Back to the Future (1985)

Today's film is Back to the Future.  Yes, this really is my first time watching this film.  I don't know why I put off watching it for so long.  I read every book about time travel (and the physics behind it) that I find.  So I'm very excited to watch a movie that deals with time travel.

Marty, played by Michael J. Fox, is a teenager who is friends with a kooky scientist, Dr. Emmett Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd).  Doc has built a time machine out of a DeLorean, and inside is a flux capacitor  which is what makes the whole time machine work.  The machine runs on plutonium, which Doc has bought from the Libyans.  Once the DeLorean reaches 88 mph, the time machine activates and sends the driver through time.  Or, at least that's how I understood it.  Doc sets the year, but before he can do anything else, the Libyans arrive and shoot him!  Marty drives away to escape and activates the time machine and ends up in the 1950s, when his parents were his age.

Now, we've already seen Marty's parents.  His dad is a very timid man, while his mom is prim and proper.  Marty's arrival prevents them from meeting so he has to do everything he can to make sure they meet and fall in love, or else he won't exist!  When Marty meets the teenage Mom, she is not proper at all, in fact she is very flirtatious which is all kinds of funny and awkward because it's his mom.  How will he get his parents to meet?  And how will he return to the future?

Marty finds the younger version of Doc and shows him the time machine.  However, he doesn't have the stuff necessary to make the machine run.  What they need is a strong jolt of power - like a bolt of lightning.  Luckily, there was a famous bolt of lightning that destroyed the clock tower.  And it just so happens to have occurred close to the same time as when Marty arrived, so he won't be stuck forever.  How's that for ultra convenience?

This film is comical, and full of suspense at times, too.  Will Marty reach the bolt of lightning in time or will he be stuck forever?  Will he get his parents to meet and fall in love?  Will his visit to the past alter his family's destiny as well, and will it be for the better?  Of course, all of the answers are yes. It's a comedy.  It's also a great film to watch with children.  I will give it an 8/10.  Also, the mall where they meet to go back in time is called "Twin Pines Mall".  When Marty goes back in time, he runs over a pine tree, and when he returns to the future, the mall is now called "Lone Pine Mall".  It's little details like that that I love.