Back to the Future Part II

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Back to the Future Part II

Original film poster
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Produced by Neil Canton
Bob Gale
Written by Robert Zemeckis
Bob Gale
Starring Michael J. Fox
Christopher Lloyd
Lea Thompson
Thomas F. Wilson
Music by Alan Silvestri
Cinematography Dean Cundey
Editing by Harry Keramidas
Arthur Schmidt
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) November 22, 1989
Running time 108 minutes
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $40,000,000
Gross revenue $331,950,002
(worldwide)
Preceded by Back to the Future
Followed by Back to the Future Part III
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 film and a sequel to the 1985 film Back to the Future. Like the previous film, it was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. Part II and the third installment of the trilogy, Back to the Future Part III, were filmed back-to-back and released six months apart. Although released in 1989 and 1990, both films continued to portray 1985 as the present due to them following on directly from the first film.

Part II follows the continued adventures of Marty McFly and "Doc" Emmett Brown as they use their time-traveling De Lorean, which is now capable of flight, to travel to a retro-futuristic version of 2015, an alternate 1985 and the principal setting of the first film in 1955. The film ends with a cliffhanger that is resolved in Part III.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Marty McFly, "Doc" Brown, and Jennifer Parker arrive in 2015. After recovering from her initial shock, a consequence of time travel, Jennifer begins asking many questions about her future. Doc tranquilizes Jennifer, who is not necessary for his plan, explaining that he brought her along only because she saw the time machine. After landing in Hill Valley, Marty and Doc leave Jennifer in an alley, expecting her to remain unconscious while they attend to the crisis involving Marty's children. Doc explains that Marty's son is about to be approached by Griff Tannen, Biff's grandson, and his gang, who will offer him the chance to take part in a robbery. According to Doc, this event leads to the ruin of the entire McFly family. Marty impersonates his future son and tells Griff he will not join the robbery; however, his self-control breaks violently when he is accused of being a "chicken". The resulting confrontation leads to a hoverboard chase that damages the nearby courthouse. Griff and his gang are arrested and the planned robbery never occurs.

Before reuniting with Doc, Marty notices a sports almanac in a store window which lists sports statistics through the year 2000. Imagining the potential for financial gain in 1985, Marty buys the book. Doc discovers the almanac, scolds Marty for it and throws it away, for the selfishness and danger of his plan, insisting that the purpose of inventing a time machine was for scientific (rather than financial) gain. Meanwhile, Jennifer, still tranquilized, is found by the police, who mistake her for her future self after thumbprint identification, and take her to her future home, waking her up just as they arrive. Confused, she hides in a closet, witnessing the Marty of 2015 being fired from his job after he is caught in an illegal scheme that his colleague, Douglas Needles, goads him into joining (again by taunting him he is too 'chicken' to try it). Travelling to the house, Doc leaves Marty with the DeLorean, finds Jennifer and sneaks her out of the house. Along the way, she encounters her older self, with the shock causing her to pass out again. Unable to carry her himself, Doc calls Marty for help, leaving the DeLorean unguarded.

While Doc and Marty rescue Jennifer, Biff (age 78), having overheard Doc and Marty talking about time travel, recovers the discarded sports almanac and steals the De Lorean. He returns the car just before Marty and Doc prepare to leave for their own time, stumbles away in pain and collapses (he has the same symptoms that Marty exhibited in Back to the Future when he was beginning to be "erased"). Bonus features on the DVD allude to the fact that Biff was killed by Lorraine in 1996. Upon arrival in 1985, Marty and Doc find that Hill Valley has become a dilapidated, crime-ridden slum lorded over by a middle-aged Biff, who is now immeasurably rich and powerful thanks to decades of successful sports betting, to which he proceeded to roll over the gambling winnings into toxic waste dumps and to purchase the Hill Valley courthouse and convert it into a luxury hotel and casino. Biff has also married Marty's widowed mother, Lorraine, after secretly killing her husband George. Doc deduces that the Biff of 2015 must have given the almanac to his younger self sometime in the past. Marty confronts Biff and finds out that he received the almanac on November 12, 1955, the date of the lightning storm that Marty used to get back to the future. Biff then tries to kill Marty (with the same gun used to kill George) as he now knows too much, but is saved by Doc when Doc knocks him out with the Delorean's gull-wing door.

Marty and Doc travel back to 1955 to prevent Biff from getting the almanac. Marty, after a long and complicated series of events involving his multiple attempts to recover the almanac while making sure that he does not undo all the help he rendered in the previous film to his parents, eventually manages to steal the book from the 1955 Biff with the help of Doc in the flying DeLorean, and burns it, restoring history to its proper course. As Doc attempts to land the De Lorean to pick Marty up, the car is struck by lightning, causing it to disappear, the time machine having been activated by the strike. A few minutes later, a Western Union delivery man appears with a letter, which he explains was sent seventy years ago with the explicit instructions that it be delivered to Marty "at this exact location, at this exact minute, November 12, 1955". Marty opens the letter, which is from Doc, explaining that he is now trapped in 1885. Knowing he has only one source of help, Marty runs to the clock tower to find the Doc of 1955, just as lightning strikes to send the previous film's Marty back to the future. Seeing the new Marty, whom (he thinks) he has just sent back to 1985, Doc faints. The film ends as Marty bends over Doc, trying to revive him.

[edit] Cast

The characters of George McFly and Jennifer Parker were played by actors different from those of the original film, requiring some previous scenes to be reshot.

[edit] Production

The original script for Back to the Future Part II had Marty and Doc Brown go back to 1967 instead of 1955, had Mr. Fusion destroyed, with Marty and Doc Brown having to fly the De Lorean over the Grand Canyon. [1]

[edit] Replacement of Crispin Glover

As Bob Gale states in the DVD commentary, actor Crispin Glover was asked to reprise the role of George McFly in this film. Glover indicated interest, but demanded a salary the producers felt was unreasonable. Glover reportedly refused to budge, so he was dropped from the picture. Glover later insisted in a 1992 interview on The Howard Stern Show that he and Zemeckis had had some "creative disagreements" over the character, and felt that the director simply wanted an actor who was more pliable. He also said that the salary offered was "really low" (reportedly around $50,000), and that he was certain they never really wanted him back.[citation needed]

In the BTTF FAQ, Gale and Zemeckis state that Glover was uninterested in doing the sequels and was asking for the same salary as Michael J. Fox, and therefore was written out of the story.[2]

As a result, the filmmakers found inventive ways of avoiding showing the character's face in the movie, despite the fact that George McFly was in certain key scenes and dialogue. During all scenes in which the George McFly character appears in both this film and Back to the Future Part III, he is played by Jeffrey Weissman and seen wearing sunglasses, from the back, upside-down, or out of focus in the background. This was to prevent audiences from realizing that George McFly was played by a different actor. However, producers also recycled unused footage from the original Back to the Future that included Crispin Glover's portrayal of George McFly. Glover sued Universal for compensation, on grounds that his contract for the first film did not allow subsequent uses of his portrayal of George McFly in new films. The day before the lawsuit went before a judge, Universal quietly settled the case, paying the actor an undisclosed sum. Glover would not reveal the amount during his Howard Stern Show appearance, but did suggest the real reason for the settlement was that Universal was reluctant to "open up their accounting books to the public" during the trial. The Screen Actors Guild later rewrote their rules regarding the derivative use of actors' works in films or TV series, requiring the studios and networks to give appropriate payment and credit to the actors.

[edit] Replacement of Claudia Wells

Claudia Wells' scene at the end of Back to the Future (top) was reshot with Elisabeth Shue for the beginning of Back to the Future Part II (bottom).
Claudia Wells' scene at the end of Back to the Future (top) was reshot with Elisabeth Shue for the beginning of Back to the Future Part II (bottom).

Claudia Wells, who had played Marty McFly's girlfriend Jennifer Parker in the original Back to the Future, reportedly had personal problems and opted to drop out of acting in 1987.[citation needed] The producers reluctantly cast Elisabeth Shue for the part, which required reshooting the closing scenes of Back to the Future for the beginning of Back to the Future Part II. A comparison of both films reveals that Shue appears to be slightly taller than Michael J. Fox and was shot at a different time of the day when compared to the footage shot with Wells

It was nearly 10 years before Claudia Wells returned to Hollywood, with a starring role in the 1996 independent film Still Waters Burn. She is one of the few actors not to make an appearance during the 2002 "behind the scenes" documentaries on the Back to the Future trilogy documentaries on DVD.

[edit] Trailer

With both films being made back to back, "BTTF part II" ends with a teaser trailer for Back to the Future Part III. The only difference in this teaser trailer is the "Summer 1990" text is omitted for the home video release.

[edit] Rumors and urban legends

As a joke, Robert Zemeckis said during a television interview that the hoverboards (flying skateboards) used in the movie were real, yet not released to the public due to parental complaints regarding safety. A surprising number of people thought he was telling the truth and demanded them at toy stores. After the release of Part III, Zemeckis had the opportunity to explain in another interview that all of the flying scenes were accomplished by a variety of special effects techniques. There was even a high demand for the Nike Sportshoes Marty wears with automatic shoe-laces, which fans thought to be real.

After the Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series, and again in 2003, when the Marlins defeated the Cubs in the NLCS, rumors circulated that the movie predicted the Series' results;[3] however, this was not the case. In the film's future news broadcast, it is announced that the National League Chicago Cubs beat an unnamed American League team based in Miami, which has an alligator logo, in the 2015 World Series. Aside from the incorrect year, the mascot of the team mentioned does not match that of either current Florida-based team, the Florida Marlins or Tampa Bay Rays. When the movie was filmed at the time, Florida did not have a Major League Baseball team of their own, but the Miami-based Marlins began play in 1993. Interestingly, under contract terms of the new Marlins stadium, the Florida Marlins are scheduled to be renamed the "Miami Marlins" in 2011 coinciding with the opening of the stadium. This makes it possible for the Chicago Cubs to be able to beat a team based in Miami in 2015, but not in the World Series because both teams reside in the National League.

[edit] Release

Promotional poster of Back to the Future Part II featuring the De Lorean DMC-12.
Promotional poster of Back to the Future Part II featuring the De Lorean DMC-12.

Back to the Future Part II earned $27 million in its first weekend of U.S. release (November 22, 1989) and $118 million total US gross – $332 million worldwide. However, this was still short of the first film's gross, and the film experienced a drop of over 50% in its second weekend, a steep figure at the time. The same fate occurred in Part III, which Universal Studios released only six months later. On December 17, 2002 the studio released all three movies in a three disc DVD and three tape VHS boxed set which sold extremely well when it was released, despite having widely discussed widescreen framing problems, which had led to a less widely publicized product recall.[4]

[edit] Home video release history

Note: The DVD features a deleted scene of Marty's brother in the alternate 1985, as a drunken bum on the streets. The scene was cut mainly because it was confusing without showing Marty's sister, as well (who didn't appear because Wendie Jo Sperber was pregnant at the time).[citation needed]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Awards

The movie won a Saturn Award for Best Special Effects for Ken Ralston (the special effects supervisor), a BAFTA Film Award for Ken Ralston, an internet-voted 2003 AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award for the trilogy DVDs, a Golden Screen, and a Young Artist Award. It was nominated in 1990 for an Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Most visual effects nominations were due to the development of a new computer-controlled camera system, called VistaGlide, which was invented specifically for this movie — it enables one actor to play two or even three characters in the same scene while the boundary between the sections of the split screen and the camera itself can be moving.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.bttf.com/ImageFolio3_files/gallery/Scripts/19881219.pdf
  2. ^ Back to the Future: Frequently Asked Questions. BTTF.com. Retrieved on January 10, 2006.
  3. ^ Whirled Series: Did the 1989 film 'Back to the Future II' predict that the Florida Marlins would win the 1997 World Series?
  4. ^ Description of DVD framing fiasco. Various. Retrieved on January 10, 2007.

[edit] External links

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v • d • e
Back to the Future trilogy
Back to the Future · Back to the Future Part II · Back to the Future Part III
Characters
McFly family
Brown Family
Tannen Family
Related articles
Entertainment
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v • d • e
Films directed by Robert Zemeckis
1970s
1980s
Used Cars (1980) · Romancing the Stone (1984) · Back to the Future (1985) · Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) · Back to the Future Part II (1989)
1990s
Back to the Future Part III (1990) · Death Becomes Her (1992) · Forrest Gump (1994) · Contact (1997)
2000s
What Lies Beneath (2000) · Cast Away (2000) · The Polar Express (2004) · Beowulf (2007) · A Christmas Carol (2009)