8 Fictional Movie Villains Inspired By Real People

2. Biff Tannen (Back To The Future Part II) - Donald Trump

Back To The Future Part 2 Biff Tannen Donald Trump
Flickr: Gage Skidmore/Universal Pictures

The similarities between Back To The Future Part II's Biff Tannen and current-day U.S. president Donald Trump are so obvious, that it's surprising more people aren't aware of this connection.

Maybe this is because Trump only became a universally-recognised personality in the last few years, but he's been a prominent public figure for several decades now, as indicated by the fact that he served as an inspiration for Back To The Future Part II's villain, Biff Tannen.

In a chat with The Daily Beast, Bob Gale - the movie's screenwriter - opened up about the Biff/Trump parallel, confirming that the rich megalomaniac was used as a basis for the other rich megalomaniac:

“We thought about it when we made the movie! Are you kidding? You watch Part II again and there’s a scene where Marty confronts Biff in his office and there’s a huge portrait of Biff on the wall behind Biff, and there’s one moment where Biff kind of stands up and he takes exactly the same pose as the portrait? Yeah.”

Both Biff and Trump are very wealthy, sport thin, grey-blonde hair, and both assumed great amounts of political power as a result of their money and influence, and not necessarily because they're the best person for the job.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!