Back to The Future/Trivia

In General:

 * Trope Namer: These movies named the following tropes:
 * Can't Hold His Liquor
 * Delayed Ripple Effect
 * Ripple Effect Indicator
 * Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory
 * Get Back to the Future
 * If My Calculations Are Correct
 * "Mister Sandman" Sequence
 * The Other Marty
 * Nobody Calls Me Chicken
 * Right on the Tick
 * Write Back to the Future

The first movie:

 * Hey, It's That Guy!:
 * The head judge of the band contest is Huey Lewis (of Huey Lewis and the News), who also made the series theme song Back in Time.
 * Cal is one of Biff's Mooks in 1955!
 * Marty's brother is Jimmy Olsen!
 * In Part II, Marty meets a young Elijah Wood.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * The original time machine was a modified refrigerator, changed because it would have been a very stationary prop and Steven Spielberg had images of children locking themselves in the fridge to the horror of their parents. (That's right, Steven Spielberg didn't want characters climbing into refrigerators.) They also would have driven into the blast of a nuclear bomb to fuel the flux capacitor, changed because that alone would have doubled the production costs and the clock tower lightning strike made a fairly simple and stationary location. In the script written for this kind of time machine, the original timeline's Biff became a cop that kept "borrowing" stuff from George and had a daughter. With the change in the timeline, Biff became a security guard working for George, who became a boxing champion in that script.
 * Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty; apparently only stills exist of his work on the movie except for one scene that made it into the final cut -- Stoltz running away from the terrorist van, entirely covered in a radiation suit. Footage of this has recently been released.
 * When initially casting Marty, the producers narrowed it down to two choices: Stoltz and C. Thomas Howell. Zemeckis and Gale preferred Howell, but the executives preferred Stoltz, so Stoltz was cast. However, the execs told the Bobs that if Stoltz didn't work out, then they could go back and reshoot with another actor. Except no one expected it to actually happen...
 * Also, John Lithgow was considered for the part of Doc Brown.
 * Jeff Goldblum was another consideration for the role of Doc Brown.

The second movie:

 * Hey, It's That Guy!:
 * One of the little kids in the Cafe 80s (who mocks Wild Gunman for being a game that you have to use your hands to play) is played by a very young Elijah Wood, in his first film role.
 * Needles, Marty's boss in 2015 and road-racing opponent in the final version of 1985, is Michael "Flea" Balzary, bassist for the relatively unknown world famous funk-rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.
 * One of Biff's cronies is Billy Zane.
 * One of Griff's gang members is Jason Scott Lee, who would play Bruce Lee (no relation) in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!:
 * Charles Fleischer, who provided the voice of Roger Rabbit, plays Terry, the mechanic who fixes Biff's car in 1955 and becomes the old man who asks Marty to save the clock tower in 2015. Might double as a Shout-Out to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, another Amblin film.
 * From the same movie, in the 2015, int the 80's shop where Marty buys the Almanac you can see a Roger Rabbit doll. Both the movie were directed by Zemeckis and both they have Chris Lloyd starring in there.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * According to Bob Gale, ideas proposed for Part II included a visit to Doc's family (with Christopher Lloyd playing his mother), and going to the days of Prohibition when Biff's ancestor was a bootlegger.
 * The last bit was retaken for the first episode of the video game. And yes, Bob Gale worked on it.
 * The sequel originally had Doc and Marty going back to the 60's after Biff's interference and seeing Marty's parents as pseudo-hippies, and part of his goal would have been to ensure that he is conceived. About mid-way through writing this part, they realized that there was nothing really stopping them from revisiting the events of the first movie. In that version, George was already dead in 2015 (and it was NOT 2015-A). It was mentioned that, at some undisclosed moment, George's life had been saved at a hospital that had previously survived an attempt from the town to demolish it. In the timeline where Biff became wealthy, the hospital had been demolished.
 * You can read about this version and its associated tropes here.

The third movie:

 * Hey, It's That Guy!:
 * The band at the town hoedown was ZZ Top, complete with signature spinning instruments.
 * Averted, but worth mention: President Ronald Reagan was a big enough fan of the series to reference the Flying Car future of Part II in his speeches, and of course was a veteran actor himself. He purportedly wished he could have played the mayor of the 1885 Hill Valley, and it was even seriously considered at one point. It's to the detriment of film history that it didn't happen.
 * Lyle's now a Colt firearms salesman!
 * The conductor who answers Doc and Marty's questions about the train is the hillbilly who forced Ned Beatty to "Squeal like a pig!"
 * What Could Have Been:
 * Ronald Reagan as the 1885 Mayor. Given the Crowning Moment of Funny dropping his name in Part I and the Max Headroom Expy that appears in the 80s Cafe in Part II, having him appear in Part III would have neatly tied things together in a Rule of Cool way.
 * And Part III was The Western, a genre Reagan worked with.
 * If Crispin Glover had signed on to the sequels, he would've played Seamus McFly in Part III.

The animated series:

 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Bill Nye the Science Guy did live action experiments at the end of each episode.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!:
 * Dan Castellaneta as the animated Doc, Mary Steenburgen as Clara, and Tom Wilson as Biff (and every other Tannen in history).
 * Also "Danny Phantom" voices Marty.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: In the episode "Super Doc", Doc, Jules, Verne and Marty end up in 1952. While there, Marty's claims his name to be Jimmy Olsen. Guess who voices Jimmy in Superman: The Animated Series?
 * The Other Darrin: In a bizarre version of this trope, Christopher Lloyd played Doc in the live action bits, and Dan Castellaneta played his animated counterpart.

The video game:

 * Hey, It's That Voice!:
 * Emmett's father in Episode 1 is Winslow!
 * Don't forget Generic Guy, Hostile Guy, and (I think) Cue Ball. So winslow was three times at the speakeasy..simultaneously...That's time travel for you!
 * Young Emmett himself is Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as Tidus.
 * Jennifer is voiced by her original actress, Claudia Wells.
 * Michael J. Fox comes back finally for a special guest role in Episode 5.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * The story of the game is based on the unfinished fourth movie script; and expanded on a fair bit. According to Tell Tale games they revived the script, expanded it, and apparently had enough to actually fill up a fifth movie by Episode 4 & 5!
 * Biff's daughter Tiff was originally going to appear in Episode 3, but with Punk Jennifer there it was decided she was redundant.
 * There were plans to give Doc and Edna a kid, but they decided against it, due to the ethical ramifications of erasing a person from the timestream.