Everything Great About BTTF
Part 2
0:02:05-I love Doc's hesitation here. This was actually added for part 2 since, yeah Marty at least is a little bit of an asshole in the future.
-Also I love that they reshot as much of the sequence from the end of the last movie as they could. They could have easily just started when the three of them arrived in the future, but they went the extra mile to reshoot everything! Dedication win!
0:02:33-Chekov's matchbook!
0:04:46-You can see the wear and tear on the labels on the time circuits! Doc must have been traveling a lot in between his departure at night and his arrival in the morning.
0:05:26-I love how Jennifer just goes with it and gets so excited. She doesn't wanna get bogged down with all the details on how it all works, she just wants to see the future!
0:05:58-I will admit, I don't particularly like the treatment of Jennifer in this movie in particular. Both Bob Gale and Robert Zimeckis have said that if they ever did intend on making sequels, they would have never brought Jennifer along because they had no idea what to do with her, and I think that's just boring. Come on, she could have done something. Minus one win until we get some adventures with Jennifer!
0:06:04-”Ejection seats save lives” So I guess in case there's a crash in the air, there's a way to bail before that happens? Safety first!
-Also the mayor is Goldie Wilson Jr. now!
0:06:47-Even though Doc has already been to the future, and presumably this exact day too, he's still amazed by the technology.
0:06:57-No kids, those aren't giant compact discs, those are Laser Discs! They didn't really catch on.
0:07:09-The makeup artists were worried that they would have to do multiple takes for this shot since it took so long to actually do the makeup, but Christopher Lloyd got it in one take!
0:07:29-Christopher Lloyd's expressions are always a win!
0:07:40-Priorities.
0:08:12-The automatic laces were done by having crew members pull down the laces through holes in a fake asphalt platform. In fact, if you look closely just a few seconds before, you can see one of the holes in the ground for the laces!
0:09:56-Wishful thinking?
0:10:03-Supportive siblings!
0:10:23-Doc cares so much about Marty that he wants to make sure he has a good future. Especially after all Marty's done for Doc in part 1. That's just how great of friends they are! This also makes me wonder just how much went wrong after that day in the original timeline. We see later that Marty does lose his job, but that has nothing to do with what Marty Jr. did. But that bit isn't important to the plot, so on we go!
0:11:06-Gah just everything about this version of the future looks so great. Gale and Zimeckis wanted to stray away from a dark dystopia because that had been done so many times before, so they just decided, to hell with it! They just had so much fun coming up with what the future would look like, and even though they didn't try to predict anything, they still got a lot of things right! Even things that they never expected to get right!
0:12:32-There's so much to look at here, it's like a time capsule. Did you notice Marty's denim jacket in the top left? Or how about the Roger Rabbit doll, something that Marty would have no idea about since that movie hasn't come out yet, but to everyone else, it's from the past.
0:12:59-And there's so much to look at in the Cafe 80's itself! Like all the masks used to make all the Max Headroom-like waiters, the wall of monitors playing old shows (including Family Ties and Taxi), the exercise bikes alluding to the aerobics craze of the 80's (and also that in the 80's this location was an aerobics gym), and that the Pac-Man game is a priceless artifact! There's just detail poured into every scene!
0:13:47-Again, huge props to the makeup department. If these movies were made today, they would probably be digitally aged up, but nothing compares to practical effects.
0:14:19-Marty forgetting he's supposed to be posing as his son is honestly so in character for him. He keeps forgetting he's a time traveler and I love that!
0:14:47-Griff may be a bully, but he's such a fun character with all his speech mannerisms and inflections. Seriously, Tom Wilson's got range!
0:14:51-And that's why the top of Biff's cane is a fist!
0:15:26-There's Elijah Wood in his first movie!
0:15:55-I have to acknowledge how great Michael J. Fox's performance is in the 2015 scenes. Even though Marty Jr. looks nearly the same as Marty, there are still plenty of differences like his voice for starters. Not only that, but his face even looks slightly different. Maybe it's the eyebrows and the brown color contacts along with his sweaty matted hair, but he's not a carbon copy of Marty.
0:16:23-Griff's gang definitely feels more like a gang than Biff's. They're just as intimidating and threatening to Marty Jr. as Griff is. They're all surrounding him and staring at him while Biff's gang just sort of stayed behind as Biff did all the work.
0:16:38-Oof... and Marty's reaction to seeing his son get thrown around like that and not being able to do anything about it followed by his disappointment that he raised “A complete wimp!”
0:16:50-Aww... Marty Jr. is just so precious. “Hey guys, I'd love to join your gang and commit crimes, but I really gotta ask if it's okay with my dad first.”
0:17:03-Sound fatherly advice!
0:17:26-You can tell just by that line that Tom Wilson had fun playing Griff.
0:18:07-Griff is so much more competent than Biff too. He came prepared in case things didn't go his way, and he doesn't fall for the oldest trick in the book. He's definitely more threatening than his grandfather was 60 years ago that's for sure.
0:19:06-See what I mean? Griff's gang is way more active and they work together more as a unit than just following whatever Griff says. They're not good guys by any means, but they can have a win for teamwork.
-Also this hoverboard chase is just so cool!
0:20:02-I've got nothing, those lines were just great, and I love them.
0:21:04-Well, it's not how Doc intended for things to go down, but he didn't account for Griff not taking no for an answer, so Marty had to improvise.
0:22:02-They did actually win in 2016. Just one year off, that's gotta count for something, right?
0:22:23-Well if you're gonna blame Marty for the Hell Valley timeline, you should actually blame Terry here for giving him the idea to get the almanac in the first place! This idea is actually something leftover from one of the early drafts of the first movie!
0:22:33-Chekov's dust jacket!
0:23:06-Politeness! He gets it from his dad. Although, I may have spoke too soon.
0:23:20-Einstein is always a win.
0:23:44-Old Biff in the background just cracks me up.
-Also I guess in a way Jennifer was important to the plot after all? I still want Jennifer adventures dammit.
0:24:35-The way Doc switches from friend mode to dad mode here almost instantaneously is just great here. Marty's still a teenager and makes decisions without fully thinking them through as teenagers often do, and Doc knows this. He's there for Marty to keep him out of big trouble.
-Also fun fact, Christopher Lloyd still has that train shirt!
0:26:22-I just love Marty's reactions to hearing that theoretically reality as he knows it could be destroyed if Jennifer manages to see her future self. This kind of talk is just normal for Doc now and Marty just goes with it!
0:28:22-As tacky as it is, I love Marty's tuxedo shirt in the wedding photos. At least it's a long-sleeved one, so it's more formal, right?
-Also behind the Chapel O Love picture, you can see a picture of 2015 Marty!
0:28:49-Marlene is always a win!
0:29:04-George being upside down was actually decided while they were still negotiating whether Crispin Glover would return for part 2. If he didn't, it would be harder to tell that it was a different actor wearing prosthetics if he were upside down, but if he did return, they wouldn't have to worry about him missing his mark since the device holding him would just take him there. I don't think Jeffery Weissman gets enough credit for filling in as George, though. Seriously, props to him for doing this!
0:29:56-The Chapel O Love picture got put back upside down!
0:32:44-Of course Marty can't help but look around. You try being taken to the future and being told to stay put! Besides, he was probably looking for Einstein. He's just excited to be in the future, okay?
0:33:33-Ah even in the future, teenagers will still be teenagers.
0:33:40-Marty Jr. is picking off the toppings!
-Also just the way each of them grab their slice in different ways and all three of them are played by Michael J. Fox! He has the range too!
0:33:44-Marlene also picked off the toppings from her pizza! And apparently Marty eats his pizza with a knife and fork?
0:34:21-I actually really like that Needles is introduced out of nowhere. Marty and Jennifer know him, but the audience doesn't, and I think it just helps the worldbuilding a little more. These characters have their own lives and relations outside the events of the story, and it's details like these that really highlight that.
-Plus it's also refreshing to see an antagonist that isn't a Tannen. Needles doesn't really bully Marty like Biff bullied George or Griff bullies Marty Jr., he just knows how to push Marty's buttons and get him to do stupid things just to see what reaction it gets out of him. It's a much more interesting dynamic in my opinion.
0:36:00-Ouch... the look on Jennifer's face when Marty gets fired. She definitely knows Marty's issue with being called chicken or any variation of coward, and now she knows that that same problem has snowballed into so many other problems too. It just crushes her.
0:37:07-I've got nothing, this part is just great! Jennifer should really try for the school play!
0:38:05-Yikes... and now we know just how painful fading out really is. Old Biff being erased either because his timeline changed so drastically that Biff became an entirely different person in his old age, or Hell Valley Biff straight up dying at some point after 1985. Bob Gale said on the commentary track that Lorraine would have shot him sometime in the 90s so... good for her!
0:39:51-The bars on the windows and the fact that there's just a whole wrecked car right next to the house are just the first of the clues telling us that something's not right about this version of 1985.
0:39:53-The graffiti on the Lyon Estates signs cover up the BiffCo logos on the bottom, but there's also plenty of for sale signs with the BiffCo logo on them, so just in case you needed another hint to know that something is definitely amiss here.
0:41:26-The more time we spend here, the more everything just degrades and the worse the landscape gets. From the crashed police car, to the white body outlines, it just keeps getting worse and worse.
0:42:57-I don't know what's scarier, Trump Biff, or Strickland with a gun. Also it would make sense that a Hill Valley with Biff in charge of everything wouldn't bother rebuilding the school since Biff probably never valued education, and keeping people below you uneducated is how you stay in power. Biff straight up sucks, and they really don't pull any punches showing that. It's a family movie by 1989 standards, but it doesn't dumb anything down or sugarcoat anything. The first one didn't do that either, but part 2 is arguably the darkest of all three movies.
0:44:19-The reveal of the town square showing off how gross and “Biff” this version of Hill Valley is. Every shop is either a liquor store, strip club, or a bar with the casino hotel being the cherry on top of just how wrong this place is.
0:44:53-Smoking is apparently required. Yep, sounds like Biff.
-Also on the right is his car from 1955!
0:45:13-It's another one of those blink and you'll miss it moments, but if you look closely, you can see the almanac in Biff's pocket!
0:47:18-Okay Trump Biff is way scarier. Again, Tom Wilson just does an excellent job here. It's 1985 Biff, but his voice is deeper than either of the 2 versions we saw in part 1, and he's way more violent and menacing than the Biff from the Twin Pine timeline.
0:50:14-It's just so heartbreaking to watch Lorraine act so defeated and depressed. You can really tell she gave up a long time ago, and she only puts up with Biff just so her kids can be safe. It's hard to watch sometimes, and Lea Thompson just nails her performance once again.
0:52:28-Even in a time of crisis, Doc still has time to explain to Marty what's going on in a way that he can understand.
0:54:14-During this whole explanation to Marty, not once does Doc ever go “I told you so” or deliberately make him feel like he's responsible for what happened. There's no way either of them could've known that Biff was listening, so it's really not Marty's fault, and Doc knows that. That's not what Doc is worrying about right now. Marty's learned his mistake and doesn't need his lesson spelled out for him. What's important now is getting the almanac back and fixing the timeline.
0:55:01-And Nixon is still president, and the Vietnam War is still going on. This timeline really is messed up!
0:57:36-Nice save. Also keeping with the trait that Marty keeps forgetting he's a time traveler.
1:00:48-Marty knows that jumping off is really the only way out. He has no idea where Doc is, so even if he hits the ground, he's hoping that Doc will find his body and know to come back to save him. You really gotta hand it to Marty for all the quick thinking he does in these movies.
1:02:23-Doc shifting back into business mode. He knows how urgent this situation is, especially when you take into consideration that he never invented the time machine in this timeline, so he knows they have to move quickly or else they could wind up with an even bigger paradox on their hands.
1:03:30-And here we see that blocking from part 1 again as Marty tries his best to keep up with Doc's explanation of the plan.
1:04:02-Marty is such a dork I love him!
1:04:31-I actually really like the sequence where Marty trails Biff. This is all probably happening while his other self is helping George with laundry and running him through the plan for that night at the dance. Meanwhile, Biff's running his own errands and has his own life. It just adds some depth to him and makes the world feel more alive. It also looks like he has a really bad home life too, and while that does not excuse his actions in the slightest since this Marty had a bad home life and he's not a bully, it does help to explain why he's like this.
1:07:11-Self-defense win! See, Lorraine doesn't always need “Calvin Klein” to come to her rescue, she can get rid of Biff on her own just fine.
1:08:26-Marty peaking over Old Biff's shoulder to see if he has the almanac.
1:12:29-There's the tunnel into Toontown from Who Framed Roger Rabbit!
1:13:34-I don't know why, but Doc's reaction here when Marty uses “heavy” again just cracks me up.
-Also love how Doc's 1955 self enters the frame when Marty asks about his own other self. I guess you could call it a... Pair o' Docs! (Get it? Cuz it sounds like paradox?)
1:15:02-Y'know, Biff is smarter than I give him credit for. He's not necessarily intelligent academically, but he is quite cunning and remembers important information like, “Don't leave the book lying around” or “If these two guys come looking for the book, kill 'em.” Plus later he switches the dust jackets, and that he did all on his own (as far as we know). He's not a total blockhead.
1:17:52-If you look closely at Biff's arms, you can see them shifting around. Maybe this is where he switches out the books so Strickland ends up with the Oh La La when he takes it from Biff.
1:18:02-And if you look closely at Strickland flipping the pages, you can see that it is, in fact, the Oh La La magazine.
1:21:29-Ah I just love the way this shot is framed as Marty tries to figure out where the hell Biff is!
1:22:28-Taking time to smell the roses. This time he actually gets to see George punch Biff's lights out! That's gotta be satisfying!
1:22:53-CPR: Crouch, Punch, Run!
1:25:35-Marty's little nod hearing himself play! Good for Marty for not cringing at the stuff his past self did when he quite literally could do that right now.
1:29:47-Marty keeps making little mistakes that make things worse, but Doc doesn't dwell on it to make Marty feel even worse than how he already feels. They still have a mission to complete. That's what sets them apart from similar duos. Marty screws up because he's human, and Doc just rolls with it and helps him clean up his mess rather than yell at him for it or berate him by calling him an idiot.
1:34:10-The whole tunnel sequence is just so tense and really reminds us just how brutal Biff can be even as a teenager. He literally tried to kill Marty twice in that whole scene! I still get anxious watching Marty try to make it out of the tunnel before Biff can catch him, and I've seen these movies a thousand times! That last minute save from Doc is still just as relieving as it was the first time.
1:35:56-Man the effects of the matchbook and the newspapers changing to reflect the change of the timeline still looks so good. This movie has the most effects out of the entire trilogy, and they didn't hold back on any of them. Yeah, if you look close enough you can see where they split the screen for scenes where an actor is in two places at once, but you kinda have to know what you're looking for to see it. The effects still hold up really well thirty years later!
1:36:37-Aww! And they're just so happy too! You can hear it in their voices how happy they are!
1:37:11-And then the wind stops and everything goes silent when Doc is sent back to 1885. No music even, just Marty, alone.
1:38:58-I just love Marty's shock and confusion when he pulls out the letter. He just lost Doc again, and this guy comes up to him with a letter? With his real name? The roller coaster of emotions he must be going through all within the last hour or so for him.
1:39:56-And his face just lights up when he sees that the letter is from Doc! He's not gone after all and Marty couldn't be happier about it!
1:41:28-They actually reshot Doc's celebration for this part. Christopher Lloyd sat and watched the original scene over and over so that he could get the movements just right. Another dedication win!
1:41:58-Doc's bewildered reaction to seeing Marty return right after he had just sent him back cracks me up every time! He's just trying his best to wrap his head around it and he just can't so he blacks out! His brain just doesn't wanna deal with it so it doesn't!
1:42:19-And Marty trying to revive Doc because he's a good friend! And also because Doc being out of commission is probably the last thing he wants right about now.