20 Things You Somehow Missed In Back To The Future
13. Dialogue Was Altered After 9/11
If you have watched Back to the Future on television in the last couple of years, you may have noticed some scenes have been edited. But why?
After the tragic attack on the World Trade Centre during 9/11, many programs on television were altered to remove any mention of terrorism. This posed a bit of a problem when airing Back to the Future. In the story, Libyan terrorists gave Doc a batch of plutonium under the impression he was going to build them a nuclear bomb. In reality, he needed the plutonium to fuel his time machine. When they realised he never had any intention of fulfilling his promise, the extremists shot him dead.
When Marty travels to 1955, he writes a letter to Doc which informs him he will be killed in 1985. When Doc rips up the letter, Marty shouts out, "You will be shot by terrorists." When the film was aired after the 9/11 attacks, this scene was edited so Marty cries out, "You will be shot." Any time the letter is shown onscreen, the words "by terrorists" was digitally removed.