Our story takes place in the town of Hill Valley, California in 1985. Marty McFly's family is a bit unusual. His father, George (Crispin Glover) is kind of a loser and not ambitious and his mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) has a bit of a drinking problem. His sister has an endless string of boyfriends and his brother has a dead-end job. To make matters worse, George is bullied by his supervisor Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson).
The night our story begins (well, technically the next morning), at around 2:00 a.m., Marty gets a call from his friend Doctor Emmett Brown (Lloyd) telling him to meet him at the Twin Pines Mall. When Marty gets there, Doc demonstrates his latest invention, The DeLorean Time Machine! Doc demonstrates that the time machine jumps to a new time when the Flux Capacitor is engaged and the car hits a speed of 88 MPH. But the joy didn't last long, because a gang of armed Libyans attack Doc. Apparently, Doc got the plutonium he needed for the DeLorean from the Libyans by promising to build them a bomb with it. When they realized Doc had double crossed them, they came to kill him. In desperation, Marty jumps into the DeLorean to escape. When he hits 88 MPH, bam! He suddenly finds himself transported back to November 5th, 1955. The fateful date that Doc Brown first thought of the Flux Capacitor.
Now Marty is back in Hill Valley, 1955. He has to convince the 1955 Doc Brown that he is from the future and to help him get back there. Meanwhile, he encounters him mom and dad as teenagers and unintentionally intervenes in the moment when they fell in love, which could cause him and his siblings to have never been born in the future!
It's a race against the clock - and to the clock! - to get George and Lorraine to fall in love and get Marty back to the future! It's so much fun to see Marty use his knowledge of the future to work his way through 1955. When he tells Doc that Ronald Regan, the movie star, is President of the United States, Doc asks if Jack Benny is Treasurer! Marty takes a box scooter from a kid in a coon-skin cap and converts it to skateboard. He uses references to Star Wars and Van Halen music to convince George he's a space man from another planet.
As Marty, Fox is endearing and funny. Easy to like and root for. Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown is a hoot and often steals the show. Lea Thompson does a great job as Marty's mom, who is not the type of teenager he expected at all! And Crispin Glover is just as odd as you expect - perfect for George McFly. Wilson is fun as the buffoonish Biff. Always getting common sayings mixed up and being made a fool of by Marty.
These are characters you enjoy watching and are a little sad to say goodbye to when the movie is over. But not to worry - there are 2 more movies in the series!
Fun Fact: Michael J. Fox is only ten days younger than Lea Thompson who plays his mother, and is almost three years older than his on-screen dad, Crispin Glover.
This is not very surprising, since most of their scenes take place in
1955. They were cast to match their younger self's ages.
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| This is an unused poster concept made by Drew Struzan |
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| Another unused poster idea. |
PARENTS SHOULD KNOW: There is a little bit of mild profanity. An unarmed character is shot multiple times by terrorists, but no blood is shown. We see his body lying on the ground from some distance afterwards. A man attempts to rape a woman, but the man is stopped by another character who punches him in the face violently. A group of teenagers chase a character through a small town in their car (he's on a skateboard) and end up crashing into a truck loaded with manure that is dumped on them, which I admit is funny. Some characters are seen smoking and drinking. Marty's mother is very attracted to him and always trying to kiss him and eventually does - but say's it's "like kissing her brother".
