Psycho's Movie Reviews #434: Back To The Future: Part 2 (1989)

Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Bob Gale and a story by both. It is the sequel to the 1985 film Back to the Future and the second instalment in the Back to the Future franchise. The film stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Elisabeth Shue (replacing Claudia Wells), and Jeffrey Weissman (replacing Crispin Glover), and follows Marty McFly (Fox) and his friend Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Lloyd) as they travel from 1985 to 2015 to prevent Marty's son from sabotaging the McFly family's future. When their arch-nemesis Biff Tannen (Wilson) steals Doc's DeLorean time machine and uses it to alter history for his benefit, the duo must return to 1955 to restore the timeline.

The film was produced on a $40 million budget and was filmed back to back with its sequel Part III. Filming began in February 1989, after two years were spent building the sets and writing the scripts. Back to the Future Part II was also a ground-breaking project for visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). In addition to digital compositing, ILM used the VistaGlide motion control camera system, which allowed an actor to portray multiple characters simultaneously on-screen without sacrificing camera movement.

Back to the Future Part II was released by Universal Pictures on November 22, 1989. The film initially received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $332 million worldwide in its initial run, making it the third highest-grossing film of 1989. Reception of the film has improved with time, as the performances, story, direction, cinematography, musical score and predictions have been singled out for praise. Some critics have noted it as one of Zemeckis' best films, as well as one of the best sequels of all time.

Plot

On October 26, 1985, Dr. Emmett Brown arrives in the DeLorean time machine and persuades Marty McFly and his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, to travel to the future with him and help their future children, with Biff Tannen witnessing their departure. They arrive on October 21, 2015, where Doc electronically incapacitates Jennifer and leaves her asleep in an alley, explaining that she should not have too much knowledge of future events. He has Marty pose as his own son and lookalike Marty Jr. to refuse an offer to participate in a robbery with Biff's grandson Griff, thus saving Marty Jr. from prison.

Marty switches places with Marty Jr. and refuses Griff's offer, but Griff goads Marty into a fight, and a subsequent hoverboard chase ensues. Griff and his gang are arrested, saving Marty's future children. Before re-joining Doc, Marty purchases an almanac containing the results of major sporting events from 1950 to 2000. Doc discovers it and warns Marty about profiting from time travel. Before Doc can adequately dispose of it, they are interrupted by the police, who have found Jennifer incapacitated and are taking her to her 2015 home. They pursue, as does the elderly Biff, who has overheard their conversation and retrieved the discarded almanac.

Jennifer wakes up in her 2015 home and hides from the McFly family. She overhears that her future self's life with Marty is not what she expected, due to his involvement in an automobile accident. She witnesses Marty being goaded by his co-worker, Douglas Needles, into a shady business deal, resulting in Marty's firing. Jennifer tries to escape the house but faints after she encounters her 2015 self. While Marty and Doc attend to her, Biff steals the time machine to give the almanac to his younger self, then returns to 2015. Marty, Doc, and an unconscious Jennifer return to 1985, unaware of Biff's actions. They leave Jennifer on her own front porch.

The 1985 they return to has changed dramatically, with Biff now one of the wealthiest and most corrupt men in the country. He has turned Hill Valley into a chaotic dystopia, secretly killed Marty's father, George, in 1973, and forced Marty's mother, Lorraine, to marry him. Doc has also been committed to a mental hospital. Doc deduces that the 2015 Biff took the time machine to give his younger self the almanac, and Marty learns from the alternate 1985 Biff that he received it on November 12, 1955. Biff tries to kill Marty, but Marty flees and travels to 1955 with Doc.

Marty secretly follows the 1955 Biff and watches him receive the almanac from his 2015 self. Marty then follows him to the high school dance, being careful to avoid interrupting the events from his previous visit. After several fruitless attempts, Marty finally gets the almanac, leaving Biff to crash into a manure truck. Marty burns the almanac, nullifying the changes to the timeline that it had caused, as Doc hovers above in the time machine. Before Marty can join him, the DeLorean is struck by lightning and disappears. A Western Union courier arrives immediately after and delivers a 70-year-old letter to Marty; it is from Doc, who explains that the lightning strike transported him back to 1885. Marty races back into town to find the 1955 Doc, who had just helped Marty to return to 1985. Shocked by Marty's sudden reappearance, Doc faints.

Production

Two years were needed to finish building the sets and writing the scripts before shooting could begin. During filming, the creation of the appearance of the aged characters was a well-guarded secret, involving state-of-the-art make-up techniques. Fox described the process as very time-consuming: "it took over four hours, although it could be worse". Principal photography began on February 20, 1989. For a three-week period near the end of the filming, the crew split and, while most remained dedicated to shooting Part III, a few, including Gale, focused on finishing its predecessor. Zemeckis himself slept only a few hours per day, supervising both films, having to fly between Burbank, where it was being finished, and other locations in California for Part III.

The film was considered one of the most ground-breaking projects for Industrial Light & Magic. It was one of the effects house's first forays into digital compositing, as well as the VistaGlide motion control camera system, which enabled them to shoot one of its most complex sequences, in which Fox played three separate characters (Marty Sr., Marty Jr., and Marlene), all of whom interacted with each other. Although such scenes were not new, the VistaGlide allowed, for the first time, a completely dynamic scene in which camera movement could finally be incorporated. The technique was also used in scenes where Fox, Thomas F. Wilson, Christopher Lloyd, and Elisabeth Shue's characters encounter and interact with their counterparts. It also includes a brief moment of computer-generated imagery in a holographic shark used to promote a fictional Jaws 19, which wound up unaltered from the first test done by ILM's digital department because effects supervisor Ken Ralston "liked the fact that it was all messed up."

Animation supervisor Wes Takahashi, who then was the head of ILM's animation department, worked heavily on the film's time travel sequences, as he had done in the original film and in Part III. As Part II neared release, sufficient footage of Part III had been shot to allow a trailer to be assembled. It was added to the conclusion of Part II before the closing credits, as a reassurance to moviegoers that there was more to follow.

Development

Director Robert Zemeckis said that, initially, a sequel was not planned for the first film, but its huge box office success led to the conception of a second instalment. He later agreed to do a sequel, but only if Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd returned as well. With Fox and Lloyd confirmed, Zemeckis met with screenwriting partner Bob Gale to create a story for the sequel. Zemeckis and Gale would later regret that they ended the first one with Jennifer in the car with Marty and Doc Brown, because it required them to come up with a story that would fit her in, rather than a whole new adventure.

Gale wrote most of the first draft by himself as Zemeckis was busy making Who Framed Roger Rabbit. At first, the film was to take place in 1967, but Zemeckis later stated that the time paradoxes of it provided a good opportunity to go back to 1955 and see the first film's events in a different light. While most of the original cast agreed to return, a major stumbling block arose when negotiating Crispin Glover's fee for reprising the role of George McFly. When it became clear that he would not return, the role was rewritten so that George is dead when the action takes place in the alternative version of 1985.

The greatest challenge was the creation of the futuristic vision of Marty's hometown in 2015. Production designer Rick Carter wanted to create a very detailed image with a different tone from the film Blade Runner, wishing to get past the smoke and chrome. Carter and his crew spent months plotting, planning, and preparing Hill Valley's transformation into a city of the future. Visual effects art director John Bell stated they had no script to work with, only the indications that the setting would be 30 years into the future featuring "something called hoverboards".

When writing the script for Part II, Gale wanted to push the first film's ideas further for humorous effect. Zemeckis said he was somewhat concerned about portraying the future because of the risk of making wildly inaccurate predictions. According to Gale, they tried to make the future a nice place, "where what's wrong is due to who lives in the future as opposed to the technology" in contrast to the pessimistic, Orwellian future seen in most science fiction. To keep production costs low and take advantage of an extended break Fox had from Family Ties (which was ending its run when filming began), it was shot back-to-back with sequel Part III.

Music

The soundtrack was released by MCA Records on November 22, 1989. AllMusic rated it four-and-a-half stars out of five. Unlike the previous soundtrack, it contains only a musical score by composer Alan Silvestri. None of the vocal songs featured throughout the film are included. On October 12, 2015, Intrada Records released the complete score of Back to the Future Part II in a 2-disc set including early scoring sessions and alternative takes.

Release/Reception/Box Office

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 66% based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Back to the Future II is far more uneven than its predecessor, but its madcap highs outweigh the occasionally cluttered machinations of an overstuffed plot." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars. Ebert criticized it for lacking the "genuine power of the original," but praised it for its slapstick humour and the hoverboard in its chase sequence. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film is "ready for bigger and better things." Maslin later said that it "manages to be giddily and merrily mind-boggling, rather than confusing." Tom Tunney of Empire magazine wrote that the film was well-directed, "high-energy escapism", and called it "solidly entertaining", though noting it as being inferior to the other two films in the franchise.

Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader gave the film a negative review, criticizing Zemeckis and Gale for turning the characters into "strident geeks" and for making the "frenetic action strictly formulaic." He believed that it contained "rampant misogyny," because the character of Jennifer Parker "is knocked unconscious early on so she won't interfere with the little-boy games." He cited, as well, Michael J. Fox dressing in drag. Variety said, "[Director Robert] Zemeckis' fascination with having characters interact at different ages of their lives hurts it visually, and strains credibility past the breaking point, by forcing him to rely on some very cheesy makeup designs."

In 2018, Bob Gale, who co-wrote the movie with Robert Zemeckis, said the movie received a mixed reception because of the dark aspect of the story: "They [the audiences] were absolutely surprised by it. The whole 1985A stuff...we went places the audience was not ready to go. That is some of my favorite stuff in the whole trilogy." Since the initial release, the movie received a strong cult following. Some critics consider it one of the best sequels of all time.

The film was released to theaters in North America on Wednesday, November 22, 1989, the day before Thanksgiving. It grossed a total of $27.8 million over Friday to Sunday, and $43 million across the five-day holiday opening, breaking the previous Thanksgiving record set by Rocky IV in 1985. On the following weekend, it had a drop of 56 percent, earning $12.1 million, but remained at #1. Its total gross was $118.5 million in the United States and $213 million overseas, for a total of $332 million worldwide, ranking as 1989's sixth-most successful film domestically and the third-most worldwide—behind Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Batman. However, this was still short of the first film's gross. Part III, which Universal released only six months later, experienced a similar drop.

Budget $40 million

Box office $332.9 million

My Review

Back to the Future Part II is an solid sequel to the first one which Back to the Future (1985) is a masterpiece. This is a fun travel science fiction comedy in the trilogy. It deals with paradox past traveling. From traveling with Time machine Car "DeLorean" in to the future and back to the past again. This film is a 8 in my opinion it doesn't deserve the hate, like mostly viewers stated. I love "Back to the Future" trilogy it is one of my all time favourite trilogy's of all time. I grew up with this trilogy I have seen the first one on VHS as a kid. Years later I have seen the sequels on TV. I love this movie to death and it is my third favourite film in the trilogy. Don't get me wrong but I have enjoyed Back to the Future Part III more than part II and think the third film is the most underrated film in the trilogy and unappreciated. This film does have the comedy and the humour in it.

I Love, Love this film so so so much, it is a great direction from Robert Zemeckis and brilliant writing from Bob Gale. Back to the Future Part II was nominated for an Oscar. I really did missed 21st October 2015 an important event date from this film in the trilogy that reached 30 year anniversary in the year 2015 when the trilogy come out respectfully on a Blu-ray.

The story continues when Doctor Emmett Brown, Marty McFly and Jennifer traveling in to the future 2015 to fix Marty's and Jennifer's future in which Marty has to save his son from been jailed. His arch enemy Biff Tannen steals Marty's idea and steal's Gray's Sports Almanac only to travel back in to the past November 12, 1955 to change the alternative time line paradox in which Biff creates the timeline in the year 1985. The same alternative timeline and paradox was also used in The Flash Season 3 Episode 1 Flashpoint.

Than the story sets Marty and Doc on the hunt for a Gray's Sports almanac from Biff in the year 1955 in which Biff is a teenager. The chase and a race on the road in which Marty is in Biff's car try's to get the Almanac back and Biff crashes with his car in the truck of manure is my favourite scene in the film. The Hoverboard scene in the future in which Griff chases Marty in the year 2015 and Marty outsmart them in which Griff and his gang lands in the court in the opening scene is also my favourite scene in the film.

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are excellent in their performances. Michael J. Fox plays more than just one character, he even played Marlene McFly future daughter of Marty.

Things I really didn't like about the film and that is why it hurts the film: the dark future created I didn't liked. I hated Thomas F. Wilson's character Biff trough in tier film he was irritating awful person. I didn't like the death of George McFly. I didn't like Biff marrying Loraine. Half of the film was more focusing on Biff than Doc and Marty I hated that idea. I did not like the filmmakers repeat the first movie again in the year 1955. They copied the first film I did not like that idea so sorry. I still hate Biff Tannen in this movie so damn much! I did not like the ending in which Doc was hit by a lightning with "DeLorean" and sent back 100 year in the past. The film didn't had a satisfying ending or a happy ending that we wished for. I didn't like older Marty McFly he acted like he is stupid in the movie that is why I prefer III over this film more. Claudia Wells and Crispin Glover did not return to reprise their roles. I am surprised that actress Elisabeth Shue accept the role of Jennifer but she declined the role for The Karate Kid Part II weird.

This film get's "Back to the Future" is my favourite trilogy of all time and I love this movie to death. I hope they don't make Part IV because it will be disaster. It is rated PG for language throughout, some suggestive content and violence. I miss movies like this they don't make em' like this anymore. 10/10!!!