We who grew up with "Back to the Future" loved Doc's crazy-scientist hair and never dared drive over 88 mph. Now we have to come to the grips that the future is now the past. But our parents hooked up and we still exist.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Universal/Zemeckis
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A nostalgic look back at the future
As "Back to the Future" turns 30, here's a nostalgic look back at the future we grew up with.
Image: Getty Images/R. Murray
The future sells
The time travel adventures of student Marty McFly and his friend, Dr. Emmett L. "Doc" Brown are told in the sci-fi trilogy "Back to the Future," by director Robert Zemeckis. The first of the films came out in 1985 and was the most successful of the three, raking in over $380 million at the box office.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Universal/Zemeckis
Peers with parents
With his time machine, a DeLorean that runs on plutonium, Marty McFly accidently launches himself back into the 1950s. There, he met his young parents and had to make sure they became a couple in order to ensure his own existence in the future. More difficult than it sounds - since his mother was about to fall in love with her own son.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Universal/Zemeckis
Can changing the past impact the present?
Marty McFly arrives in the year 1954, just as his parents meet and fall in love. If that doesn't happen, then Marty and his siblings wouldn't be born in the future. In one scene, Marty sees his hand disappearing - a sign that his existence is at stake.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Universal/Zemeckis
An instant classic
The young Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) stole the hearts of millions of viewers and the film became a classic. Two films followed. To the disappointment of fans, director Robert Zemeckis turned down the possibility of doing a fourth.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Universal/Zemeckis
New world of gadgets
In the second part of the trilogy, Marty McFly and Doc Brown make their way to the future. They are shocked to discover flying cars, flat screen TVs, tennis shoes that tie themselves, and hoverboards like this one. Even today, teenagers are still dreaming of skateboards without wheels.
Image: Imago/Milestone Media
If at first you don't succeed
Allegedly, the screenplay by Bob Gale was rejected over 40 times before Universal Pictures finally decided to go for it. Steven Spielberg was the producer. This scene comes from the third film, in which Marty and Doc land even further back in time: in the Wild West.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Universal/Zemeckis
We live in the future
The first "Back to the Future" film came out 30 years ago. Marty and Doc travel through time - and arrive on October 21, 2015. All over the world, fans are celebrating Back to the Future parties with film marathons.
Image: Getty Images/R. Murray
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"Back to the Future," the science-fiction trilogy by director Robert Zemeckis, traces the time travel adventures of student Marty McFly and his friend, Dr. Emmett L. ("Doc") Brown.
Marty accidently takes a journey in a time machine - a plutonium-powered DeLorean that jumps time when it reaches 88 miles per hour - and lands in the 1950s, where he finds himself trying to keep his young parents together.
First, he has to make sure his mom falls in love with his dad, and not her future son, in order to ensure that he actually exists in the future - that is, the present, which was actually 1985.
With its unforgettable 80s soundtrack and eccentric characters, the film immediately became a classic and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) were stars.
The second and third films in the trilogy followed quickly, in 1989 and 1990, respectively. For the past quarter century, fans have been asking when the fourth part will finally arrive. "Oh God, no," director Robert Zemeckis, 63, told British newspaper "The Telegraph," comparing the idea of a fourth film to a remake of "Citizen Kane."
88 miles per hour…
The successful trilogy didn't have such an easy start. It's said that Bob Gale's original screenplay was rejected more than 40 times in Hollywood before Universal Pictures finally decided to give it a go. Fortunately, they did it right and put Steven Spielberg in the producer's chair.
Perhaps Hollywood traveled to the future and saw that it would bring in $380 million at the box office with the sci-fi flick.
Was is Doc's crazy hair, Marty's awkwardness or those hoverboards that made "Back to the Future" so endearing? Or perhaps the reality that, had just one thing in our parents' past not happened, perhaps we would never exist today.
In the first film, Marty and Doc travel to October 21, 2015. Today, that's a great reason to throw a party - albeit without hoverboards, but with a marathon of three nostalgic films.
