1.21 gigawatts?
>> Apparently Back to the Future turned 30 this year.
That fact is both sobering, and an excuse to cover it here on the show.
Besides, we're due for a family friendly episode, and
this (Bleep) going to be wholesome as (Bleep).
Here are nine things you didn't know about Back to the Future, probably.
(Music)
Let's start off with one huge thing that would've completely changed the Back to
the Future franchise, because it would have changed Marty McFly.
You see, Michael J Fox wasn't the original Marty.
Eric Stoltz, Lance from Pulp Fiction, had the role first.
>> Get the (Bleep) out of my way.
>> They even shot about five weeks of the film with him.
Unfortunately, Director Robert Zemeckis and the other filmmakers felt that Stoltz
just wasn't giving the right performance for the role.
So they made the impossible ask to Universal to fire him and
re-shoot all of those weeks of work with Michael J Fox.
Obviously they got what they wanted, but it wasn't easy to make it all work once
Michael J Fox signed on, which segways perfectly into thing number two.
(Sound) >> It's like Doc's gone insane.
>> Yeah, I know, I know.
But if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
>> Even after the awkwardness of firing Eric Stoltz and getting Michael J Fox to
agree to play Marty, there was another huge problem, Family Ties.
Michael J Fox was still starring on the hit show, so the show runners only agreed
to let him do Back to the Future if Family Ties would remain his first priority.
In other words, he wouldn't get any time off from the show to work on the movie,
not even a half day if he was needed at Family Ties.
So Michael J Fox would work a full day on the sitcom from 9 to 6, then they'd take
him to the movie set in a station wagon that had a bed in the back so
he could hopefully grab a nap on the way.
Then he'd shoot at Universal as late as 4 or 5 in the morning.
After wrapping, they'd take him home and
literally have to carry him into his house and drop him in his bed,
so that he could get up and do it all over again the next day.
>> Marty, you didn't fall sleep, did you?
>> No, Doc.
No, no, don't be silly.
>> Michael J Fox did this Monday through Friday for the whole production.
And he would also shoot a sixth day on Saturdays with Back to the Future,
since that was the only time they'd be able to get daytime exteriors with him.
So Michael J Fox was living on just two or
three hours of sleep a night, which sounds (Bleep) miserable.
I mean, it was worth it, but that really sounds like it sucked.
>> Just how important is the heart?
(Sound) >> The DeLorean time machine is a movie
icon, but it was almost a refrigerator.
Zemeckis and his co-writer producer Bob Gale had first written
Back to the Future with a time chamber rather than a time machine,
which would have been made out of a refrigerator.
As they continued developing the script,
they became worried that kids would start locking themselves in refrigerators.
And figured it might not be the best idea to put that idea in their stupid little
kid heads.
Plus, they also realized that the time machine needed to be mobile so
that you could take it with you on your adventures.
And why did they pick, of all vehicles, a DeLorean?
Basically they picked it because they wanted to be able to put this joke in.
>> What is it called?
>> It looks like a airplane, without wings.
>> By the way, boom, that's a bonus thing you didn't know.
(Sound) >> When this baby hits 88 miles per hour,
you're going to see some serious (Bleep).
>> You know this part where Doc sends Einstein on a test trip in
the time machine?
Well you probably didn't know that in some of those shots,
that's a stunt guy in a dog suit.
(Sound) Hey, it is a lot easier to put a dude in a dog costume then it is to rig
a DeLorean time machine to be operational with a remote control.
Or to teach a dog to drive, for that matter, so stop being a dick about it.
(Sound) >> The future, unbelievable.
>> Back to the Future II has some parts that take place in 2015.
So it's kind of funny to see what the filmmakers thought the world
would look like now, compared to how it actually turned out.
Take this scene in the alley.
You may have noticed those crates of LaserDiscs in with the trash, but
you probably didn't know that right beside all those LaserDiscs are a (Bleep) ton of
breast implants.
That's right, those are literally crates of silicone breast implants.
I think the Bobs, Zemeckis and Gale, might have been a bit boob obsessed on this
film, because they also hid this breast implant commercial in the movie.
(Sound) Hid might actually not be the right word,
because Super Inflatable TIT isn't exactly subtle.
I'm kind of wondering how they even managed to get a PG rating,
what with the super tits and all.
Moving on. (Music)
I bet you didn't know Roger Rabbit is in Back To The Future II.
He's literally in it, right there, with this little Easter egg in the window, but
he's in it again later on.
Don't you see him?
He's right there. This guy playing Terry is played by
Charles Fleischer, who is the voice of Roger Rabbit.
>> Give me the wheel. Give me the wheel.
>> Since Robert Zemeckis directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
he was able to work Charlie Fleischer into Back to the Future II in a bit part.
By the way, if you guys would ever be interested in a Things You Didn't Know on
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, hit the thumbs up and
let us know in the comments because we'd totally do it.
(Music)
I have not one but two actors who you probably didn't know, or
who you probably forgot are part of the Back to the Future universe.
The first, Billy (Bleep) Zane.
There he is right there as one of Biff's cronies.
Back to the Future was actually his first movie ever.
Seriously, check his IMDB if you don't believe me.
I thought we'd established more trust than that, but
whatever, I'm not hurt, not really anyway.
Anyway, the other actor who you probably didn't know about was this little guy,
Elijah Wood.
Incidentally, Back to the Future II was Elijah Wood's first movie ever.
Way to go Wood, you've come a long way from playing video game boy.
(Sound) >> You mean you have to use your hands?
That's like a baby's toy.
(Music)
>> Here's a Back to the Future II slash Back to the Future III crossover thing you
probably didn't know.
See Doc's shirt in this scene from the second film?
The costume department used the material from this shirt in two to make
Doc's bandanna in the third movie.
That's just one of many subtle things the production team did to tie all of
the movies together.
And it was made all the more possible by shooting the two sequels back-to-back.
Yeah, in case you didn't know,
Back to the Future II and III were shot one immediately after the other.
So it was like one huge movie that took a year to do.
The story lines of the two films were originally written as one movie,
which was going to be Back to the Future II.
But it would have made the sequel too big, too long and too expensive, so
they split it up.
Once the second movie went into edit, they got to work on shooting the third.
Remember, this is pre Lord of the Rings, so
it was a huge deal to do that at the time.
And, calling it (Sound) That's another bonus thing you didn't know.
(Cough) Sorry.
Last thing.
(Sound) Back to the Future is a great title.
It's clever, catchy, and it actually makes sense, but
the movie was almost called something else.
When they were making the first film the head of Universal, not just the studio but
the head of the whole company was a guy named Sid Sheinberg.
He didn't have many notes during production, but
since he was everyone's boss his notes carried a lot of weight.
And he hated the title Back to the Future.
He insisted that no one would go see a movie with the word future in the title,
which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but whatever.
So he offered a different title,
which I think we all can agree would have really changed everything.
His title was Spaceman From Pluto.
He thought it would be a perfect tie-in with the former kids comic book about
space zombies from Pluto.
The filmmakers were in a serious panic that they would be forced to go with
Sid Sheinberg's bull (Bleep) movie title.
But in the end, Steven Spielberg swooped in and managed to finesse the situation so
that they were able to keep the title Back to the Future, and the rest is history.
Actual history, not time traveling, altering the past kind of history.
That's all the time we have for today, but if you guys want a part two with more
things on the Back to the Future movies, we can definitely make that happen.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to check out cinefix.com and subscribe for
more truish things about movies.
And sometimes Michael J Fox, right here on Things You Didn't Know.
(Sound)