Everything about Back To The Future Part Ii totally explained
Back to the Future Part II is a
1989 film and a
sequel to the
1985 film Back to the Future. Like the previous film, it was directed by
Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and
Bob Gale.
Part II and the third installment of
the trilogy,
Back to the Future Part III, were filmed
back-to-back and released six months apart. Although released in 1989 and 1990, both films continued to portray 1985 as the
present due to them following on directly from the first film.
Part II follows the continued adventures of
Marty McFly and
"Doc" Emmett Brown as they use their
time-traveling De Lorean, which is now
capable of flight, to travel to a
retro-futuristic version of
2015, an
alternate 1985 and the principal setting of the first film in
1955. The film ends with a
cliffhanger that's resolved in
Part III.
Plot
Marty McFly, "Doc" Brown and
Jennifer Parker arrive in
2015. After recovering from her initial shock, a consequence of
time travel, Jennifer begins asking many questions about her future. Doc tranquilizes Jennifer, who isn't necessary for his plan, explaining that he brought her along only because she saw the
time machine. After landing in Hill Valley, Marty and Doc leave Jennifer in an alley, expecting her to remain unconscious while they attend to the crisis involving Marty's children. Doc explains that
Marty's son is about to be approached by
Griff Tannen,
Biff's grandson, and his gang, who will offer him the chance to take part in a
robbery. According to Doc, this event leads to the ruin of the entire McFly family. Marty impersonates his future son and tells Griff he won't join the robbery; however, his self-control breaks violently when he's accused of being a "chicken". The resulting confrontation leads to a
hoverboard chase that damages the nearby
courthouse. Griff and his gang are arrested and the planned robbery never occurs.
Before reuniting with Doc, Marty notices a
sports almanac in a store window which lists sports statistics through the year
2000. Imagining the potential for financial gain in 1985, Marty buys the book. Doc discovers the almanac,
scolds Marty for it and throws it away, for the selfishness and danger of his plan, insisting that the purpose of inventing a time machine was for scientific (rather than financial) gain. Meanwhile, Jennifer, still tranquilized, is found by the police, who mistake her for her future self after
thumbprint identification, and take her to her future home, waking her up just as they arrive. Confused, she hides in a closet, witnessing the Marty of 2015 being fired from his job after he's caught in an illegal scheme that his colleague, Douglas Needles, goads him into joining (again by taunting him he's too 'chicken' to try it). Travelling to the house, Doc leaves Marty with the DeLorean, finds Jennifer and sneaks her out of the house. Along the way, she encounters her older self, with the shock causing her to pass out again. Unable to carry her himself, Doc calls Marty for help, leaving the DeLorean unguarded.
While Doc and Marty rescue Jennifer, Biff (age 78), having overheard Doc and Marty talking about time travel, recovers the discarded sports almanac and steals the De Lorean. He returns the car just before Marty and Doc prepare to leave for their own time, stumbles away in pain and collapses (he has the same symptoms that Marty exhibited in
Back to the Future when he was beginning to be "erased"). Bonus features on the DVD allude to the fact that Biff was killed by Lorraine in 1996. Upon arrival in 1985, Marty and Doc find that
Hill Valley has become a dilapidated,
crime-ridden
slum lorded over by a middle-aged Biff, who is now immeasurably rich and
powerful thanks to decades of successful sports betting, to which he proceeded to roll over the gambling winnings into
toxic waste dumps and to purchase the Hill Valley courthouse and convert it into a luxury hotel and casino. Biff has also married Marty's widowed mother, Lorraine, after secretly killing her husband George. Doc deduces that the Biff of 2015 must have given the almanac to his younger self sometime in the past. Marty confronts Biff and finds out that he received the almanac on
November 12, 1955, the date of the lightning storm that Marty used to get back to the future. Biff then tries to kill Marty (with the same gun used to kill George) as he now knows too much, but is saved by Doc when Doc knocks him out with the Delorean's gull-wing door.
Marty and Doc travel back to 1955 to prevent Biff from getting the almanac. Marty, after a long and complicated series of events involving his multiple attempts to recover the almanac while making sure that he doesn't undo all the help he rendered in the previous film to his parents, eventually manages to steal the book from the 1955 Biff with the help of Doc in the flying DeLorean, and burns it, restoring
history to its proper course. As Doc attempts to land the De Lorean to pick Marty up, the car is struck by
lightning, causing it to disappear, the time machine having been activated by the strike. A few minutes later, a
Western Union delivery man appears with a letter, which he explains was sent seventy years ago with the explicit instructions that it be delivered to Marty "at this exact location, at this exact minute, November 12, 1955". Marty opens the letter, which is from Doc, explaining that he's now trapped in 1885. Knowing he's only one source of help, Marty runs to the clock tower to find the Doc of 1955, just as lightning strikes to send the previous film's Marty back to the future. Seeing the new Marty, whom (he thinks) he's just sent back to 1985, Doc faints. The film ends as Marty bends over Doc, trying to revive him.
Cast
The characters of George McFly and Jennifer Parker were played by actors different from those of the original film, requiring some previous scenes to be reshot.
Production
The original script for
Back to the Future Part II had Marty and Doc Brown go back to 1967 instead of 1955, had Mr. Fusion destroyed, with Marty and Doc Brown having to fly the De Lorean over the Grand Canyon.
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 reportedly refused to budge, so he was dropped from the picture. Glover later insisted in a
1992 interview on
The Howard Stern Show that he and Zemeckis had had some "creative disagreements" over the character, and felt that the director simply wanted an actor who was more pliable. He also said that the salary offered was "really low" (reportedly around $50,000), and that he was certain they never really wanted him back.
In the
BTTF FAQ, Gale and Zemeckis state that Glover was uninterested in doing the sequels and was asking for the same salary as Michael J. Fox, and therefore was written out of the story.
As a result, the filmmakers found inventive ways of avoiding showing the character's face in the movie, despite the fact that George McFly was in certain key scenes and dialogue. During all scenes in which the George McFly character appears in both this film and
Back to the Future Part III, he's played by Jeffrey Weissman and seen wearing sunglasses, from the back, upside-down, or out of focus in the background. This was to prevent audiences from realizing that George McFly was played by a different actor. However, producers also recycled unused footage 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 didn't allow subsequent uses of his portrayal of George McFly in new films. The day before the lawsuit went before a judge, Universal quietly settled the case, paying the actor an undisclosed sum. Glover wouldn't reveal the amount during his
Howard Stern Show appearance, but did suggest the real reason for the settlement was that Universal was reluctant to "open up their accounting books to the public" during the trial. The
Screen Actors Guild later rewrote their rules regarding the derivative use of actors' works in films or TV series, requiring the studios and networks to give appropriate payment and credit to the actors.
Replacement of Claudia Wells
Claudia Wells, who had played Marty McFly's girlfriend Jennifer Parker in the original
Back to the Future, reportedly had personal problems and opted to drop out of acting in
1987. The producers reluctantly cast
Elisabeth Shue for the part, which required reshooting the closing scenes of
Back to the Future for the beginning of
Back to the Future Part II. A comparison of both films reveals that Shue appears to be considerably older than Wells (and slightly taller than Michael J. Fox).
It was nearly 10 years before Claudia Wells returned to Hollywood, with a starring role in the
1996 independent film
Still Waters Burn. She is one of the few actors not to make an appearance during the 2002 "behind the scenes" documentaries on the
Back to the Future trilogy documentaries on DVD.
Trailer
With both films being made back to back, "BTTF part II" ends with a teaser
trailer for
Back to the Future Part III. The only difference in this teaser trailer is the "Summer 1990" text is omitted for the home video release.
Rumors and urban legends
As a joke, Robert Zemeckis said during a television interview that the
hoverboards (flying skateboards) used in the movie were real, yet not released to the public due to parental complaints regarding safety. 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 a variety of special effects techniques. There was even a high demand for the Nike Sportshoes Marty wears with automatic shoe-laces, which fans thought to be real.
After the
Florida Marlins beat the
Cleveland Indians in the
1997 World Series, and again in 2003, when the Marlins defeated the Cubs in the
NLCS, rumors circulated that the movie predicted the Series' results; however, this wasn't the case. In the film's future news broadcast, it's announced that the
National League Chicago Cubs beat an unnamed
American League team based in
Miami, which has an alligator logo, in the
2015 World Series. Aside from the incorrect year, the mascot of the team mentioned doesn't match that of either current Florida-based team. When the movie was filmed at the time, Florida didn't have a
Major League Baseball team of their own, with the Miami-based Marlins beginning play in 1993.
Release
Back to the Future Part II earned
$27 million in its first weekend of U.S. release (
November 22,
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 Universal Studios released only six months later. On
December 17,
2002 the studio released all three movies in a three disc
DVD and three tape
VHS boxed set which sold extremely well when it was released, despite having widely discussed widescreen framing problems, which had led to a less widely publicized product recall.
Home video release history
March 18, 1990 (VHS & Laserdisc)
July 4, 1991 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc)
December 8, 1991 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc)
March 23, 1995 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc)
June 7, 1998 (VHS, Compact Disc & Laserdisc - The Last Release of CD & Laserdisc)
May 12, 1999 (DVD with Lucasfilm THX)
July 9, 2000 (VHS & DVD with Lucasfilm THX)
March 15, 2002 (VHS & DVD)
May 7, 2006 (VHS & DVD)
Note: The DVD features a deleted scene of Marty's brother in the alternate 1985, as a drunken bum on the streets. The scene was cut mainly because it was confusing without showing Marty's sister, as well (who didn't appear because Wendie Jo Sperber was pregnant at the time).
Reception
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 an 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.
Cultural impact
A Simpsons episode titled "Bart to the Future" has an Indian sachem showing what Bart's future may look like 30 years from now. The bully Nelson is a nightclub owner with a dark suit, turtleneck, and better styled hair than he'd as a child. The future Nelson's appearance and business ownership was a nod to the powerful Biff of 1985A.
In the Family Guy episode "Meet the Quagmires," Peter goes back in time and ends up not marrying Lois. In the altered timeline, Brian draws a time-line similar to Doc Brown's and adds, among the things different, "for some reason, we now have a chalkboard in the living room." This episode was also a spoof of the first Back to the Future film.
In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Blink", minutes after the disappearance of character Cathy Nightingale, her grandson delivers a letter to Sally Sparrow, a letter entrusted to him 20 years previously, explaining Cathy's disappearance to the year 1920 and her subsequent life, despite having only left Sally moments earlier. This clearly echoes the scene in Back to the Future Part II, when Marty receives a letter written in 1885 just moments after Doc's departure (see Plot Synopsis) and the lines of the respective characters are almost identical in places.
The plot of centered around the antagonist, Lady Tremaine, finding out about Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and stealing the magic wand so that she can change the timeline to her own gain, similar to what Biff does. In an article about Disney sequels written for the Progressive Boink website, staff member Mike Fireball noted the similarity by jokingly referring to the film as "Alternate 1985 Cinderella".
The 2007 movie Knocked Up makes reference to BttF in the scene where Ben, Alison, Pete and Debbie are having dinner at a restaurant and Ben and Pete are joking about their future by Ben saying "Where we're going we don't need roads.", followed by Pete's "I'm gonna throw you in my DeLorean and gun it to 88." There are also some references to Doc Brown.
At the end of the Kappa Mikey episode "Easy Come, Easy Gonard", the Lilymu sequence shows Mikey being thrown off a roof by Gonard, but a split second later, Mikey is shown standing on the Lilymu team jet while it's elevating him back to the top, which is a spoof of a scene from the movie.
Phil of the Future features a family who is from 2121. The series finale is called "Back to the Future."
In the background of one of the mall scenes in the episode "A Fishful of Dollars" of the television series Futurama, a self-adjusting jacket can be seen on sale.
In an episode of Stargate Atlantis, Major Shepherd suggests you'd need a "really nice De Lorean" to travel through time.
Busted's song "Year 3000" clearly mentions the flux capacitor and "a time machine like the one in a film I've seen".Further Information
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