There are a lot of clever moments and uncomfortable subtext in the original Back to the Future
that flew right over your head if you watched it when you were a kid.
From rock and roll nods to Freudian subplots, here are things that only adults notice in
Back to the Future.
As strange as it might be for a cool rock ‘n’ roll skateboard teen to form a lasting
friendship with a middle-aged science weirdo, the emotional core of Back to the Future is
definitely Marty McFly’s relationship with Doc Brown.
But believe it or not, the relationship that likely inspired Marty and Doc’s friendship
is even weirder.
Marty’s out-of-his-depth impulsiveness and Doc’s blunt knowledge bear a striking resemblance
to Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the stars of a segment from the Rocky & Bullwinkle show about
a genius talking dog and his young friend traveling through time.
"What is it?"
"Actually, it’s a time machine."
If that connection seems like a stretch, consider that when Marty travels back to 1955, the
first thing he does is crash into a farmhouse owned by the Peabody family, and while he’s
not named in the film, the credits identify the boy who assumes he’s an alien as Sherman.
It’s a fun reference, but maybe it’s also the reason why the actual first time traveler
in the film is Einstein, Doc Brown’s faithful dog.
One of the most appealing parts of the movie, especially to children, is Marty getting to
meet his parents when they were his age.
Instead of inscrutable authority figures, Marty's parents in 1955 are his awkward, goofy
peers.
Seeing them at that age isn’t just weird for Marty, it reminds the younger audience
that their parents were young once too.
Less wholesome, especially to adults, are the extremely uncomfortable scenes in which
Marty's mother tries to seduce him.
The incestuous subtext of Marty having to fend off his mother’s advances, and the
fact that her crush on him is enough to threaten the entire timeline could keep Sigmund Freud
busy for years.
"It's like I'm kissing my brother."
Back to the Future is great for a lot of reasons, but the climactic musical performance that
Marty puts on at the prom is a highlight in a movie full of them.
It brings character beats and off-hand lines full circle as Marty finally gets to play
on stage in front of his whole high school, although about 30 years earlier than he hoped,
while assuring that his parents get together… and that he gets to keep existing.
It's a great scene, packed full of great references...
"Your cousin Marvin Berry!
Most fans got the joke that Chuck Berry's cousin calls him to let him know about "Johnny
B. Goode," but Marty also emulates Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, and Angus Young from
AC/DC, touches added by Michael J. Fox.
That said, as a grown-up, you might think it’s a little weird for this movie to suggest
that rock ‘n’ roll was actually invented by a white suburban teen and then copied by
black artists in the ‘50s.
That’s pretty weird, right?
Marty really gets put through the wringer trying to get his parents to hook up after
he accidentally interrupts their meet cute in 1955.
One of the most inventive tricks he pulls is to pretend to be an alien and threaten
George with death if he doesn't ask Lorraine out.
Since Marty knows that George is a bit of a science fiction geek, he announces his fake
alien persona with some pretty familiar names.
"I am an extraterrestrial from the planet Vulcan!"
By the end of the movie, George has even written a novel that, based on the cover design, is
at least partly inspired by the meeting.
It’s a cute gag, but in the world of Back to the Future, did George start writing about
Darth Vader and Vulcan in the ‘50s, years before Star Wars and Star Trek were released?
Does the McFly family’s new prosperity come from a lawsuit against George Lucas claiming
copyright infringement from George’s work?
And if not, what did he think when two of the most popular sci-fi stories started referencing
his own alien encounter?
It's pretty easy to imagine adult George McFly attending sci-fi conventions trying to snag
a few precious seconds with Lucas and Gene Roddenberry to confirm they were visited by
this strange alien, too.
While it seems like a happy ending, the final moments of Back to the Future are much darker
than is apparent at first glance.
Marty's gotten the truck of his dreams, his brother is wearing a suit to work instead
of slacking off at home, and his mom and dad seem a whole lot happier and much more well-off.
The thing is, Marty comes from the timeline that we see back at the beginning of the film,
and he has strong memories of what his family used to be like before he started messing
around with the space-time continuum.
If you think about it for a moment, it becomes existentially horrifying when you remember
that Marty doesn't really know these people.
They look like his family and act like an improved version of his family, but they reference
moments that never happened to this Marty, leaving him confused when he compares them
to the people he left just yesterday in 1985.
Imagine having an entire life that's similar, but decidedly different from the one you remember.
Imagine sitting down with your family as they make references to events from your childhood
that are just close enough to leave you with deja vu but not enough to spur any actual
memories of the event in question.
Marty's old family, with all their problems and personality flaws, are pretty much dead,
replaced by strangers who have had entire lives that he can’t remember.
It’s amazing that Back to the Future 2 didn’t take place entirely in a therapist’s office.