Cool Stuff: OWF's BACK TO THE FUTURE Drinking Game

As if you didn't know, 'Back To The Future' is 25 years old in 2010, and to celebrate the film has recently been re-released across cinema's in the UK. You can already read what OWF thinks of the film in Gareth Bunkham's excellent article 52 Reasons Why Back to The Future Might Just Be The Greatest Film Of All Time, but I thought I'd do something different to celebrate the re-release and the anniversary.

So, here we have it: the OWF Back To The Future Drinking Game, a tongue-in-cheek guide to watching Robert Zemeckis' classic film, borne our of my most recent viewing experience of the film at my local cinema.

It's funny; the old adage goes that you will always discover something new with a truly good film on every subsequent viewing. I have seen 'Back To The Future' more than any other film in my considerable collection and I felt I had long-since exhausted the opportunity for new discoveries. But watching it for the first time on the big screen afforded me that luxury for the first time in a long while, and I recognised some of the more colourful observations listed below, shedding new light and fresh appreciation of the film I class as one of my all-time favourites.

This is by no means the first 'Back To The Future' drinking game to hit the net, but it is certainly the only one that is merely a dumbed-down front for a new way to look at the classic film. It is meant only for the first film in the series, though some of the drinking prompts are transferrable across to the subsequent sequels.

Warning: Drinking in excess can make it terribly difficult to achieve any life goals; it also makes it vastly more difficult to interact within respectable social circles. ObsessedWithFilm promotes sensible drinking.

What You'll Need:

A staple long drink - think beer, lager, cider, wine A shooter spirit Something Irish A great Scotch Goldschlager Pepsi

Dialogue Cues

Simple starting point: take a gulp (or a finger in drinking game parlance) of your long drink or something else where specifically instructed every time you hear the following prompts on screen:

1. "This is heavy"- drink a finger of your Long Drink every time Marty utters his catchphrase, and have another if you chuckle at any of Doc's baffled responses.

2. Insults & Curses- a staple part of the movie drinking game community, swears are an excellent way of getting some delicious alcohol in your system (responsibly of course). And for a family film, there is a surprising frequency of colourful words (Marty says "shit" twice, the scoundrel) and insults, some milder than others. Drink every time someone curses or slings an insult at another character- make it a double gulp if it involves a "butt-head".

3. "Great Scott!"- not as frequent as you might imagine, and certainly nothing like as prolifically used as in the second and third instalments, so celebrate easily the most heavily quoted bit of the 'Back To The Future' script with two fingers of a great Scotch (whisky) - see what I did there? Can't get much better than Johnny Walker Black Label or the mighty fine Talisker- Doc might not be able to take his fire-water, but it doesn't mean we cant.

4. George stutters- Crispin Glover's high-energy, dorky performance as George McFly is one of the acting high-points of the first movie (especially when he is the grown-up version), but that doesn't hide the fact that he stutters a lot of his lines. So every time he starts what he is saying with an "um" or an "ah", or fails to make any words at all come out of his mouth have a drink. You'll soon value exactly how he feels as you stutter and dribble your way through the post-movie conversation.

5. "1.21 Gigawatts"- drink every time Marty or Doc mention the amount of electricity required to power the Flux Capacitor.

6. "Doc"- one for the hardened souls out there. Drink every time Marty says Doc. Warning: It's A LOT.

General Drinking

7. Spaceman/Sailor Jokes- Marty is repeatedly confused with both a sailor (because of his life preserver) and an alien, so have a shooter whenever it happens, including when he uses the confusion to his advantage, becoming Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan to convince George to ask Lorraine to the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance.

8. The DeLorean- just as big a star of 'Back To The Future' as Marty McFly or Doc Emmett Brown, the DeLorean Motor Company's only model car ever produced (the DMC-12) is second only to the Mk III Ford Capri in the beautiful 80s cars stakes. It is also the product of a compelling story itself- the fact that 9000 ever made it off the original company's production line before the 1982 bankruptcy in itself is a triumph of will and vision.

So,to celebrate this wonder of Northern Irish technological achievement, take a shot of something Irish and iconic: most might plump for Guiness or even Baileys Irish Cream, with a few plumping for a nice Irish whiskey, but personally I'd say spice it up by choosing poteen (or poitin), a potent moon-shine like spirit made from potatoes. It will also have the added bonus effect of giving you the Doc Brown wild hair look within seconds.

9. The Rules - drink whenever Doc Brown attempts to explain the rules of the space/time continuum, using the same brand of pseudo-science techno-babble you might expect from a preaching Scientologist. Add a drink bonus every time Marty looks like he understands.

10. Breaking The Rules - any time Marty unintentionally breaks the rules of the space/time continuum and changes the future, have a hearty drink: think when he kills one of Farmer Peabody's pines and unwittingly changes the name of the future mall to Lone Pine Mall (rather than Twin Pines Mall). Chase each gulp with a shooter every time he does it on purpose: like at the end when he tells his future parents to go easy on their future son (him) if he "accidentally" sets fire to the living room carpet (and they bafflingly just accept what he says). There is some space for interpretation here: you have to consider whether Marty's actions are intentional examples of him flouting the rules of the continuumm, like when he invents the skateboard or rock and roll.

11. Cameos - any time someone recognisable or anyone who is now much more famous (think Billy Zane, Flea and Elijah Wood in the second film) have a drink. This may include some research - like discovering that the billboard image of Mayor Red Thomas on the election car in 1955 is in fact set decorator Hal Gausman, who also worked on 'The Blues Brothers' and 'Animal House'.

Some cameos are far more recognisable, if you know where to look- like the band audition judge who tells Marty that The Pinheads are "just too loud", who is, of course, Huey Lewis himself. Personally, I'd even count the appearance of the Edward Van Halen cassette that Marty uses to antagonise George as a cameo, so don't forget to take a slug at that point as well.

12. Mayor Goldie - any time Donald Fullilove - now working mostly as a voice actor, including credits on Pixar's 'Up' and 'Wall*E'- appears on screen have a shot of Goldschlager (that infamous, disgustingly cinnamon-flavoured spirit with the flecks of Fool's Gold in the bottle). Don't worry, it's not that often.

See a funny Goldie tribute vid HERE.

13. Skateboarding- any time Marty skateboards, have a shooter. Have two every time you can see it is in fact stunt double, and former world champion skateboarder Per Welinder doing the boarding. Fun fact: when Eric Stoltz was filming as Marty, his double was none other than Tony Hawk, who stayed around on the production as a choreographer.

Advanced Drinking

14. Vintage- any time a character appears in aged make-up have a shot. There are a few obvious ones, but don't forget to include Doc Brown and Strickland, who are both aged for the 1985 versions of their characters. Make it a double whenever the make-up is obvious and pretty poor (the cinema screen and Blu-ray versions show this up pretty horrendously, especially around the neck), and look out for the point early on where it looks like Doc's neck is melting because his make-up has snagged on something.

15. Got Pepsi? - In one light 'Back To The Future' is a tale of product placement - first off the producers promised the Californian Raisins board that they would do for raisins what 'E.T.' did for Reese's Pieces (though they had to settle for an advertisement on the park bench behind Frank the sleeping tramp) and then there's the involvement of Pepsi.

Michael J. Fox was famously a major endorsement partner of the drink company in 1985, and looking back at the movie it's pretty damn obvious. The challenge here is to drink a depth charge of Pepsi and your shooter (that's a shot glass of the shooter dropped into a small glass of Pepsi) every time the Pepsi logo is on screen, including but definitely not limited to the ludicrously obvious McFly dinner table scene. I'll give two clues - ones in Marty's bedroom, another's at the gas station, you'll have to keep your eyes peeled for the rest. There are quite a few- no wonder there were some initial complaints about the Pepsi product placement from audiences.

16. The Marty Running Bonus - just like Tom Cruise in the majority of his films (see the hilarious Family Guy joke explaining it), Marty McFly spends an incredible amount of time running in 'Back To The Future'. Take a drink every time the little fella starts off on his toes, add a second finger if he combines it with that turning round while running trick he obviously so loves, and add a third finger every time he runs somewhere backwards or without looking where he is going.

17. The Marty Falling Over Bonus- inevitably for someone running everywhere, and not looking where he is going, Marty also spends an impressive amount of time on the deck. Throw a few fingers back every time he adds a slap-stick flavour to proceedings by collapsing like a sack of potatoes.

Warning: may cause actual falling over.

18. Clocks - Okay so I know 'Back To The Future' is a film about time and time-travel, and the plot is driven by the time restrictions dictated by when the lightning will hit the Hill Valley Clock tower, but is there really any need for this amount of screen time including an appearance by clocks? I mean seriously, it's not just the clock tower, even Doc and Marty's watches play significant roles (Doc's is curiously worn over his clothes in certain scenes, as if it is a conscious choice to show it).

To celebrate the film's love of clocks, the challenge here is to drink for as long as there is a time-piece on screen. Once you've done so, you'll realise exactly what I mean when I say there a whole lot of clocks on screen during the film, a fact that you will really appreciate after the opening sequence in Doc's house. As an interesting side-point, during the scene look out for the one clock that shows the right time (8:20am) and the miniature version of Doc hanging from the Hill Valley Clock tower (both of which I only noticed when I watched the film for the first time on the big screen last night at my local cinema- for about the fiftieth time overall).

19. That's Good Old Fashioned Incest- Disney famously turned 'Back To The Future' down due to the risque nature of the incestuous sub-plot involving Marty and Lorraine, an artistic choice that most modern commentators now laugh off as harmless comedy. But there is still something unsettling about the way Lorraine so rabidly pursues her own son (and her overall promiscuity in fact too). I mean come on, how would you feel if your mother or father was groping you or making doe-eyes at you across the room? Exactly. To numb the pain of empathy, drink a shot of your chosen shooter every time something vaguely incestuous occurs.

20. Crimes Against Women - Even more disturbing than the whole incestuous undertones, is the frankly astounding amount of sexual violence that features in the film: this of course includes Lorraine's gropings of Marty, but most of the examples are directed towards Lorraine herself. Whether it's from Biff, or even Marty's own distasteful plan to "take advantage" of his mother to set George up as the hero, Lorraine is man-handled (and even almost raped at one point) way too many times for a family film. Why not drink to the distaste? Every time a woman (or even Marty) is distastefully objectified or attacked, or it is mentioned (that includes Biff's rather unfortunate "I'll take it out of your ass" line) have a slug from your Long Drink.

So, who'd have thought it: evaluated in this light, 'Back To The Future' is a slap-stick, sexually aggressive comedy about clocks and the dangers of running without looking where you're going. Even so, to miss the opportunity to see it again on the big-screen would be an incredible crime against cinema: so celebrate the 25th Anniversary in slightly more sensible fashion by visiting the nearest cinema and reliving one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made.

Just a quick disclaimer: I wouldn't encourage anyone to actually play this game, as it will lead to a level of intoxication usually reserved to disgracefully-ageing film stars like Oliver Reed. The game is presented here merely as an alternative guide to viewing the film.