30 Amazing Facts About Back to the Future
Back to the Future is one of our favourite stone-cold classic movies, which never gets dull with a box full of popcorn. It still brings us emotions, laughter and lifetime lessons, as it was at first sight.
Today we will introduce you to some interesting facts about Back to the Future, which might also be unknown to movie fans. So, sit comfortably and get ready to discover amazing facts behind the movie script and actors.
Reminder: A Short Review of Back to the Future
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The 1980s classic movie is about travelling in time. The story about teen Marty McFly and his friend Doc Brown brings us to the 50s, full of adventures and challenges. The director of the movie is Robert Zemeckis. The film is a trilogy and was released in 1985. After the immense popularity, people saw the second fantastic story about this duo in 1989 and the final part in 1990. Now, let's return to some unknown facts about Back to the Future.
1. The script was rejected more than 40 times.
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It may sound unbelievable, but the fantastic story about Morty and Doc Brown was rejected many times. Finally, the script was rejected 44 times. At first, Columbia Pictures commissioned Zemeckis to write the script but rejected it from the first review. After this disappointment, Zemeckis, with scriptwriter Bob Gale, keeps trying with other studios.
2. At first, the time machine was made out of a refrigerator.
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At first, it was imagined as a small room where Marty would go into and start travelling through time. The plan was to construct a time machine out of a 1950s vintage-style refrigerator, which Marty would enter and begin travelling through time.
3. Tom Wilson has his own Q&A script of Back to the Future.
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Tom Wilson plays the antagonist of the movie, Biff Tanner. As the movie fans asked many questions about Back to the Future, he made a Q&A script to handle many questions.
4. The first idea of the movie title was way too different.
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Even the movie directors liked the idea of Back to the Future, but Sid Sheinberg was against it. He even sent memos to Zemeckis and Gales to explain why this title wouldn't be successful. Sheinberg's initiation was denied by the movie producer Steven Spielberg. So, thanks to Spielberg, we can enjoy the movie with this amazing title.
5. We could see a different actor Marty.
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The issue was that Fox was playing in the comedy Family Ties. Therefore, the director had to create typical casting auditions. The only one Zemeckis liked was Eric Stoltz.
Sroltz started playing Marty, but from the first days, the movie team faced some issues. Zemeckis wanted more from the attitude of the script. Finally, after 6 weeks of filming, Zemeckis found Stoltz.
6. We could see the movie without the famous clock tower.
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According to the drafts of Back to the Future, Marty and Doc should visit a nuclear test site which was located in Nevada and not the Clocktower climax. The reason why the idea changed was the higher costs of the probable sequence.
7. Doc with a pet called Shemp.
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The first idea for the name of the pet was Shemp. The pet would be Chimp, but Sheinberg didn't like the idea. Only after that, a chimp Shamp changed with a dog named Einstein.
8. John DeLorean wrote a letter to Zemeckis.
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John DeLorean was the CEO of the DeLorean car company. The CEO decided to express his gratitude with a letter to Zemeckis, where DeLorean thanked him for helping to reach his dream "in such as positive fashion."
9. Visual effects of travelling through time were unusual for that period.
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ILM did a great job compared to the possibilities of visual effects at this time. For travelling through time, they used digital and practical effects such as flames from gasoline, digital smoke and lightning bolts, and the difficult structure of camera filming. Yes, filming it today would be much easier, but in the 1980s, they did a great job.
10. Christopher Lloyd threw the script in the trash.
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Thanks to Zemeckis, Lloyd decided to not play Doc Emmet Brown in the movie because Lloyd was not impressed by the script at first. He only liked the movie idea and accepted a suggestion after meeting Zemeckis, who impressed him strongly.
11. There were some issues with Crispin Glover.
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Crispin Glover, who plays the father of Marty in the movie, was pretty hard on set. He had some friction with Zemeckis. In the late interviews, the film director claims that the actor's problem was that he needed to be more focused on the interpretation of the McFly character.
12. Everyone Loved Zemeckis.
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According to the interviews from the main cast, Zemeckis was very nice to work with on set. Everyone loved his strong performances and attitude to the movie team. As J. Fox claims, he perfectly understood Zemeckis while filming the movie. Thompson and Wilson were amazed by his detailed-orientation skills and creativity.
13. The soundtrack of the movie became N1 on several charts.
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The soundtrack, The Power Of Love, was written by Huey Lewis And The News. The song became catchy for movie fans and achieved number 1 in several countries.
14. Huey Lewis has an episode role in the movie.
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Yes, maybe you have not noticed yet, but famous pop star Huey Lewis who is also the author of the soundtrack of Back to the Future is playing the first scene where Marty's Bend is auditioning for the band's contest. The pop star has a schoolteacher's role.
15. Spielberg was not sure about Alan Silvestri.
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It was Zemeckis idea to hire Alan Silvestri to write the music for the movie, but Spielberg was not sure that the music would deliver to the audience the movie story. But after he heard how the orchestra was warming up, Spielberg immediately changed his mind and said to Zemeckis that it was brilliant.
16. In the final scene, J. Fox was almost playing the guitar for real.
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As you might remember, at the end of the movie, Marty jumps on the stage and starts playing Chuck Berry. The actor wanted to appear very realistic, so he took guitar lessons and learned techniques.
17. J.Fox was working on two movies together.
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After Zemeckis stopped working with Stoltz, he decided to get J.Fox from Family Ties. The director let J.Fox read the script, and he loved it. The actor asked Goldberg, co-creator of Family Ties, to let him make Back to the Future too. J.Fox did a great job and didn't interrupt any of the movies for 2 months.
18. Marty had a different surname at first.
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In the first drafts of the movie, Marty's character's surname was McDermott, but later it changed to McFly.
19. Opening scene starts with a little prediction.
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In the opening sequence, we can see dozens of clocks, and there is nothing unusual except the one clock where the man is hanging off the minute hand. Later we can see the same scene with the Doc hanging on the clock.
20. Many think that Stoltz still appears in the movie.
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Here opinions of editors and fans are different from each other. Many fans are convinced that there are two very short shots in that Stoltz appears at the beginning scenes, but editors deny it.
21. Ronald Reagan was a fan of Back to the Future.
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Yes, it's pretty pleasant to hear that President Reagan is a big fan of the movie. He even quoted a line from the first movie "Roads, where we're going, we don't need roads."
22. Doc uses the same shirt twice in the trilogy.
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In the second film of Back to the Future, Doc is wearing a colourful shirt with trains. Later, we see the same shirt as a facemask in Back to the Future III.
23. "To be Continued" was not shown in theatres.
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If you remember the final sentence, "To be continued," you have to know that it was later added to for the home video release and has not been shown for movie theatres.
24. The idea of the movie came from a yearbook.
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Yes, it sounds pretty weird, but Gale found his father's old yearbook and thought he would be his dad's friend if they were born in the same period. This is where the movie idea came from.
25. Zemeckis was not a star director when he decided to make Back to the Future.
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While a great idea for a movie existed, Zemeckis had not enough reputation because of a lack of experience in film directing. His friend Steven Spielberg suggests he direct other movies at first to gain the industry's attention. This is how Zemeckis directed "Romancing the Stone."
26. Claudia Wells wasn't the first choice for Jennifer.
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Originally, Melora Hardin was the first choice for Jennifer's role, but after Stoltz was replaced, Hardin came to be quite taller than J. Fox. So she was replaced by Claudia Wells.
27. The Movie won the Oscar.
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It is not surprising that such a great movie received an Oscar, but did you know that it had four Oscar nominations in total?
28. The reason why Claudia Wells was replaced is sad.
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In Back to the Future II, we see that Claudia is replaced by Elizabeth Shue. This was because Claudia's mother was dealing with a serious illness.
29. Back to the Future was a debut for Billy Zane.
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Billy Zane, who is more popular for the role in "Titanic", made his debut in Back to the Future with the role of Match.
30. Princess Diana also was a fan of Back to the Future.
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Princess of Wales Diana attended the premiere of Back to the Future, and she even sat next to the actor.
