Back to the Future

Work Title: Back to the Future
Medium: Film
Episode Title:
Year: 1985
Writer(s): Robert Zemeckis
"Original" Writer: Yes Writer(s): Bob Gale
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: No
Summary:

The year is 1985 and Marty McFly (Fox) is your everyday teenager, except for one problem. He is stuck in 1955. After his good friend Doc Emmett Brown (Lloyd) is gunned down, Marty ends up sending the DeLorean back twenty years into the past. Now, he must find the Doc and convince him that he is from the future, in order for the Doc to send him back to the future, but this is the least of Marty's problem. After accidentally getting in the way of the important meeting between his future mother (Thompson) and father (Glover), Marty must get them back together before he changes time forever, and destroys his own existence. (from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/plotsummary)

Era/Year of Portrayal: present_day
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

The film takes place in the present (1985) as well as the past (1955). No special characteristics or futuristic experiences take place in each respective decade; rather, the primary science fiction element is Marty McFly’s time travel between the 80’s and 50’s. The DeLorean levitates briefly at the end of the film as Doc and Marty travel into the future.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: Time machine/DeLorean, "Flux capacitor"
  • Description of the technology: Time travel in the DeLorean is activated by the flux capacitor which requires plutonium to trigger a chemical and nuclear reaction. The DeLorean drives similar to any functional car, and its passengers remain completely unharmed during time travel – arriving just as they were at the time of departure. The car must reach 88 miles per hour to activate this chemical/nuclear reaction. A control panel on the dash board requires the driver to enter his destination date and time, and also displays the date last traveled and the present date. The DeLorean is far more technologically advanced than any present day scientific device invented in 1985.
  • Nature of task or activity: Fueling the vehicle with plutonium and accelerating to 88 miles per hour.
  • Performance of the Technology: The DeLorean performs exactly as it is intended during time travel – the car is covered in a cold frost upon reentry. The car does have minor engine problems when Marty attempts to start the car, but the engine finally fires after several attempts. As the car’s odometer reaches 88 miles per hour, the flux capacitor reacts with the plutonium to produce 1.21 “gigawatts” of electricity and activate the time travel component. When Marty McFly travels to 1955, he does not bring enough plutonium for a return trip to 1985. More plutonium is not available in 1955 so Doc creates a scientific experiment that will harness electrical energy from an approaching lightning storm. Doc assumes a lightning strike will produce the necessary 1.21 “gigawatts” needed for McFly’s return trip. At the conclusion of the film, Doc returns from the future and fills a compartment on the rear of the DeLorean with garbage (a banana peel and beer remnants from a can of Miller High Life), perhaps alluding to the fact that Doc refined his technology and found an alternative power source that triggers the electrical reaction. Another significant advancement in the technology occurs at the end of the film as Marty asks Doc if a longer stretch of road is needed in order reach 88 miles per hour, to which Doc responds, “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” The DeLorean levitates and vaporizes into the future – the plot continues in Back to the Future, Part II.
  • Description of creator(s): Doctor Emmett Brown, or “Doc,” is an older male and he is the inventor of the time machine. He is portrayed as a mad scientist who works in a homemade laboratory built in his garage or shed. He has portraits of famous scientists – including Ben Fr
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): Doc does not seek personal financial reward or power by creating the time machine. Doc directs Marty to videotape his first successful time traveling experiment. This need to document his invention shows that Doc wishes to be known as one of the greatest scientific minds in history.
  • Description of users of technology: Marty McFly is a typical high school teenager in the 1980s. He is portrayed as a “cool” guy who plays lead guitar in a band, likes rock ‘n roll and rides a skateboard with considerable athletic ability.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: social_presence
  • Description of presence experience: It appears as though Marty McFly does not physically feel anything during the moment of time travel. He is unharmed and seems to move through time seamlessly.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: Marty is aware that the DeLorean is capable of time travel, but he is extremely disoriented upon his initial arrival in 1955. There is no mention of any out of body experience or feeling at the moment of time travel. Marty seems to exhibit only minor dizziness – perhaps used by the director for dramatic effect.
  • Valence of experience: The actual time traveling experience does not physically affect Marty McFly. He must be extremely conscious of his involvement with events in his past because altering or interfering with moments in the lives of his mother and father could have major implications on history – even his own existence.
  • Specific responses: Marty is socially and culturally awkward amongst his peers in the 1950s. A generational gap exists between Marty and the other high school students in everything from music, clothing, hair style preferences; knowledge of television programs, slang and other socially acceptable behavior (“parking,” dancing and manners). Age is the only thing Marty has in common with his classmates at Hill Valley High. Marty has a few slips when speaking of his knowledge of the future (specifically, television re-runs and rock ‘n roll music) and his peers assume Marty’s comments are those of a confused teenager.
Long-term consequences:

Marty disrupts events that led to his mother and father meeting. He devises a plan that will fix his parents up at the high school dance and put his father in a position to appear heroic in his mother’s eyes. As his mother and father’s courtship appears to fail, Marty and his siblings begin to disappear in a family photographer, showing his very existence will never happen if his mother and father do not fall in love and get married. Many warnings are given about interrupting the “space time continuum.” Marty returns to 1985 and finds his father has transformed from a dorky push-over, constantly bullied by his supervisor Biff to a confident author who pays Biff to wash and wax his cars. Marty writes Doc a letter warning him of his murder in 1985 the night of the experiment and Doc wears a bullet proof vest when the event occurs again, saving his life. Doc then travels 30 years into the future. He returns at the end of the film to warn Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer about a danger to their children. The story’s plot is continued in Back to the Future Parts II and III.

Other:

The film is an interesting portrayal of the dangers of traveling through time to alter past events or prevent upcoming events. The continuation of the story in Parts II and III explores the implications of this technology further and what could happen if the DeLorean is utilized for personal gain (gambling). Themes of fate and destiny (life and death) are explored as the characters must determine whether they have control over their future, or is our future/past predetermined?

Coder name: Gino Canella
Coder email: ggcanella@gmail.com
Coder affiliation: Temple University, Philadelphia, PA