Hello…McFly? Back to the Future is one of the most iconic sci-fi movie franchises in history, and arguably one of the most iconic movie franchises of any genre, period. The 1980s films presented a futuristic world where a time-traveling DeLorean allows a high schooler and an eccentric scientist to travel back and forth in time, potentially altering history.
Selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2007, Back to the Future made Michael J. Fox a household name. Fans can’t imagine anyone else playing the character of Marty McFly, nor any other actor but Christopher Lloyd as Emmett “Doc” Brown. Relive the wonder of Back to the Future and introduce a new generation of fans to the films, since all three in the franchise are now streaming on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.
What Is Back to the Future About?
Back to the Future follows Marty McFly (Fox), a teenager in 1985 who befriends a scientist named Emmett “Doc” Brown (Lloyd). One night, after feeling defeated about his life and despondent about his future, he meets Doc in a shopping mall parking lot. Doc shows him a time machine he built using a modified DeLorean, a vehicle that remains synonymous with the film to this day.
Doc first thought of the idea for this machine 30 years prior in 1955, so Doc enters that destination date and time into the machine, excited to try and visit his younger self. Just then, however, terrorists arrive, presumably the same ones from whom Doc stole the plutonium to make the machine. Marty escapes in the DeLorean in the nick of time. But the time travel function has already been activated and he winds up in 1955.
While stuck there, Marty meets the teenage versions of his parents and learns what it was like for them growing up. Weirdly, his mother Lorraine (Lea Thompson) develops a crush on him, thinking he’s this hip new student and not realizing he’s her son from the future. Soon, Marty realizes he’s getting in the way of his mother falling in love with his father, George (Crispin Glover). If this happens, Marty and his siblings would cease to exist.
With rock ‘n roll musical performances before the genre was even popular, conversations with past and future selves, and lightning strikes, Marty finally makes it back home. He did, in fact, change the course of everyone’s lives. But it was all for the better. Now, however, Doc warns him that there are terrible things in the future that he needs Marty’s help to fix. Notably, these include a major event that will impact Marty’s future son.
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How Back to the Future II And III Continue the Story
Released four years later in 1989, Back to the Future II continues the adventures of Marty and Doc. Now, instead of traveling to the past, they must visit the future year 2015 to stop Marty’s son from doing something he’ll regret. Once in the future, Marty must impersonate his son, Marty Jr., who happens to look exactly like him (and is played by Fox as well), and stop him from committing a bad act.
But Marty (Sr.) and Doc are faced with a roadblock when Biff, who learns of the machine, steals it and travels back in time to alter history to make himself rich. Not only that, his actions caused a domino effect of horrifying events that change the course of Marty’s life, and everyone close to him. This means the dynamic duo needs to go back to 1955 as well to stop the past-day Biff from creating the altered path.
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Following Back to the Future II was Back to the Future III, which was filmed back-to-back with the second movie and released a year later in 1990. This movie picks up from the plot of the second where Marty learns that Doc has traveled way back in time and is stuck in 1885. He is killed there by Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), Biff’s great-grandfather. Naturally, Marty makes the decision to travel there as well to save his friend. The situation is complicated, however, when Marty learns that Doc has fallen in love with a woman named Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen).
Facing new enemies, including a cavalry pursuing Native Americans, a bear, and Buford’s menacing gang, this movie has a cowboy feel to it. Marty hilariously assumes the name Clint Eastwood, since no one of that time period would have any idea who this man is anyway. He also plays his own great-grandfather, Seamus McFly. The story has a happy ending, good news since this is the last official movie in what would become a trilogy.
Why Do People Love Back to the Future?
All three movies in the Back to the Future franchise offer good-hearted fun that the entire family can enjoy. The plot flips back and forth through time, providing a glimpse into the past as well as what writers felt the future might look like 25 years ahead. What fans today will love is that the movies, particularly Back to the Future II, got a lot of things right. Some say it even predicted the future.
For example, there’s a list of technology the movie depicted that exists today, like fingerprint recognition, voice-activated technology, 3D movies, tablets, videoconferencing, augmented and virtual reality, drones, digital cameras, wall-mounted flat-screen TVs, and even mobile credit card readers. While Nike attempted to create self-lacing sneakers with the Nike Mag, these still remain a potential future invention.
Plus, there’s no question that Fox was the perfect choice for the role, endearingly capturing the heart and soul of an awkward, boyish 17-year-old, even though he was already in his 20s when the first movie was released. He actually wasn’t originally tapped for the role, but when writer and director Robert Zemeckis decided that the actor he originally cast, Eric Stoltz, wasn’t a good fit, Fox secured the role. This is despite his conflicting schedule with Family Ties and the fact that Zemeckis did not think he could tackle the clumsier role of McFly. At the time, Fox was typecast to his straight-laced character Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom, but now he and his red-vested outfit have become iconic.
Critical and Commercial Reception
As for fans, they have spoken loud and clear about the movies. Back to the Future has an impressive 93% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and an even better 95% audience score. “It’s a classic hero’s journey, the story of someone growing up and discovering where his power really lies,” writes CBR’s Hannah Rose. Victoria Luxford of the BBC says the movie is “superbly put together, an absolute classic…an imaginative story filled with heart and humor.”
When it comes to the second movie, Back to the Future Part II, critics and fans weren’t as generous with 63% and 86% scores, respectively. Some of the criticisms involve how plot ideas were lifted from the first movie and the influx of tech gadgetry. Ironically, these are the very same aspects that those who like the movie praise. Critic Rachel Wagner highlights the “likable cast and nods to the first movie” as being “a lot of fun,” while Tom Tunney of Empire Magazine says, quite simply, that it’s “solidly entertaining.”
The third film is decently reviewed with an 81% critics and 78% audience rating, proving that while both sequels are great, nothing could ever measure up to the first. Summing it up nicely, critic Danielle Solzman says the film is “a return to form for a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy and a fun time in the Old West.”
Today, it would be challenging to find someone who hasn’t seen the first Back the Future movie yet. Just about everyone on the planet has heard of it, at the very least. Even rarer, however, is to find someone who has already watched and doesn’t delight in watching the films again and again. Thankfully, now, with a subscription to Peacock, a Back to the Future marathon binge-watch evening is ripe for the taking.
Stream Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part II, and Back to the Future Part III on Peacock.
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