The World of Back to the Future Part II vs. October 21st 2015 (in our world)
Starting right where Part 1 finishes, Marty admires his new car, and is surprised by his girlfriend Jennifer. As they hug and kiss, a bright flash of light and the screeching tyres of a car come into the scene. It’s the Doc, leaping out of the car wearing God knows what on his face. “You’ve gotta come back with me. Back to the future!” Ordering them to get into the car, Doc informs Marty that his kids get into trouble and he must journey into the future to save them. Entering the car, Marty tells Doc “You better back up, you don’t have enough road to get up to 88”. Doc smartly replies, “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need…roads”. And with that his DeLorean rises from the ground, its wheels turning inside out to help the car hover, and it flies off in a trail of fire and smoke.
I remember watching Back to the Future Part 2 upon its release in 1989, and continued to watch it many more times after there. Growing up, I would tout it as my favourite of all the films in the trilogy, given it’s use of three time settings and a more compelling story than part one. As i got older, i came to see that Part 3 was a superior sequel and probably the best film of them all, but overall, Part 2 was my pick. Of course, the big drawing card of Marty McFly’s second time travelling adventure was the fact that he went into the future this time. All the way forward to 2015. Wow! The future. What a wondrous and amazing place that must be, where life is good and technology has advanced so far you can do and experience just about anything.
Believe it or not 2015 is now the past, and October 21st has come and gone. It was the day Marty travels forward to in the film, and was referred to as World Future Day. I originally posted this review on that major date as I thought it would be fitting to write a special review for the movie. In particular, what BTTF Part 2 predicted right and got wrong in terms of what life would be like in the year 2015.
What they got right… oddly, the movie got many of its predictions right. Check it out.
· Video games. In the 1980’s, it was all about arcade games and Nintendo. They’re still around these days and are more iconic than ever. In 2015, Xbox, Playstation and Wii rule the conquest for the consoles, and have adapted technology that limits the use of joysticks and remotes. They’re not gone completely however, but in BTTF2 (Back to the Future Part 2) they are more or less a thing of the past. As Marty enters the Café 80’s, and shows some kids how to play gun shooting game, they aptly reply “You mean you have to use your hands? That’s like a baby’s toy”. FUN FACT – Look out for a very young Elijah Wood in this scene in one of his first films.
· 3D Movies. With the groundbreaking Avatar in 2009, 3D movies went into overkill in the firs few years after that films success, but audiences soon grew tired of it. sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing, and no one likes to be cheated into thinking they’re watching 3D when it was clearly adjusted in post-production just to boost ticket sales. But in terms of sequels, they are definitely big business at the movies today with the likes of the seventh instalments of Fast & Furious and Star Wars being released in 2015. When Marty walks into the town centre of Hill Valley, a 3D shark from Jaws 19 materialises and swims down to gobble him up. A gimmicky way to advertise a sequel, even if 3D is not as prevalent today, seemingly never ending entries into a film franchise are, as Fast & Furious and Star Wars will go up to part nine respectively.
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Video Conferencing. In the movies we meet the Marty McFly of 2015, in his home. He speaks to both his supervisor Needles and his boss over a video conference on his TV screen. The whole thing is a set up which gets arty fired. In today’s world, video conferencing is extremely prevalent, being the preferred way for boardroom meetings to occur, and the most convenient and cheapest way to communicate with family and friends overseas via Skype. Even our mobiles phones now allow us to have Facetime and talk via a live video link. In BTTF2, personal information such as likes, interests and professions scroll across the bottom of the screen for Needles and Marty’s boss as he speaks with them. Similar in a way to the onset of social media in our 2015; look at someone’s page and know the basic facts about them without them having to tell you. Probably one of the most accurate predictions BTTF2 got right about the year 2015. Spooky…
· Our addiction to electronic devices. Today, everyone has a phone and who could imagine life without them. What started as a convenience seems to now be a necessity, as the majority of us can be seen playing with our phones several times a day and store our life on them in more ways than one. In BTTF2, we meet future Marty’s kids at their home having dinner. While Marty talks to his mum, the kids eat dinner both wearing what appear to be sunglasses, which are devices linked to the homes telephone system. Instead of joining in on the conversation with their dad, the kids are intently focused on their own devices while stuffing food into their blank faces. Can you see the connection here with today’s world…? Hmmm.
· Wall mounted TV’s with multiple channels. With flat screen TV’s the size of our walls on 24/7, offering us the chance to view several channels at once as we decide amongst the endless selections of programs to watch, BTTF2 got another prediction pretty spot on here. In future Marty’s house, his son Marty junior walks into the TV room, speaks to the TV and it turns on the six channels he asks for. We have voice activation with phones, and I might be appearing blissfully unaware here, but I don’t think we have voice activated TV’s yet? But we certainly can watch TV like never before with the ability to pick several channels to flip between at once, and record two other programs while we watch a third. Hang on! Did the filmmakers actually travel into the future to make this movie? This is getting weird.
· The 80’s is now nostalgic. It seemed to me that the 80’s were recognisably different as early as the 90’s, and certainly became more iconic in the early 2000’s. How many 80’s themed costume parties are held these days? How often do we refer to the movies, music and TV shows of the 80’s being the best and coin the phrase “They don’t make them like that anymore”? In BTTF2 Marty enters the Café 80’s as instructed by Doc. As he waits for Griff to arrive, Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ can be heard on the radio. The interior décor is classic retro 80’s style and at the time of this films release in 1989, the audience must have laughed at the idea of thinking their era would ever be considered iconic or even outdated. Yeah sorry The 80’s, but you disappeared so quickly it’s not funny, but you certainly left your mark.
· Self-lacing sneakers. What? You didn’t know? Yes, Nike is working on releasing self-lacing sneakers to the world sometime this year and you’ll be able to buy yourself a pair. As the clothing company is references very clearly in BTTF2 as being the creators of the awesome sneakers Marty wears in 2015, they have taken advantaged of that idea and turned it into a reality. Keep any eye out for them sometime in the next month or so and be willing to fork out several hundred dollars for them I’m sure. Self-lacing sneakers are coming.
What they got wrong… okay, so the filmmakers might have been a little too ambitions with some of their predications, which haven’t quite panned out yet. Read on.
· Flying cars. Of course, the major factor of life in the far off future of 2015 in BTTF2 was that all cars flew. Doc picks Marty and Jennifer up and reveals the time travelling DeLorean can now fly and they appear in the clouds above Hill Valley to a hectic scene of an airborne freeway. The car flies many more times throughout the movie, playing a key part in some of the action scenes. Sadly, we haven’t orchestrated flying cars on a large scale just yet, although some scientists recently created one that could lift of the ground and move slightly, which was really just a lightweight aircraft made to look like a car. We won’t be ditching road-bound cars any time soon, as more of us are driving and our roads and freeways are expanding. I could probably predict with accuracy that cars will never fly. There’s no point for it, even thought it would be cool. Watch this space I guess…
· Clothing. Sure, there some questionable fashion trends in the 2015 of today’s’ world, but in BTTF2 they had some interesting ideas which, thankfully, haven’t caught on here. Mainly no men wear double ties, like all the men in this film seem to do. Our clothes aren’t self drying although that would prove useful. And clothes aren’t making sound effects like Griff’s vest does, but you can get your hands on a t-shirts that light up if you want. At the end of the day, clothes are just to cover the skin on our backs and don’t need to be overcomplicated or advanced.
· Fax machines as preferred method of communication. Ha! This was a mistake on the filmmaker’s part. Faxes are so 1998. Now, we can scan and email an attachment quicker than the time it can take for a fax to get through. But in BTTF2, it’s still all the rage in 2015. In fact, the house of the future Marty McFly has a fax in almost every room. Its how he finds out he’s been fired in fact. It might have been left in the movie for tangible reasons so Jennifer could grab the fax, hold onto it, take back to 1985 the see the words “You’re Fired” disappear to show the future had been changed… that’s my guess.
· Weather predictions being 100% accurate. Although this would revolutionise the world in terms of avoiding natural disasters and getting caught in the rain, it’s just not the case in today’s 2015. In the movie, Marty and Doc arrive in Hill Valley 2015 as its pouring rain. Doc looks at his watch and the rain stops just as he knew it would. Even in today’s world, weather is too unpredictable to be predicted accurately enough. And if you live in Melbourne, well forget it. We have the most indecisive and fucked up weather in the world, jumping from hot to cold, dry to wet, windy to calm and all in one day on some occasions.
· Mobility aids. Either medical science hasn’t evolved or we just stick with what works. At least when it comes to bad backs, the best remedy is to lie on the couch and watch TV until it gets better. But in BTTF2, the solution is to wear a device on your back, which flips you upside down and lets you move around the house while your back is healed. It’s demonstrated by George McFly in the scene where he and his wife Lorrain (Marty’s parents) come over for dinner. He hurt his back on the golf course, and has to move around with his hair trailing the floor and his feet scraping the ceiling. A silly idea and probably not scientifically effective or accurate, but the filmmakers just added it in as a little touch to be futuristic.
· Hoeverboards. Who could forget the hoverboard scene from BTTF2? In recreating the chase scene through town from the first film, where Marty outruns Biff and his cronies, BTTF2 does it again, this time with Griff (Biff’s grandson) giving chase to Marty, thinking he’s Marty Jnr. Using it like a skateboard, Marty manages to escape the bullies onslaught and keeps the board for the rest of the film. It proves useful later on as he has to outrun Biff from 1955, again. In more recent years, the idea of making a hoverboard real in our 2015 has become less science fiction and more science. I haven’t seen them in stores yet but I’m sure they will be seen in public one day.
So there you have it. The 2015 of reality vs. Back to the Future Part 2. The time that seemed so far off and ahead of us when we watched this classic film back in the 80's, 90's and even up until a few years ago. But, the future of BTTF2 is now the past, and will we watch it the same way again? I don’t know. I will re-watch the film on October 21st 2016 and let you know.
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