One of the best parts about theBack to the Futurefranchise is howall three films are interconnectedand show how time travel can change the world of Hill Valley and the people in it. Some of those changes are big, like George McFly (Crispin Glover) going from a coward to, with his son Marty’s (Michael J. Fox) help, becoming a young man who stands up to Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) in his second chance. This creates amore successful Georgein the new 1985. Using Easter eggs was also a fun way to show those time travel changes in smaller ways that emphasized the detail put into the little things. The best example of this is the mall where Marty starts his journey with Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). InBack to the Future Part III,the trilogy came full circle with a mistake Marty made in the 1985 original.
Marty McFly’s Time Traveling Changes the Name of the Mall
InBack to the Future, we first follow Marty as he’s at Doc Brown’s workshop alone, testing an enormous amplifier on his guitar. We only hear Doc’s voice on the phone, and it isn’t until later that we finally see him in the flesh. This moment comes at night whenEmmett Brown summons Marty to come to the parking lot of the closed Twin Pines Mallto help him with an experiment. That experiment turns out to betime travel through the use of a DeLorean. However, when Libyan terrorists show up, seeking the plutonium Doc stole from them, they shoot him dead, then chase Marty in the DeLorean, which ends up in 1955.
‘Back to the Future Part II’ Made a Wild Choice in Its Portrayal of Michael Jackson
It wasn’t the real King of Pop.
Thirty years earlier, the mall wasn’t there. Now we’re on a farm belonging to a man named Peabody, as referenced by Doc Brown earlier, while standing in the parking lot, when he said, “I remember when this was all farm land as far the eye could see. Old man Peabody owned all of this. He had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees.” Marty now has to flee from the farmer, who thinks he is a space alien. As he drives away,Marty runs over one of the two pine trees at the front of the property.Much later,at the conclusion ofBack to the Future, Marty arrives back in 1985, hoping he can save Doc Brown in time. As he runs to the parking lot, we see the smallest of changes.The mall is now named Lone Pine Mall, in reference to the pine tree that had been destroyed decades earlier in this changed timeline.Back to the Futureis filled with big changes that must be made right again, but here, the small name change of a mall shows that not everything can be undone.
Doc Brown Moves the DeLorean’s Launching Point in ‘Back to the Future Part III’
This small joke wasreferenced again five years later in 1990’sBack to the Future Part III, when Marty must go back to 1885 to save Doc Brown from being murdered by Buford Tannen (Wilson). This time, though, the DeLorean’s launching point has changed.Marty is in 1955 with Doc and there is no shopping mall yet, so they go to the local drive-induring the day, with the rolling desert in the background. Doc Brown tells Marty, “We can’t risk sending you back into a populated area […] You don’t want to crash into some tree that existed in the past.” While this is technically true, it’s also a wink to the mall scenes in the first film. Wisely,directorRobert Zemeckishad Christopher Lloyd give this line with no exaggeration or wink to the camera. He trusted that we would get the joke on our own.
This is followed up by yet another joke. Underneath the drive-in screen is a painting of Native Americans riding into battle on horses. For some reason,Marty wonders aloud if he’s going to run into them when he goes to 1885. Doc Brown has to remind the kid that it’s just a painting and the drive-in won’t exist in 1885. This is a horrible oversight on Marty’s part, but it’s all setup for the joke to come. When Marty gets the DeLorean to 88 miles per hour and shoots back to the 19th century, the drive-in screen and the painting underneath it are of course gone, but now real Native Americans on horses are there, chasing Marty and shooting arrows at him.
This is a silly moment inBack to the Future Part IIIthat forces a joke with a bad setup. However, this is easily forgivable, as it takes us back to the beginning, when Marty wasn’t a young guy in cowboy boots calling himselfClint Eastwood, but was just a kid on a skateboard coasting to the Twin Pines Mall at night, completely unaware that his life was about to change forever.
Back to the Future Part III
