6. Back To The Future Nearly Didnt Have Sequels
The Films You Know: To not like Back To The Future is like not liking chocolate; you deserve to be heckled for it. Not liking the two follow ups is a little less taboo. The second is a lot of fun and the third has some nice pastiche elements, but theres no denying theyre lower rung films; all the key elements that define the series come from the first entry. At least, unlike many trilogies, there's a sense of intention to it all after that ending. In time where Star Wars and Indiana Jones were clearing up with sequels, it made sense for this bright new film to make way for some.
The Films That Almost Happened: Well there almost weren't any sequels at all. The To Be Continued... sting at the end of Back To The Future was little more than a joke, present (along with the flying Delorean) to keep audiences on a high when they left the cinema. It was only once the cash started pouring in and Universal put the pressure on Robert Zemeckis to make a follow up or two. Even then, Zemeckis said he'd only direct if Michael J. Fox and Christopher Llyod came back; something that seems certain now, but given the issues with Crispin Glover (greedy) and Claudia Wells (compassionate) could easily have thrown a spanner in the works. At the end of the day, looking back on a possibility of Back To The Future being a standalone film, its hard to decide if that would have been a good or bad thing.