Great Scott! "Back to the Future" day is here!
After 30 years of waiting from the first film, and tons of hoaxes, Oct. 21, 2015, aka the day Marty travels to in "Back to the Future Part II," has finally arrived. Fans are planning celebrations all over, and there's even a new "Back to the Future" 30th Anniversary Trilogy Blu-ray, which "BTTF" writer Bob Gale revealed has a ton of bonus features, including an explanation of why our 2015 isn't like the one in the movie.
Gale tells The Huffington Post he and co-creator Robert Zemeckis put so many details in the movie to give people something to talk about on the way home from the theaters. But still, it's about time some theories out there make like a tree and get out of here, so Gale finally set the record straight on some "Back to the Future" fibs that you keep getting told:
Here are 8 lies people say about "Back to the Future":
1. There is a scientific reason why it's 88 miles per hour.
Fans have gone through many scientific equations to figure out why 88 miles per hour is the speed for time travel, and it turns out, it's just because it sounded good.
"It’s easy to remember," said Gale. "We needed it to be faster than any normal speed limit and didn’t want the idea that somebody could just accidentally drive a car that fast and travel through time. Eighty-eight was just a good number. Good way for people to remember. Eighty-eight keys on a piano."
2. You can catch glimpses of a second Marty in the background.
Redditor 3danimator points out you can supposedly see a second Marty in background scenes of the first movie:
In the scene where Doc is being held up by the Libyans, in one of the shots that's on Doc with his hands up, you see some lights in the background, small ones. Look closely and you will see someone cross in front of those lights. You see the silhouette move across.
This mysterious second Marty is supposedly the Marty who comes back to the future. An article titled "The Other Marty McFly?" explains everything in-depth, but Gale says there actually is no hidden second Marty.
"No, no," he laughed."It just shows you that whatever you’re looking for, you can find."
3. "Back to the Future" predicted 9/11.
The 9/11 theory hinges a lot on the Twin Pines Mall. Gale said, "So the guy that made this video said if you turn 1:16 upside down, it’s 9/11. It’s Twin Pines Mall, and the Twin Pines represents the Twin Towers, and little traits there."
"It is crazy," he laughed. "It’s totally insane."
4. George McFly was only able to hit Biff after drinking spiked punch.
Image: Tumblr
Did a spiked drink help George throw a punch at Biff? Redditors definitely think so. And as Uproxx points out:
In the sequel, we see that Biff spikes the punch with liquor. So it’s possible that Biff is the reason George was feeling particularly brave after drinking the punch and then going out in the parking lot to look for Lorraine.
"That’s a very clever idea," said Gale, though he explains they weren't planning on making a sequel after the first film, so giving George liquid courage was never the intention. He added, "Bob Zemeckis and I would never say that you need alcohol to do the right thing."
5. Doc Brown was a Time Lord like Dr. Who.
Doc Brown travels through time, he has a companion named Clara and everyone calls him Doc. He's got to be a Time Lord, right? Actually, naw. Gale says he always found the show "too weird" as a kid.
"The truth is that neither Bob Zemeckis or I were 'Dr. Who' fans, so no. I don't think I've ever watched a full episode, believe it or not," said Gale.
6. George McFly knew his son was a time traveler.
Marty helping George McFly get together with Lorraine was their density ... er ... destiny, but surely later in life George would've noticed that some of the things "Calvin Klein," aka Marty, told him in 1955 turned out to come true in the future, right?
Wrong. Gale explained, "People ask those kind of questions a lot and they say, 'Well, how come George and Lorraine didn't recognize that their son looked like this guy who showed up in their high school?' Well, remember -- reality check here -- Marty was in 1955 interacting with George and Lorraine for only a week. And if you think back to your old high school 30 years later, and you think about some new kid who was there for a couple days, how much detail do you remember?"
Gale continued, "30 years later, you probably wouldn't recognize them."
7. Doc Brown tried to commit suicide.
Gale especially finds the "Doc Brown suicide" theory bizarre.
In it, fans say that Doc was planning on killing himself if his life's work, the time machine, didn't actually go through time. That's why he sends the car directly at both himself and Marty in the first movie. Thankfully, it works.
Gale told us this is "way out in left field."
"Doc Brown is so certain that he knows what he’s doing that he’s willing to stand there to prove how right he is. It’s a demonstration of self-confidence, not that he would be suicidal," said Gale.
8. In "Part III," Doc could've just taken gas out of the buried DeLorean.
Image: Tumblr
In the third movie, two DeLoreans are supposedly in the timeline: the one Doc buries for 70 years and the one Marty uses to travel back in time. A major part of the third film is spent trying to get Marty back to the future by getting the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour, but fans say Doc could've just used the gas out of the buried time machine.
"Any car person will tell you that you have to drain all the fluids out of the car when it stores that long, so there wouldn't have been any gas in the car," said Gale. "And we allude to that in the dialogue when Doc says, 'I put gas in the car.' There wouldn't have been any in there."
Of all the predictions in the film, Gale says he and Zemeckis could've never predicted fans would still be interested in "Back to the Future" 30 years later. Here's to the next 30 years!
The "Back to the Future" 30th Anniversary Blu-ray is available now.
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