The story behind the creation of Back to the Future happened by accident. While on a promotional tour for the film Used Cars, Bob Gale, who would become one of Back to the Future's writers and producers, made a stop in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. He decided to visit his parent's old home and for some reason, wound up flipping through his father's old yearbooks.
Bob ended up learning that his father was the president of his graduating class. He then started thinking about different scenarios and whether or not he would have been friends with his father back in the day since Bob himself does not consider himself to be the type of person to run for class president.
When he returned to Hollywood, he got together with his friend, Robert Zemeckis, and the two started brainstorming and coming up with ideas for a film. It did not take long before they came up with a story to pitch to Columbia Pictures. Their pitch was given an instant greenlight and the birth of one of the most iconic film trilogies of all time happened.
After working hard at creating a script for the film, the next step was casting. Both Zemeckis and Gale wanted Michael J. Fox from the start but were forced by Universal to use Eric Stoltz, who was fired after six weeks of shooting. When they finally worked out a deal to get Fox, the film was ready to go and the rest is history.
In honor of the massive fan base that Back to the Future has created over the past 30 years, we put together a list of 25 hidden things only super-fans caught.
Did He Say Red?
During the original Back to the Future film, Marty McFly returns to Hill Valley in 1985 by crashing into the old movie theater, which is now called Assembly of the Christ. When he gets back, he yells out to a bum that was sleeping on a park bench. He did not yell anything random, he yelled, "Red!"
This was a line that was added by Michael J. Fox during the filming and had very little significance in the overall plot of the film. It did, however, cause a ton of debate by the super-fans who began arguing that this was actually Red Thomas, the city's mayor.
Bob Gale would later correct this and clarify that this was not Red Thomas, and just an actor playing a bum in the film.
The Atomic Kid
The Atomic Kid was a science-fiction comedy film starring the late Mickey Rooney, who played a uranium prospector. He ends up coming across an atomic test site and survives an atomic bomb detonation, gaining super powers in the process.
This film was fitting because it was playing at the cinema in the Town Theater during Marty McFly's original trip to 1955. It was an Easter egg referencing the original script which involved Marty going to an Atomic test site in search of enough power to get back home.
Battle Of The Bands Rockstar Cameo
Besides the fact that Back to the Future has become one of the most iconic movie franchises of all time, the movie was also popular because of its' amazing soundtrack including the film's theme song, "Power of Love," by Huey Lewis and the News.
Not long after Mary gets to school, do we get introduced to his band, The Pinheads, who are trying out to perform at the school dance. They are cut short of their audition by an angry man with a megaphone screaming about them being, "too darn loud." The man who played the angry teacher was none other than Huey Lewis himself.
The song they were playing? It was, of course, "The Power of Love."
Sierra No. 3, Hollywood's Most Famous Train
Becoming a star in Hollywood can happen to just about anyone, or anything. Many people do not realize that there is a locomotive train called the Sierra No. 3 that has been starring in films since 1897. It is one of the most iconic trains in cinema history and was used in Back to the Future Part III.
The train is destroyed in the end of the film after running off the rails and into a ravine. But fortunately for locomotive fans, that was just a quarter-scale model. The actual Sierra No.3 was only used for shots where the actors were needed in close. There was too much history with the train to destroy it after having been around for nearly 100 years.
Who Is Joseph Glidden?
Since we are talking about Back to the Future Part III, let's stay with the same film for a moment and talk about the scene where Doc goes into the local saloon after having his heart broken and was preparing to drink. He is approached by a random man who tries to help him get through this tough time.
The old man who appears to be just a random character put in place to help carry the scene is actually supposed to be Joseph Glidden, the man who invented barbed wire and turned into one of the richest men in America. He even makes a mention of it by telling Doc, "...peddling this barbed wire across the country."
The (Edward) Van Halen Cassette Tape
Since this film has many memorable scenes, it was very hard to pinpoint the most important ones that most people missed the first time it came out. One of the important scenes was when Marty put together this entire scheme to scare his father George into asking out Lorraine, his mother. Marty dressed up in a hazmat radiation suit and called himself Darth Vader while blasting music on a walkman.
The cassette he used had Edward Van Halen written on it, with the Edward looking as if it was added later and shoved onto the tape. The reason is because Van Halen did not give the film permission to use their music or name, but Eddie Van Halen did. He even created the guitar sound and did not tell anyone until many years after.
The Cubs Win The World Series
The most famous prediction the second film ever made was not really missed by anyone. They predicted that the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series in 2015, over a team from Miami, which there was not in 1989. Shortly after the film, the Florida Marlins emerged from Miami and began playing in the MLB.
But what they did miss was how the Chicago Cubs won 97 games in 2015 and lost in the NLCS, one series away from the World Series. They would then go on to win the World Series in 2016. Although the film was off by one year, the fact that they predicted a team that has not won a World Series since 1907 would win one in 2015, a year off the actual results, is pretty impressive.
Nixon In The Headlines, Vietnam War Continues...
In Back to the Future Part II, when Doc and Marty return to Hill Valley in 1985 after going into the future to 2015, they return to their homes thinking they are going back to their normal lives. However, when Marty enters through the window of his home, he ends up breaking into someone else's house and quickly takes off running down the street.
This alternate version of 1985 is a very dangerous place that has completely changed after Biff got the sports-book and took over the town. This new version of Hill Valley was so dark that they even made sure the newspaper headlines were just as dark. In one scene that most people missed, one of the headlines on the newspaper states that Richard Nixon is seeking a fifth term for President while the Vietnam War continues.
Predicting Mobile Payments
When Back to the Future Part II first came out, it was November of 1989 and technology was on the verge of a revolution. However, many of the things that we saw in the film were nothing more than a bunch of crazy ideas that the writers came up with just for fun. They had no clue it would change the actual future of technology.
One of the devices most people missed was when Marty makes a remote payment on his credit card by scanning it on a machine. The payment instantly goes through and the film continues. But the idea that we can make payments this way was many years away.
The Future Of The McFly Family
Although this has become a very popular Easter egg over time, when the film initially was released, there were not very many people who noticed that the 2015 version of Marty McFly had a daughter that looked eerily similar to Michael J. Fox, who we get to meet when we are introduced to the family. That was because it was Fox, in dressed as his own daughter. He also played himself and his son too.
The other detail people never realized about this scene was that Marty McFly Jr. was a millennial long before that word was ever invented. It was a sad reality that we saw coming back in the late 80s and yet could not stop the children of this world from growing into millennials.
