In the pantheon of film history, there are
few movies regarded to be absolutely perfect. And film buffs for decades have very easily
argued why Back to the Future fits that bill. While a classic in every way, making the movie
was anything but perfect. From the years it took convincing a studio to make it, to replacing an
overly serious actor weeks into filming, Back to the Future overcame it’s mountains of troubles,
so it wouldn’t only be seen as a Sh*t Show. "Sh*t!" In 1977, Robert Zemeckis, an
inexperienced but brash filmmaker, barged into Amblin Productions. Without an
appointment, he ignored the secretary completely, and walked straight into Steven Speilberg’s
office. Zemeckis showed Speilberg his short film, A Field of Honor. The sheer gumption of Zemeckis
paid off. Speilberg loved the short and gave him the chance to direct a feature film. Zemeckis
returned to this college buddy, Bob Gale, and the two of them wrote the Beatlemania comedy,
I Wanna Hold Your Hand. For the first time, Speilberg would take the role of an Executive
Producer. Universal Pictures agreed to finance the film with the caveat that if Zemeckis
showed any sign he was in over his head, Speilberg would take over. Zemeckis didn’t
disappoint. The film reviewed extremely well, however audiences never showed up. But
Spielberg had two new creatives in his corner. In 1978, Speilberg wanted to try his hand at
comedy and purchased the next screenplay from Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale (aka “the Bobs”).
1941 was an action comedy, parodying the panic of a rumored Air Raid on Los Angeles during World War
II. The reviews weren’t great and while it wasn’t a flop, it didn’t make Spielberg-amounts of money,
so history remembers it as a bomb. The Bobs then wrote their third film, with Zemeckis directing
and Spielberg once again executive producing. Used Cars, a dark comedy about competing car salesmen,
received mixed reviews, and again tanked at the box office. The Bobs now had three failures under
their belt, all with Spielberg’s name on them. Around this time, Bob Gale visited his parents
and came across his father’s high school yearbook. "And I'm thumbing through it, and I find out
that my father had been the president of his graduating class. I didn't know this. And I'm
looking at him and thinking about the president of my graduating class, who's a guy that I had
nothing to do with. And I thought 'would I have been friends with him if I had gone to high
school or would I have just hated his guts." The idea struck him and he brought it up to
Zemeckis, and the two of them workshopped it. Both being fans of time travel, they developed
the story of a high schooler traveling to 1955 and meeting his parents. Their first stab at the
plot, is mostly similar to the final product, with some minor changes (like the time machine
being a refrigerator, and instead of lightning strike to get back to the future, they break into
an army base to detonate a f***ing atomic bomb!). With the idea in hand, the Bobs feared they
were perceived as the duo who only got film deals because they were Spielberg’s friends.
And if they made another film with him that bombed, their careers would be over. They
decided to make this one on their own. The Bobs took their screenplay to Frank Price,
President of Columbia Pictures. Price was known for taking risky bets on films, like Used Cars.
But a lot of the time, his gambles were rewarded. From Gandhi to Ghostbusters, he saw potential
where others didn’t. He liked Used Cars, and wanted to make another film with Zemeckis and
Gale. When the Bobs pitched their sci-fi comedy, Back to the Future, he was sold in 30 seconds,
and hired them to write the full script. When they returned in 1981, Columbia
was in the middle of a power struggle due to a looming buyout from Coca-Cola. The Bobs
were told that today’s audiences wanted teen sex comedies and their script wasn’t nearly raunchy
enough. Columbia shelved it. Annoyed and confused, the Bobs shopped their screenplay around town…
for years. Every studio thought it was cute, but not for them (Except for Disney
who were appalled by the light incest). "It's like I'm kissing... my brother." The Bobs continued to write for Spielberg, but
none of it went anywhere. A fed up Zemeckis needed to break free and prove himself a competent
director outside the shadow of his mentor. Fortunately for him, Michael Douglas was producing
his next film and handpicked Zemeckis to direct it. The adventure romantic-comedy, Romancing
The Stone released in March of 1984, to terrific reviews… and this time, was a big success.
Zemeckis’ reputation changed over night, fielding offers left and right, but he used this new found
clout to get Back to the Future off the ground. At this point, the Bobs figured
why not team up with the one guy that had believed in them since the beginning. "They came back and they brought me
this script, called Back To The Future." And they said, you know, we'd like you to be
involved in this. We think it's something we really want to do. And I read it and loved it! And
it was different than anything I'd ever seen in the movie theater. I mean, I couldn't believe what
an accomplished and fun piece of writing it was." Spielberg set the project up at his own
Amblin Entertainment, then got Sid Sheinberg, President of Universal Studios, to finance
it. But one problem still remained, Columbia commissioned the screenplay,
therefore owned it. As luck would have it, the current top executive at Universal was none
other than Frank Price, the same man who ordered the script in the first place. He had jumped
ship after Coca-Cola took over Columbia Pictures, and landed at Universal at the perfect time. He
knew Columbia was just sitting on Back to the Future and needed a way to get it, that hopefully
didn’t mean outright buying it. Price’s former employee Guy McElwaine had become studio chief at
Columbia and they were days away from production of a comedy called Big Trouble. But Columbia’s
lawyers suddenly feared it was so similar to Billy Wilder’s seminal classic, Double Indemnity,
they’d get sued by Universal. So ironically McElwaine needed Price’s sign off as permission to
make Big Trouble. A desperate McElwaine made the call. Price played coy, saying he’d think about
it and call him the next day. Price called back, agreed to give McElwaine the rights, if
he was ok with parting with two scripts. "Now, I knew Guy. He'd would have
been suspicious if it was just Back To The Future. He agreed to the deal, and I
gave him the license for Double Indemnity, and he gave me the two properties; one of which
I didn't want. But I got the one I wanted." Back to the Future was one
step away from being a reality. Sid Sheinberg had requested
another draft of the screenplay and gave the Bobs a few notes (that
were more or less requirements). Some were reasonable (Marty McFly couldn’t be
a VHS movie pirate), some were smart (rather than Professor Brown, make it Doc Brown, and
make his pet a dog, instead of a monkey), but his strangest request was he wanted
to retitle the film Spaceman From Pluto. "One day, we get this memo and it says I've
come up with the perfect title for this movie: Spaceman From Pluto. And so Bob and I went to
Steven, and we said 'what do we do?' And he turned to his assistant and he said 'let's send
Sid a memo: Dear Sid, thank you for your most humorous memo of November 14th. We all got a
big laugh out of it. Keep them coming.' He knew that Sid would be too embarrassed to admit that he
was serious, and we never heard about it again." The Bobs made the changes, while also updating
the time machine from a fridge in the back of a pick-up truck, to its own mobile unit, a DeLorean
DMC-12 (chosen for its bizarre look and gull wing doors). The green light was given. It was on to
casting. The Bobs had only one person in mind for Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox, who had the exact
amount of likability and buoyancy that they were looking for. However, Fox was committed to NBC’s
popular Family Ties, and the series producer, Gary Goldberg refused to let Fox step away (let
alone read the screenplay). The Bobs went on an exhaustive search for another actor, testing
Johnny Depp, John Cusack and Charlie Sheen, none of them had that Michael J. Fox quality.
Sheinberg began pressuring them to make a decision, the film was due in the summer of 1985
and if production didn’t start soon, he would pull the plug. The choice came down to The Outsider’s
C. Thomas Howell and Eric Stoltz, a personal suggestion of Sheinberg. Stoltz was in the middle
of shooting Mask, and Sheinberg swore by the kid’s acting chops. The Bobs liked Stoltz, but not
for Marty. Yet Sheinberg forced their hand. "So being a young and a hungry filmmaker, and maybe having a bit of an inflated ego,
I thought 'well, I can make this work." Just before production kicked off in earnest,
Sheinberg made one last demand… The Bobs needed to shave $5 million off the budget.
A crazy stipulation this late in the game. The Bobs looked at their script and determined
the most costly sequence of the film was the atomic bomb explosion. They spent
a weekend trying to figure out what would top something as dramatic as that. Standing in
the newly constructed Hill Valley town square (which wasn’t cheap), they realized that
if they shot the finale there too, it would save them millions. That’s when it struck them. A
lightning bolt... and a stroke of brilliant ideas. How would you know when a bolt hit? It
stopped something… like a clock! A clocktower! Duh! The movie is about “time”. It was perfect. A clock was then added to the town’s courthouse. They also really geeked out at the image
of Christopher Lloyd hanging from a clock, just like Harold Lloyd did in Safety Last.
Don’t worry, 23 years later, Spielberg went ahead and used the atomic bomb/fridge sequence
to much fanfare in the fourth Indiana Jones film. Production started at the end of November 1984,
and it immediately felt like something was off. Rain consistently delayed outdoor
shooting, a store sign fell on an extra, and Eric Stoltz was clearly
not right for the part. "I remember really vividly him saying
that he thought it was - they said 'how do you feel Eric?' And he
said 'I think it's a tragedy. My character remembers a past, that no
one else remembers. Do you remember that?" "No, I don't."
"I remember, I was like, Eric [mouths 'No!]." For starters, Stoltz was a Method actor,
and he made everyone on set call him Marty (to the point, Christopher Lloyd
literally thought that was his name). He obviously took the craft of acting seriously,
but in doing so, he dragged the material into a darker tone and would outright argue with the
Bobs about the character that they had written. "He's a magnificent actor, but his comedy
sensibilities were very different than what I had written with Bob. And he and I
just never were able to make that work." Zemeckis wanted very deliberate
comedic flourishes to his film, such as a simple moment of Marty walking on the
wrong side of a pole and tripping over the curb. Stoltz didn’t understand the impracticality
of it and felt his character wasn’t a bumbling idiot. Fights like this were frustratingly
often. This went on for a full six weeks. "I... um... didn't want to believe that it
wasn't working. So that's why I kept shooting and shooting. I was kind of in denial about it.
And then I had to ultimately accept the truth." "And he showed me the first five
weeks of footage cut together. And he just said, 'I don't think we're
getting the laughs that I was hoping we would get.' And I looked at Bob and I
realized that he was absolutely correct." The energy wasn’t there, the jokes didn’t land, Marty wasn’t relatable. It was like Stoltz was
in a different movie. After everything the Bobs went through to finally get this made, it
just felt off. Zemeckis suggested again: We need Michael J. Fox. Zemeckis and Spielberg
hatched a plan. Zemeckis would continue shooting for the next week and keep Universal in the dark
to prevent them from shutting down production. He would rush through wide shots that had Stoltz in
frame and focus more on closeups of the rest of the cast (ignoring Stoltz entirely). This allowed
him to have usable footage so he didn’t have to throw out everything (it also made things real
awkward on set, as the crew knew something was up). Meanwhile Spielberg and Gale negotiated
with Gary Goldberg, practically begging him to let Fox join the film. Goldberg caved, but
as long as Family Ties was the priority. "So at Christmas time, I was called
into Gary Goldberg's office, and Gary gave me an envelope - a manila envelope, with the
script in it. And he said 'here's the script. Take it home and read it. If you want to do it, and you
know, you have my blessing.' I kind of went like this. Put it down on his desk and said 'I love
it! Best thing I've ever read! And that was it." Once Fox agreed (and actually read the script),
Spielberg and Zemeckis finally told Sid Sheinberg. They explained how they didn’t need to replace
everything and they knew exactly every shot they would need. They crunched the numbers, determining
it would cost $4 million for the reshoots. Though Sheinberg had given them a hard time up
until that point, he understood the situation and gave the go ahead. Stoltz was fired on January
10, 1985… and he wasn’t that upset. He was clearly struggling with the character, didn’t jive with
the crew, and admitted that he only took the role because his agents said it would be a good
career move. Five days later, Fox joined the cast. Everyday, he’d work 10am to 5pm on Family
Ties, get picked up in a station wagon (with a mattress in the back), then film
Back to the Future from 6pm to 4am. "It gets to the point, literally, where a
teamster was coming, turning on the shower, waking me up, and hustling me towards
the shower, and getting me in the car, and I'd catch a few - a nap on the way into
work. And it just kind of - I was caught up in this cyclone of activity and creativity of
the highest level. Just really brilliant people. It was pretty incredible. But it was - you
really felt like you're doing something cool." Any time Fox isn’t on screen, he isn’t on set yet, Zemeckis had maximized the shooting schedule. And
he would take advantage of any free day Fox had. Zemeckis was overjoyed by what Fox brought to his
film, but in the back of his mind, he felt at any moment his crew would suddenly quit in protest for
restarting everything. It didn’t help that while he solved one problem with Stoltz, his issues with
Crispin Glover only grew. The Bobs were thrilled with Glover’s eccentric take on George McFly, but
directing him was like herding cats. During the cafeteria scene for example, Glover would bounce
wildly in his seat, rustling his hair over and over. After every take, Zemeckis calmly tried to
explain that his manic behavior was a nightmare for continuity and editing. It didn’t stop until
he was threatened to be duct taped to his chair. The final straw came at the end of the shoot, when
Glover protested the idea that George was only happy in his new future because of his wealth. He
argued to Zemeckis that the film was perpetuating propaganda that money equals happiness.
Zemeckis had enough and snapped at Glover, who in turn became terrified that he too was going
to get fired. On April 26th, shooting had wrapped. After the recasting snafu, the film’s release was
pushed from May 24th, to July 19. Still it was a mad scramble to edit the movie in time, which
was like a jigsaw puzzle (piecing together Stoltz footage with Fox’s performance). Their first
test screening was a rough cut, but it received the highest audience test score in Universal’s
history. Their second preview cut 7 minutes, added about half of Alan Silvestri’s score, and
according to Spielberg, the audience’s laughter was deafening and the crowd repeatedly broke out
into applause. Sheinberg was there to witness it. He was so pleased, he asked the filmmakers what it
would take to get the movie ready for the July 4th weekend. Gale said it could be done... with more
money, Sheinberg replied “I’ll write the check.” With less time, ILM had to
rush through effect shots. The fading hand was saved for last and
was given the stamp of “acceptable.” Back to the Future reached theaters on
July 3rd, 1985. Hysterically bonkers, wonderfully unexpected, magnificently crafted
and just a pure fun joyride. Universal knew it had a hit on its hands, but they didn’t
know how big. It was number one for 3 weeks, knocked down once to 2nd (with the release
of National Lampoon's European Vacation), but returned to first place for nine straight
weekends. It was the highest grossing film of 1985 and didn’t leave
theaters until March of 1986. It took years of convincing, but Robert
Zemeckis and Bob Gale got the last laugh. Little did they know their silly movie
would become a cornerstone of pop culture; an endlessly rewatchable bite of comfort food
that is widely considered a perfect movie. "Wait a minute, Doc! Are you
telling me that it's 8:25? "Precisely!"
"Damn! I'm late for school!" "Are you seriously telling me that your plan to
save the universe is based on Back To The Future?" "Oh no! If Marge marries
Artie, I'll never be born!" "Hey Winchester!" "Oh! Jeez oh!" "I'm sorry Morty! It's a bummer. In
reality, you're as dumb as they come." "I know! Back To The Future!
It's like Back To The Future." "I'm going to throw you in my Delorean and gun it to 88." "Vrrroooommm!" "That's the power of love." "Turns out, my boy went back in
time, and bumped into his dad, and then his parents never met. I guess
he faded from existence or something." "Doc, I'm from the future. I came here
in a time machine that you invented." "And that's when you came up with
the idea of the Flux Capacitor!" "But won't that change history?"
"Oh a lesson in not changing history, from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa." "I mean it's definitely not a perfect movie.
There might even be one or two shots in it that are a little bit hair out of focus.
You know, so it's not a perfect movie." "So Back To The Future is a bunch of bull sh*t?!" The Bobs, satisfied and ready to move on to
the next project, walked into Sid Sheinberg’s office. He congratulated them, admitted he
was wrong about Stoltz… then asked the Bobs to make a sequel. They scoffed, as self-admitted
film purists, to them sequels never worked. Then Sheinberg made it explicitly clear, Universal
was making a sequel with or without them. "Great Scott!"
I really like that guys channel