This week, Brian Doob from the British Invaders Podcast takes a journey to 1955 with Marty, Doc and Back to the Future.
“He was never in time for his classes…
He wasn’t in time for his dinner…
Then one day… he wasn’t in his time at all.”
I was ten years old in 1985. I wanted to go to a movie, and someone suggested a new film about someone going back in time and meeting his mother. I hadn’t heard any hype about Back to the Future. It was just another new movie. I already liked SciFi, and I knew that I enjoyed time travel stories.
Naturally, I went to see this new movie. I was very impressed. I saw so many things that were familiar to me. It had nerds, bullies, current rock music and some of the 1950s music that my father had already shared with me. There were schools, teachers and televisions. It did have a mad scientist, but this one was a good guy. This was combined with the wonderful sense that you could both visit and change the past. This was speculative fiction subtly blended with the familiar and the nostalgic. The movie was also filled with humour and bullies being covered in manure. What more could I ask for?
Do I need to explain the plot of Back to the Future? Probably not, but I will. Marty McFly is a high-school student who only really cares about playing electric guitar, skateboarding and maybe his girlfriend. His home-life is somewhat troubled with a hard-drinking mother and a father who is bullied by his own boss. Marty also likes to visit an elderly scientist known as Doc Brown. The scientist unveils a plutonium-powered time machine in the guise of a Delorian (a fast car). Unfortunately, some Libyan terrorists want their plutonium back! The Libyans kill Doc Brown leaving Marty to escape in the Delorian.
Marty inadvertently travels from 1985 to 1955. At first, he doesn’t realize that he has travelled through time. He saves a young woman from a car accident, and gets hit by the car himself. This puts Marty in a position that his father should have held — being the object of the woman’s affections. The woman is Marty’s mother, and so he endangers the relationship that would lead to his own birth! He has also run out of plutonium. He seeks out the 30-years-younger Doc Brown. The two of them scheme to make Marty’s parents fall in love as they should, ensuring that Marty is born as planned. They also need to find a way to power the Delorian to send Marty “Back to the Future”. Marty also needs to prevent Doc Brown’s death in 1985. I’ll leave the resolution as surprise for the few people who have yet to see this film.
The movie was an instant favourite. It wasn’t long before people were making “McFly” jokes. It quickly became the classic high-school-time-travel-rock-comedy of my generation!
I found more to like in the film as I got older. The idea that the birth of Rock Music is a Time Paradox is something that I particularly enjoy. I also appreciate the faithful portrayal of the 1950s (with very little of the 1980s in it). The scenes set in the 1980s are very brief with nearly every moment being important to the plot. This made the film age very well. Most 25 year-old movies are filled with dated imagery that was intended to be current. This one is made up of faithful 1950s nostalgia, entertaining humour and clever ideas.
There are not many movies that I loved when I was so young that still seem great to me. Back to the Future is the one that stands out!
Brian Doob is the co-host of the British Invaders Podcast.
Actually, Marty saved his father from the getting hit by a car. George was in a tree spying on the future Mrs. McFly as she was undressing. George then fell out of the tree into the street, where he originally was hit by a car driven by his future father-in-law. Instead, Marty saved George, but in doing so was hit by the car. This caused Marty’s mother to fall for him instead of George through what is described by Doc Brown as the Florence Nightingale effect.