Back to the Future (film)/Trivia

In General

 * Dawson Casting: Marty, Lorraine, George, Biff, Jennifer, etc. Makes some sense in Lorraine, George, and Biff's cases, since in the first movie they had to play both their teenage selves and their adult selves.
 * Initially, not so much the case with Jennifer, who was played by 19-year old Claudia Wells in the first film, but then played by 26-year old Elizabeth Shue in the Sequels and that wig she wore to make her resemble Lea Thompson made her look every bit her age.
 * Also Doc, to stretch the trope a little. They had him get plastic surgery in the future for II so they could stop giving him wrinkle makeup. Doc's a weird case, as Christoper Lloyd was both older than his 1955 self and younger than his 1985 self in the movie.
 * Executive Meddling: Basically, this is the whole reason why the sequels exist in the first place - but Sid Sheinberg had insisted on certain changes to be made in the first movie.
 * One of Sid Sheinberg's changes, from "Professor Brown" to "Doc Brown" has become integral in Back to The Future culture. (Just how much so is suggested by Michael J. Fox's repeated bloopers in filming The Frighteners: he called the Judge character "Doc".)
 * Cost considerations forced a complete change in the tactic to return to 1985 in Part I, from powered by a nuclear test explosion to powered by the lightning bolt. By all accounts, it was a major improvement.
 * Fake American: Marty McFly -- Michael J. Fox is actually Canadian.
 * Hey, It's That Place!: Courthouse Square, on the Universal Backlot, has been in dozens of productions.
 * I Am Not Spock: Actor Thomas F. Wilson (Biff). He even wrote a song about it.

The First Movie

 * The Cast Showoff: Kind of. Although Michael J. Fox is miming his performance of "Johnny B. Goode" he did actually learn to play the song (having played guitar in high school) so he could do so accurately.
 * The Other Marty: Trope Namer, referring to Eric Stoltz.
 * You'll get to see some Stoltz footage in the new Blu-Ray release of the Back to the Future trilogy.

The Second Movie

 * Defictionalization: Marty Jr's hat became an actual piece of merchandise. Sadly, there is no sign of hoverboards yet.
 * Mattel released a hoverboard in late 2012. Some buyers were not impressed.
 * In 2008, Nike released 1000 pairs of (rather pricey) "Air McFly/Nike Mag" sneakers. And in 2011, they released 1500 more. The '11 versions light up. But, neither version self-laces, though.
 * Life Imitates Art: Sorta. Miami didn't have a baseball team when the film was made; they do now. However, not only is the name wrong, it's not in the right league. The Marlins and the Cubs are both in the National League, so they could never compete in the World Series against each other.
 * In a much more subtle example, the Elijah Wood kid complaining about having to use your hands on the arcade machine. Guess what Microsoft made recently that brought about hands-free gaming...
 * The Marlins are changing the "Florida" prefix to "Miami" starting with the 2012 season.
 * Movie-2015 has blockbuster 3-D movies. Guess what started becoming popular again in the real-world 2010s?
 * The woman at the curio shop mentions that the sports almanac is from the days where books were still made with paper. Is everyone in 2015 running around with Kindles or Nooks?
 * Prop Recycling: All of the futuristic cars were recycled from other films.
 * The Red Stapler: We're still waiting for our hoverboards... ones that really work, that is. (See Defictionalization, above.)
 * In 2010, Nike patented the self tightening shoes Marty wears in 2015.
 * Shrug of God: Bob Gale admitted in the DVD commentary that he has no idea what "lithium mode" is, and he doesn't know what illicit activities Future!Marty was getting into with the card scan.

The Third Movie

 * Actor Allusion: Mary Steenburgen stars as a woman who falls in love with a time-traveler, just like in Time After Time.
 * It's also worth noting that her first role was in a Western, where her character was being romanced by a man played by -- Christopher Lloyd! He lost her to Jack Nicholson in that one, though.
 * Also worth noting is that the date traveled to in Time After Time, November 5, is the same date Marty (accidentally) travels to in Part I.
 * The three old-timers at the saloon are all played by veterans of westerns: Dub Taylor, Harry Carey, Jr. and Pat Buttram.
 * Doc's squeal of shock against the piano is the same as the death cry of his bad guy in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
 * Fake Irish: Seamus and Maggie McFly.
 * Fatal Method Acting: So narrowly averted by Michael J. Fox. While shooting the scene where he gets hanged, his hand slipped and he actually got hanged. Fortunately, a crewmember noticed he wasn't breathing and he got resuscitated.