Back to the Future Part II: Encyclopedia - Back to the Future Part II

Back to the Future Part II

Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 film and is the second part of the Back to the Future trilogy. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The second and third parts of the trilogy were filmed at the same time and released six months apart.

Back to the Future Part II - Plot synopsis

The story continues with Marty McFly and Doc Brown as they now leave 1985 to go into the year 2015 to stop Marty's kids from destroying their lives. Since Jennifer has seen the DeLorean, they take her along, but Doc tranquilizes her because she asks too many questions about the future.

Marty's son, Marty Junior, is approached by Griff Tannen, Biff's grandson, and his gang and asked to join in a robbery. According to Doc, this event eventually leads to the disruption of the entire McFly family. Marty impersonates his son and tells Griff he won't join in. The gang gets angry and chases after Marty. Using a hoverboard, he manages to escape them, and as a result they crash into the courthouse and end up in jail, thus preventing the robbery.

While Marty is in 2015, he finds an antique store with all sorts of memorabilia from the 1980s, among which is the "Gray's Sports Almanac 1950-2000," containing all sport scores for that time span. Wanting to get rich when he goes back to 1985, Marty buys the almanac, but Doc catches him and puts it in the trash, berating Marty that he didn't build a time machine for such trivialities as making money. Old Biff overhears the conversation and takes the almanac.

Jennifer, still tranquilized, is found by the police, mistaken for her future self after thumbprint identification, and taken home. Hiding in a closet, she sees her family life is far from ideal. Then, old Marty gets a phone call from his colleague Needles, who goads him into cooperating in a profitable but illegal scheme. But their boss at CusCo, Mr. Fujitsu, was listening in, and Marty promptly gets fired. Doc finally finds Jennifer and gets her out of the house, after she briefly meets her future self and both faint from the shock of seeing each other.

Returning to 1985, Marty and Doc see that their time is not what it used to be. Hill Valley is now dilapidated, crime-infested and corrupt. Biff has become a rich and powerful man, and is now married to Marty's mother, Lorraine. Doc realizes that the old Biff must have used the DeLorean to give the sports almanac to his past self, thus changing his future. Marty confronts Biff to find out when and where he got the almanac, which turns out to be in 1955, around the time of the events in the original movie.

In a series of events that closely matches the first movie, the newer version of Marty manages to keep Biff's cronies from beating up his older version, and several times comes close to obtaining the almanac. Eventually, Biff drives off in his newly cleaned car. Hanging onto the side of the car with the aid of the hoverboard, Marty finally grabs the almanac and is rescued by Doc from being overrun by furious Biff's car and Biff crashes into a truck full of manure, again.

As the rainstorm from the end of the first film begins, Marty burns the almanac to cinders, thus repairing his future. As Doc attempts to land the DeLorean, the car is suddenly struck by lightning and disappears.

A moment later a Western Union delivery man drives up and hands Marty a very old letter, written by Doc, who turns out to have traveled back to 1885. Marty rushes off to find the contemporary 1955 Doc, who has just succeeded in sending older Marty back to the future in the first movie. Upon seeing that Marty has returned from the future, Doc faints and the screen fades out with the words, "To be concluded..."

In scenes deleted from the film, an older Biff Tannen dies once arriving in the future, having been erased from existence in that time period (Marty's mother, Lorraine, shot Biff before 2015; therefore he would not exist in that time period). 1

Back to the Future Part II - Café 80's

The Café 80's is a fictional restaurant located in downtown Hill Valley in the 2015 scene. The restaurant is of 1980s nostalgia motif and features Max Headroom-style video waiters with depictions of Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and Ayatollah Khomeini. To the left of the restaurant, there is a Wild Gunman arcade game; to the right of the restaurant, there is a Pac-Man arcade game. The building is painted with Miami Vice-inspired pastel colors. The counter with the Pepsi logo is inspired by Japanese design.

Back to the Future Part II - Slogan

• Welcome to the Café 80's, Where it's always morning in America, even in the aftern-n-noon!

Back to the Future Part II - Food

• Princess Di Spud Cake ($3.00)
• Gorbachev Goulash Rambo ($7.00)
• Springsteen Strudel
• Mesquite Grilled Sushi (the Hostage Special!)
  • Cajun Style
• La Bamba Fajita Tortilla Pita
  • Hot sauce, avacados, a cilantro mix featuring beans , chicken, be-be-beef, or pork...
• Liberace Fruit Salad ($5.00)
• Reagan Scramble Salad ($4.00)
• Egg & Bacoon ($4.00)
• Fawn Hall Slice Ollie North Platter ($6.00)

Back to the Future Part II - Drinks

• Pepsi Perfect ($2.00)
  • It's Vitamin Enriched!
• Diet Pepsi ($2.00)
• Mandarin Orange Slice ($2.00)
• Biff ($5.00)

Back to the Future Part II - Main Cast

• Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, Marty McFly Jr. and Marlene McFly
• Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett L. Brown (aka Doc Brown)
• Lea Thompson as Lorraine Baines (McFly/Tannen)
• Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen and Griff Tannen
• Elisabeth Shue as Jennifer Parker (McFly)
• James Tolkan as Mr. Strickland
• Jeffrey Weissman and Crispin Glover (BTTF1 footage) as George McFly
• Billy Zane as Match
• Casey Siemaszko as 3-D
• J J Cohen as Skinhead

The characters of George McFly and Jennifer Parker were played by actors different from those of the original film, requiring that some previous scenes be reshot.

Back to the Future Part II - Release details

Back to the Future Part II earned $47 million in its first weekend of US release (22 November 1989) and $118 million total US gross – $332 million worldwide. However, this was still not as much as the first film made. Part III came out only six months later. On 17 December 2002 Universal Studios released all three movies in a three disc DVD and three tape VHS boxed set which did extremely well when it was released.

Back to the Future Part II - Awards

The movie won a Saturn Award for Ken Ralston (the special effects supervisor), a BAFTA Film Award for Ken Ralston, an AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award, a Golden Screen, and a Young Artist Award. A new computer-controlled camera system, called VistaGlide, was invented specifically for this movie — it enables one actor to play two or even three characters in the same scene while the boundary between the sections of the split screen and the camera itself can be moving.

A closer look at VistaGlide

Back to the Future Part II - Trivia

• Filmed simultaneously with Part III.
• In the five years since the original film was made, Michael J. Fox had forgotten how to ride a skateboard.
• Future Marty and his boss, Mr. Fujitsu, can both be seen wearing two neckties; presumably a new fashion trend in 2015.
• In the window of an antique shop in 2015, a Roger Rabbit plush doll is displayed. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was another film directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Back to the Future Part II - Replacement of Crispin Glover

Actor Crispin Glover was asked to portray the part of George McFly in this film, but he declined, saying he was not offered enough money for his part. During all new scenes with George McFly in both this film and Back to the Future III he is played by Jeffrey Weissman and seen wearing sunglasses, from the back, upside-down or in the background out of focus. This was to prevent audiences from realizing that George McFly was a different actor. However, producers recycled various scenes from the original Back to the Future that included Crispin Glover's portrayal of George McFly. Glover sued Universal for compensation, on grounds that his contract for the first film did not allow subsequent uses of his portrayal of George McFly. Universal settled and new Hollywood rules were written regarding the derivative use of actors' works.

Back to the Future Part II - Rumors and urban legends

During an interview, director Robert Zemeckis jokingly said that the hoverboards (flying skateboards) used in the movie were real. A surprising number of people thought he was telling the truth and demanded them at toy stores. After the release of Part III, Zemeckis had the opportunity to explain in another interview that all of the flying scenes were accomplished using special effects.

See also

• Back to the Future timeline
• Back to the Future trilogy
• 1985-A
• Grandfather paradox
• Immutable timelines

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Back to the Future Part II", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki