The importance of Back to the Future

I remember that day so well. My dad, being a physical education teacher, decided to give me this challenge: climb a rope at his school and get to see a movie. I hated that. So very much. To climb this huge rope to the top was a daunting task, at best. I had been trying to do it forever, only to fail. Yet, somehow, this deal seemed to be a motivator.

So what movie did I chose? What movie did my Dad take me to? He took my 8 year old self to see Back to the Future. When I got to see the movie, I was amazed. I remember just how floored I was by the very idea of time travel. Of course, I didn't understand why or what it was. It was just some kid who went back into the past. I loved it. If nothing else, I loved the Delorean. For years, I had no idea what that car was, but it was silver and it made noise, the doors lifted up, and it sparked and left a fire trail. All in all, I was stupefied.

So why, after all these years, do I still fall back on this? Yes, the nostalgia does play a huge part and just how wonderfully it holds up after all this time, even filled with full on 80's sensibilities and clothes, but there has to be something else. I think it's because even after all this time, I still can't wrap my head around the idea of traveling back in time.

For those who don't know the film, and if you don't I feel sorry for you, it is about Marty McFly, your average high schooler whose family seems plagued with bad luck. His parents are losers, his family is a mess, and his dreams are crushed. After he is able to go back in time, he meets up with his parents and almost is lost because of the changes he's made. In the end, he travels back home and finds his whole life has changed.

Next time, you wear it!

Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, has always been one of my favorite characters. He is a mad scientist type, who invents the time-machine to travel through time, solving some of the Universe's biggest mysteries. He's a blast to watch and somehow, when I was a kid, he was just so darn funny. His facial expressions and over-the-top acting skills are just dead on. Not to mention that hair.

Marty is played by Michael J. Fox, who just screams that aura of teenage years. You can really see this kid growing up in this time, in this place, in this world. He was the character that I most wanted to be like when I grew up (from this movie) just so I could go back in time! His "life preserver" vest was always something cool that, even when that fashion went away for good, I still secretly wanted one. And the fact that he could ride behind a car on a skateboard while holding on to the back bumper? Who didn't want to do that? He was a cool teenager! I was never that cool in high school.

So what is the draw? Well, after all this time, it's the fact that I still can't get my head wrapped around the ideas of what could cause a paradox, and how the little things will later change, for better or worse, the future. A great example of a small change is when Marty goes back in time and runs over "Old Man Peabody's" pine tree. In the future, the land that once belonged to Peabody is now a mall, referred to as the "Twin Pines Mall." After Marty's trip, the sign at the mall now reads, "Lone Pine Mall." So it's things like this that I have so much love for, that I still get easily stuck on. What would have happened if Marty had disappeared? What if Biff beat up Marty? What would have happened if Doc had been electricuted when he was wrestling with the wiring? These are a few of the many questions that I have been dealing with for years.

And the clock tower is toast!

Sure, as a kid, I barely noticed this stuff. But kids grow up, and when they do, they notice stuff. It took me years before the concept of a Paradox even occurred to me. I couldn't understand why Marty's interference with his parents had created such a rift. I couldn't get that having Marty getting involved would ultimately destroy things, and maybe end up destroying space and time. My head had problems wrapping around such concepts, and that is why I have been so obsessed with this movie for so long.

As far as a vehicle goes, the Delorean is made of awesome. Looking like a slick futuristic vehicle, with its stainless steel body and doors that hinge upwards, it seemed like the perfect alien vehicle to travel to the future. I have always wanted one, and now I have one:

88 mph = sore fingers

Ok, so it's small. But you can't argue that I don't have one. Really. I guess one could argue, but it would be a hollow arguement and all you'd wind up doing is hurting a sad, sad, geek of a little man. You wouldn't want that, right?

Anyways, the point of all this is that I spend way to much of my time thinking about this film and the implications that I was able to derive from it. Would I go back in time and meet my parents, even by accident? No. I'd be too afraid of screwing up the very things that I hold dear to me. Sure, I'd love to suggest things for them to do differently, but then I'd be different. Maybe I'd be just as happy about that, but I'll never know. Then, is there any time that I would change for myself? Yes, but again I'd be afraid of meeting myself and hurting myself in some manner, enough so that I create a paradox myself and wind up destroying the universe and all its glory. No, I guess I'd best leave that alone.

So I'll continue to ponder the implications of time travel, of changing the past, of meeting people who I know now as uncles and aunts, and of course of the inevitable paradox that will stem from all of these things. I know that this was the first point when I became obsessed with time travel so that is why I will keep this movie close to my heart. After all, you never forget your first time travel movie. Unless you did, for which I pity you.

--MGS