Back To The Future Trilogy Review

Collage of 4 images for the Back To The Future films. The first 3 images show the poster images for each film, with Marty, then Marty and Doc, then Marty, Doc and Clara, standing beside the open door of the DeLorean car in each image, looking in concern at watches they're wearing or holding. The 4th image shows the DeLorean car speeding off into a bright light in the distance, with flames trailing in its wake.

This week marks 40 years since the time-travelling classic Back To The Future was released on July 3, 1985. So it’s been the perfect excuse for me to watch the trilogy again recently, starring Michael J. Fox as young Marty McFly, alongside Christopher Lloyd as the eccentric Doc Brown with his DeLorean time machine. Created by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, with impressive special effects for the time by Industrial Light & Magic, beautiful scores by Alan Silvestri, and great songs by the likes of Huey Lewis & The News and ZZ Top, the films are all very entertaining and still hold up really well today.

A couple of years ago I saw the musical, which was fun apart from missing out on the touch tour, and I rewatched the first film online back then to refresh my memory. But I haven’t seen the other 2 instalments since my youth and didn’t really remember them after all this time. So I’ve revisited them all at last by watching the trilogy on Blu-ray, which I bought a while ago but ended up setting aside for this big anniversary to go through it all. All of the films have been remastered of course, so they all look and sound really good.

This therefore marks the first time in decades I’ve seen all three films, and the first time ever that I’ve watched any of the bonus material. And it’s been a lot of fun. So I hope you enjoy this little run-through of it all as my tribute to this timeless trilogy.

Front cover of the Blu-ray for Back To The Future - The Ultimate Trilogy. The logo for the trilogy is shown in front of a starry sky. On the ground below that, the DeLorean car, with the registration plate Outa Time, speeds towards a bright circle of light on the horizon, with flames trailing in its wake.
Back cover of the Blu-ray for Back To The Future - The Ultimate Trilogy, showing four small screenshots from the films and an extensive list of special features.

Contents

Back To The Future

Film

Back To The Future was released on July 3, 1985 and lasts for approximately 2 hours (1 hour 56 minutes to be precise). The opening sequence, showing all of Doc Brown’s clocks and home-made gadgets, before Marty tries his guitar out on an extremely powerful speaker, sets the scene and the tone nicely.

In the story, Doc is thrilled to have invented a working time machine using a very cool DeLorean car. But when he’s gunned down by terrorists, who are angry at him stealing their plutonium to power his invention, Marty uses the car to make a quick getaway. But he goes too fast, hitting the 88mph threshold that triggers time travel, which sends him back to 1955, on the day that Doc first came up with the concept. And without any spare plutonium for a return trip, Marty is stuck there, so he needs to find the younger Doc to see if there’s any other way of powering a vehicle that he hasn’t even built yet.

To further complicate matters, an accident results in his future mother Lorraine (Lea Thompson) falling in love with him, and believing him to be called Calvin Klein because of the tags in his underwear. Marty’s actions have inadvertently stopped her getting together with his father-to-be George (Crispin Glover), a weak-natured man who can’t stand up for himself, which means that Marty’s family from 1985 will no longer exist. Consequently, unless he fixes the timeline quickly, Marty himself will cease to be, as he will never have been born.

So Marty has to somehow get George to win Lorraine’s affections, while Doc works on a solution to power the car using an upcoming lightning storm, before he can safely return to 1985. And the Doc doesn’t want to know about the future, even when Marty tries to warn him of his fate.

It all makes for an exciting adventure altogether, and the actors are very good, especially the main cast who play both their older and younger selves. And it’s admirable that Michael J Fox is so good as Marty, considering he was filming the sitcom Family Ties at the same time, which contractually had to take priority over the movie, so he was losing his mind appearing in 2 different productions each day! Indeed, he wasn’t cast originally because of that, with the producers going for Eric Stoltz instead – but he just wasn’t right for the role, so when the chance to get Michael came up, the filmmakers jumped at it. And thank goodness they did.

The film ends with Doc taking Marty and Jennifer with him in the DeLorean, having warned them that something bad is going to happen to their children in the future. But at the time of production, there were no plans for a sequel, and it was just an amusing conclusion. It was only after the film had become hugely popular in cinemas that plans for a follow-up got underway. Subsequent home video releases therefore added a caption saying “To Be Continued…” to indicate that more was to come – but the original theatrical release didn’t have that, hence it’s not included on the Blu-ray, as the filmmakers wanted to reflect the original experience.

Soundtrack

All of the films in the trilogy have a magnificent orchestral score by Alan Silvestri, and the score for this first film was released as an album. I don’t have the version from 2009, which had an alternate and more serious version of the score on the second disc, because it was only limited edition. But I have downloaded the single disc edition that contains the actual score from the film, released in 2015, which is all I want anyway. A few of the tracks enable you to hear complete versions of pieces that were trimmed down or cut altogether from the movie, which is nice.

Naturally it includes the iconic title theme with its instantly recognisable motif that recurs throughout the film. I like the fact that it’s credited to the Outatime Orchestra, in reference to the number plate on the DeLorean. But my other favourite pieces of music are from the dramatic and pivotal scene at Twin Pines Mall in 1985, the entertaining skateboard chase, the jazzy Marvin Be-Bop, and the big closing set piece at the clocktower that lasts over 10 minutes, with several moments of tension and excitement.

There are several songs in the film as well, most of which were released on a separate soundtrack album of their own that I also have.

The highlights are of course The Power Of Love and Back In Time, both magnificent tracks written for the film by Huey Lewis & The News. I also have the slightly longer 7-inch single version of The Power Of Love (4:21 compared to the soundtrack’s 3:55), which itself is an edit of the really cool 7-minute 12-inch mix, both of which I got on compilation albums ages ago. And talking of that song, Marty and his band play an instrumental version at an audition in the film, only to be rejected by a judge who’s played by Huey himself.

I also really like Heaven Is One Step Away by the legendary Eric Clapton, which is heard in the background during the movie and is very catchy. And the cover songs by character Marvin Berry (Harry Waters Jr) with his band The Starlighters are very nice too, with the bluesy instrumental Night Train and the sentimental ballad Earth Angel. Marty then joins them to introduce the crowd to Johnny B. Goode, with vocals by Mark Campbell – and in the film, Marvin phones his cousin Chuck Berry to let him hear it, which inspires him to release the song 3 years later. The version on the soundtrack album doesn’t include Marty’s manic guitar solo, instead being a normal performance that fades at the end.

The other songs on the album are Time Bomb Town by Lindsey Buckingham and The Wallflower (Dance With Me Henry) by Etta James with Richard Berry, which are still nice, just not quite as great as those above. And finally there are also a couple of instrumental pieces from the score by Alan Silvestri – one being a repeat of the end credits music from the other album, along with an 8-minute overture.

There are other songs in the film that were excluded from the album, including Mr Sandman by The Four Aces, The Ballad Of Davy Crockett by Fess Parker and Pledging My Love by Johnny Ace. They’re all good, but the other tracks on the album are better, so I’m not too bothered about them being left off.

Marty also plays a brief snatch from Out The Window, a blistering guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, when frightening George in bed in the Darth Vader scene. They couldn’t use any songs by his band, hence picking one of his solo pieces instead, with his full name shown on the cassette. The track had first been used in a film called The Wild Life the previous year.

Extras

There’s a very comprehensive selection of extras with the first film, lasting 6½ hours altogether.

Blu-ray menu for the film Back To The Future. It shows Marty standing by the door of the DeLorean car, which opens upwards rather than to the side like a traditional car door. Marty has raised his sunglasses in order to look at a watch on his wrist, and has a fearful look on his face. Across the bottom of the screen, there are icons to play the movie, select a scene, adjust audio and subtitles, and access the extras. The extras menu is already open on the right, with a thumbnail image for each feature. 3 features are shown at a time, with other features shown when you scroll to the arrows at the top and bottom of the list.

These include a couple of audio commentaries:

  • Q&A Commentary – Producer Bob Gale and director Robert Zemeckis are interviewed in front of a live audience for this commentary track, having just watched a screening of the film. So it doesn’t directly relate to the action you’re seeing, but the discussion does have a logical order to it, in terms of how the film was developed and produced. There is inevitably a fair amount of overlap with the information in the other extra features, but it’s still very interesting. The Q&A runs for 1 hour 39 minutes, so it lasts for most of the film, ending with just 17 minutes left.
  • Feature Commentary – This is a more standard commentary track that refers to what’s happening on screen, led by Bob Gale with occasional input from fellow producer Neil Canton. They make the assumption that you’ve seen all the other extras on the disc, and therefore try not to cover the same ground too much. So while it’s not always the most exciting discussion, it is worth listening to once at least, as there are lots of interesting little details in there.

There are various documentaries too, some of which have further instalments in the extras for the later films, consisting of:

  • Tales From The Future (1:03:01) – An excellent trilogy of features produced for the 2010 Blu-ray release, featuring interviews with the filmmakers and cast members. Two are nearly half an hour long each, with one about how the story and cast came together, while the other is about the making and release of the movie. The remaining feature is then about the music for all 3 films, lasting just under 6 minutes.
  • The Making Of Back To The Future (14:28) – This is an old documentary from 1985 with some nice behind the scenes footage.
  • Making The Trilogy: Chapter 1 (15:30) – Another little documentary about creating the film. Tales Of The Future effectively supersedes this, as a lot of the information is the same.
  • Back To The Future Night (27:10) – A special programme hosted by Leslie Nielsen which celebrates the first film and gives a preview of the second, with a look at the making of both movies, so it really belongs on the second disc. Again, there’s nothing new or surprising here given all the other extras in the set, but it’s still nice to have for completeness given Leslie’s involvement, considering he’s not actually in any of the films.
  • Michael J Fox Q&A (10:20) – This is a nice interview, including a bit of talk about the sequels.

Then in addition to all that, we also get:

  • Deleted Scenes (10:44) – 8 deleted or extended scenes with optional commentary by Bob Gale. The “Pinch Me” scene is funny, as is the scene with Doc looking through his personal belongings from the future. Plus there’s a longer version of the “Darth Vader” scene where Marty scares George. None of them are huge losses from the movie, but it’s good to see them, and Bob explains clearly why they were cut.
  • Outtakes (2:49) – An amusing gag reel, including a spoof reworking of one of the deleted scenes with Marty and Doc messing around, while a funny prank is played on Michael later on.
  • Original Makeup Tests (2:17) – Just a few clips of cast members acting and posing on set so the director can see how they look, so nothing too exciting.
  • Nuclear Test Site Sequence (4:12) – This is quite interesting, as we get to see storyboards for the original ending that was considered for the movie, with optional commentary by Bob Gale. It was dropped because it was clearly going to be too expensive, but Bob’s right in saying that the clock tower scene they replaced it with is much better.
  • Photo Galleries (23:40) – Some nice slideshows with 284 images in total, displaying production art, storyboards, behind the scenes photos, marketing materials and character portraits.
  • Huey Lewis & The News: The Power Of Love (6:27) – The introduction to this music video shows Doc Brown arriving at the venue where Huey Lewis & The News are performing, with lots of people eager to look at his DeLorean. The song itself is then just the band miming to the studio track, so in that sense it’s nothing special. But it’s nice to see anyway, because the song’s fabulous. It went to number 1 in America, whilst also becoming the band’s only top 10 hit in the UK.
  • Theatrical Teaser Trailer (1:18) – This is a specially filmed trailer with Marty, giving teasing views inside the DeLorean, so it looks quite cool.

Back To The Future: Part II

Film

The second film came out on November 22, 1989, and was filmed back to back with the third, as during development of the storyline it became apparent that two movies would be needed. At 1 hour 48 minutes it’s only slightly shorter than the first movie, and it’s a decent sequel to be fair.

Because the filmmakers hadn’t originally known there would be a sequel, however, they had written themselves into a corner with their jokey ending to the first film. So the first 40 minutes is really just designed to tie up that loose end and get them to the main plot. For a start, they had to recreate the closing moments of the first film, partly for the audience to see Biff again given his crucial role in the movie, and also because Claudia Wells had to be replaced by Elisabeth Shue as Jennifer for this sequel. And then Jennifer had to be rendered unconscious for most of the story anyway, because she serves very little narrative purpose.

But it’s handled very well and the future storyline is actually good fun, as our heroes fly ahead to October 21, 2015, which has since become known as Back To The Future Day as a result. And it’s fascinating to see the predictions that are made here, some of which did come true – such as multi-channel digital TV, video calling, video games that don’t require hand-held controllers, high-tech glasses, and biometric identification. But we didn’t have hoverboards, flying cars or self-drying jackets, and still don’t really, as the relevant technology that does exist is very limited by comparison.

It’s also fun to freeze-frame on certain things to look at them more closely, such as the newspapers to read the headlines, or the TV screens to see what’s being shown on the various stations. It’s also interesting to note that when Marty is being teased by a young boy about still playing video games using his hands, the kid in question just happens to be an 8-year-old Elijah Wood in his first movie role.

There are some clever split-screen moments as well, with different versions of the same character interacting with each other, especially the complex pizza scene where Michael J Fox is playing 3 people all at once – Marty, his son Marty Jr and even his daughter Marlene! Then later on we see an animated flying DeLorean landing on the ground and seamlessly becoming the real car, which also looks impressive. Such effects are relatively easy to achieve nowadays, but back then it was ground-breaking for ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) alongside the use of a motion-control camera system called VistaGlide that was specially developed for the film.

Anyway, in terms of the story, Marty is fascinated by the future and is alarmed to see what his son is like, while Jennifer finds herself trapped in the house with her future family, and then their children are saved from trouble thanks to a great hoverboard chase.

But the real trouble begins when the older version of bully boy Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) discovers that Doc and Marty are time travellers and steals the DeLorean, taking with him a Sports Almanac that he gives to his younger self in 1955, enabling the young Biff to become a powerful millionaire by placing winning bets on sporting events on which he knows the results in advance. Marty and Doc, however, only become aware of this when they return to 1985 and discover that everything has changed, and Marty confronts Biff to piece together what happened, while also being horrified to learn the respective fates of his mother Lorraine and father George.

Marty and Doc can’t return to 2015 to stop older Biff of course, because it’s now the future of the alternate timeline that he’s engineered (and there’s a fun scene in The Big Bang Theory where they try to make sense of Biff’s actions). So they have to stop younger Biff from using the almanac in the first place. And that requires a return to 1955 – on the exact date that Marty and Doc were trying to resolve things at the end of the first film, so they have to be extremely careful not to meet their other selves or interfere in those events. It’s clever how the original scenes from the first film are incorporated into this one with new perspectives (especially as they had to work around Crispin Glover’s absence as well, which famously involved a lawsuit), and it becomes increasingly complicated for Marty as he desperately tries to get the book.

It ends with another great chase sequence involving Marty on a hoverboard and Biff in his car, ending in an appropriate way that mirrors the first film nicely. But then as Doc prepares to take Marty back to 1985, the DeLorean is struck by lightning and disappears, leaving Marty stranded in the fifties. Or so he thinks at first, as a carefully timed letter is delivered informing him that Doc has been thrown back even further in time. And there’s still a younger version of the Doc in 1955 of course, from the first movie, who might just be able to help. The film then ends with a trailer for the next one.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack album of Alan Silvestri’s score was released for the second film, and I have the 2-disc expanded edition that came out in 2015, with a selection of alternate cues on the second disc.

Obviously the album incorporates the theme music we know and love, including in the Main Title and End Title. Beyond that, the tracks really suit the action in the film more than being listened to in isolation, but the pieces I like most for the atmosphere they evoke include The Future, Chicken / Hoverboard Chase, Biff’s World / 27th Floor, Alternate 1985, Something Inconspicuous, The Book, Nobody / Tunnel Chase and The West. The alternate versions are interesting to hear for curiosity, but aren’t hugely different and I think they picked the best ones for the film.

No album was released for the songs, however, because there were only three that weren’t repeated from the first movie, and weren’t written especially for this one. The classic Beat It by Michael Jackson is easily the most famous of them, when Marty’s exploring in 2015, while I Can’t Drive 55 by Sammy Hagar is a good rock song that plays when he returns to the altered version of 1985. And then Papa Loves Mambo by Perry Como can be heard on Biff’s car radio in 1955. Beyond that, the big dance scene from the first film is recreated from a different perspective, so we hear those songs again.

Extras

Once again there’s a fair selection of bonus features to look through on the second Blu-ray, lasting almost 5 hours if you go through them all, some of which are continuations from the extras with the first film.

Blu-ray menu for Back To The Future Part 2, showing Marty and Doc standing by the DeLorean car, lifting their glasses and looking at their watches with alarmed looks on their faces. Icons to play the film, select chapters, and adjust audio and subtitle settings are across the bottom of the screen, while the extra features are in a vertical menu on the right that you can scroll through, with a relevant thumbnail video or image for each.
  • Commentaries – Just like the first disc, we have the same participants in a live Q&A (which lasts for just 55 minutes), and a full-length scene-specific commentary. So again both tracks are interesting, as they point out lots of fun little details that I would otherwise have missed and various nuggets of trivia.
  • Tales From The Future: Time Flies (28:37) – A enjoyably comprehensive documentary about the making of the film, continuing the series from the previous disc that was produced for this release.
  • The Physics Of Back To The Future (8:25) – This is quite interesting, as theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku explains why Back To The Future is one of the only movies to get the basics of time travel right.
  • The Making Of Back To The Future: Part II (6:40) – A nice promotional behind-the-scenes feature from the archive. Some of the interview footage from this is also in the Back To The Future Night extra on disc 1 – including director Robert Zemeckis joking about the hoverboards being real, which at the time resulted in toy companies being inundated with requests from children who believed him!
  • Making The Trilogy: Chapter 2 (15:30) – Another feature about how the second film came about. But it repeats a lot of detail you’ll have already seen in Tales From The Future as well as documentary footage from the first film.
  • Behind The Scenes (10:36) – A collection of short featurettes with Bob Gale talking about the production design, storyboarding, the DeLorean and designing time travel. Much of it isn’t new if you’ve seen the other extras, but bits of it are interesting, including a letter they received from John DeLorean about the use of his car.
  • Evolution Of Visual Effects Shots (5:42) – This illustrates how several effects shots were built layer by layer, which is cool to see, including the DeLorean flying into Hill Valley and later landing in a street, Marty walking into the futuristic town square, the Jaws hologram and Biff’s Pleasure Palace Hotel.
  • Hoverboard Test (0:58) – Some fun footage of the crew testing out the hoverboards.
  • Deleted Scenes (5:45) – 7 cut and extended scenes, with optional commentary by Bob Gale. As with those on the previous film, you can understand why they were trimmed or removed, but they’re nice to see.
  • Outtakes (0:49) – A very short gag reel, so it’s nothing special, but there is an amusing moment involving Marty and his hoverboard.
  • Photo Galleries (44:31) – A massive selection of 534 pictures, including 288 behind the scenes photos and 128 character portraits, plus production art, storyboards and marketing materials.
  • Theatrical Trailer (2:15) – The cinema trailer for the movie, obviously.

Back To The Future: Part III

Film

The third and final movie hit cinemas on May 25, 1990, just 6 months after its predecessor, and the 2-hour adventure proves to be a great way to round off the trilogy, with a very different setting to the others.

The story resumes from where it left off, at the concurrent ending of both the previous films, where the Doc in 1955 has just sent Marty back to 1985, only for future Marty to come back and see him again, now that the Doc’s future self has been sent back to 1885. The latter has made a new life for himself in the Old West and has hidden the DeLorean for it to be found in 1955, with instructions to repair it with the technology that will be available then, but also telling them not go back and save him, as he’s happy where he is.

However, Marty discovers that the 1885 Doc will be killed just a week after he had written his letter, so Marty uses the repaired DeLorean to go back and help him. So he naturally has quite the culture shock when he encounters his family’s ancestors and then finds himself amongst cowboys like in a Western – especially Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen (Biff’s grandfather), who will be responsible for killing Doc. Buford nearly kills Marty as well by hanging him, but is saved by Doc.

Doc now works as a blacksmith, and is still being extremely creative with his inventions, making good use of anything he can get his hands on. Plus he’s grateful to Marty for alerting him to his potential fate. But without any petrol to power the DeLorean – as the fuel line was cut when Marty landed – Doc formulates a plan using a locomotive to push the car to the required 88mph. But not only is it risky, there are other complications too, with Buford threatening both Marty and Doc’s lives, and the fact that Doc falls deeply in love with a new teacher called Clara (Mary Steenburgen).

So there’s a lot of fun and humour, drama and emotion, and great stunts and special effects, as Marty and Doc try to stay safe while preparing to return to 1985. I’m not into Westerns, but having the Old West as a setting for this movie works really well, as it’s so different to the first two films, and there are a lot of funny moments. It’s also great that Doc has a love interest at last, the big closing set piece with the train is fantastic, and I love the way our heroes get the happy endings they deserve. It’s a very satisfying conclusion.

Soundtrack

The big song in this film wasn’t written especially for it, but it’s a banger regardless, as it’s by legendary rockers ZZ Top. The original rock version of Doubleback is played over the credits, but during the film itself they play an instrumental country version at the festival in 1885, which is fun.

There’s also a little reprise of The Power Of Love on a car radio towards the end of the film, when Marty’s back in 1985, which helps to bring everything full circle.

Beyond that, the score by Alan Silvestri is again fabulous, with an album dedicated to it just like the other films, and I have the 25th anniversary edition with a bonus disc of extra material. It also comes with a booklet, including a lengthy but interesting essay by film music journalist Tim Greiving about how the film was made and how the score came together, accompanied by a lovely selection of photographs.

I love the Western-style version of the main theme that Alan composed for this movie, which you hear in all its glory over the end credits. But other tracks I like on the first disc include dramatic pieces like Indians, The Hanging, There Is No Bridge / Doc To The Rescue, The Showdown / The Kick and Parts 1, 2 & 3 of the epic train scene, as well as the more sentimental tracks for Doc’s love interest, with At First Sight, The Kiss and Goodbye Clara, plus the uplifting ending with Doc Returns.

The second disc then includes alternate versions of many of the tracks, which are interesting for curiosity but nothing exceptional to speak of. But it also contains the instrumentals for songs that were played in the Old West, including Doubleback as mentioned above, as well as traditional folk songs like Turkey In The Straw, My Darling Clementine, Pop Goes The Weasel and a Saloon Piano Medley, among others. They’re quite catchy.

Extras

The extras on this disc are in a similar vein to the previous couple of films, and last for 5¼ hours if you go through every single one in their entirety. But as with the previous discs, you can easily skip a few to avoid repetition.

Blu-ray menu for Back To The Future Part 3, showing Marty and Doc dressed in cowboy gear, holding the brims of their hats with one hand as they look at handheld watches. Clara, a beautiful young woman, is holding on to Doc from behind. Icons to play the film, select chapters, and adjust audio and subtitle settings are across the bottom of the screen, while the extra features are in a vertical menu on the right that you can scroll through, with a relevant thumbnail video or image for each.
  • Commentaries – Again we have the same format of commentaries featuring the same people as the previous two films. The live Q&A lasts just 30 minutes this time, so it’s nice and concise, while the scene-specific commentary runs for the whole movie. They’re worth listening to if you’re a big fan.
  • Tales From The Future (34:07) – Here we get two more excellent documentaries, lasting 17 minutes each this time, reflecting on making the third film and the cultural impact of the trilogy. The latter mentions things like the Universal theme park ride, the animated TV show for children, responses from Ronald Reagan and John DeLorean, the popularity of the DeLorean car, and a general analysis about why the films have endured.
  • The Making Of Back To The Future: Part III (7:32) – Another nice featurette from the archives with plenty of behind the scenes footage.
  • Making The Trilogy: Chapter 3 (16:20) – This concludes the series from the previous couple of discs, but again has a lot of overlap with the other features, making it superfluous.
  • The Secrets Of The Back To The Future Trilogy (20:41) – A TV special looking back at the films, answering questions from fans. There’s nothing new given all the other features though.
  • Deleted Scene (1:18) – There’s only one deleted scene, which shows “Mad Dog” Tannen killing Marshal Strickland in front of his son. As explained in Bob Gale’s optional commentary, it was cut for being too dark in tone, and he’s right.
  • Designing Hill Valley & The Campaign (2:26) – Two pointlessly brief archive featurettes, lasting just over a minute each, in which Bob Gale talks about designing the town and the promotional posters.
  • Photo Galleries (26:55) – Nice slideshows of 323 images from the production art, storyboards, behind-the-scenes, marketing and character portraits.
  • Outtakes (1:35) – A brief and unexciting gag reel.
  • FAQs About The Trilogy (20:01) – 20 screens of text by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis answering questions about the films, although it’s not really worth reading if you’ve been through all the other features.
  • Theatrical Trailer (2:11) – The cinema trailer for the movie.
  • ZZ Top: Doubleback (4:09) – Their music video for this great song makes clever use of footage from the movie by mixing the band in with it.
  • Back To The Future: The Ride (31:05) – This is very cool, as it’s the actual footage that visitors saw in the Universal ride, featuring Christopher Lloyd reprising his role as Doc. First you learn about Doc, his DeLorean, his other inventions, historical figures he’s met, and the Institute of Future Technology that he founded. Then Biff breaks into the institute, imprisons Doc and steals the original DeLorean. So Doc gets the time travel ‘volunteers’ – i.e. the customers on the ride – to chase Biff in a special 8-seater version of the time machine, flying through Hill Valley and other locations. It’s not the same experience as being on the ride, obviously, but it’s fun to watch and imagine it.

Bonus Disc

As if the 16½ hours of commentaries and features with the films wasn’t enough, the final disc contains even more to dig through, lasting 3¼ hours, and it’s a really nice variety.

Menu for the bonus disc in the Blu-ray box set of the Back To The Future trilogy. It shows the DeLorean car from the rear, with a number plate reading Outatime, as it speeds off into the distance with flames trailing behind it. The various bonus features are listed in a tall box on the right, in white text on a black background.
  • An Alternate Future: Lost Audition Tapes (3:45) – Short clips of young actors who had unsuccessfully auditioned for the film in 1984, before going on to have memorable careers of their own, including Billy Zane as Biff, Kyra Sedgwick as Jennifer and Ben Stiller as Marty, among others. They’re not particularly exciting, but are interesting to see for curiosity.
  • Could You Survive The Movies? (19:47) – This is a feature from the brilliant team at Vsauce, who make entertaining educational videos on Youtube with very high production values, covering complex topics in a very engaging way. So here Jake Roper demonstrates what would actually happen if you were hit by a gigantic sound wave, travelled through time or got struck by lightning. He even gets to film on the backlot of Universal Studios where the movie was made, and there’s a guest appearance from Donald Fullilove, who played Mayor Goldie Wilson in the original movie. So it’s really interesting and quite amusing in places, and the attention to detail is incredible. There’s also a behind-the-scenes video on Youtube showing how they made it, but that’s not on the Blu-ray unfortunately. Then for more like this you can check out Series 1 & Series 2 of Could You Survive The Movies? on the Vsauce3 channel. The episode also features Dianna Cowern, who runs a channel called Physics Girl but sadly now suffers from Long Covid and ME/CFS, so she’s worth a follow as well for greater awareness of those conditions as well as her earlier material.
  • Message From Doc Brown (0:45) & Doc Brown Saves The World! (9:38) – Christopher Lloyd reprises his role as Doc in these two videos to mark the 30th anniversary of the original film in 2015. In the first he basically repeats his message from the end of the final movie, reminding you that your future isn’t written yet, so make sure it’s a good one. Then in the second video he has to destroy some objects to prevent a catastrophe in 2045. So while Christopher is clearly much older, it’s lovely to see him playing Doc with such enthusiasm once more.
  • Outatime: Restoring The DeLorean (22:00) – In 2011, thanks to a special event held by Universal, Bob Gale discovered what a dilapidated state the DeLorean car from the film was in, much to his horror. So he employed a team of hardcore Back To The Future fans to restore the time machine to its original glory. They were led by Joe Walser, who had already built a couple of excellent replicas, so knew what he was doing. The team worked their socks off for a year, cleaning and repairing every individual element of the vehicle, retaining all of the original parts as far as possible, and even went the extra mile by computerising the time circuit features to make them interactive. So this feature shows how they did it, and it’s amazing what they were able to achieve. There is a more extensive hour-long documentary about the restoration, which is available to buy or stream separately, though I’m not interested in getting that as this feature was enough for me. But obsessive fans of the movie or cars in general may like to check it out.
  • Looking Back To The Future (45:42) – This is a documentary produced in 2008, split into several parts, with many members of the cast and crew reflecting on making the films. Naturally, therefore, it repeats a lot of the information from the other extras, but it’s still nice to see everyone talking about their experience so fondly.
  • Back To The Future: The Animated Series (46:32)– Here we get the opening episodes of seasons 1 & 2 of the children’s TV show. So I wasn’t interested in watching them in full, but I like that they use a cover of Back In Time for the theme tune, and that there’s live-action footage of Christopher Lloyd as Doc introducing each episode.
  • 2015 Commercials (2:34) – To finish off the box set, there are a couple of fun parody adverts, based on what we saw in 2015 in the second film. So there’s a Jaws 19 trailer, summarising what all the sequels were in between, along with a hoverboard commercial, which makes them feel real, and it’s worth freeze-framing the disclaimer at the end to read it.

Michael J Fox

Finally, it’s worth giving an extra special mention to Michael J Fox given everything he’s been through and achieved.

In 1991, at the age of just 29, Michael was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease, which he made public 7 years later. In 2000 he then set up a non-profit foundation in his name with a goal of finding a cure for the condition, and it’s so far raised a staggering $2 billion to fund a variety of research projects. This, on top of his exemplary film and TV career, has made him eternally popular and a hero to millions.

He’s far too modest to consider himself in such terms, but it’s true. And it’s illustrated by the response he gets whenever he appears in public. For instance, on Back To The Future Day (October 21, 2015), he and Christopher Lloyd returned to their roles as Marty and Doc on the Jimmy Kimmel show, where they were greeted by a long standing ovation before engaging in a very funny conversation with the host, and Huey Lewis even made a cameo appearance.

Likewise, Michael’s been greeted just as warmly when receiving awards. For example, in 2022 he accepted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 13th Governors Awards, and in 2024 he was given the TIME100 Impact Award, and delivered lovely speeches in both cases. Then in January this year he received the Presidential Medal Of Freedom at the White House. And that’s just a few of the many accolades he’s been honoured with over the years.

Also last year he came on stage at the BAFTA Film Awards to announce the winner for Best Film, and it was entirely appropriate that he was introduced by the time-travelling Doctor Who star David Tennant. And very recently this year, on May 30, he took part in a 40th anniversary convention panel along with Christopher Lloyd, to the crowd’s delight.

And those are just some examples of how universally loved Michael J Fox is. So we salute him for everything he’s done, and it’s wonderful that he’s still getting out there and being as active as he possibly can. The word legend gets tossed around a lot these days, but he’s truly earned that title.

Conclusion

So that’s it. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the films after such a long time, and digging through the nearly 20 hours’ worth of extra material. I’d forgotten how fabulous the trilogy is, but it really has stood the test of time. So happy anniversary to Marty, Doc, Biff and the rest of the Hill Valley crew. Your legacy will live on long into the future!

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Author: Glen

Love London, love a laugh, love life. Visually impaired blogger, culture vulture & accessibility advocate, with aniridia & nystagmus, posting about my experiences & adventures.

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