Back to the Futureseemed like a wildly ambitious project when it was first green-lit for production in the early 1980s. But the ambitions of its production team only grew with the original movie’s sequels, not least because they somehow had to maintain the continuity of multiple – often overlapping – time-travel narratives at once. One thing that helps to give the franchise’s audience the sense that all the movies are adhering to the rules of narrative continuity is the appearance of recurring gags and motifs throughout the series, andBack to the Futuredid this well.
Aside fromBack to the Future Part II’s astonishingly accurate predictions about the world in 2015, the sequel succeeds because it leans into gags that fans of the franchise had come to love from the first movie. By the timeBack to the Future Part IIIcame around in 1990 to complete the trilogy, recurring elements of the movie were easy to predict, but major crowdpleasers. Marty McFly, Doc Emmett Brown, Biff Tannen, and actor Lea Thompson all have their momentsindulging in wholly expected but thoroughly satisfying callbacks to the previous movies.
10Hill Valley’s Clock Tower Gets A Fundraiser
It’s Constantly In Need Of Construction Work
In one ofBack to the Future’s opening scenes, Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer are approached by someone looking to raise money so that the clock tower of their town, Hill Valley in California, can be saved.The clock hasn’t been working since it was struck by lightning in 1955, a detail that will later become central to the movie’s plot.
The actual clock from the courthouse in Back to the Future was also used by Harold Lloyd in his 1923 silent comedy movieSafety Last.
This detail is repeated inBack to the Future Part II, when Marty and Doc Brown visit 2015 and find someone raising money for the clock tower in the same spot of Hill Valley’s Courthouse Square. Even inBack to the Future Part III, when Marty travels back to 1885, an inauguration party for the clock doubles up as a fundraiser to pay for the tower’s construction. Some things never change.
9Marty Orders A Drink From The Bar In Courthouse Square
The Bar Changes But The Order Doesn’t
One thing that does change between the three different eras depicted in theBack to the Futuremovie series is the name ofthe bar on the corner of Courthouse Square. Back in 1885, when Hill Valley was a small outpost town in the Old West, the bar was an old-fashioned whiskey joint called the Palace Saloon. In 1955, meanwhile, it’s a coffee bar called Lou’s Café, and by 2015 it’s turned into a place themed around ‘80s nostalgia, called Fusion Bar.
Back To The Future: 10 Things We Never Noticed In The Trilogy
The Back to the Future trilogy is one of the most beloved sci-fi stories ever told, but there’s a lot even the biggest fans missed
Each time Marty enters the establishment for the first time in a movie,he somewhat reluctantly orders a drink.InBack to the Future, he orders a Pepsi Free from Lou’s Café and is rebuked for not wanting to pay, as Lou misunderstands what he means, with the sugar-free version of the drink still years away from being invented. He goes for the same drink in 2015 during the first sequel, and is promptly served by a machine. InBack to the Future Part III, meanwhile, he tries to order water but is forced to drink whiskey.
8Somebody Rides A Skateboard Or Hoverboard
It’s Not Just Marty, Either
Marty McFly’s skateboarding skills during the chase scene ofBack to the Futureareone of the movie’s most iconic elements. Naturally, then, these skills were revived forBack to the Future Part II, only this time Marty was using a hoverboard, given that such things were expected to be available to the mass market by 2015.
The prop hoverboard Marty McFly rides inBack to the Future IIsold at auction for $501,200 in 2021.
This hoverboard comes in handy for Doc Brown inBack to the Future Part III, when he was hanging off the edge of a steam train while trying to save his girlfriend Clara. Marty, who’s behind the wheel of theBack to the Future’s famous Deloreantime machine, happens to remember that the hoverboard is stowed away inside the car, he throws it Doc’s way, just in time to save both him and Clara from certain death.
7Marty McFly Wakes Up To A Lea Thompson Character
The Matriarch Of The McFly Family
In the first movie of the series, Marty comes face to face with his parents as teenagers. Initially inBack to the Future, he meets his father, George McFly, and saves him from being hit by a car. This incident results in Marty himself being knocked unconscious, only to wake up in the bedroom of his teenage mother Lorraine.
“Thompson expertly carries off what could in lesser hands be an uncomfortably oedipal subplot about a mother falling in love with her son, mining comedy gold out of potentially awkward territory.” - Tommy Lethbridge -ScreenRant’s review ofBack to the Future
This is the first of three scenes in the franchise in whichLea Thompson’s McFly family matriarch wakes Marty up. InBack to the Future Part II, he’s again awoken by his mother, but back in 1985, or an alternate version of the year from what he’s expecting. Lorraine has now married the franchise’s main antagonist, Biff Tannen, after Biff murdered her first husband and Marty’s father, and she lives with him in his apartment complex. The thirdBack to the Futuresees Marty awoken in 1885 by his mother’s great-grandmother, Maggie McFly, who’s also played by Thompson.
6Doc Brown Says “Great Scott!” At Least 3 Times
His Favorite Catchphrase
TheBack to the Futureseries is known for its timeless catchphrases, and the best of them all is surely the two-word exclamation for which time-traveling Doc Emmett Brown is known and loved. Christopher Lloyd’s character utters the phrase “Great Scott!“a grand total of 13 times throughout the movies, and at least three times in each of them. Ironically, the last time the catchphrase is used in the series isn’t by Doc Brown. It’s by Michael J. Fox’s central hero, Marty McFly, as the Doc tells him some shocking news inBack to the Future Part III.
5Marty McFly Uses Celebrities Who Aren’t Famous Yet As Aliases
From Calvin Klein To Clint Eastwood
When he meetshis parents inBack to the Future’s 1955 narrative, Marty McFlycan’t reveal his true identity to them to avoid confusing or horrifying them. He has to make up an alias by which he can become known by the residents of Hill Valley during that era. Luckily, Lorraine McFly has just the pseudonym her future son needs. She notices that his underpants are labeled with the name offashion designer Calvin Klein, and assumes that this is Marty’s name, since Calvin Klein was only established as a brand more than a decade later. This alias is revived during the 1955 narrative ofBack to the Future Part II.
Back To The 1990s: What Back To The Future’s Past Timeline Would Look Like If The Movie Was Made Today
A Back to the Future reboot back to 1993 would look very different from the original movie but could still have all the charm of the original.
Similarly, Marty is forced to come up with an alias for himself when he arrives in 1885 duringBack to the Future Part II. Given the Old Western atmosphere of the place, he settles on legendaryWestern movie actor Clint Eastwood, who was born 45 years later. This plot point explains why a ravine in Hill Valley is known as the Eastwood Ravine a century later.
4Rock Stars Make Cameo Appearances
Both As Actors And Musicians
In addition to Marty’s celebrity aliases, theBack to the Futuretrilogy enjoys its fair share of famous cameosfrom rock stars. Huey Lewis from Huey Lewis and the News appears as a talent judge in the first film, during a scene in which Marty and his band audition with Huey’s own song. Eddie Valen cameos via his music, which Marty uses to scare his father into doing what he says back in 1955.
Every Easter Egg In The Back To The Future Movies
The Back to the Future Easter eggs list is extensive. Here is every Easter egg that can be found in the trilogy, in the order of their appearance.
The second movie also features two separate appearances from Flea, the bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. What’s more, rock group ZZ Top cameo as the country music band in the party scene ofBack to the Future III.
3Pepsi Gets Product Placements
The Company Was One Of Back To The Future’s Big Sponsors
The first film sees Pepsi-cola drinks appear on multiple occasions, most notably during Marty’s scene with George in Lou’s Café in which they both have glass bottles of Pepsi.
Since most of it is set in 1885,Back to the Future IIIdidn’t offer many marketing opportunities for a drink that would only be invented eight years later. Still, somehow, Pepsi managed to squeeze their name into the movie, via a billboard visible during the 1955 part of the story.
2Marty Gets Called “Chicken”
Nobody Calls Him Chicken
Marty McFly’s iconic weakness is getting dragged into fights by people who call him “chicken”. Most notably, the franchise’s chief antagonist Biff Tannen, as well as his ancestors and descendants, like to wind Marty up with this tactic. Biff is the first character tocall Marty “chicken” in the originalBack to the Future, when he intervenes to stop him from harassing Lorraine.
Back to the Future: Why Marty McFly Really Hates Being Called A Chicken
Why does the word “chicken” trigger Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy? We break down the subtext and thematic connections to other films.
A descendant of Biff’s, played by the same actor, Thomas F. Wilson, also calls Marty “chicken” in the 2015 section ofBack to the Future Part II. Biff does it again later in the movie, too. It was actuallythis sequel that established the pattern of Marty responding to the tauntwith, “Nobody calls me chicken.” InBack to the Future Part III, it’s Biff’s ancestor, the outlaw Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen, who insults Marty in this way while he’s using his “Clint Eastwood” alias in 1885.
1A Tannen Gets Covered In Manure
He Hates Manure
Biff and the other Tannens get their just desserts in each of the movies, though, ending up with a face-full of horse manure. It happens when Biff and his friends chase Marty around Hill Valley’s town centre inBack to the Future, and again inBack to the Future IIas Marty escapes Biff on his hoverboard.
In the finalBack to the Future, Marty punches Buford Tannen, just as he happens to be standing in front of a cart of horse manure. He falls head first into the cart, and utters what had, by then, become one of his catchphrases, “I hate manure!” Marty has already it all before – or after, depending on how you see the future.
