Back to the Future is an American science fiction media franchise created by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The franchise follows high school student Marty McFly and eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown as they use a DeLorean time machine to time travel through different periods in the history of the fictional town of Hill Valley, California.
The first Back to the Future film was the highest-grossing film of 1985 and became an international phenomenon, leading to the second and third films, which were produced back-to-back and released in 1989 and 1990, respectively. Although the sequels did not perform as well at the box office as the first film, the trilogy remains popular and has produced spin-offs, including an animated television series, a motion-simulation ride at Universal Destinations & Experiences locations in Universal City, California, Orlando, Florida, and Osaka, Japan (all later closed), a series of video games, and a stage musical. The film's visual effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic. The first film won an Academy Award for Sound Editing.
Films Back to the Future (1985)
Seventeen-year-old Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time from October 26, 1985, to November 5, 1955, in a time machine built from a DeLorean by the eccentric scientist Emmett "Doc" Brown, when Doc is apparently killed by Libyan terrorists from whom he stole the plutonium that powers the flux capacitor. Soon after his arrival in 1955, Marty's mother, Lorraine, falls in love with him rather than with his father George McFly, threatening to cause a paradox that would prevent Marty's existence. Without plutonium to power the time machine, Marty must find the 1955 Doc Brown to help him reunite his parents and return to 1985.
The efforts of Biff Tannen, George's bully, further complicate the situation until Marty successfully causes his parents to fall in love and simultaneously convinces George to finally stand up to Biff. Returning to the future via a lightning strike that powers the machine, Marty discovers a vastly improved situation for the McFly family, as a much more confident George has become an accomplished science fiction author, Marty's two older siblings have better lives, he owns his dream car, and an apparently softened Biff is now an auto detailer, rather than George's supervisor. Despite 1955 Doc's insistence on not knowing details of the future, he reads a note Marty leaves in his pocket in 1955, preventing him from being killed by the terrorists. In the film's final moments, Doc appears in an upgraded version of the DeLorean and tells Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker that they must travel to the future to fix a problem with Marty and Jennifer's kids.
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Doc travels with Marty and Jennifer to 2015, where he has discovered that Marty's family is in ruins. Shortly after rectifying the situation, Marty buys a sports almanac containing the outcomes of 50 years' worth of sporting events (1950–2000). However, Doc warns Marty against profiting from time travel and throws the almanac into a trash bin, where the elderly Biff Tannen finds it. A sleeping Jennifer is taken by police to her future home, prompting Marty and Doc to retrieve her before returning to 1985. While Marty and Doc are at the 2015 McFly home, 2015 Biff steals the DeLorean time machine and gives the book to his 1955 self just before he goes to the dance at the end of the first film. When Doc and Marty return to 1985, they find that Biff has used the sports almanac for financial gain, allowing him to turn Courthouse Square into a casino, take over Hill Valley, get away with murdering George, and later marry Lorraine. Marty learns that Biff was given the book by his 2015 self on November 12, 1955, so he and Doc travel back to that date to retrieve the almanac. They accomplish this in a complex fashion, often crossing their own past selves' paths. When the duo is about to travel back to 1985, a lightning bolt strikes the DeLorean and activates the time circuits, sending Doc back to 1885 and leaving Marty stranded once again in 1955.
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
After learning that Doc Brown is trapped in 1885, Marty and the 1955 Doc find and fix the DeLorean. Marty learns that Doc will be shot in 1885 by Biff's great-grandfather, the outlaw Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, and decides to travel back in time to save Doc (who has become a blacksmith). After arriving in the middle of a chase between the United States Cavalry and American Indians, Marty is forced to flee to a cave, tearing the DeLorean's fuel line and losing its gasoline in the process. Marty convinces Doc to return with him and find a way to get back to his time before it is too late, but Doc is smitten after saving schoolteacher Clara Clayton. After running afoul of and defeating Buford Tannen, Marty and Doc use a speeding locomotive (Sierra Railway 3) to push the DeLorean to , returning Marty to 1985 without Doc. When the DeLorean appears in 1985, a modern train (an ALCO S-6) destroys it, with Marty barely escaping. After reuniting with Jennifer, Marty avoids a street race, and the two visit the wreckage of the DeLorean. Suddenly, Doc, Clara, and their children appear in a time-traveling steam locomotive. Doc reminds Marty and Jennifer that "[their] future is whatever [they] make it", so they must "make it a good one". The locomotive lifts off the tracks and departs from 1985, ending the trilogy.
Future Co-writer and director Robert Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale, who have an agreement with Spielberg and Amblin that any further installments in the Back to the Future franchise will not be made without their involvement, have stated that another film is "not going to happen". Gale commented that he did not wish to see another film in the series without the Marty McFly character nor any other actor than Michael J. Fox playing him, while acknowledging that Fox's current health condition would make this impossible. He illustrated this at a 2008 fan convention in Florida, stating: "The idea of making another Back to the Future movie without Michael J. Fox – you know, that's like saying, 'I'm going to cook you a steak dinner and I'm going to hold the beef. Gale also said that the Telltale video-game adaptation is the closest thing to what a fourth film could be like. In an interview on October 21, 2015, the day of Marty McFly's purported arrival in the future, Christopher Lloyd stated that he would consider making a fourth film under the condition that the original cast and creative team returned, along with a story "worth telling". The same day, Lloyd reprised his role as Doc Brown in a brief segment in which the character returns with a special message marking the 2015 date. In 2020, actor Tom Holland claimed in an interview with BBC Radio 1 that he was approached by an unnamed producer over a possible reboot of the franchise with him starring in the lead role as Marty McFly (or a similar new character). However, Holland stated that he was reluctant to take up this offer as he described the existing films as "perfect films", though he would be interested in recreating scenes from the films in a deepfake homage video or short film.
Short film Doc Brown Saves the World (2015) Doc Brown Saves the World is a 2015 direct-to-video short film starring Christopher Lloyd as Emmett Brown. The short debuted on the 2015 Blu-ray and DVD release of the Back to the Future trilogy, which commemorated the franchise's 30th anniversary. The short was released on October 20, 2015.
Plot Emmett Brown is in an undisclosed location outside Hill Valley, California. He sets a video camera to track his body as he records a message for Marty McFly. He explains that it is October 21, 2015, one hour before Marty, Doc, and Jennifer Parker arrive from 1985. He explains that when he traveled to the future, he discovered that a nuclear holocaust occurred on October 21, 2045. He tracked it down to four inventions: the food hydrator, self-lacing shoes, the hoverboard, and the Mr. Fusion home energy reactor.
The first three inventions made the world lazy and obese, leading to widespread waste. The invention of hoverboards led to hovercars, which led to people throwing trash out of windows, causing a great trash storm in 2021. All this trash needed to be disposed of, which led to 100 million Mr. Fusion units being manufactured. All of the Mr. Fusion units had a tiny nuclear reactor inside, and all of them detonated on October 21, 2045. The chain of events began less than 24 hours after Marty caused Griff Tannen to crash his hoverboard into the Hill Valley Courthouse and Griff was sentenced. He vowed to get back at the world for laughing at him and planned to do so through a company he would found, GriffTech.
Doc holds up a tablet computer with a digital version of the Hill Valley Telegraph. On June 13, 2032, GriffTech invented a social media network called ThingMeme, which secured funding from Douglas J. Needles. ThingMeme allowed inanimate objects to post selfies online, but it was a scam that allowed Griff to gain access to every object on Earth. On the 30th anniversary of his arrest, on October 21, 2045, he uploaded a virus that was supposed to flash the word "butthead" on everything. However, it short-circuited the Mr. Fusion network, causing nuclear explosions in 100 million homes worldwide.
Doc Brown travels to an unknown date to ensure these inventions are never created, which will prevent the nuclear explosion. He leaves his camera on, which captures the inventions being erased from history. He arrives back in 2015, in a winter jacket and ski goggles, declaring that the mission was more complicated than he calculated, but declaring it a success. He holds up the tablet computer, where the headline on the Hill Valley Telegraph changes from "Griff Tannen Founds Grifftech" to "Griff Tannen Found Guilty".
Doc's excitement is short-lived. As he reaches into his pocket, he pulls out the Quantum Mind Jar, which he thought he disposed of in 2075. He worries that failing to do so will unravel everything they accomplished. The artificial intelligence of the Quantum Mind Jar tells Brown that they need to go back to the future, which he dismisses because he does not want to risk further time travel.
Another Emmett Brown then arrives and also declares his experiment a success. Both versions of Brown, along with the artificial intelligence of the Quantum Mind Jar, are shocked to discover that two Emmett Browns are present.
Cast and crew Cast and characters