Back to the Future - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Back to the Future or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Back to the Future

[clayton]

Biff Tannen is named in homage to Ned Tanen, one-time head of Universal, who threw Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis' script for I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) on the floor in a heated meeting, accusing it of being anti-Semitic. This was despite the fact that Bob Gale is Jewish.

[camila]

Writers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis actually received a fan letter from John DeLorean after the film's release, thanking them for immortalizing his car.

[jesus]

During Doc's demo of the time machine, just before he is about to leave for the future, he tells Marty "I'll get to see who wins the next twenty-five World Series." At the time the scene was written and shot, no one was thinking there would be a sequel, let alone one where the hook Back to the Future Part II (1989) would be Marty wanting to get a hold of a "sports almanac" so he could bet on games.

[christina]

Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's Oscar-nominated screenplay was written just after they'd made Used Cars (1980).

[dustin]

The production ultimately used three real DeLoreans.

[harry]

The inspiration for the film largely stems from Bob Gale discovering his father's high school yearbook and wondering whether he would have been friends with his father as a teenager. Gale also said that if he had the chance to go back in time, he would really go back and see if they would have been friends.

[charlie]

The only scene which appears in all three Back to the Future films is that of Doc sliding down from the clock tower on a cable before the clock is struck by lightning. Stuntman Bob Yerkes, who doubled for Christopher Lloyd during this scene, got extra payment for parts II and III without having to do any work.

[dustin]

In observance of the 30th anniversary of the original film a Deloran user group held a raffle for a restored Delorean. The raffle fee was $50. Many people were skeptical of the online purchase and avoided it. As a result, there were only some 850 entries. As a result, the group only received about $42,500, which barely paid for the cost of the car and renovation.

[caroline]

This movie was one of the first to be shot at the Universal backlot, after an unusually long period of the studio not using their own site as a filming location.

[kristina]

Biff's catchphrases "make like a tree and get outta here" and "butthead" were improvised by Thomas F. Wilson.

[kylie]

Marty McFly was ranked #12, and Doc Brown #20 on Empire Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters in 2015.

[leo]

Doc's phone number in 1955 is Klondike 54385. The letters "K" and "L" are both on the digit 5; thus, the number still begins with the 555- prefix, indicating a fictional number.

[camila]

Claudia Wells pulled out of Back to the Future Part II (1989) because her mother had cancer and was replaced by Elisabeth Shue.

[norma]

Michael J. Fox was allowed by the producer of Family Ties (1982) to film this movie on the condition that he kept his full schedule on the television show, meaning no write-outs or missing episodes, and filmed most of the movie at night. He was not allowed to go on Back to the Future (1985) promotional tours.

[ethel]

Another deleted scene shows Marty peeking in on a class in 1955 and seeing his mother cheating on a test.

[stephanie]

The jukebox in the diner in 1955 is the same type of jukebox in Doc Brown's house in the beginning of the movie.

[beth]

The name "Hill Valley" is a joke, being an oxymoron. However, an early script for Back to the Future Part II (1989) mentioned that Hill Valley was named after its founder, William "Bill" Hill. There is an act at the Golden Horseshoe Revue in Disneyland's Fronterland called "Billy Hill & The Hillbillies". They have even released an album called "The Billys".

[janice]

Doc's distinctive hunched-over look developed when the filmmakers realized the extreme difference in height between Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox; Fox is 5' 4½" while Lloyd is 6' 1". To compensate for the height difference, director Robert Zemeckis used specific blocking where the two often stood far apart at different camera depths. For close-ups, Lloyd would have to hunch over to appear in frame with Fox. The same approach was used in the sequels.

[linda]

There are two scenes in the 1985 parking lot chase scene where the miles on the odometers don't match. On the DVD commentary, director Robert Zemeckis says this is due to multiple DeLoreans being used in the shoot.