President Reagan loved it, test audiences were puzzled by it,
and Princess Diana was at the World Premiere? Great Scott!
Seeing Back to the Future in 1985 sure sounds like a trip. Let's go back in time!
Some films take a while to find their audience.
Even movies that are later considered classics don't always receive a warm
reception at the box office or enjoy favorable reviews when they first come out.
But not "Back to the Future." From the start, film reviewers from major publications
like The New York Times and Variety all gave the movie glowing reviews.
Some, like Newsweek's Jack Kroll, called the film, quote,
"the smartest, sweetest, funniest comedy in many summers." Others, like Empire's Adam Smith,
praised the screenplay — an observation that would be echoed in film classes for decades.
Film critic Roger Ebert was particularly complimentary, giving the flick 3 and a
half out of 4 stars. In his review, Ebert compared the film to the all-time classic
"It's a Wonderful Life," praising the hopeful way it allowed audiences to see their parents
in a new light. Director Robert Zemeckis also received accolades from the legendary critic,
with Ebert claiming that his touch gave the film, quote, "charm, brains, and a lot of laughter."
Considering that the project was turned down 40 times by multiple studios before being made,
the warm critical reception to "Back to the Future" had to be extremely gratifying.
One of the funniest moments from “Back to the Future” came when the Doc Brown of 1955
asked Marty who the President of the United States was in 1985 — and then reacted with
disbelief when he heard that actor Ronald Reagan would become President Reagan in the future.
"Who's president of the United States in 1985?"
"Ronald Reagan!"
"Ronald Reagan? The actor?!”
According to his former speechwriter Mark Weinberg, Reagan, who viewed the film for
the first time at Camp David, "got a kick" out of an early scene where Marty walked
by a 1955 movie theater advertising the Reagan film, "Cattle Queen of Montana."
When Doc had his famous exchange with Marty, however, the mood at Camp David darkened — not
because of Doc's comment about Reagan, but because the character then sarcastically asked,
"I suppose Jane Wyman is the first lady?"
Wyman was Reagan's first wife, whom he divorced in 1949. By 1955, he was married to future First Lady
Nancy Reagan. While the movie completely ignored that fact, Reagan didn't. According to Weinberg,
there was a, quote, "unspoken ban" on mentioning Wyman among the Reagan staff,
making the film's reference to her a very uncomfortable moment.
Despite his brief discomfort at the mention of ex-wife Jane Wyman by Doc Brown,
President Ronald Reagan became a big fan of "Back to the Future."
His speechwriter Weinberg would later recall that both Ronald
and Nancy Reagan were impressed by Michael J. Fox's performance as Marty McFly.
This may have been related to the fact that Fox was also playing Republican
teenager Alex Keaton on the Reagans' favorite television show at the time, "Family Ties."
Weinberg said that Reagan remarked about 'Back to the Future,"
"This was the type of movie that Hollywood should be making."
Six months later, President Reagan even quoted "Back to the Future" in his February 4,
1986 State of the Union address. Encouraging the American people to look to the skies
as the limit to their achievements, Reagan stated,
"As they said in the film Back to the Future, 'Where we're going, we don't need roads."
Zemeckis ultimately chose to use a DeLorean as the basis for his time machine,
partly because the gull-wing doors of the car would allow a 1955 family to mistake
the vehicle for an alien spacecraft when Marty crashes into their barn. Although Ford offered
the production team money if they made the time machine out of a Mustang, co-writer
Bob Gale reportedly responded with, quote, "Doc Brown doesn't drive a f–--ing Mustang."
The time machine's stylish and memorable design earned the filmmakers praise from the sports car's
original designer — John DeLorean. By 1982, the DeLorean Motor Company had gone bankrupt and its
factory closed. This ended DeLorean's dream of creating a, quote, "ethical sports car."
Thanks to “Back to the Future," however, the DeLorean DMC-12's image was immortalized.
Realizing the movie had kept his dream alive,
John DeLorean sent the filmmakers a fan letter thanking them for using his car.
John DeLorean wasn't the only fan of "Back to the Future" that loved the car.
The film fueled a major DeLorean collecting craze that persists to this day. Reportedly,
the DeLorean Motor Company only managed to produce over 9000 DMC-12’s before the company went
bankrupt in 1982. However, thanks in part to "Back to the Future," an estimated 6,500 DeLorean cars
are still on the road today. This is in sharp contrast to other discontinued car models,
which normally phase out of existence once they stop being made.
Ironically, in 1984, former DeLorean dealer Steve Lopinto claimed the car, quote, "doesn't have
enough mystique to become a collector's car." Flash forward to 2011 when someone purchased
an original "Back to the Future" DeLorean for $541,000. Thankfully, DeLoreans that didn't appear
in the film are much more affordable — a 1981 DMC-12 went for $23,100 at an auction in 2019.
Of course, many DeLorean car collectors don't just want a classic sports car — they
want the time machine from “Back to the Future.” This led many fans to
modify their DeLoreans and make them resemble Doc Brown's iconic design.
Among these builders are Oliver and Terry Holler,
who spent three and a half months refitting a DeLorean sports car with scrap metal and
surplus electronics to recreate the "Back to the Future" time machine.
Today, the Hollers volunteer for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
They aren't the only DeLorean fanatics. In the documentary "Back in Time,"
fan Joe Walser recalled that he promised he would buy a DeLorean and turn it into a time machine.
Today, Walser is on the Time Machine Restoration Team and helped restore one of the original
DeLorean time machines after it fell into disrepair on the Universal Studios Movie Lot.
If you look closely at the dates on Doc Brown's time machine,
you'll see that Marty McFly first drove the time-traveling DeLorean on October 26,
1985 in the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall, which was actually Puente Hills Mall in City
of Industry, California. However, "Back to the Future" was released to the public on July 3,
1985 — almost four months before the film's events took place.
This led a group of fans to show up at Puente Hills Mall on October 26, 1985, to see if Marty or
Doc Brown would appear in the famous DeLorean. Unfortunately, neither character made a real-life
appearance — but that didn't stop another group of fans from showing up at the Puente Hills Mall
again in October 2015 to see if Doc or Marty would suddenly appear 30 years later. This time,
the owner of a DeLorean time machine replica was on location to give fans a fun photo op.
In the documentary "Back in Time," Michael J. Fox recalled that during the 1985 world premiere of
“Back to the Future,” he was seated next to none other than Princess Diana, who was attending the
screening with her then-husband Prince Charles. Prior to the event, Fox and the other attendees
received a list of rules for how they should interact with British royalty.
Among them, they were forbidden from turning their backs on the prince or princess
and could not speak unless spoken to.
Unfortunately, shortly after the movie began, Fox realized he had to go to the bathroom and found
himself in an uncomfortable position. He couldn't walk away from Princess Diana without turning his
back on her and he couldn't excuse himself since he was instructed not to speak to her.
"So the thing was, I sat in total pain watching the movie
with the Princess of Wales, and it was great. It was, it was … She was smokin’ hot."
Before "Back to the Future" was officially released on July 3,
1985, a test audience got to see the film when it first
screened in May of 1985 at the Century Domes Theater Complex in San Jose, California.
Unlike a premiere, there were no signs or hints suggesting what the movie would be
about. People did get excited when the opening credits revealed the film was
created by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, but many still had no idea what to expect.
Bob Gale recalled years later; when Doc Brown sent his dog Einstein forward in time one
minute causing him to vanish, some audience members were distressed because they thought
the dog had been killed. Of course, these viewers didn't realize the film was a comedy.
Today, when people think of "Back to the Future," they think of the entire trilogy.
To a contemporary audience, it appears that Zemeckis and Gale
always planned the story to be an epic three-part tale. After all,
the infamous words, "To Be Continued..." appeared at the end of the first movie, right?
Except that, for audiences who saw the film in 1985, they didn't. The original flick did indeed
end with Doc Brown taking Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker to the future,
but neither Zemeckis nor Gale envisioned the movie as anything more than a standalone. However,
when the film became a huge hit, the studio put pressure on the filmmakers to continue the story.
As a result, when "Back to the Future" was released on home video in 1986,
MCA/Universal added the words, "To Be Continued..." at the end. This helped
build anticipation among fans as well as new viewers who saw the movie for the first time on
VHS tape — which was helpful, since "Back to the Future Part II" wouldn't hit theaters until 1989.
In 2002, the "To Be Continued..." ending was removed again when the
"Back to the Future" trilogy was released as a DVD box set.
"Back to the Future" might be considered a sweet comedy by many fans, but it does
have some uncomfortable moments — particularly the scenes between Marty McFly and his teenage
mother Lorraine. After Marty is hit by the car that was supposed to strike his father,
Lorraine falls for him, unaware that Marty is actually her own son.
It was this subplot that caused the movie to be turned down by Disney when Zemeckis
and Gale were looking for a studio to produce the film. Gale would later recall:
"We went in to meet with an executive, and he says,
'Are you guys nuts? Are you insane? We can't make a movie like this. You've got the kid
and the mother in his car! It's incest — this is Disney. It's too dirty for us!'"
Weirdly, the "incest" plot proved popular with at least one audience member.
In the documentary "Back in Time," Adam F. Goldberg, creator of "The Goldbergs" TV show,
recalled that his mother came back from the movie theater in 1985 and told him,
"I just saw this amazing movie called Back to the Future.
It's about a boy who goes back and falls in love with his mom."
Her review immediately turned off the younger Goldberg for obvious
reasons — although he later came around and became a fan ... of the film, that is!
At its core, "Back to the Future" is a movie about keeping families together.
This motivated a young Dan Harmon, co-creator of the "Back to the Future"-influenced
adult animated series "Rick and Morty," to make his parents go see the film
because they were separated at the time. In the documentary "Back in Time," Harmon said,
"Subconsciously, it was like, maybe my parents will get back together
if they watch this. They did get back together!"
As Huey Lewis famously sings on the "Back to the Future" soundtrack, that's the power of love.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.