The film followsMarty McFly (Fox) and his friendDoctor Emmett "Doc" Brown (Lloyd) as they travel from 1985 to 2015 to prevent the former's son from tarnishing their family's future. When their arch-nemesisBiff Tannen (Wilson) steals theDeLorean time machine and uses it to alter history for his benefit, the duo must return to 1955 to set things right.
The film was produced on a $40 million budget and was filmedback-to-back with its sequelPart III. Filming began in February 1989, after two years were spent building the sets and writing the scripts.Back to the Future Part II was also a ground-breaking project for visual effects studioIndustrial Light & Magic (ILM). In addition todigital compositing, ILM used the VistaGlide motion control camera system, which allowed an actor to portray multiple characters simultaneously on-screen without sacrificing camera movement.
Back to the Future Part II was released byUniversal Pictures on November 22, 1989. Though the film received mostly positive reviews, it was deemed inferior to its predecessor by critics at the time of release. In the years since, the film has been reappraised and is now considered one of thebest sequel and science fiction films of all time.[3][4] The film grossed over $332 million worldwide in its initial run, making it thethird-highest-grossing film of 1989.Part III followed on May 25, 1990, concluding the trilogy.
On October 26, 1985,Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown arrives unexpectedly in theDeLorean time machine. He persuadesMarty McFly and his girlfriend,Jennifer Parker, totravel to the future with him[N 1] and help their future children, withBiff Tannen witnessing their departure. Once they arrive in 2015, Doc incapacitates Jennifer, leaving her asleep in an alley to avoid letting her learn about her own future. Doc explains that their sonMarty Jr. will be arrested for participating in a robbery with Biff's grandsonGriff, leading to a chain of events that destroys the McFly family.
Doc instructs Marty to switch places with the identical Marty Jr. and refuse Griff's offer, but Griff goads Marty into a fight by calling him "chicken", and a subsequenthoverboard chase ensues. Griff and his gang are arrested, saving Marty's future children. Before rejoining Doc, Marty purchases analmanac containing the results of major sporting events from 1950 to 2000. Doc discovers it and warns Marty about profiting from time travel. Before Doc can adequately dispose of it, they are interrupted by the police, who have found Jennifer incapacitated and are taking her to her 2015 home. They pursue, as does an elderly Biff, who has overheard their conversation and retrieved the discarded almanac.
Jennifer wakes up in her 2015 home and hides from the McFly family. She overhears that her future life with Marty is not what she expected, due to his involvement in an automobile accident, and witnesses Marty being goaded by his co-worker,Douglas Needles, into a shady business deal, resulting in his firing. Jennifer tries to escape the house but faints after encountering her future self. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Marty and Doc, Biff steals the time machine and returns it. Marty and Doc return to 1985, leaving an unconscious Jennifer on her front porch to sleep off the day's events as a dream.
Marty gradually realizes that the 1985 they have returned to is not the one he knows. Biff, having used the almanac to secure a fortune, is now one of the country's wealthiest and most corrupt men. He has turned Hill Valley into a chaoticdystopia, secretly killed Marty's father,George, in 1973, and forced Marty's mother,Lorraine, to marry him. Meanwhile, this timeline's version of Doc has been committed to amental hospital. Doc deduces that old Biff took the time machine to give his younger self the almanac, and Marty learns from the alternate 1985 Biff that he received it on November 12, 1955. Biff, acting on his future self's advice, tries to kill Marty, who flees with Doc to 1955.
Marty secretly follows the 1955 Biff and watches him receive the almanac from his 2015 self. Marty then follows him to the high school dance, carefully avoiding interrupting the events from his previous visit, and being forced to intervene when Biff's gang goes after the other Marty performing onstage. Marty finally gets the almanac, but loses it after being again goaded into a fight with Biff. Marty chases after Biff's car on the hoverboard, getting the almanac back as Biff is left to crash into a manure truck for the second time in a week.
Marty burns the almanac, nullifying the changes to the timeline that it had caused, as Doc hovers above in the time machine. Before Marty can join him, the DeLorean is struck by lightning and disappears. AWestern Union courier arrives immediately after and delivers a letter to Marty; it is from Doc, who tells him that the lightning strike transported him to 1885. Marty races back into town to find the 1955 Doc, who had just helped the other Marty to return to 1985. Shocked by Marty's sudden reappearance, Doc faints.
Griff's gang in 2015 includesRicky Dean Logan as Data,Darlene Vogel as Spike andJason Scott Lee as Whitey.Stephanie E. Williams plays Officer Foley, while Zemeckis' then-wifeMary Ellen Trainor has an uncredited role as Officer Reese.Flea appears as Marty's coworker Douglas J. Needles andJames Ishida plays his boss Mr. Fujitsu.Donald Fullilove, who played Goldie Wilson in the first film, makes an uncredited appearance as his hovercar salesman grandson Goldie Wilson III. A youngElijah Wood is one of the two boys Marty teaches to playWild Gunman.
In the alternate 1985,Al White portrays the patriarch of the family living in the McFly house.Neil Ross provides the voiceover for the Biff Tannen museum whileGeorge Buck Flower reprises his role as Red the Bum.
In 1955,Harry Waters Jr. reprises his role as Marvin Berry,Lisa Freeman reprises her role as Babs,Wesley Mann plays a student who mistakes Marty for a thief, andJoe Flaherty plays the Western Union representative who delivers Doc's letter.Charles Fleischer plays Terry, who in 2015 indirectly gives Marty the idea to use time travel to bet on sports, and in 1955 is Biff's mechanic.
DirectorRobert Zemeckis said that a sequel was not initially planned, but the first film's box office success led to the conception of a second installment. He later agreed to do a sequel, but only if Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd returned as well. With Fox and Lloyd confirmed, Zemeckis met with screenwriting partnerBob Gale to create a story for the sequel. Zemeckis and Gale would later regret that they ended the first one with Jennifer in the car with Marty and Doc Brown, because it required them to come up with a story that would fit her in, rather than a whole new adventure.[5]
Gale wrote most of the first draft by himself as Zemeckis was busy makingWho Framed Roger Rabbit. At first, the film's third act was to take place in 1967 where Lorraine was a flower childprotesting the war and George was a college professor atBerkeley, but Zemeckis later stated that thetime paradoxes of it provided a good opportunity to go back to 1955 and see the first film's events in a different light. While most of the original cast agreed to return, a major stumbling block arose when negotiating Crispin Glover's fee for reprising the role of George McFly. When it became clear that he would not return, the role was rewritten so that George is dead when the action takes place in the alternative version of 1985.[5]
The greatest challenge was the creation of the futuristic vision of Marty's hometown in 2015. Production designerRick Carter wanted to create a very detailed image with a different tone from the filmBlade Runner, wishing to get past the smoke and chrome. Carter and his crew spent months plotting, planning, and preparing Hill Valley's transformation into a city of the future.[6] Visual effects art director John Bell said that they had no script to work with, only the indications that the setting would be 30 years into the future featuring "something called hoverboards".[7]
When writing the script forPart II, Gale wanted to push the first film's ideas further for humorous effect. Zemeckis said he was somewhat concerned about portraying the future because of the risk of making wildly inaccurate predictions. According to Gale, they tried to make the future a nice place, "where what's wrong is due to who lives in the future as opposed to the technology" in contrast to the pessimistic,Orwellian future seen in most science fiction.[5] Gale has stated that the characterization of the 1985 Biff took inspiration fromDonald Trump.[8] To keep production costs low and take advantage of an extended break Fox had fromFamily Ties (which was ending its run when filming began), it was shotback-to-back with sequelPart III.[9]
Two years were needed to finish building the sets and writing the scripts before shooting could begin. During filming, the creation of the appearance of the aged characters was a well-guarded secret, involving state-of-the-art make-up techniques. Fox described the process as very time-consuming, saying that "it took over four hours, although it could be worse".[5]Principal photography began on February 20, 1989.[9] Fox was pulling double duty, acting in the last season ofFamily Ties as filming began on the sequel. For a three-week period near the end of the filming, the crew split and, while most remained dedicated to shootingPart III, a few, including Gale, focused on finishing its predecessor. Zemeckis himself slept only a few hours per day, supervising both films, having to fly betweenBurbank, where it was being finished and other locations inCalifornia forPart III.[10]
The film was considered one of the most ground-breaking projects forIndustrial Light & Magic. It was one of the effects house's first forays intodigital compositing, as well as the VistaGlidemotion control camera system, which enabled them to shoot one of its most complex sequences, in which Fox played three separate characters (Marty Sr., Marty Jr., and Marlene), all of whom interacted with each other. Although such scenes were not new, the VistaGlide allowed, for the first time, a completely dynamic scene in which camera movement could finally be incorporated. The technique was also used in scenes where Fox, Thomas F. Wilson, Christopher Lloyd, and Elisabeth Shue's characters encounter and interact with their counterparts.[5] It also includes a brief moment ofcomputer-generated imagery in aholographic shark used to promote a fictionalJaws 19, which wound up unaltered from the first test done by ILM's digital department because effects supervisorKen Ralston "liked the fact that it was all messed up."[7]
Animation supervisorWes Takahashi, who then was the head of ILM's animation department, worked heavily on the film's time travel sequences, as he had done in the original film and inPart III.[11][12] AsPart II neared release, sufficient footage ofPart III had been shot to allow a trailer to be assembled. It was added to the conclusion ofPart IIbefore the closing credits, as a reassurance to moviegoers that there was more to follow.[13]
Crispin Glover (pictured in 2012) did not reprise his role as George McFly inBack to the Future Part II, and was replaced byJeffrey Weissman.
Crispin Glover was asked to reprise the role ofGeorge McFly. He expressed interest, but could not come to an agreement with the producers regarding his salary. He stated in a 1992 interview onThe Howard Stern Show that the producers' highest offer was $125,000, less than half of what the other returning cast members were offered. Gale has since asserted that Glover's demands were excessive for an actor of his professional stature at that time.[13] In an interview on theOpie and Anthony show in 2013, Glover stated that his primary reason for not doingPart II was a philosophical disagreement on the film's message: Glover felt the story rewarded the characters with financial gain, such as Marty's truck, rather than love.[14]
Rather than write George out of the film, Zemeckis used previously filmed footage of Glover from the first film as well as new footage of actorJeffrey Weissman, who woreprosthetics including a false chin, nose, and cheekbones to resemble Glover. Various techniques were used to obfuscate the Weissman footage, such as placing him in the background rather than the foreground, having him wear sunglasses, and hanging him upside down. Glover would also learn from Weissman that the molds created from his face to make the aging prosthetics for 1985 George McFly in the first film were reused to make the prosthetics for Weissman's portrayal. Unhappy with this, Glover filed a lawsuit against the producers of the film on the grounds that they neither owned his likeness nor had permission to use it. As a result of the suit, there are now clauses in theScreen Actors Guild collective bargaining agreements stating that producers and actors are not allowed to use such methods to reproduce the likeness of other actors.[15] Glover's legal action, while resolved outside of the courts, has been considered as a key case inpersonality rights for actors with increasing use of improved special effects and digital techniques, in which actors may have agreed to appear in one part of a production but have their likenesses be used in another without their agreement.[16][17]
The closing scene ofBack to the Future with Claudia Wells (above) was reshot for the opening ofPart II with Elisabeth Shue (below).
Claudia Wells planned to reprise her role as Marty's girlfriend Jennifer Parker, but when filming coincided with a family cancer crisis, she chose to care for her mother's health.[18] After the producers castElisabeth Shue as a replacement, they re-shot the closing scenes of the first film for the beginning ofPart II, in a nearlyshot-for-shot match with the original.[19][20]
Wells returned to acting with a starring role in the 2008 independent filmStill Waters Burn. She is one of the few cast members not to make an appearance within the bonus material on theBack to the Future Trilogy DVD set released in 2002. However, she is interviewed for theTales from the Future documentaries in the trilogy's 25th anniversary issue onBlu-ray Disc in 2010. Wells would also later reprise her role from the first film, 26 years after her last appearance in the series, providing the voice of Jennifer forBack to the Future: The Game byTelltale Games in 2011.[21]
Zemeckis said jokingly on the film's behind-the-scenes featurette that thehoverboards (flying skateboards) used in it were real, yet not released to the public, due to parental complaints regarding safety.[6] Footage of "real hoverboards" was also featured in the extras of a DVD release of the trilogy. A number of people thought Zemeckis was telling the truth and requested them at toy stores. In an interview, Wilson said one of the most frequent questions he was asked was whether they were real.[citation needed]
Although the filmmakers researched contemporary predictions by scientists on what might occur by 2015, Zemeckis has said that the film was not meant to be a serious attempt at predicting the future. In 2010, he commented: "For me, filming the future scenes of the movie were the least enjoyable of making the whole trilogy, because I don't really like films that try and predict the future. The only ones I've actually enjoyed were the ones done byStanley Kubrick, and not even he predicted thePC when he madeA Clockwork Orange. So, rather than trying to make a scientifically sound prediction that we were probably going to get wrong anyway, we figured, let's just make it funny".[22] Similarly, Gale said: "We knew we weren't going to haveflying cars by the year 2015, but God we had to have those in our movie".[23]
Other aspects of the depiction of the future would not come to pass by 2015, but efforts were made to replicate those technology advances.[citation needed]
The film shows Marty putting onNike "Air Mag" tennis shoes with automatic shoelaces. Nike released a version of its Hyperdunk Supreme shoes, which appear similar to Marty's, in July 2008. Fans dubbed them theAir McFly.[26] In April 2009, Nike filed the patent for self-lacing shoes, and its design bears a resemblance to those worn by Marty in the film.[27] In 2010, a fan named Blake Bevin created shoes that tie themselves.[28] Though Nike had made a very limited quantity of Air Mags in the same style as the movie, the company stated in September 2011 that its consumer-lineMAG line of shoes would not feature the self-lacing feature shown in it.[29][30]Tinker Hatfield, one of the shoe's designers, indicated in 2014 that it would introduce shoes with power-lacing technology the following year, 2015.[31] In March 2016, Nike unveiled theHyperAdapt 1.0 shoe, a consumer-market model of the Air Mag which features the same self-lacing technology used for the commemorative Air Mags; these were put on sale in limited quantities in late 2016.[32]
The producers created a futuristic flying car to depict a typical taxi cab in the future world of 2015. This taxi was based on theCitroën DS.[33]
The concept of thehoverboard—a skateboard that can float off the ground—has been explored by various groups since the release of the film. Attempts similar to hoverboats, which blast air at the ground, have been demonstrated,[34] with a 2021 record distance of 275 meters (902 ft).[35] A different type is the MagBoard, developed by researchers at theParis Diderot University. It uses a largesuperconductor plate on the bottom cooled with liquid nitrogen as to achieve theMeissner effect and allow it to float over a special track; it was shown capable of carrying the weight of a human in its practical demonstration. However, the requirement to run the superconductor at higher, more ambient temperatures prevents this from becoming practical.[36][37] In March 2014, a company named HUVr Tech purportedly demonstrated a working hoverboard along with several celebrities including Lloyd, though this shortly was revealed as a hoax created by the websiteFunny or Die.[38]Self-balancing "hoverboards" became popular in 2015 even though they do not hover above the ground.[39]
In the 2015 scene, the film imagines theChicago Cubs winning the 2015World Series against the fictionalMiami-based Gators, referring to theCubs' longstanding failure to win a championship. Inthe actual 2015 season, the Cubs qualified for thepostseason, their first postseason appearance since2008,[40] but lost theNational League Championship Series (not the World Series) to theNew York Mets on October 21, which coincidentally was the same day as "Back to the Future Day", the day Marty McFly arrived in 2015 in the film.[41] Despite losing, one year later the Cubsdid win the2016 World Series against theCleveland Indians;[42] in congratulations to the Cubs, the officialTwitter feed for theBack to the Future franchise jokingly tweeted out that Marty & Doc's time-traveling caused "a rift in the space-time continuum" that led to the1994 strike (and subsequent cancellation of the1994 World Series), thus delaying the accurate prediction by a year.[43] In the real2015 World Series, theKansas City Royals defeated the Mets to win their first World Series championship since 1985, the year which Marty and Doc time traveled in the film. As for the fictional Miami team, when the film was made,Florida did not have aMajor League Baseball team,[44] but has since gained two: the Florida Marlins (now theMiami Marlins) in 1993 and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now theTampa Bay Rays) in 1998. While both teams have each made two appearances in the World Series (the Marlins winning in1997 and2003, and the Rays losing in2008 and2020), neither qualified for the postseason in 2015. Another sport mentioned in the film,SlamBall, would indeed become a real sport in 2002.[45]
The film was released to theaters in North America on Wednesday, November 22, 1989, the day beforeThanksgiving. It grossed a total of $27.8 million over Friday to Sunday, and $43 million across the five-day holiday opening, breaking the previous Thanksgiving record set byRocky IV in 1985.[46][47] On the following weekend, it had a drop of 56 percent, earning $12.1 million, but remained at number 1.[48] Its total gross was $118.5 million in the United States and $213 million overseas, for a total of $332 million worldwide, ranking as 1989's sixth-most successful film domestically and the third-most worldwide—behindIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade andBatman.[49] However this was still short of the first film's gross.Part III, which Universal released only six months later, experienced a similar drop. In Japan, it had a record opening, grossing $7.5 million in six days from 153 screens.[50]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Back to the Future II is far more uneven than its predecessor, but its madcap highs outweigh the occasionally cluttered machinations of an overstuffed plot".[51] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[52] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[53]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars. Ebert criticized it for lacking the "genuine power of the original" but praised it for its slapstick humor and the hoverboard in its chase sequence.[54]Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times wrote that the film is "ready for bigger and better things" and later said that it "manages to be giddily and merrily mind-boggling, rather than confusing".[55] Tom Tunney ofEmpire magazine wrote that the film was well-directed, "high-energy escapism", and called it "solidly entertaining", though noting it as being inferior to the other two films in the franchise.[56]
Jonathan Rosenbaum of theChicago Reader gave the film a negative review, criticizing Zemeckis and Gale for turning the characters into "strident geeks" and for making the frenetic action formulaic. He believed that it contained "rampant misogyny", because the character of Jennifer Parker "is knocked unconscious early on so she won't interfere with the little-boy games". He cited, as well, Michael J. Fox dressing indrag.[57]Variety said, "[Director Robert] Zemeckis' fascination with having characters interact at different ages of their lives hurts it visually, and strains credibility past the breaking point, by forcing him to rely on some very cheesy makeup designs".[58]
In 2018, Bob Gale, who co-wrote the movie with Robert Zemeckis, said the movie received a mixed reception because of the dark aspect of the story: "They [the audiences] were absolutely surprised by it. The whole 1985 stuff... we went places the audience was not ready to go. That is some of my favorite stuff in the whole trilogy".[59]
The film was released on VHS andLaserDisc on May 22, 1990, three days before the theatrical release ofPart III. It was due to be the first release under theMCA/Universal Home Video banner.[63] On December 17, 2002, Universal released it on DVD in a boxed trilogy set, although widescreen framing problems led to a product recall.[64]
Universal re-released the trilogy alongside new features on DVD and Blu-ray on October 20, 2015, coinciding withBack to the Future Day the following day. The new set included a featurette called "Doc Brown Saves the World", where Lloyd, reprising his role as Doc Brown, explains the reasons for the differences between the future of 2015 as depicted inBack to the Future Part II and in real life.[65] A new remaster as part ofBack to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy on Blu-ray andUltra HD Blu-ray was released on October 20, 2020.[66]
In May 2020, the trilogy was released for streaming onNetflix. A small edit was noticed toPart II during the scene featuring the fictionalsoft porn magazine calledOh La La! in which the shot showing the reveal of the magazine cover is cut short, omitting sight of the magazine itself. Gale stated that neither he nor Zemeckis were aware of this change, and believed it originated from a foreign print of the film. Shortly afterwards, Universal provided Netflix with the unedited, theatrical version of the film,[67] replacing the censored cut on the streaming platform.[68]
The soundtrack was released byMCA Records on November 22, 1989.AllMusic rated it four-and-a-half stars out of five.[69] Unlike the previous soundtrack, it contains only a musical score composed and conducted byAlan Silvestri and performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony. None of the vocal songs featured throughout the film are included. On October 12, 2015,Intrada Records released the complete score ofBack to the Future Part II in a 2-disc set including early scoring sessions and alternative takes.[citation needed]
