tom Tony in a retrospective Empire magazine
review, gave Back in the Future Part 2 three stars out of five,
He said. Glossy, high energy escapism.
BTTF 2 easily gets the job done. In other words, doesn't make
much sense unless you're familiar with the plot of the
original film. Not as good as one or three, but
solidly entertaining. Yeah, fair enough.
Yeah. I think I prefer this one to
three. Yeah, I think everyone prefers
this one to three, to be honest. No one's going to say 3 is
better than the original or better than the second, to be
honest. And today on Rotten Tomatoes,
Back to the Future Part 2 has a 63% approval rating from critics
and 86% from audiences. And on IMDBA score of 7.8 out of
10. That gap between critics and
audiences is massive and it's not a university.
Love this one I don't think. No, like I said, it's divisive.
Yeah. So Back to the Future Part 2
London is a big commercial hit and a film that divided critics
while mostly winning over audiences.
Not the height of the original, maybe, but not a bad return for
a film that film makers didn't want to make at one point.
Well, yeah, exactly. Yeah, the excitement paid.
Sequels and influence. Back to the Future Part 2 ends
on a cliffhanger, so there was always going to be a sequel.
Released in May 1996, months after Part 2.
It takes Marty and Doctor 1885 and the Old West for a grand
finale to the trilogy. Yeah, there's a chance we'll be
covering that at some point, I think.
Yeah. Can't do the 1st 2, not the last
one I wouldn't imagine. We'll, we'll get around to it,
yeah. We'll leave that for then, but
what about the wider impact of Part 2, specifically Westie, the
influence and Legacy? What do you reckon?
I think kind of anybody time travel film that's come since
then has been influenced in some way by the tone about the
future. It's impossible for it not to
have been. I think the bottom line of this
is I think it's just too specific of a universe to RIP
off. I think it's got very much got
its own identity and if you try and copy anything from any of
these films, you can just see it a mile away and it just looks
like plagiarism as opposed to a homage.
And I think that's definitely the point.
And the films that have come closer to it for me have been
like Phil and Ted one and two, maybe Hot Tub Time Machine films
got a similar kind of tone. Then Spielberg took lots from
this and paid homage. And Ready Player 1, I think
there was a lot of that tone in there.
And the Rick and Morty series, I've not seen it, but I've heard
that's very much kind of influenced by the look of Doc
and whatever else. So I can imagine it's it is
there in popular culture, but you've got to take it and you've
got to pay homage to little bits of it, like the De Lorean.
You can't just do a scene where someone skateboards outside of a
Diana. You're just not allowed to do
it. You can't have a kid going on
stage in the 50s and playing Johnny Be Good.
You're just not allowed to do it.
So you can't do a specific kind of homage to it, but you can
kind of riff on the on the feel and the tone of it, which I
think those films do. Yeah.
I think for a film that doesn't have the critical or the
audience love that the first one does, I still think the cultural
footprint, yeah, does still have one.
Like the hoverboard, the self releasing Nikes, the Jaws 19
hologram. These are images that any film
fan knows and they've been parodied loads of time since.
Yeah. And all that.
In 2011, the Parkinson's Research Foundation announced
that 1500 pairs of the Nike Mag shoes the Marty wears.
We're going to be auctioning it on eBay.
And Tinie Tempah bought the 1st pay for $37,500.
Wow. With every penny, yeah.
Yeah, 2, right? But filmmaking wise, if it's
like live system we talked about, that was innovative and
became the go to for films that have an actor playing multiple
roles. From then on, the back-to-back
production model became the template for Lord of the Rings,
The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean.
Yeah, yeah. Maybe most important, though, is
the Crispin Glover case. Yeah, that lawsuit about using
an actor's image without permission was something that
definitely needed to happen. I reckon even Zemeckis would
look back now and go what were we thinking with all that?
Yeah, and I think what Zemecha is pioneering the likes of Polar
Express and using and you know, that type of image capture and
especially with the gold in the AI now and we've got, you know,
we've got films coming out with deceased actors in them and
they're using their likeness because they'd signed contracts
because of it. I think it's very, very
important to have that as it's to keep it personal.
Yes, they are actors and yes, it is a likeness and yes, it can be
sold, but we're still, we've got to draw a line somewhere.
And it got on Christmas glove for standing up for himself.
I think he's he needs applause for that.
For sure. So yeah, there is a definite
kind of legacy that this film has.
Yeah, I mean, I agree with all that only once.
I would add more specific really I think Avengers end game.
A lot of that plot is about The Avengers going back into their
own timeline. Oh yeah, yeah.
Two very specific events changing them to ensure their
survival in the future. Don't the reference Back to the
Future in that film as well when they're saying what are the
rules? Yeah, one of them says obviously
Back in the Future or something like that.
Yeah, they do. Experts reference it.
Yeah. And on TV as well.
I think Doctor Who now, obviously that was around long
before Back the Future, but I mean, like when they brought it
back, there was one specific era when it starred Matt Smith.
And a lot of his stories were very heavily about the time
travel element of the show. And you got some very kind of
convoluted stories, again, about the Doctor and his companions
going back into their own timelines, trying to avoid their
past cells, stuff like that. So yeah, I think the story is
influenced a lot as well. Comes in Harry Potter, the third
Harry Potter film as well, doesn't it when they go back
into the same film? Yes, yes.
Third one isn't. It so shooting films
back-to-back, the Vista Glide and historic legal case and the
hoverboard Back to the Future Part 2, which influences
arguably bigger than its reputation suggests.
Yeah. Yep, definitely.
All the right movies ranking. We've time travelled all the way
through Back to the Future Part 2.
Now it's time for the big one where we each give it our score
out of 10. So, Wesley, to start us off your
summary and score for Back to the Future Part 2 please.
Well, I mean, we have gone through a lot of the issues and
we have gone through a lot of the celebrations, and I think
the celebrations far outweigh the issues that we've got with
this film. I will still come back to it at
any point and put it on and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy
myself. It is very dependent on the
existing ideas, but maybe that's the point.
I think you can't see this film too many times, almost have seen
over 50 times probably in my life.
Just ridiculous. Every weekend, just put it on,
put it on, watch it again, watch it again.
Same with the first one and the third one and just they were
just on rotation and they're really good to watch and they're
really good to watch with my kids and their barometer of it.
And I mean, Evan loves this and he loves the excitement of it
and he loves the futuristic elements of it.
And maybe it's a bit too much to go back to the 50s now.
Maybe this is a more of a popular film now for the kids
watching the Back of the Future trilogy and going that's more up
my street. That's 22015.
I understand what they're trying to say with that.
It's more exciting. And this has always been for me,
the trilogy that goes progressively down, but only by
a point every time. I do love 3 as well because I
love westerns when I was growing up.
And we've got Back to the Future, which is a good 10.
This is a good nine. And when we get to the three,
I'll give you that whatever, if you can't guess it, but that's
the whole point of this. And I think I'm going to give
this a name because if we lost Back to the Future forever, we
still have Back to the Future too, and there's enough in that
just to claw it back. Yeah, I've always been a fan of
this film. I'm away some of that's
nostalgia, but I'm fine with that.
Yeah. Because it's the middle chapter
of one of the great blockbuster trilogies.
It's ambitious in terms of its storytelling, in terms of the
technical filmmaking. And I still love 2015 Hill
Valley. I'd still live there.
I think what strikes me most now, having gone through it in
this kind of detail, is how much of A.
Sort of logistical achievement it was because it makes us like
barely sleeping Alan Silvestri scoring 2 films at the same
time. Production designers had loads
to do and it's all excellent. The cast spending hours in the
makeup chair shooting a scene, going back to the makeup chair
shooting the same scene again all in the same day.
It's just bonkers. I think the fact that the film
holds together at all is some kind of an achievement, but it
isn't perfect. They are plot holes aplenty.
Jennifer spends most of the film unconscious in various places,
and there's a standalone film. It doesn't fully satisfy because
it doesn't have an ending, but as part of a trilogy that's a
piece of blockbuster history, it definitely has its place.
If I was being completely objective, I'm making this an 8
out of 10, but I do love it, so I'm giving Back to the Future
Part 2 nine out of 10. Nice.
And Matt, you're some Marine. Score for Back to the Future
Part 2, please. OK, much more of a mixed bag for
me. I don't have the nostalgia for
this one I used to have and coming back to it I couldn't
understand why I was confused as a kid.
And it's not the plot actually which hangs together well, it
just felt confused tonally I think.
And the 1st 3rd of this was a bit of a slog to get through to
be honest. The effects and the make of
they've not aged well. The performances are very
cartoonish. Doc Brown is totally out of
character, and even the hoverboard chase, like I get my
people love it, but for me it's just rehashing the beat from the
first film but without the narrative.
Like we're behind it. Second, third, once we get to
what is essentially Pottersville, that's much
better. That all works.
And the final third is a lot of fun and it's very clever, but
all the same it's basically pointing out all the amazing
moments from the first film and unintentionally kind of
reminding you that this one doesn't have any of that on that
same level. So I think the best way to watch
this is an effective bitch from the 1st to the 3rd.
A great cliffhanger you're excited to see more.
Always great to hang out with Marty and Doc again.
But it does lack a lot of the first film's heart and charm for
me and gets a little bit dire and confused.
And I think the cleverness of what Smechas has done
technically doesn't quite overcome that.
So if I have to watch it as a stand alone film and rated as I
do here, it's going to be a 7 for me.
OK. Well, we also put this out there
to the ATRM community, where no one's left unconscious on the
porch, No? So, ATRM patrons, let's see what
they had to say, Should we? Yep, this will be a lesson.
First up, Dave Sedrick said it can't be as good as the original
obviously, but also it kind of hurts itself a bit.
MGF playing all his offspring felt like an inside joke that
just doesn't land for me and felt a bit self indulgent.
Yeah. However it's still a great ride
and good family popcorn fun. Solid 8 for me.
OK. I think for me, I'd have rather
seen Leah Thompson playing Marlene McFly A. 100% I don't
know why she isn't. Or Elizabeth Shue.
Yeah. Next up with Shaza who said a
fine sequel. I really enjoyed it when it
first came out and it's never got tired.
Still waiting for Hoverboards to be a real thing 9.
OK, on wheel to point off for that.
Don't allow Mattel. Yeah, come on.
And finally, Ryan Douglas wrote Love this film, but the fact
that old Biff goes back in time with the Almanac and changes the
future and then is still able to travel back to the future
version that Doc and Marty were in bothers me still today.
And eight out of 10, purely on nostalgia.
Yeah, fair enough. There it is again.
That plot hole bothers me as well.
You just need a line from doc to explain how it happens or
something. It does, yeah.
Yeah. So our ATR and patrons, we head
Back to the future Part 2. An average of What do you think
out of 10? I have no idea.
Well, this is a tough one to call, isn't it?
I'm going to say 8. I'm going to go optimistic.
I'll go 8.5. It was 7.5 out of 10.
Wow, wow. OK.
So the four scores together, that gives us a total of 32.5
out of 40 from Back to the Future Part 2.
OK, well, next time in all the right movies, Luke, Westy and
Matt are putting on the Ritz. You're heading back to 1974 and
Into the Crypt with Mel Brooks. Monster movie Young
Frankenstein. Yeah, a beloved classic.
Yeah. What could possibly go wrong?
It's pronounced Frankenstein of. Course it is.
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Yep. We're all off now for a
dehydrated pizza, a Pepsi perfect, and to watch six TV
channels at the same time. Yep, come back next time for
Young Frankenstein, Matt. Absolutely.
Until then, as always, thanks for listening everyone.
Yes. Thank you so much guys.
Thanks guys.