Back to the Future Part II

[Brikar99]

Now I want to have a BTTF marathon.

As do I. I've yet to see them all back to back.

This past weekend, a theatre near my house had a triple feature "Back to Back to Back to the Future"... It was so full of win. I could only see the first movie because I had to work that night, but man, was that a ton of fun.

 

[Canadave]

Now I want to have a BTTF marathon.

As do I. I've yet to see them all back to back.

This past weekend, a theatre near my house had a triple feature "Back to Back to Back to the Future"... It was so full of win. I could only see the first movie because I had to work that night, but man, was that a ton of fun.

I'm actually surprised by that. I saw the original at a theatre here, and they said that there were no existing prints for Part II and III.

That said, I do recommend watching all three together. They hang together pretty well.

 

[Nardpuncher]

^ Yes I believe there was some kind of line from Doc saying that Marty Jr's jail time eventually led to his entire family falling apart. I agree that it was a lousy excuse to travel to the future however one could argue that the anomalous event that took place in 2015 was obviously Marty buying the almanac which then launches the main plot of the film. If 2015 was JUST about Doc and Marty preventing Marty Jr from making a huge mistake then maybe that would have led to a different movie entirely.

That being said I love the 2015 sequences...I wanted a hoverboard when I was a kid probably like everyone else. I even wanted Marty's future jacket. Don't forget too that this was done in like 1989 too so who the heck knew what stuff was going to be coming down the line in the next 25 or so years? LOL

I wanted his Nike sneakers.

Apparently Nike made a limited number of replicas a few years ago. Without power laces.

 

[BolianAuthor]

I loved all of BTTF II... especially the 2015 stuff.

 

[Holdfast]

I love the 2015 stuff because it's so over-the-top! It's some of my favorite stuff from the entire trilogy.

Yep.

STILL waiting for my hoverboard....

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

My big beef with the future scenes is the need to overact. Notice the squeakiness of Lorraine's voice. I don't understand why they thought that this character should dump three pages of necessary exposition on us.

 

[Canadave]

My big beef with the future scenes is the need to overact. Notice the squeakiness of Lorraine's voice. I don't understand why they thought that this character should dump three pages of necessary exposition on us.

Indeed. As I said in my first post, the OOT stuff I can understand, but the overacting is just terrible. And you're right, hearing future-Lorraine drone on is just torture.

 

[Trekker4747]

Laser Beam, I'm not sure how you can say the BTTF 2015 was "dystopic" hell, if anything (technological advancements aside) it was damn near realistic! Many popular movies made in the 80s and 90s that took place in the future were dystopic with society having collapsed, etc. But BTTF showed us what it'll really be. The same old bullshit.

No cities and towns won't be painted in garish colors like Dr. Seuss just threw up, there won't be flying cars or hoverboards and people won't be using phone booths anymore (they rarely do now) nor will we be using thumbprints to pay for things or open doors but, pretty much, Hill Valley 2015 was pretty darn close to the "real future" just the same nonsense, different decade.

Also, Laser Beam thanks for pointing out that hoverboards aren't real. Because, you know, I was still kinda wondering.

The movie also does some interesting things with the future, first it presents the idea that even flying cars won't solve all our problems with traffic, all it'd do is move it off the ground and put it in the air. If we had flying cars they're not just going to let you go where-ever you want in the sky much like how even aircraft are handled there's going to be lanes and controls on it. The movie presents this when Doc grumbles about a Skyway being jammed making it harder to get to Hilldale.

It also presented the idea that playing video games "with your hands" would be considered similar to children's toys. I think with systems like the Wii and the controler-les systems on the table by MS and Sony we're on our way there.

The movie, although there's no suggestion of an internet, suggests an "instant media" with the roving robot taking the picture of the courthouse disaster moments after it happens. When can presume that if an internet does exist the news item would soon be on the page. It also suggests large corporations taking over the media as Hill Valley's local paper is replaced with a local edition of USA Today suggesting that USA Today had bought up local papers to have more a control on the news itself.

Marty's kids in the house have personal videophones they wear all of the time. Although they seem connected to the house's line it does suggest the "constantly on the phone" mentality many kids these days have with cells.

I think the future stuff is fun an interesting and, honestly, really could've been something if The Bobs took it more seriouly, had something more to do with Marty's kids and, well, could find something to do with Jennifer.

But I do find it a bit of a dick move that Marty has to make his own decisions that'll throw his family lineage off course but his kids need help. His pause in the changed Part 2 opening after Marty asks if he and Jennifer turn out to be assholes even suggests that he knows Marty and Jennifer do not turn out okay! But, no, Marty cannot be saved from fucking up his life but dammit his son is going to fuck up and must be stopped! (And while what Marty and Marline do certainly would mess up Marty's line in the family, one could presume that Dave's line would not have been messed up.)

 

[Lindley]

If we had flying cars they're not just going to let you go where-ever you want in the sky much like how even aircraft are handled there's going to be lanes and controls on it.

Well, aside from controlled or restricted airspace near large airports and major cities or bases, VFR aircraft pretty much can go wherever they want.

There are airways, of course, but they're becoming less and less useful to non-commercial traffic as GPS in the cockpit becomes more common.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yes, but if you had several thousand or million people flying around in the sky there'd certainly be lanes and such. they wouldn't just let thousands of cars fly whereever they want over populated areas.

 

[Sephiroth]

I think the 2015 scenes were awesome, not everything has to be realistic, but enough of it was to be worth it, when you shift your views away from the hovercars and hoverboards, and a few flashy advertisements (the area IS a shopping mall after all) and outfits, you do see a more of the same world, neither a future utopia or dystopia, and as for Doc Brown's actions, he could be experimenting with altering the time line and it's ramifications to better understand quantum science, while doing his long-term friend a solid

 

[Lindley]

Yes, but if you had several thousand or million people flying around in the sky there'd certainly be lanes and such. they wouldn't just let thousands of cars fly whereever they want over populated areas.

True, but the "lanes" would at the least be farther apart than depicted; and opposite directions would probably be separated by altitude.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yes, but if you had several thousand or million people flying around in the sky there'd certainly be lanes and such. they wouldn't just let thousands of cars fly whereever they want over populated areas.

True, but the "lanes" would at the least be farther apart than depicted; and opposite directions would probably be separated by altitude.

Indeed, I think it wouldn't be quite like depicted in the movie with stagnant lanes like we have on the ground. Infact, I think that it'd be more like an episode of The Jetsons I recall where a new lane was created adjacent to the "jammed" one to ease the congestion.

But I had invisioned a much more dynamic "flying car" system in some personal fantasy/short stories I did shortly after seeing BTTF2 including a tunnel that was essentialy 10 flying car highways on top of one another each "layer" being a direction of traffic. This tunnel was built underneath a neighborhood and to escape a assailant I climbed into the neighborhood's sewer, found an escape hatch, and was climbing around in some scaffolding inside this tunnel when my GF in my own, personal, flying DeLorean time machine came and saved me, much to the chagrin of the traffic control officers.

 

[Lindley]

My personal view is that we do have flying cars now (more or less) in the form of 2- and 4-seater airplanes. It's just that the majority of them aren't road-legal, and most people can't afford to learn how to fly them.

The flying car problem is really twofold:
1) Automating flight to the point where training requirements can be safely reduced to a more attainable level. The difficulty is that while current (expensive) autopilots can essentially accomplish this while everything is going fine, pilot training is still required in the event of electrical or engine failure.
2) Improving ATC capability in the congested conditions that would result from the accomplishment of (1).

Those are the two real hurdles.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, the BTTF level of flying cars, anti-gravity cars that don't require any knowledge of flight and lift, is perhaps completely impossible if not a century or better away. That seemed to be the "idea" behind them in BTTF, they were pretty much anti-gravity units that could be driven like cars.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Now you know why I called 2015 a dystopia.

I mean, would you want to live in a society where a flying car could come sailing out of the sky and onto your house, or you, without warning? I thought not.

And I stand by my position. There may have been a few things about the movie's depiction of 2015 that could be considered realistic, but as a whole, it just seemed like too much of a wacky acid trip.

 

[Vestboy]

I think the 2015 scenes were awesome, not everything has to be realistic, but enough of it was to be worth it, when you shift your views away from the hovercars and hoverboards, and a few flashy advertisements (the area IS a shopping mall after all) and outfits, you do see a more of the same world, neither a future utopia or dystopia, and as for Doc Brown's actions, he could be experimenting with altering the time line and it's ramifications to better understand quantum science, while doing his long-term friend a solid

I suppose you could wank that Doc was unwilling to make changes along the lines of fixing Marty being successful, but was willing to prevent kids going to jail, etc. Plus he seemed to be trying to do the maximum amount of help with the minimum amount of interference.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I don't think we need to wank Doc's behavior much. Doc owed Marty his life. Keeping his kid out of the clink was the very least he could do.

 

[Trekker4747]

^ Now you know why I called 2015 a dystopia.

I mean, would you want to live in a society where a flying car could come sailing out of the sky and onto your house, or you, without warning? I thought not.

And I stand by my position. There may have been a few things about the movie's depiction of 2015 that could be considered realistic, but as a whole, it just seemed like too much of a wacky acid trip.

Not. The. Definition. Of "dystopia."

I don't think we need to wank Doc's behavior much. Doc owed Marty his life. Keeping his kid out of the clink was the very least he could do.

Doc owed Marty his life I'd say the least he could've done was save Marty's life!

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

It would have been nice of Doc to advise Marty to give up street racing and maybe see a therapist for his low self-esteem.