In the films, we never find out how Marty and Doc met and became friends. But in 2011, writer Bob Gale said that Marty snuck into Doc’s lab when he was 13 and was given a part-time job after he thought Doc’s experiments were cool.
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The script was deemed too provocative for Disney because of the scene where Marty shares an awkward kiss with his teenage mother.
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Universal head Sid Sheinberg did not like the title ‘Back to the Future,’ insisting that nobody would see a movie with ‘future’ in the title. In a memo to Robert Zemeckis, he said that the title should be changed to ‘Spaceman From Pluto.’
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Doc’s shirt in Part II shows cowboys and a train, foreshadowing the events of the third film. The shirt reappears as Doc’s bandana in Part III.
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After the film’s release, body kits were made for DeLoreans to make them look like the time machine.
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It took three hours in make-up to turn the 23-year-old Lea Thompson into the 47-year-old Lorraine.
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The mall where Doc shows Marty the DeLorean is changed from Twin Pines Mall to Lone Pine Mall in the new 1985 after Marty drove into one of the farmer’s trees.
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Biff’s catchphrases “make like a tree and get outta here” and “butthead” were both improvised by Thomas F. Wilson.
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‘Jaws 19’ as seen in Part II is directed by Steven Spielberg’s real-life son Max.
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Michael J. Fox was allowed by the producer of Family Ties to film this movie on the condition that he kept his full schedule on the TV show, meaning no write-outs or missing episodes, and filmed most of the movie at night. He was not allowed to go on Back to the Future promotional tours.
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The film was banned in China mainland for a while because the notion of time travel “disrespects history”. The ban is lifted now.
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The University of Southern California Film school’s writing classes use the screenplay for Back to the Future as the model of “The Perfect Screenplay”.
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Marty turns a dial that is labeled CRM 114, which is a nod to Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Dr Strangelove.’
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Hill Valley’s town set is located at a backlot at Universal Studios and has been used for many films and TV shows including To Kill a Mockingbird, Knight Rider, Gremlins, Batman and Robin, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Bruce Almighty.
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According to Bob Gale, on October 26, 1985, a group of people showed up at the mall used to film the Twin Pines Mall location to see if Marty would arrive in the DeLorean. He did not.
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Christopher Lloyd stated that he always wanted to do one more movie, in which Marty and Doc Brown time-travel back to Ancient Rome.
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To this day, people swear that the “To Be Continued” at the end of ‘Back to the Future’ was seen in theaters. It wasn’t. It was later added to the VHS release when the two sequels were greenlit.
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The rights to the film and its sequels are owned by writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. In a 2015 interview, Zemeckis maintained that no reboot or remake of the franchise would be authorized during his or Gale’s lifetime.