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Back to the Future 2 is a 1989 film and is the second part of the Back to the Future trilogy. It is the sequel to the first movie in the trilogy, Back to the Future. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The third part of the trilogy, Back to the Future Part III and this movie were filmed simultaneously and released six months apart.

Plot synopsis

The story continues with Marty McFly and Doc Brown as they now leave 1985 to go into the year 2015 to stop Marty's kids from destroying their lives. Since Jennifer has seen the DeLorean, they take her along, but Doc tranquilizes her because she asks too many questions about the future.

Marty's son, Marty Junior, is approached by Griff Tannen, Biff's grandson, and his gang and is asked to join in a robbery. According to Doc, this event eventually leads to the disruption of the entire McFly family. Marty impersonates his son and tells Griff he will not join in. The gang gets angry and chases after Marty. Using a hoverboard, he manages to escape them, and as a result, they crash into the courthouse and end up in jail, thus preventing the robbery.

While Marty is in 2015, he finds an antique store with all sorts of memorabilia from the 1980s, among which is the "Gray's Sports Almanac 1950-2000," containing all sport scores for that time span. Wanting to get rich when he goes back to 1985, Marty buys the almanac, but Doc catches him and puts it in the trash, berating Marty that he did not build a time machine for such trivialities as making money. Old Biff overhears the conversation and takes the almanac.

Jennifer, still tranquilized, is found by the police, mistaken for her future self after thumbprint identification, and taken home. Hiding in a closet, she sees her family life is far from ideal. Then, old Marty gets a phone call from his colleague Needles, who goads him into cooperating in a profitable but illegal scheme. But their boss at CusCo, Mr. Fujitsu, was listening in, and Marty promptly gets fired. Doc finally finds Jennifer and gets her out of the house, after she briefly meets her future self and both faint from the shock of seeing each other.

While Doc is rescuing Jennifer, Old Biff steals the DeLorean and travels to some point in time. Biff then returns just before Marty and Doc return with Jennifer. At that point, Doc decides that when they return to 1985, he is going to destroy the time machine, beliving that is has only caused disaster and misfortune.

Returning to 1985, Marty and Doc see that their time is not what it used to be. Hill Valley is now dilapidated, crime-infested and corrupt. Biff has become a rich and powerful man, and is now married to Marty's mother, Lorraine. Doc realizes that the old Biff must have used the DeLorean to give the sports almanac to his past self, thus changing his future. Marty confronts Biff to find out when and where he got the almanac, which turns out to be in 1955, around the time of the events in the original movie.

In a series of events that closely matches the first movie, the newer version of Marty manages to keep Biff's cronies from beating up his other version, and several times comes close to obtaining the almanac. Eventually, Biff drives off in his newly cleaned car. Hanging onto the side of the car with the aid of the hoverboard, Marty finally grabs the almanac and is rescued by Doc from being overrun by furious Biff's car and Biff crashes into a truck full of manure again.

As the rainstorm from the end of the first film begins, Marty burns the almanac to cinders, thus repairing his future. As revealed earlier in the film, Doc accidentally turns on the time circuits while taking off, which were malfuctioning and flashing the "Destination Time" as January 1, 1885. As Doc attempts to land the DeLorean, the car is suddenly struck by lightning, activating the flux capacitor and sending him back to the year 1885.

A few seconds later a Western Union delivery man appears with a letter. The letter was given to Western Union with the explicit instructions to deliver it to Marty at "this exact location, this exact minute, November 12, 1955." Marty tears open the letter to find out it is in fact from Doc, trapped in 1885. Marty rushes off to find the contemporary 1955 Doc, who has just succeeded in sending other Marty back to the future in the first movie. Upon seeing that Marty has returned from the future, Doc faints and the screen fades out with the words, "To be concluded..." (In Back to the Future Part III).

Deleted footage

In scenes deleted from the film, an older Biff Tannen fades out of existence (much like Marty was in the original movie when interfering with his parents' meeting) once arriving in the future, having been erased from existence in that time period. This can be explained for two different reasons. First, these events created a time paradox. Having created an alternate timeline by giving his younger self the almanac, the old Biff from 2015 no longer exists, now that 2015 will become part the 1985A timeline. Another possibility is that Lorraine, in 1996 of the 1985A timeline, shoots and kills Biff. These events are never implied in the trilogy, although Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale suggest this theory as a way of explaining Biff's "disapperance."

The scene is notable in that Biff started to fade out as Marty and Doc Brown flew off in the DeLorean and only disappeared completely after the sound of the "time burst" is heard. Presumably, had Marty and/or Doc discovered Biff's cane head in the time machine, which Biff broke off when he exited the car, they could have aborted the trip to 1985 and restored the timeline. Had this occurred, Biff would have faded back into existence, much as Marty did in Part 1, after his father kissed his mother.

Café 80's

The Café 80's is a fictional restaurant located in downtown Hill Valley in the 2015 scene. The restaurant is of 1980s nostalgia motif and features Max Headroom-style video waiters with depictions of Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and Ayatollah Khomeini. To the left of the restaurant, there is a Wild Gunman arcade game; to the right of the restaurant, there is a Pac-Man arcade game. The building is painted with Miami Vice-inspired pastel colors. The counter with the Pepsi logo is inspired by Japanese design. The Cafe was situated in the same building that housed "the saloon" in 1885, "Lou's Cafe" in 1955 and "Lou's Aerobic Fitness Center" in 1985. According to an early script for the movie, the Cafe 80's is owned by Biff's future son, Biff Tannen, Jr.

Slogan

  • Reagan: Welcome to the Café 80's, where it's always morning in America, even in the aftern-n-noon!

Food

Drinks

Products

  • Texaco (oil)
  • Mattel (producer of hoverboards for little girls)
  • Goldie Wilson III's Hover Convertible Road Car ($39,999.95)
  • Wild Gunman (arcade game)
  • USA Today (newspapers)
  • AT&T (payphones)

Main cast

The characters of George McFly and Jennifer Parker were played by actors different from those of the original film, requiring that some previous scenes be reshot.

Release details

Back to the Future Part II earned $47 million in its first weekend of U.S. release (November 22nd, 1989) and $118 million total US gross – $332 million worldwide. However, this was still short of the first film's gross, and the film experienced a drop of over 50% in its second weekend, a steep figure at the time. The same fate occurred in Part III, which came out only six months later. On December 17th, 2002 Universal Studios released all three movies in a three disc DVD and three tape VHS boxed set which sold extremely well when it was released.

Awards

The movie won a Saturn Award for Best Special Effects for Ken Ralston (the special effects supervisor), a BAFTA Film Award for Ken Ralston, an internet-voted 2003 AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award for the trilogy DVDs, a Golden Screen, and a Young Artist Award. It was nominated in 1990 for a Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Most visual effects nominations were due to the development of a new computer-controlled camera system, called VistaGlide, which was invented specifically for this movie — it enables one actor to play two or even three characters in the same scene while the boundary between the sections of the split screen and the camera itself can be moving.

A closer look at VistaGlide

Trivia

  • Filmed simultaneously with Back to the Future Part III, hence having footage from the 3rd film.
  • During production, the movie's working title was Paradox.
  • In the five years since the original film was made, Michael J. Fox had forgotten how to ride a skateboard.
  • When reading a newspaper from the future, one head line refers to "Queen" Diana (referring to the late Princess Diana) coming to Washington while another headline refers to the president of the United States as a female. Bob Gale jokingly said (on the audio commentary) that he had no idea about the 1997 death of Princess Diana but said he probably should've taken it into possibility.
  • Michael J. Fox played 3 characters in this film. One is the Marty McFly (of 1955/1985/2015), another is his future son Martin/Marty McFly Jr. and the other is his future daughter Marlene McFly.
  • As Bob Gale mentions in the audio commentary, he said that the trailer appearing to advertise Back to the Future Part III was taken from the device used to advertise The Four Musketeers within The Three Musketeers.
  • Thomas F. Wilson also played more than one character. One is Biff Tannen (of 1955/1985/2015) and the other is Biff's future grandson Griff Tannen.
  • In the scene where Marty (in the alternate 1985) visits the Biff Tannen museum, we see an image of Biff's great grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen who would appear later in Back to the Future Part III. However, this image of Buford differs slightly from the Buford that is seen in the third movie, as the producers were still tinkering with the makeup and clothing for the character.
  • When Marty burns the almanac in 1955, the wording on the matchbook he uses turns from "Pleasure Paradise" to "Auto Detailing."
  • Future Marty, his boss, Mr. Fujitsu, and Future Terry (the clock tower donation guy) can all be seen wearing two neckties; presumably a new fashion trend in 2015.
  • In the alternate 1985, the newspaper that had the story about Doc being declared insane had an article titled "Nixon to seek fifth term". When the original 1985 was restored, Doc was featured as being commended (instead of committed) and the Nixon article was changed to "Reagan to seek second term". This was a reference to Alan Moore's acclaimed comic book series, The Watchmen.
  • Billy Zane (of Titanic fame) made his first prominent screen role in Back to the Future & Back to the Future II playing Biff Tannen's friend Match.
  • Elijah Wood (of Lord of the Rings fame) made his acting debut in this film, as one of the boys playing the arcade machine in Cafe 80s in 2015.
  • Jason Scott Lee (of The Bruce Lee Story fame) played one of Griff Tannen's henchman in 2015.
  • In the window of an antique shop in 2015, a Roger Rabbit plush doll is displayed. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was another film directed by Robert Zemeckis and also starring Christopher Lloyd, and produced by Steven Spielberg
  • Although the film was released in 1989, they still refer to 1985 as the "present" to preserve continuity.
  • Many of the cars that appear in the future scene are modified for the film or concept cars. Examples include Ford Probe, Saab EV-1, Citroën DS, Pontiac Banshee Concept and Pontiac Fiero Volkswagen Beetle.*
  • The product placements in the movie include:
  • The characters pronounce the year 2015 both as "twenty-fifteen" and "two-thousand-fifteen".
  • The movie, Jaws was referenced twice; Jaws 19 was being shown at the Holomax Hologram Theatre, and is directed by Max Spielberg (executive producer Steven Spielberg's son). Also, the NES video game, Jaws, appears in the antique store.
  • When the DeLorean is struck by lightning and sent backwards in time, the number 99 appears in the sky. This is not some weird coincidence or allusion to anything, but is in fact the same fire lines that appear when the time machine at every occurrence of time travel. The reason for the 99 in the sky is the DeLorean doing a backflip in the air.
  • Needles is played by the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.
  • During the film Doc expresses to Marty that he went to a rejuevenation clinic and got an overhaul. This was due to the fact that Christopher Lloyd was tired of getting his make-up done so that he would have to look older.

Replacement of Crispin Glover

As Bob Gale states in the DVD commentary, actor Crispin Glover was asked to reprise the role of George McFly in this film. Glover indicated interest, but demanded a salary the producers felt was unreasonable. Glover refused to budge, so he was dropped from the picture. As a result, the writers introduced the idea of "killing him off" into the story. During all scenes in which the George McFly character appears in both this film and Back to the Future III, he is played by Jeffrey Weissman and seen wearing sunglasses, from the back, upside-down or, in the background out of focus. This was to prevent audiences from realizing that George McFly was played by a different actor. However, producers also recycled various scenes from the original Back to the Future that included Crispin Glover's portrayal of George McFly. Glover sued Universal for compensation, on grounds that his contract for the first film did not allow subsequent uses of his portrayal of George McFly. Universal settled and new Hollywood rules were written regarding the derivative use of actors' works.

Rumors and urban legends

During an interview, director Robert Zemeckis jokingly said that the hoverboards (flying skateboards) used in the movie were real. A surprising number of people thought he was telling the truth and demanded them at toy stores. After the release of Part III, Zemeckis had the opportunity to explain in another interview that all of the flying scenes were accomplished by suspending the boards using wires.

After the Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series, a rumor began to circulate that the movie predicted the Series' result; however, this was not the case. No mention is made of "Florida" winning the World Series at all, and the only mention of a Florida-based team is in a news broadcast which announces that the Chicago Cubs beat a Miami team with an alligator logo (not a marlin) in the 2015 World Series (a joke at the Cubs' expense; they haven't won the World Series since 1908). Many fans cited as evidence the fact that at the time the movie was made, Miami did not even have a Major League Baseball team. This was true, but Miami was at the time the largest metropolitan area in the US without a major league team, and it was considered a foregone conclusion that the city would get a team in the next major league expansion (which occurred in 1993). In the 2003 National League Championship Series, the Cubs actually played the Marlins, and appeared to be on the verge of breaking their curse against the Miami-based team (although in this case, breaking the curse would have involved just reaching the World Series rather than winning it as the movie predicted), though in the end it was not to be, as the Cubs ended up losing the series to the Marlins, who went on to upset the Yankees in the World Series.

Video games

Several video games based on the movies were released. See Back to the Future video games for a list.

See also

External links

1989 films | Adventure films | American films | Back to the Future | Films directed by Robert Zemeckis | Sequel films | Time travel films | Universal films | Science fiction films | English-language films

Back to the Future II | Ritorno al futuro II | בחזרה לעתיד 2 | バック・トゥ・ザ・フューチャー PART2 | Back to the Future II | Назад в будущее 2 (фильм) | Tillbaka till framtiden del II

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Back to the Future Part II".

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