36. Billy Zane and Biffs Goons
Back to the Future wasnt only Michael J. Foxs performance of a lifetime; it was also
Billy Zanes. Billy Zane? I hear you say, He wasnt in Back to the Future. As one of Biffs goons Billy Zane showed more charisma and personality without a speaking line than he has in any film since.
Biffs goons are the very definition of sycophantic suck-ups, and their utter incapability to carry out their leaders bidding successfully usually sees them getting their just deserts in a variety of humiliating ways.
37. Darth Vader joke
Last night, Darth Vader came down from Planet Vulcan and told me that if I didnt take Lorraine out, that hed melt my brain - George Yeah, well, lets keep this brain melting stuff to ourselves, okay? Marty
38. The Dinner Scene
Who the hell is John F. Kennedy?
The dinner scene where Marty is somewhat coerced into eating dinner with his future Grandparents, Mother and Aunts & Uncles is a master class in uncomfortable. With Marty eager to get away from the amorous advances of his own Mother, he further riles his future relatives with comments they dont understand having more than one TV set, re-runs and of course that Riverside Drive is actually JFK Drive much to Lorraines Father (and Martys Grandfather) Sams chagrin.
Lorraine grabbing his leg under the table is the final straw for Marty who makes his excuses and promptly leaves, prompting Sam to brilliantly, and rather ironically, comment:
Lorraine you ever have a kid that acts like that, Ill disown you
39. The Animated Series
Another spin-off from the Back to the Future movies was an
animated series, which ran for 2 seasons on CBS between 1991 1992 and further expanded the Back to the Future universe, although some fans dispute the canon of the animated series. Only
Mary Steenburgen (Clara in
'Part III') and
Tom Wilson reprised the animated versions of their characters but
Christopher Lloyd did appear in live action segments. Weirdly, the animated Doc was voiced by Homer Simpson himself
Dan Castellaneta. Whilst sadly not available on DVD yet, the 'Back to the Future' animated series is the kind of show that has achieved cult status aimed at kids but no doubt also loved by the adults who grew up on the live-action movies.
Compared to todays slew of cartoons that treat kids like morons, the science portions of the show were light years ahead of modern shows in terms of entertainment and educational value.
40. Not Nuking the Fridge
An early draft of the Back to the Future script saw Marty travelling through time in a fridge and being caught in a nuclear bomb detonation. However, when concerns were raised that kids may try and emulate the stunt and become trapped inside fridges, the time machine was, mercifully, eventually changed to the now iconic DeLorean. Years later,
Steven Spielberg would again be involved with nuking the fridge, only this time it actually made it to the screen and ended up
spawning a website.
In
'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull', Indy actually escapes a nuclear blast by hiding inside a fridge. The moment was deemed so ridiculous that nuke the fridge rapidly became cinemas jump the shark that moment when you know a film or franchise has lost it. Thankfully,
'Back to the Future' avoided an association with such a derogatory term, but it further emphasises the cultural impact that the
'Back to the Future
' universe has had.