Still just awesome like that
Really, I'd consider Back To The Future to be the greatest film trilogy of all time. Even the dated elements in it work, as mentioned, to make it an unintentional period piece. Ironically, for a film about time travel, it is timeless.
Insert witty 'n clever quip here.
I dont see it as an 'unintentional' period piece. 1955 and 1985 were very clearly built to be accurate to their time periods, the later movies actually had to struggle in places to keep the present looking like 1985.
Still just awesome like that
Well, the first movie at least. 1985 was the "today, the modern day" stand-in there. In the other two they had to specifically make it seem like it was in '85, though Part II uses that as an actual gag in the future scenes.
I say "unintentional" because, let's be honest, it's hard to be perceptive enough to know what things going on in the current year will be seen as dated years from now. All that skateboarding, crazy fashion, Huey Lewis...back then it was likely seen as relatively normal, but a modern audience might see it as deliberately exaggerated if they don't know when the movie was made.
edited 10th Dec '14 4:58:00 AM by Odd1
Insert witty 'n clever quip here.
Nice looking, mechanically awful...
VW Beetle would work. Stylish yet weird looking. Has electrical bugs.
Still just awesome like that
Eh, a Beetle already is too inextricably associated with the '60s.
Insert witty 'n clever quip here.
AXTE INCAL AXTUCE MUN
And a Beetle reliably getting to 88 mph? No one would ever believe that.
Remember, it's the car that was advertised with a billboard reading, "0 to 60? Yes."
And what song from the future should he play in 1985 instead of Johnny Be Good?
Johnny Be Good wasn't really from the present from the original audience's perspective . It would have to be something 30 years old. Maybe Michael Jackson? Or Eye of the Tiger. Something from the 80s
edited 10th Dec '14 10:22:47 PM by Xopher001
Half of the joke with the Johnny Be Good scene was Marty giving an artist the idea for his own song, so it'd have to be something by a musician still alive during the past.
He influenced Huey Lewis to come up with "Back in Time!" ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I meant from the future relative to 1985. Johnny Be Good came it in 1958 so it is from the future relative to 1955
edited 11th Dec '14 1:23:08 AM by Bootlebat
"The Power of Love" would be a funny callback. Of course, Family Guy already did the same basic joke using "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Honestly, the Prius would be the closest analog to the Delorean. A unique car that underperforms on the mechanical side. The only difference is the Prius is a massive success, while the Delorean flopped.
Still just awesome like that
It's really bugging me that you guys are calling it "Johnny Be Good". The song is called "Johnny B. Goode".
Insert witty 'n clever quip here.
What about that new Toyota car that runs on hydrogen. Unique and likely will underperform because its the first generation production model of that particular technology.
Or they could go with the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuelled car - that is pretty good looking.
Indeed.
As for the song, I like the idea of The Power Of Love or Back In Time replacing Johnny B. Goode.
Aren't those hydro cars only available for lease?
In the States, yes.
While we're on the topic. Why 88mph? Is it just a random number or is there some sort of underlying Fridge Brilliance going on?
Double infinity signs?
Still just awesome like that
Potential explanations: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/14812/in-back-to-the-future-why-was-the-speed-88-miles-per-hour
In-Universe there might need to be some sort of kinetic momentum... which is a fancy way of saying they have to be moving fast enough to pass through a small window of opportunity the time-vortex is open. It's most notable in the first movie that the Delorean shoots out energy particles in front of it, it's not just a bunch of sparks that envelope around the car. It's likely the threshold to avoid a Portal Cut is closer to 80 or 85, so he set the bar at 88. Doc wasn't fond of round numbers until the end of the first movie anyway.
There are plenty of out of universe reasons. One mentioned in that website is that that Doc put in a digital MPH display and 88 fills up every bar, making it more dramatic when they hit that point. Plus, it had to be a number well above casual driving, making it a failsafe of sorts. And Added Alliterative Appeal for them screaming "Eighty-Eight Miles per Hour!"
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
I liked this one, though
A Delorean DMC-12 is 4216 mm long. When travelling at 88 mph, the car then travels its own length in 4216mm/88mph = 107.2 ms. So this is how long the time-travelling wormhole-thingy that opens in front of the car has to be open, or alternatively the minimum time the flux capacitor is actually in effect. Could this time interval be significant?
Note how the Delorean arrives in the same location on earth after travelling in time, but can arrive at different times of day. Assuming it is gravity-bound it must still somehow be able to translate along the circumference of the earth, to correct for Earth's rotation. We know that the time-travel takes place in California, which is at 37 degrees north latitude. If you travel due east from 37 degrees north and circle the earth, the distance travelled is "circumference of earth" * cos(37) = 32 005 km. Now notice that light travels this distance in 32 005 km/"speed of light" = 107 milliseconds!
It is then clear that Doc Brown uses the speed of the car to modulate the duration of travel, but in space, not in time. With reference to Minkowski space-time, the car leaves its normal time-like curve for a spacelike but performs a translation in space when passing through its lightcone, where it attains exactly the speed of light.
107 milliseconds affords travel to any point in time while returning to the same point on earth. A round-trip might be necessary depending on whether you travel forward or backward in time. If the car had been at the equator, the car would have to travel at only 70.38 mph. This would actually be a disadvantage as Doc Brown would have to provide more energy to keep the wormhole open for longer.
Not that the energy requirements are that large actually. The Delorean is stated to require 1.21 Gigawatts for time travel. Watt is Joule per second and 1.21 GJ/s * 107 ms = 130 megajoules. This is about the energy released by combusting one gallon of gasoline. A gallon per trip makes for good mileage on a time machine.
It's also a film series that adequately addresses its premise, being about exploring your family history and your own future. Yes, time travel means they can go to the extremes of visiting dinosaurs or the far distant future, but they wrap up all their specific ideas extremely well. Trying to explore the theme in a different direction is really just a variation on regular Time Travel, an area plenty of other movies have explored.