‘Back To The Future: Part II’ is finally here... sort of

Today is Oct. 21, 2015 and, unless you live under a rock or try to avoid social media, you should know that it is the exact date that Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) go to the future in Back to the Future Part II. Social media was quick to dub today “Back to the Future Day” and the corporations are already out in full swing to make sure that you know they know it. But at the heart of all this is an actual movie, one made 26 years before we ever knew what 2015 would actually be like.

We are actually celebrating the low point in director Robert Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale’s Back to the Future series. The only reason why the first act of BTTFII has to take place in the future is due to one of the biggest mistakes in film history: putting Jennifer in the Delorean at the end of Back to the Future. Zemeckis and Gale never imagined that Universal would want a sequel to BTTF, so they came up with the joke at the end. “Something’s got to be done about your kids!” Doc tells Marty. Doc lets Marty take Jennifer along and they go off into the sky. “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

Now that Zemeckis and Gale have Jennifer in the Delorean, they can’t just forget about her at the start of BTTFII and they also have to go to to the future all because of their innocent little joke. They teased the audience about going to the future and there would be no way out of it. Of course, what’s the first thing Doc does when they get to the future Hill Valley? He knocks Jennifer out.

Zemeckis and Gale did at least figure out how to use 2015 to launch the second parts of the series. Marty obtains a sports almanac and old Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) overhears his plan to use the sports almanac to get rich in the past. This does sow the seeds for the lesson of BTTFII. If BTTF teaches the audience that the future isn’t written and that you can change your destiny (or density...), BTTFII reminds us that putting greed ahead of all else can result in a dangerous future.

BTTFII’s second half is actually far more interesting than anything that goes on in the future. While it has always annoyed me that Zemeckis chose to take the series back to Nov. 5, 1955 when all of time is available, the twisted 1985 - a clear rip-off/homage of the alternate universe in It’s A Wonderful Life - remains one of the darkest settings in a Hollywood blockbuster. Everything we loved from the world of the first movie is twisted and evil, all thanks to Marty’s desire to get rich quick. The alternate 1985 feels even darker than anything that happens in The Empire Strikes Back.

The second film also leads directly into the third film, since the Wild West sequence was actually envisioned as the final act of BTTFII. Universal decided that the film would be far too long and OK’d Gale’s idea that the Wild West take up all of Back to the Future Part III. While BTTFIII isn’t that great, it’s still an enjoyable film as a modern Western and wraps up the series nicely. Weirdly, Doc does nearly everything he ever told Marty not to do by influencing everyone in 1885 Hill Valley, but we buy it because Doc deserves to lead the life he’s always wanted.

Sure, just about every jokey aspect of 2015 that Zemeckis and Gale predicted never came true. We don’t have flying cars and we don’t have functional hoverboards. But one thing they did predict came true. We are all obsessed with nostalgia and looking back. The ‘80s Cafe is reality and it’s everywhere now. Our future isn’t written yet, but our past sure is. Let’s just hope we don’t get so obsessed with the past that it clouds our future.