Back to the Future I

Back to the Future

by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, directed by Robert Zemeckis

Release: 3 July 1985
Format: Feature Film
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: YA and Up
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Typical skateboarding teenager Marty McFly meets Doc Brown for the first test of his DeLorean time machine, but when Libyan terrorists strike, things go awry, Marty and the DeLorean end up in 1955 where his parents are teens, and the Doc of 1955 must now send Marty back to the future.

— Michael Main

Next Saturday night, we’re sending you . . . back to the future!

DEBUT

Back to the Future (at movie theaters, USA, 3 July 1985).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TRANSLATIONS

Translations to French, Spanish

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Timeline Models

Timeline Needs Immediate Attention!: Marty doesn’t immediately disappear after potentially preventing his parents from getting together, but he’s fading from his family photo, and he’d better get the parents back on track quickly!

Time Travel Methods

Time Fliers: At the end.
Time Vehicles (motorized)

Themes

Anachronistic Music, Dance, and Other Creations
Grandfather Paradox: Marty may have prevented his parents from getting together!
Oedipal Time Travel
Self-Defeating Acts: A Grandfather Paradox.

Fictional Tags

Groupings

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From Twin Pines Mall outside of Hill Valley, CA, 26 October 1985, 1:21 AM ⋙ to the same location, 26 October 1985, 1:22 AM. Note: temporal experiment #1, Einstein in the driver seat.
From Twin Pines Mall outside of Hill Valley, CA, 26 October 1985, around 1:30 AM ⋙ to the future site of Lone Pine Mall, early morning of 5 November 1955. Round trip.
From Hill Valley, CA, 27 October 1985 ⋙ to an unspecified location, in the time of Marty’s kids.