FILMFACTS

TRIVIA

Back To The Future Trivia

1985

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17 year old Marty McFly got home early last night... -30 years early.

Trivia

The De Lorean

Totally Trivia

Film facts for the 1985 Sci-Fi movie starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson

Billy Zane, Claudia Wells, Courtney Gains, Thomas F. Wilson, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, George DiCenzo, Frances Lee McCain, James Tolkan, J.J. Cohen, Casey Siemaszko, Harry Waters Jr., Donald Fullilove, Lisa Freeman, Cristen Kauffman, Elsa Raven, Will Hare Update Cast

We believe the following trivia is all legit. If it's bogus or you have additional info, please update us.

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Update

When Marty is late for school and hitches a ride (on his skateboard) by grabbing onto the back of a Jeep Wrangler. The driver of the Jeep is often said to be either Steve Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis or Harrison Ford, but is in fact stunt coordinator, Walter Scott.

Thanks to Olivier F.

Update

The first prototype of the DeLorean was reported to be driven the very first time on October 26th, 1977. The DeLorean made its first time travel exactly eight years after this date.

The DeLorean: Car Company recently announced that it was to Resume Production for 1st Time Since 1982. It will build about 300 replicas of its 1982 DMC-12, the model featured in the "Back to the Future" films, in its factory in Humble, Texas, CEO Stephen Wynne told local media.

Thanks to Karen

Update

The Universal Studios set for Hill Valley is also used in the tv series "Ghost Whisperer" and the guy who plays Biff in "Back to the Future" has a small role in "Ghost Whisperer"

Thanks to Jaime Benes

Update

Michael J Fox grew up in British Columbia, Canada in a city called Burnaby. There is a theatre named after after him there now, called the Michael J. Fox theatre (obviously), which is connected to Burnaby South Secondary School, the 1993 replacement for his old high school, Burnaby North.

Thanks to Marina

Update

Michael J Fox also gives away several art scholarships to students in the Burnaby School District every year.

Thanks to David Jones

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Crispin Glover, who play's George McFly, the father of Marty (Michael J. Fox), is actually younger than Fox by about 3 years. The father was born after his son!

Thanks to Steph

Update

People sometimes ask how nobody found the DeLorean behind the Lyon Estates billboard between the time that Marty hides it and uncovers it with Doc.

He arrives in 1955 on a Saturday morning and recovers the DeLorean that night... Construction workers didn’t work on weekends in the 1950s! They couldn’t have possibly found the Delorean in that time!

Thanks to Paul King

Update

Dr. Brown wears a wristwatch on both wrists. It's obvious in the scene where Marty explains about the 1.21 gigawatts in Dr. Brown's study.

Thanks to Daniel R. Franzini

Update

In the very beginning of BTTF, when the watches are being shown, there is one particular watch that shows and old man with a hat hanged to the minutes's hand exactly like the scene where Doc Brown is trying to reconnect the cable which would provide 1,21GW to the flux capacitor.

Thanks to John Edward Kilduff

Update

Although the Ronald Reagan line is one of the best laughs in the movie, co-screenwriter Bob Gale is actually a Republican and has stated that he's been an anti-Communist for a long time.

Thanks to Alex Sahounov

Update

The manure truck is owned by D. Jones, a family run business stretching back to at least 1885 when it was run by A. Jones. D. Jones is a reference to BTTF Unit Production Manager Dennis E. Jones, who also served in that capacity on the SF films The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension and Twilight Zone: the Movie.

Thanks to Amy Green

Update

Actress Deborah Harmon was the TV reporter at the beginning of "Back to the Future". She also starred in "Used Cars" with Kurt Russell, and in the '80's sitcom, "Just the Ten of Us". She currently does voice-overs for 'Honeysuckle White' poultry commercials.

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Update

The large amplifier Marty plugs his guitar into right at the start of the movie is labelled "CRM-114" which is also the name of the message decoder on a B-52 in "Dr. Strangelove" and the serial number of the Jupiter explorer in "2001: A Space Odyssey".

Rewind Archive

Update

The clock seen at the beginning of the film with Doc hanging off it is actually a nick-nack clock - it depicts a famous scene from a film called "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" which in turn is a remake of a silent movie called "Safety Last".

Rewind Archive

Update

Marty McFly is secretly a librarian! A magazine at the head of Marty's bed is clearly one called "RQ", which is of interest only to librarians!

Rewind Archive

Update

When Einstein (Doc's dog) returns from the first ever time-travel experiment the time is 1:21am. Is it a coincidence that the DeLorean needs 1.21 Jigawatts to run?

Thanks to Belch

Update

The Chime of the Clock Tower in 1955 is the same as the chime in the 1960 movie The Time Machine based on the story by H.G. Wells.

Thanks to Chris Lennon

Update

One of the clocks at the start of the movie --the cat with its eyes moving and tail wagging-- is also seen in another Zemekis movie, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids". It's in the family kitchen.

Thanks to Dominic Paris

Update

In the scene where Marty is talking to Doc before he goes back home to the future, a man in a hat riding past on a bicycle is used in the sequel to portray Doc from the future. The writers, throughout the rest of the movies however, do not do this sort of thing anywhere else in the trilogy. They do not appear to support the actual theories of Time Travel that are used in many films and TV dramas where someone from another time affects the present in some way or another, and later we see what they actually did to make it happen. One example would be in BTTF II when Marty stumbles across himself and his mother 'parked' in the car. He ducks and falls against the car. In the scene from inside the car in the first movie there was no unseen impact on the side of the car where Marty fell against it as they were talking as there should have been.

Thanks to Mike Torchia

Update

At the very beginning as the camera pans past the clocks there is a black and white clock with a guy hanging from the hand.

The guy is dressed similarly to Doc Brown in the scene at the end of the movie where Doc dangles trying to plug the cable back together.

Rewind Archive

Update

I thought that this was more of a story point but so many people wrote in to mention it that I thought I'd include it: Marty departs from the Twin Pines Mall. When he arrives in 1955, he accidentally knocks over a pine tree at the Twin Pines Ranch. When he returns to the mall after returning to 1985, it is now called the Lone Pine Mall. -Thanks to the many people who wrote in with that.

Thanks to Logan 5

Update

Both Michael J Fox and Crispin Glover had appeared as friends together onscreen before in the TV movie 'High School USA', which also featured a young Anthony Edwards as the bad guy.

Thanks to Chris Peterson

Update

Crispin Glover's other movies included "Wild at Heart" and "River's Edge". After the success of the Back to the Future films, the quirky man allegedly made an a** of himself on David Letterman, resulting in him seeming to disappear from the movie scene for several years, re-appearing in Charlie's Angels as a hair obsessed villian (yes, you read that right, hair obssessed)

Thanks to Alister

Update

Crispin Glover also had a small role as Matt Lattanzi's buddy in "My Tutor".

Thanks to Julie Wender

Update

Crispin Glover also had a small role in the show "Family Ties" playing a friend to Michael J. Fox's character, Alex P. Keaton, when the show first started.

Thanks to 80'S Guy

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Crispin Glover's father Bruce Glover played the gay Bond villian, Mr. Whint in "Diamonds are Forever" in 1971.

Thanks to Ian Ritson

Update

The date Marty Mcfly travels back in time to, November 5, is the same date of time travel in Time After Time (1979)

Thanks to Charbrat

Update

This was Billy Zane's ("Cal" from Titanic) first movie. He played one of Biff's friends in both the first and second Back to the Future.

Thanks to Phantom Planet

Update

Did anyone recognize the second thug? It's none other than Young Guns star Casey Siemaszko.

Thanks to Angela Elias

Update

In the credits they list the guy wearing the 3-D glasses as 3-D.

Thanks to Lisa Keister And Dave Olden

Update

In a tribute to producer Steve Spielberg, the title sign on the movie theater reads "A boys life, Watch the skies". The sign read exactly the same outside the theater in the beginning of the movie "Gremlins", which was also produced by Spielberg. "A boys life!" and "Watch the skies" were early working titles for the movies that became E.T. and Close Encounters

Thanks to Micah J. Duckless &Amp; Tori Sheldon

Update

In 1985, you meet that old homeless man that Marty refers to as "Red". Well, in 1955, Mayor Red Thomas is running to be re-elected. It seems planned to show his fall from grace, but the fact is that Michael J. Fox ad-libbed the name Red (or maybe Brad -its hard to tell) for the bum.

Rewind Archive

Update

Double 80's Movie Legend: Marc McClure played Jimmy Olsen in all five Superman / Supergirl movies and played Marty McFly's brother in the Back to the Future films.

Thanks to Barry Freiman

Update

Huey Lewis is one of the judges of Marty's band who ironically does not like Marty's band's take on his song. "I'm sorry, you're just too darn loud," he tells them.

Rewind Archive

Update

November 5th is the birthdate of Bob Gale's father.

Rewind Archive

Update

Marty's bandmate at the "Battle of the Bands" (the blonde guy w/ the sunglasses) was actually Michael J. Fox's guitar teacher for the film.

Thanks to Matthew Ryan

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The farm that Marty drives through when he goes back to 1955 belongs to the "Peabody" Family. The son's name is "Sherman". This is a reference to the characters of "Sherman and Mr. Peabody", the time-travellers from the cartoon series, ROCKY & BULLWINKLE.

Thanks to Jess

Update

The tunnel that was used for both Back to the Future I and II was used as the tunnel to get into Toon Town in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit!"

Thanks to Rottenpixies

Update

Michael Balzary (also known as Flea) of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, played the character "needles".

Thanks to Johnny C.

Update

If I remember correctly, in an episode of the animated version of Back to the Future, which is currently re-airing on Fox, Marty meets a rival scientist that reveals Doc Brown's full name to be Emmet Lithium VonBraun. The Doc also clarifies in part 3 that his father/grandfather changed their name from VonBraun to Brown during World War I.

Icarus kindly wrote in to add that in "Back to the Future: The Game", Doc's middle name is "Lathrop".

Thanks to Hans Rojas

Update

In the begining of the movie when Marty and Jennifer walk up the stairs to the high school, if you look closely at the side you can see BOB in graffiti, put there in honor of Bob the producer!

Thanks to Zeb

Update

In the scene before Marty goes to the dance, where he and Doc are talking, in the back-ground you see a man go by on a bike wearing a hat. In the sequel we see that the man was actually the Doc from the future.

Thanks to Lindsey D.

Update

If you look very closely in the scene at the end of the movie where Marty's trying to tell Doc he will get shot, you see a man on a bycicle with a hat on ride by. This was not in the script, but Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis used it in Back to the Future Part 2. After Marty and Doc return to 1955 to get the Almanac, Doc is on a bycicle and has bought a hat for diguise. Now, it makes it look like it was Doc himself that rode by in part 1.

Thanks to Richard Humphreys

Update

In the scene where Marty jumps into the DeLorean wearing the yellow radiation suit to escape the Libyans, it is actually Eric Stoltz jumping into the car, look carefully!!

Originally Eric Stolz was playing the role of Marty and they even filmed a few weeks but after seeing a rough cut and thinking he was too serious for the comedic role, they replaced him with Michael J. Fox. But he is the one driving away in the Delorean at Twin Pines Mall.

Thanks to Lindsey D.

Update

The clocktower has been burnt three different times after part three was made.

Thanks to Dutch

Update

The serum used for the Ludiviggo Treatment in "A Clockwork Orange" was known as Serum 114, as was the amp Marty blows up (CRM-114).

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Bogus Trivia

There's often fake stuff floating round, y'know? -Like the 'ghost boy' that can allegedly be seen in "Three Men And A Baby".

The following trivia for "Back To The Future" is apparently bogus. If you disagree or have additional info, please update us.

When Doc and Marty first go into the future, there is a newspaper heading that says "Florida Beats the Yankees in Game Six in 2003". If you followed this world series, that's exactly what happened this year. And what makes this even stranger is that at the time the script was written, there wasn't even a Florida baseball team, the Marlins are a new team, formed well after the script was written.

In BTTF II, old Biff from the future take the Sports Almanac, goes back in time to 1955 and gives it to himself (young Biff). Old Biff then goes back to 2015 leaving the DeLorean where he took it (Doc & Marty not knowing he used it). When Doc & Marty leave 2015 to go back to 1985 they arrive in the "alternate 1985" this, of course, due to Biff and the fact that he has become rich because of the Sports Almanac. If there ever was an "alternate 1985" for Doc & Marty shouldn't there have been an alternate 2015 for Old Biff when he returned from 1955 after giving himself (young Biff) the Sports Almanac!!??

In the deleted scenes on the DVD's of all three movies when old Biff falls off the back of the DeLorean and hits the ground he vanishes, as if history was re-written.

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