There's a lot to love about the Back to the Future trilogy, from the time travel hijinks
to the amazing score and everything in between.
It's been more than 30 years since the first film, and we can't stop watching these movies.
No matter how many times you've seen them, though, there are still some details you may
have missed in the Back to the Future films.
The Back to the Future set designers started dropping plot hints within the first minute
of the film.
The opening scene in Doc's home shows dozens of synchronized ticking clocks.
This is a tribute to the classic 1960 time travel movie The Time Machine, in which eccentric
inventor H. George Wells has a similar collection of aligned timepieces.
Doc's collection looks pretty random, but one of the clocks gives away a major scene
from the end.
At about a minute in, we see a miniature model of a clock tower with a man holding onto the
minute hand.
Like all but one of Doc's clocks, the time on this one is 25 minutes slow.
Later in the movie, in 1955, Doc Brown dangles before the face of the Hill Valley clock tower
as he tries to connect the cable to channel the lightning bolt.
However, this prop wasn't made for Back to the Future.
It was a real clock made in tribute to a different movie: the 1923 silent film Safety Last!,
in which actor Harold Lloyd also clung to the minute hand of a clock above a busy street.
Actors named Lloyd can't seem to avoid clock towers.
Doc Brown's decor gives away details about his personality and backstory.
He's framed and hung two newspaper articles with the headlines "Brown Estate Sold To Developers:
Bankrupt Inventor Sells off 435 Prime Acres" and "Brown Mansion Destroyed."
That last one includes a picture of firefighters looking at the smoldering remains of a house,
meaning the mansion probably burned down.
It overlaps the other clipping, which implies that it's a more recent story.
So now we know that Doc was once wealthy but went bankrupt, and that his house was destroyed
in a fire.
When Marty meets Doc in 1955, he's still living in the mansion.
This explains a small detail that at first looks like an inconsistency.
Doc's house number in 1985 is 1646, but in the 1955 phone book he's listed at 1640 Riverside
Drive.
When the mansion burned down, Doc moved into the garage of the property.
Another decorative note: in 1985, Doc has framed photos of three notable scientists
and inventors: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein.
In 1955, these framed photos are seen on his fireplace, along with one of Isaac Newton.
Did Doc dump Newton and his flying car-defying theory of gravity over the next 30 years?
Before his very existence was threatened, Marty's main concern was that his band the
Pinheads failed their audition for Battle of the Bands.
Barely 20 seconds into their shredding rendition of "The Power of Love" by '80s rockers Huey
Lewis and the News, a school administrator tells them:
"I'm afraid you're just too darn loud."
That noise-hating school administrator was actually played by Huey Lewis, who wrote and
performed the very song his character interrupts.
Lewis was reluctantly persuaded to write "The Power of Love" for the movie, as well as "Back
in Time," and the former earned the band Oscar and Grammy nominations.
It took even more persuasion to get Lewis to appear in the film: he only agreed to do
it if he could be in disguise and uncredited.
Another rock star who couldn't quite resist the pull of Back to the Future was guitar
legend Eddie Van Halen.
After nearly three decades of speculation, Eddie admitted that he did indeed supply the
music Marty uses to lightly torture his teenage father into asking out his mother in 1955.
The tape Marty inserts into the cassette player reads "Edward Van Halen."
The Back to the Future sequels also landed famous cameos.
Flea, the bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, played Needles, Marty's road race challenger
in 1985 and corrupt colleague in 2015.
The band was on tour at the time, which made for a challenging shoot schedule.
The group that appeared in Back to the Future Part III was more enthusiastic.
Rock band ZZ Top wrote the song "Doubleback" for the 1990 trilogy finisher, and you can
see them performing an acoustic version in the 1885 Hill Valley Festival, dressed in
Wild West gear.
The group was so convincing in their costumes thanks in part to their famous beards that
they were mistaken for extras.
The Wild West theme gave the filmmakers the chance to sneak in some other cameos as a
subtle nod to the genre.
In the saloon, the three cowboys are actually three veteran Western actors.
Dub Taylor played Cannonball, a sidekick in the Wild Bill Elliott Westerns.
Harry Carey Jr. appeared in seven John Ford Westerns.
And Pat Buttram not only appeared in Western films, but also started the Golden Boot Awards
to honor people in the industry.
"Why I didn't know the circus was in town."
When you're making a time travel movie, you have to keep track of changes characters make
to the past and carry them back to the future.
Otherwise fans will notice and hold you accountable for the rest of your career, which is why
we're still talking about certain key plot points in these movies decades later.
The Back to the Future team pulled this off brilliantly and you probably didn't even notice.
When Marty and Doc meet up in 1985, they rendezvous at Twin Pines Mall.
We get to see the namesakes of the mall in 1955.
Peabody's ranch has two pine trees standing next to each other, and Marty accidentally
knocks one over as he drives the DeLorean away from the farmer's irate family.
When we go back to 1985, after all his time tampering, it's now called Lone Pine Mall.
"Old man Peabody owned all of this.
He had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees."
Another detail the filmmakers got right relates to the clock tower.
When Doc is trying to connect the cables, he accidentally breaks off a chunk of the
tower.
In the original 1985, the tower is intact, apart from the famously stopped clock.
But when Marty returns to 1985, we can see the damaged facade.
Considering he spent a week in the past, it's remarkable these are the only things he managed
to change outside of his family's fortunes.
The Back to the Future trilogy taught us that certain personality traits run in families.
In the Tannen family's case, it's being evil and getting covered in manure.
In Marty's family's case, it's watching sci-fi shows and eating meatloaf for dinner.
At the beginning of the first film, fully grown George McFly and his oldest son Dave
laugh like dorks at The Honeymooners, a sitcom about a married couple that aired a total
of 39 episodes between 1955 and 1956.
The episode they're watching is "The Man from Space," foreshadowing George's close encounter
with "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" in 1955.
It's the same one teenage Lorraine's family is watching over dinner back in 1955, which
they tell Marty is brand new.
But it's worth noting that the episode aired on December 31, 1955, not November 5 of that
year, the date Marty went back to at least that was the airdate in our timeline.
The other similarity in the family scene is the dinner they're eating.
Thirty years apart, both generations of Lorraine's family are tucking into meatloaf, although
they finally switch to pizza in 2015.
If you find yourself craving Pepsi when the end credits of Back to the Future roll, blame
product placement.
Pepsi drinks appear throughout the films, and the company received screentime in exchange
for providing the cast and crew with free Pepsi.
Cans and bottles can be seen in Marty's bedroom, on the McFly and Baines family dinner tables,
and in the antiques store window in 2015.
Marty tries to order a Pepsi Free from Lou's diner in 1955, and gets a Pepsi Perfect from
the '80s diner in 2015.
Pepsi actually released a limited edition version of this fictional product on October
21, 2015, the date Marty traveled to.
"All I want is a Pepsi."
Pepsi wasn't the only company getting exposure.
Writer Bob Gale and director Robert Zemeckis wanted to show lots of real brands to make
the films feel authentic.
Look out for Miller beer trucks in 1985 and 1955, Kellogg's cereal, Marty's Nikes and
his Calvin Klein underwear, the Burger King next door to Doc's in 1985, and of course
the Toyota four-by-four Marty lusts after.
One of the least subtle placements comes in the form of the Pizza Hut half pepperoni/half
green pepper hydratable pizza, prepared in a Black & Decker Hydrator in Back to the Future
Part II.
The Hut took the partnership off-screen too, selling promotional sunglasses tied to the
movie for the bargain price of $1.99 with the purchase of any pizza.
"Solar Shades, from Pizza Hut.
They're going like there's no tomorrow…"
"Pizza Hut! Makin' it Great!"
The poster for the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance is a crucial plot point, because Doc
and Marty realize it's the perfect place to get Marty's parents together especially considering
that's where his mom told him they'd had their first kiss.
But take a second look at the walls of Hill Valley High School in 1955 and you'll also
see a poster advertising "Ron Woodward for Senior Class President: The right man for
the job."
Ronald Woodward was Back to the Future's key lighting grip.
Other subtle crew shout-outs appear on certain cars.
As Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer walk through the town square in 1985, they pass
a car with a blue license plate that says "FOR MARY."
Mary T. Radford was the personal assistant to executive producer Frank Marshall.
And in 1955, the man pictured on the campaign poster to re-elect Mayor "Red" Thomas is set
decorator Hal Gausman.
This detail contradicts a fan theory.
When Marty gets back to 1985, he startles a homeless man played by George "Buck" Flower,
whom he greets as Red.
Some viewers thought this implied that Red Thomas had gone from mayor to living on the
street over the course of 30 years.
However, according to Bob Gale in his DVD commentary, Fox improvised this name and the
characters aren't connected.
Once you've rewatched the Back to the Future trilogy a hundred times, you can find your
next movie recommendation in... the Back to the Future trilogy.
But you'll have to look closely.
There are titles and references to projects various members of the cast and crew worked
on hidden throughout.
For example, when Marty hitches a ride to school on the back of a Jeep in the first
movie, he skates past a sign that reads "Used Cars," the title of a 1980 movie by Gale and
Zemeckis.
By the way, the driver of that Jeep is not Steven Spielberg or Harrison Ford, as legend
would have you believe.
Gale and Zemeckis confirmed in the DVD commentary that it's the film's stunt coordinator, Walter
Scott.
The second movie has even more references.
Look for the Roger Rabbit toy in the antiques store window.
Zemeckis directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988 the year before Back to the Future
Part II came out which also starred Christopher Lloyd.
Also in the window is the Jaws video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System and
a VHS copy of Jaws 2.
Executive producer Steven Spielberg directed the first movie in that series to great acclaim
in 1975.
The subsequent three sequels were less successful, including 1987's Jaws: The Revenge, which
had the tagline "This time...
It's personal."
Back to the Future Part II has a little fun with this.
The tagline for Jaws 19 in 2015 is "This Time It's REALLY REALLY Personal."
According to the marquee, the movie is directed by Max Spielberg, Steven's oldest son.
In 1885, Marty invents the frisbee when he throws a metal pie dish from Frisbie's Pies
at Mad Dog Tannen.
This might sound like a stretch: but this is actually pretty close to the origin story
of frisbees although on a different coast.
Based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the real life Frisbie Pie Company sold many of their
pies to college students, who started tossing the round, flat, empty tins for fun when they
were finished eating.
There's another strange-but-real historical detail you probably missed in the first film.
When Marty arrives in the town square in 1955, a kid walks or rather bounces past him on
shoes with springs attached to the bottom.
These were a real toy in the 1950s and '60s.
Called Moon Shoes, satellite jumping shoes, or pogo shoes, they were supposed to make
the wearer feel like they were walking on the moon a tie-in to the space race that led
to a fascination with all things intergalactic.
Thanks for watching.
Click the links in our video to watch more from Netflix Film Club.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest exclusive videos.
Plus hit the bell so you don’t miss a single one.