Hello and welcome to the first episode of our new Patreon series, futurefilm, where
we will be exploring the intersection of retrofuturism and film by looking at past predictions of
the future featured in movies.
Now this is going to be similar to Futuretoons, where it will be less about reviewing or breaking
down a film and more about contextualising the future it depicts.
This episode is going up on the channel for free but going forward, it will be
available for all $5 patrons and up at patreon.com/picsnportraits.
None of our videos our monetised.
We are 100% viewer-supported so if you like what we do and want to keep these videos
coming out, please consider becoming a patron.
patreon.com/picsnportraits.
So with that out of the way, I’d like to clarify something before we get into the video.
Retrofuturism doesn’t always have to be scientific or even serious.
Judging by some of the comments I see, I feel like some people think just because we talk
about past visions as “predictions” that I think everything was produced under
the belief that it could potentially come true.
This is false.
Retrofuturism says more about the past than it does the future and while some visions
set out to speculate on possible tomorrows, sometimes they can just be fun, like it is here.
Today we are going to be looking not only at one of my favourite movie franchises but
also one my favourite futures in Back to the Future Part 2.
Now I’m sure many of you are familiar with Back to the Future but just in case you’re
not or as a refresher, I’d like to give a little bit of background on the film and
the universe for some context.
Spoilers, obviously.
Released in 1985, Back to the Future followed Marty McFly, a high school student who goes
back to the year 1955 thanks a time machine invented by Doc Brown.
There he nearly prevents his birth by interfering in his parents meeting.
Instead of Marty’s mother, Lorraine, falling in love with his father, George, she falls
in love with him.
From there, the plot navigates lite-incest and how exactly Marty will get his parents
together and himself back to the future.
I’m not here to challenge any of the paradoxes this presents or even explore the possibility
of time travel but I do think Back to the Future does a lot of interesting things with
the relationship between future and past.
We are living at once both in the future and the past and that is expressed here, and in
the franchise as a whole, through genetics.
We see generations of McFlys and how the decisions of one affect the others in the future.
I think the closest you can come to travelling back in time is understanding those who came
before you.
Your parents were more like you, or you are more like them than you may think.
Progress is also demonstrated through the town the series is set in, Hill Valley.
A huge plot point revolves around the clock tower, which connects all three films.
We see it built, damaged and the community efforts to preserve it.
Changing social norms are addressed as well.
Goldie Wilson, a busboy who is met with skepticism in 1955 that a person of colour could become
mayor is mayor in 1985.
While it isn’t blatant, the US president is also a woman in 2015, which is the future
in the series and one of the settings in Back to the Future Part 2.
Revisiting this movie is a trip, now that 2015 is firmly in our past.
Like the third as well, it’s more or less a rehash or an inverted version of the first
Instead of seeing his parents, Marty meets and interacts with his kids.
It is still viewing the past through futuristic eyes, but where the future in Part 1 was 1985,
that is now the past, both in film and real life.
This was produced in 1989 and takes place, again, in 2015.
October 21, 2015 to be exact.
Marty, Doc and Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer arrive in this future on the Skyway, a highway
for flying cars.
Cars fly, obviously.
They also have barcode license plates.
Personally, I think the Skyway is a little absurd. For just thirty years
the jump in technology is wild but this is an optimistic future.
Granted, we don’t see much outside of Hill Valley but if we pause on the newspaper we
do get a glimpse of the outside world and the political situation.
The US president is a woman. We learn that she is tired and Washington is preparing for a visit from Queen Diana.
Obviously, Princess Diana passed away in 1997 and the Queen is still kicking, as of April
2021 at least.
No female president as of yet.
There is also apparently a sport known as Slamball, which came true in a way.
Their playoffs are starting, and a baseball pitcher has been suspended for using a bionic
arm.
Transhumanism.
People are able to modify their bodies using bionic imprints that alter the way the body
functions.
These are illegal although there are pushes for legalisation.
We see posters for Prop 237: legalise bionics.
People are also able to stay young looking thanks to rejuvenation clinics, where you
can get hair, skin and blood treatments.
There are advancements in meteorology and weather is able to be forecast to the second.
The clothing of this future 2015 is fitted.
We see a jacket that form fits to the wearer as well as a pair Nike MAGs, Magnetic Anti
Gravity, with power laces, basically self-tying shoes.
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the most desired piece of tech from the
movie is a hoverboard.
A floating skateboard we see various models of, including one from Mattel.
I love the references to real-life brands and seeing how they are adapted to the future.
The Texaco Gas Station.
Hydrated Pizza Hut.
This is pizza made at home thanks to the Black and Decker Hydrator.
The studio had a tie-in with Pizza Hut and a promotion where you could get “futuristic”
sunglasses which is pretty cool.
Pepsi Perfect.
Soft drink variants were huge at the time of production.
This is a parody of those, though Pepsi actually did a limited Pepsi Perfect release in 2015
to coincide with the franchise’s 30th anniversary.
Jaws 19 we see advertised, which introduces us to holofilm, the future of 3D.
This was on the tail end of 80s 3D revival that Jaws 3D was a part of and did predict a second revival in the
late 2000s.
There is also holographic news and advertising.
A descendent of Goldie Wilson advertises hover conversion systems, so this teaches us older cars can
be converted to be flying cars for the modest price of $40,000.
This is also how we learn the Chicago Cubs win the World Series, which they were only
off by a year. The Cubs did win in 2016.
By far my favourite aspect of this future is how it looks at the past.
The antique store, which is spot on.
This is what modern nostalgia shops look like.
We see the Jaws NES game, a DustBuster, some merchandise featuring Roger Rabbit, which
was produced around the same time and shared a lot of talent with Back to the Future.
We also get the incredible set-piece: Cafe ‘80s.
This was a parody of the tacky 50s throwback restaurants that still exist today but were
popular in the 80s, like Mel’s Diner.
50s nostalgia was huge in the 80s.
The Back to the Future franchise was in a way built off of it.
This was expressed in commercials using doo-wop music or jingles, which makes sense, given the people
producing this stuff would’ve grown up in the ’50s and were simply channeling their nostalgia.
With Cafe ‘80s, this film predicts children of the 1980s will do the same in the future,
which absolutely happened.
There was a resurgence in 80s nostalgia.
Think Stranger Things or Ready Player One.
If you haven’t experienced it yet, someday your music, fashion and references will all
be dated.
That’s just the passing of time and this film does a great job of capturing that.
Television advanced to include the scenery channel, again totally happened.
They also get the flat screen right but predict we would use the extra space to watch multiple
things at once which, we can also do, but I don’t know why you would want to.
These screens are also used for video calling, that show the hobbies, favourite foods and
even the occupation, of the people you are speaking with, similar to Facebook in a way.
Didn’t predict fax machines becoming antiquated though.
In the future, the McFly’s apparently live in a poorer neighbourhood, according to the
police officiers that drop Jennifer off, but still have plenty of “modern” conveniences and a
pretty big house.
Again, optimistic.
It is here we are introduced to the Ortho-Lev, a medical device that aided people with mobility issues.
George McFly uses one though this was thought up as a way to disguise the fact they changed
actors.
Crispin Glover refused to reprise the role and was replaced by Jeffery Weissman.
If you want to see what Crispin Glover was up to instead, I suggest looking up Clowny
Clown Clown.
Unlike a lot of franchises from this time, Back to the Future hasn’t been heavily exploited
though in 2015 it did experience a brief resurgence as that not only was the 30th anniversary
of the film’s release but also the future featured in this sequel.
I’m hoping to explore this and the different ways Back to the Future has been used to signify
the future advertising in the coming weeks over on Patreon.
There was also a futuristic episode of Back to the Future: The Animated Series, which
may be popping up on Futuretoons soon, so look forward to that.
If you liked this video, give us a thumbs up, subscribe if you haven’t and again,
please consider supporting us on Patreon.
Going forward, this series will be available exclusively there but I hope you have enjoyed
this preview.
As always, thank you so much for your interest in this channel and thanks for watching.
Stay safe out there.