The opening sequence with the ticking clocks is a direct lift from The Time Machine (1960).
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Quotes
Marty: Jeez, Doc. You disintegrated Einstein!
Doc: Don't worry, Marty. Einstein is perfectly fine.
Marty: Well then where the hell is he?
Doc: I think the appropriate term is WHEN the hell is he.
Mistakes
In 1955, when Marty drives the DeLorean to the large 'start here' line that Doc painted on the street, in the first shot its front is up to the line completely covering the word 'here', with some distance to the last 't' in 'start'. Its position changes in following shots, such as when Mart tries to start the stalled car in the exterior shot, the DeLorean's front end is farther back with the word 'here' perfectly visible. See more...
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Back to the Future (1985) - 36 trivia entries
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, Michael J. Fox, Thomas F. Wilson (add more)
The opening sequence with the ticking clocks is a direct lift from The Time Machine (1960).
Musician Mark Campbell did all of Michael J. Fox's singing. He's credited as "Marty McFly".
The school that served as Hill Valley High was Whittier High School in Whittier, California just outside of Los Angeles. It's Richard Nixon's alma mater. Also, the Twin/Lone Pines Mall is, in fact, the Puente Hills Mall in City of Industry, California. Today, JC Penney is no longer an anchor there.
When Doc Brown first sends Einstein "one minute" into the future, the time elapsed between when the DeLorean disappears and reappears is actually 1 minute 21 seconds, just as the reappearance occurred at 1:21am, and the flux capacitor required 1.21 jigowatts of electricity.
The farm where Marty arrives in 1955 belongs to a man called Peabody, and he calls his son Sherman; both names are a tribute to "Sherman and Mr. Peabody", two cartoon time travellers.
Eric Stoltz was the original Marty. After filming quite a few scenes they realised he was being a bit too dramatic, so they cast Michael J Fox.
When Marty first goes back in time the mall is called "Twin Pines Mall". In 1955 he runs over one of 'old man' Peabody's pine trees. On his return to 1985 the mall is now called "Lone Pine Mall".
The same set used as the town of Hill Valley, is also seen as Kingston Falls in "Gremlins".
During the battle of the bands, when Marty is auditioning, the man with the blond hair who is also playing the guitar was Michael J. Fox's guitar instructor.
Melora Hardin was originally cast as Jennifer Parker (Marty McFly's girlfriend). She was later let go when Michael J. Fox replaced Eric Stoltz (who was originally cast as Marty McFly) because she was much taller than Fox and director Robert Zemeckis thought that they would look odd together on screen.
Originally, the beginning of the film started out with Marty sitting in class at school. He is caught listening to his walkman and sent to Strickland's office, causing him to be late for the battle of the bands audition. This was filmed with Eric Stoltz, who was cast first as Marty. When Stoltz was fired and Michael J. Fox was hired, the beginning was quickly rewritten to start in Doc Brown's place, with Marty being late for school.
In the battle of the bands scene, when Marty introduces The Pinheads, Huey Lewis, who provided "The Power of Love" for the film's soundtrack, plays the second judge from the left, and is the one who eventually says, "You're just too darn loud."
In the very beginning of the movie, there's a cute little gimmick. In the first scene when Marty arrives at Doc's place and all the clocks are being shown, they show one particular clock (amongst hundreds), but this particular clock has an hour hand and a minute hand and there is a man hanging off one of the hands - foreshadowing Doc's perilous scene hanging from the clock tower much later in the movie. The man isn't actually Doc, but the silent movie star Harold Lloyd, but still a deliberate inclusion, and worth a look.
As Marty and Jennifer are walking across the car park after the auditions, the car in the end spot registration plate reads FOR MARY after the wife of one of the crew.
The amplifier that Michael J Fox blows up at the beginning is labeled as being a CRM-114. This is a reference to Dr. Strangelove, in which the B-52 crews receive their orders over a CRM-114. It was also the serial number of the Jupiter explorer in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) also directed by Stanley Kubrick.
The original idea for the time machine was that it would be in the form of a refrigerator.
The date that Marty goes forward in the future to (November 5) is the same date that Malcom McDowell as HG Wells goes forward to in Time After Time.
In 1985 Doc is living in what was in 1955 his garage/workshop after the Brown mansion burned down (note the newspaper clippings at the start). Looking at the appearance of it in the different years you can see that they are same place. This also explains why Marty looked at the garage so intently when he first arrives at Doc's house in 1955, he must have been surprised to learn this.
Reportedly, a black pride organization had major problems with the movie, claiming that it was wrong to imply that rock'n'roll had been created/inspired by a white man (Marty).
Right when Marty returns to 1985, and has to run back to the mall, we see him call the drunken bum on the bench "Red". In 1955, "Red" is the first name of the mayor running for re-election in one of the first shots of the town we see.
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