Back to the Future Part III

Back to the Future Part III is a science fiction western comedy film starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd that opened on May 25, 1990. It is the third part of the Back to the Future trilogy, following Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II.

Plot

Like Back to the Future Part II, Back to the Future Part III picks up at the moments where its predecessor left off. Doc Brown has been accidentally sent back to 1885. However, he is able to send Marty a letter, telling him where the time machine is. He encloses instructions for Marty not to come for him and to destroy the time machine once he returns to 1985. Marty works with the 1955 Doc, and they recover the DeLorean from a mine. Before leaving the mine, they discover the tombstone that shows where Doc was buried in 1885. Doc has been shot in the back by Biff's great grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen over a matter of $80.

They haul the car back to Doc's mansion and restore it to working order, However, since adequate parts for a DeLorean car would not be accessible in 1955, The 1955 Doc had to fix it up with parts from that era. The DeLorean is now equipped with new whitewall tires, and a series of vacuum tubes to replace the damaged time circuit control microchip, which, due to the damage, could not get Doc back to 1955 himself. The time machine's flying circuits were also damaged, so the car will never again have the flying capabilities it had in Back To The Future Part II. Instead of going back to 1985 as ordered, Marty goes back to 1885 to rescue his comrade. After surviving scares from Indians, a bear, and even the cavalry, he finds refuge with his own great-great-grandfather Seamus McFly (also played by Fox). He introduces himself as Clint Eastwood, and Seamus and his wife equip Marty with appropriate clothing. Marty finds out where the Doc lives and the two are set to return home, only for Marty to tell Doc that he ripped the DeLorean's fuel line. A devastated Doc tells Marty that "there won't be a gas station until sometime next century...", hence they are out of gas and out of luck.

Doc devises a plan to push the DeLorean with a train locomotive across a bridge over Clayton Ravine that has not been completed yet, but will be in use in 1985. However, Doc finds himself infatuated with the town's schoolteacher Clara Clayton, and Tannen, initially intent on shooting Doc in the back, is now hellbent on killing Marty. Marty is able to defeat Tannen (using a trick from an Eastwood movie, A Fistful of Dollars, which was foreshadowed in the second movie) and persuade Doc to come back with him. However, Clara sneaks aboard the train as they attempt to push the De Lorean back to 1985. As Doc is climbing on the outside of the train to reach the DeLorean, Clara blows the train's whistle. Doc goes back for her, making the decision to take her back to the future. Clara slips while trying to reach him, but Marty is able to slip Doc the hoverboard he took back with him from 2015. Doc rescues Clara and presumably floats back to Hill Valley. The DeLorean then hits 88 mph just before it hits the edge of the ravine, sending Marty back to the future by himself.

Upon arriving back to the year 1985 on Eastwood ravine (named after Marty's pseudonym), the DeLorean is hit by a train and destroyed. Marty reunites with his girlfriend Jennifer and his family at home - in relief that everything had returned to the now-normal 1985 after the events of Back to the Future Part II. On their way to the lake (in the big truck), Marty runs into Neddles and his gang who challanges Marty to a speed race the minute the light turns green. Jennifer tries to presuade Marty not to accept it, but when Neddles calls Marty a "chicken", Marty looks like he is going to take the challange. However, using his mind, he escapes the challange be shifting the truck into reverse, he then discovers that if he had gone on with the race, he would have hit a Rolls Royce (see Marty McFly page).

He returns to the DeLorean's wreckage site with Jennifer. Thinking he would never see Doc again, Marty is in for a surprise as the railroad crossing lights activate without a train in sight. Doc returns before his very eyes in a new time machine, fashioned in the form of a modified 1880's-era locomotive. Doc is now married to Clara and they have two sons, Jules and Verne (named after Clara and Doc's favorite author, Jules Verne). Doc assures Marty that everything is back to normal in all times and that the future is not set in stone and that it is "Whatever you want it to be." After Marty inquires where Doc is headed next, and the inventor replies that he won't be returning to the future, the train itself lifts off of the track and turns around in midair, much like the DeLorean did in part 1, accelerates toward the viewer, and vanishes into another time as the movie ends.

Release and recognitions

The movie grossed ^*]23 million in its first weekend of US release and $87.6 million altogether in US box office receipts – $243 million worldwide. It was not as successful as the second film but was not a disappointment either, especially given that it was released only six months after the second film. On 17 December 2002 Universal Studios released Back to the Future Part III in a boxed set with the first two films on DVD and VHS which did extremely well. In the DVD widescreen edition there was a minor framing flaw that Universal has since corrected, available in sets manufactured after February 21, 2003.

In 1990, the movie won a Saturn Award for Best Music for Alan Silvestri and a Best Supporting Actor award for Thomas F. Wilson. In 2003, it received AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award for Best Special Edition of the Year, an award based on consumer online voting.

Cast and crew

Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly ("Clint Eastwood") and Seamus McFly
Christopher Lloyd as Dr Emmett "Doc" Brown
Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton
Thomas F. Wilson as Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen and Biff Tannen
Lea Thompson as Maggie McFly and Lorraine Baines McFly
James Tolkan as Marshal Strickland
Elisabeth Shue as Jennifer Parker
Jeffrey Weissman as George McFly
Matt Clark as Chester, the bartender
Dub Taylor as Saloon Old-Timer #1
Harry Carey, Jr. as Saloon Old-Timer #2
Pat Buttram as Saloon Old-Timer #3
Burton Gilliam as Colt Gun Salesman

Crew

Robert Zemeckis: director/screenwriter
Bob Gale: producer/screenwriter
Neil Canton: producer
Kathleen Kennedy: executive producer
Frank Marshall: executive producer
Steven Spielberg: executive producer
Steve Starkey: associate producer

Trivia

Universal logo

Universal Pictures had selected Back to the Future Part III to feature its then-new computer generated logo for the first time. This was in celebration of the studio's 75th Anniversary. The logo featured the "UNIVERSAL" "letters" rolling in from the right angle of the animated globe. It also featured a light orchestral tune by film composer James Horner. Universal continued using this logo up until 1997, when a more modern-looking revamp of this logo (and new music) was introduced.

According to the DVD audio commentary, Bob Gale had originally suggested that the studio should use the Universal logo from the 80s so that all three films would be consistent. But Universal executives wanted to use the "new" logo, because they felt that Back to the Future Part III would be the studio's biggest film of 1990.

Other trivia

Filmed simultaneously with Part II.
Rock band ZZ Top recorded the track "Doubleback" for the end credits. They also made a cameo appearance in the movie as a Wild West musical trio performing a very "unplugged" version of the song, played on period versions of their customary instruments.
In the five years since the original was made, Michael J. Fox had forgotten how to ride a skateboard.
In downtown Hill Valley in fictional 1885, the modern California State Flag is flown, incorrectly. This flag design was not adopted by the California State Legislature until 1911. Although in real life 1890, a photograph was taken of the Bear Flag, it is significantly different from the modern flag flying in Hill Valley. The words "California Republic" are not centered, and the bear logo is much smaller, and the five point star is much larger. All in all these are all collected in the upper left hand corner of the flag.
A scene with Buford Tannen killing Marshall Strickland was filmed but not included in the movie. Therefore, there was no explanation in the actual film why it was not Marshall Strickland who arrested Tannen at the end of the film.
Gasoline, while not commonly available at gas stations in 1885, would still have been relatively easy to come by, as it was collected and burnt as a nearly useless waste byproduct of petroleum processing to obtain lamp oil and kerosene, which were more valuable. However, with the time restraint placed by Doc's impending death, it may have been impossible to travel to an oil processing plant, and return, in time.
In the scene where Doc Brown is in the bar after having been rejected by Clara, he has a conversation with a gentleman who is "peddling barbed wire across the country". This can be presumed to be Joseph Glidden, the inventor of barbed wire.
Features Christopher Lloyd's first on-screen kiss.
This is not the first time Christopher Lloyd and Mary Steenburgen starred in a western together: they had both appeared in Goin' South.
Earlier drafts in the movie mention that Seamus (originally Angus) McFly was a role considered by Crispin Glover, before it went to Fox.
While shooting the stunt where Marty is being hanged by Tannen and his gang, Fox offered to try the stunt without using a box to stand on. He then miscalculated where his hand would slip between the rope and his neck, actually hanging himself, causing him to pass out.

There are many who wonder why Marty and Doc did not take gas out of Doc's damaged DeLorean and put it into the other car. However, at the beginning of the film, 1955 Doc states that he put gas in the tank and put on fresh tires. There are 2 reasons for that:

Doc from 1885 drained the gas from the car, knowing that the car would be inactive for a long time (standard procedure for long-term vehicle storage).
In the novelization (and the earlier drafts of the movie most likely), Marty asks Doc why they cannot dig up the other DeLorean. Doc tells Marty that doing so might disrupt Marty and 1955 Doc from uncovering it in the future.

Continuity Errors

The film features many plotholes and continuity errors, such as Doc being killed by Buford Tannen and meeting Clara Clayton. In the 1885 with Doc and Marty, Doc confronted Tannen and was threatened with murder, and also met Clara Clayton by accident. Here, Doc confronted Tannen while rescuing Marty, and also found and rescued Clara while with Marty and finding a way back to 1985. It has been debated among fans as to how these events occured in the 1885 with just Doc, as to how did Tannen warn Doc about his impending death, and how Doc managed to be at the ravine while Clara was there.

Video and computer games

LJN released an NES game called Back to the Future II & III, a sequel to their game based on the first movie. An arcade Back to the Future Part III game was also released that would eventually be ported to several home video game systems, including the Sega Genesis.

References in other media

In an episode of The TV Show when the family travels back in time to the old west, when main character and father Wayne Szalinski is asked his name by the town's inhabitants, he says it's John Wayne. When his wife gives him a look of disbelief, he says that if Marty could be Clint Eastwood in Back to the Future Part III, why he could not be John Wayne.

Also in the show Johnny Bravo, Johnny accidentally is sent to the future and he asks a lady, "Can you drive 88 miles an hour like in that movie so i can go home?"

External links

Official news site offering officially licensed memorabilia.

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