Back To The Future: 30 Years Later

In the words of Doc Brown, Great Scott! It’s crazy to think that it has been 30 years since the first Back To The Future movie was released back in 1985. While the actual 30^th anniversary was back in July, celebrations are underway for Back To The Future day, which is on October 21^st 2015.

Back To The Future has been a part of pop culture for the past 30 years. It has become something that everyone who watches it can relate to. The movie has spawned not one but two cartoon shows (but one of those is only loosely based on Back To The Future), countless toys and even a episodic adventure game that was based on a new storyline in the Back To The Future universe.

For those of you who may be unaware of the significance of the date, Marty McFly and Doc Brown leave Hill Valley in 1989 and arrive in the future on October 21^st 2015. Since that moment on film, fans have been anxiously waiting for 2015. The future promised hoverboards (made by Mattel), flying cars, auto-lacing shoes and holographic movies. Sadly, none of those inventions exist in functioning form. We’ll just have to wait a little longer – maybe another 10 to 20 years.

While we’re waiting, there are a lot of events taking place on October 21^st that force us back to the future. To start off, the Back To The Future trilogy will be re-released on Blu-Ray and DVD. One of the special editions will have all 26 episodes of the Back To The Future animated series.  The Blu-Ray set boasts a new featurette called, “Doc Brown Saves The World”. Here, Christopher Lloyd reprises his role as Doc Brown. He explains why the 2015 we are living in isn’t the same as the one that was shown in Back To The Future Part II.

In addition to the re-release on home video, a new documentary entitled Back In Time will be released on Back To The Future day. It features all-new interviews with Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly), Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown), Lea Thompson (Lorraine Bates, Marty’s mother) and many more. The documentary looks at the impact that Back To The Future has had over the years.

There will also be a four-part Back To The Future comic. Each issue will cover two storylines and will help fill in the gaps between when the films took place and other time periods that Marty and Doc will visit.

All this points to the fact that Back To The Future has had a significant impact on pop culture. The movie is still something people talk about to this day. Not only do people talk about the movie or make merchandise, there are video games and a documentary. There are homages to the movie in the form of a cartoon series called Rick and Morty, which began in 2013. Now in its second season, Rick and Morty, a parody of Doc and Marty, this makes us see that Back To The Future is relevant enough that we are seeing shows loosely based on the first film.

The first movie may have been specifically been set in 1985 and 1955 but when people watch it now, it seems timeless because we can compare what is was like in 1985 to what it’s like in the real 2015. This comparison helps make things seem significant by showing what we do in our everyday lives to how it was done back then. The reason that Back To The Future is still relevant is that it didn’t predict our future.

Back To The Future invites viewers to compare generations and time periods. It will probably still be relevant for generations to come because of the comparisons that we make to our lives. We make those comparisons so we can learn from mistakes that were made and not make them again. Then in turn this will also help us make our future better. These comparisons will still be made even when it is the 50^th anniversary of the first film.