The Rewatchables - ‘Back to the Future’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan

Episode Date: May 19, 2020

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan fire up the flux capacitor and hop in Doc Brown’s DeLorean to revisit Robert Zemeckis’s 1985 classic ‘Back to the Future,’ starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Rwatchables is brought to you by State Farm around here. We love talking about movies that we watch, rewatch, and watch again because they're just that good with the recent exception of draft day. It's the thoughtful details, the little things other movies don't have that keep us coming back. When it comes to insurance, we can't get enough for State Farm. They have all the details we appreciate to make insurance easy. Monitor your coverage, pay your bill, even file claim through their app, which was awarded Best Insurance Mobile in 2019.

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Find an agent. Statefarm.com. We're also brought to you by Theringer.com and the ringer podcast network where we're launching season one of boom bust the rise and fall of HQ. It launches on May 20th. We have that going. We also have TV concierge, which is exclusive on Spotter. We have Music Exist with Chris Ryan and Chuck Kohlsterman.

Is that season over? It's done? That season is over and done. Season one is a rap. Sean Fennacy has the big picture, which will eventually pivot into me just reading him articles from the 11 premier magazines I bought from 1987 and 1988, which is tremendous. That's great content. Coming up, Doc, you don't just walk into a store and buy plutonium.

Back to the future. Stephen Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis bring you back to the magic. Are you telling me that you built a time machine? Not of a Dorian? Back to the fantastic. It works. Back to the action. Whoa, this is heavy.

Back to the past. It's an absolute dream. Take it for yourself. Back to the future. Michael J. Fox. Christopher Lloyd. Back to the future. Great of Degi.

Sneak preview tonight. Check newspapers. All right, Chris Ryan is here. Sean Fantasy is here. We're tackling. Back to the Future. Getting a jump on this. The 35th anniversary is coming up

at the beginning of July, and we wanted to get ahead of it before a ton of content comes out. I sent you guys a list. I made a list of the 10 biggest non-comic book, non-animated movies of the last 40 years.

So that rules out a lot. That rules out everything from the Lion King to every Batman, to the Avengers, Iron Man. These are just authentic, original idea of movies that people made

that not only became massively successful movies financially, not only movies that crossed over the pop culture, but movies that have just lived on. So here are my 10. It's a semi-particular order, but I'm willing to be talked out of it. Titanic, ET, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Dark, Ghostbusters, Forrest Gump, Home Alone, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Beverly Hills Cop.

I had 10th narrowly edging out Avatar. I think those were the most significant influential popcorn movies of the last 40 years. What am I missing, Sean? From this list? Well, I think that we still are,

we could split the atom even further. I don't know that we're missing anything. I think that there is a difference between a bunch of these movies, though, because back to the future falls in an even more rare category, which is it's a completely original story. It's not based on a historical event. It's not based on a novel. Like if you look at

Jurassic Park or Forrest Gump, these are movies that are based on novels. Titanic obviously is based on a true story. It's movies like E.T. and Ghostbusters and Home Alone and Back to the Future that are the rarest of rare things, which are mega successful movies with no precedent before them. That's just a crazy thing to think about because so many of the big movies we see now are. They depend on a previously understood relationship to the material. What do you think, Chris? What was the algebraic equation you used to determine this? Was just box office or was it cultural impact?

I looked at the adjusted box office and then tried to factor in the cultural impact because I am old enough to remember when every one of these movies came out. And like, to me, Titanic and ET are the top two because like when ET came out, I felt like that dominated all conversations for months. And it was just the biggest movie. Jaws was 1975, but that was a similar thing. I only did the last 40 years here. Titanic was the same thing because Titanic had the whole year-long backstory

of people saying it was going to be this huge bust. It was too expensive. What are they doing? Leo's in it. It had a lot at stake. And then it delivered and people were just going back to see it over and over again. I think back to the future, that was a movie. the mid-80s in 1985, people went to see multiple times. That's a really hard list to get on of

just like, I'm going back, what do you do tonight? I'm going back to see back to the future. I thought you've already seen it three times. Yeah, I have. And then you just go again. And then the sequels and now it's got the amusement park stuff and you just this 35-year tail. It's incredible. Yeah, I was, I was eight when this came out. I don't necessarily remember seeing it in the theater, but I remember it taking over American life. in a lot of ways. It was like such a crucial cultural bonfire that everybody gathered around and every little spark that came from it, whether it was references to, you know, sodas that people were drinking, sneakers people were wearing, the way people were wearing jean jackets, skateboarding,

music. Like Huey Lewis was like so pervasive. It was omnipresent at the time to hear power of love. Like all the things that were in and around this movie just seemed to be every, they filled every quadrant of pop culture back then. Pepsi, too. That was another one. This was like the heyday of Pepsi with Michael Jackson and, yeah, Michael J. Fox, family ties is a show. It's an 80s show that has not had, I think, the tale that a couple other shows from

the 80s and 90s have had. But in my opinion, just being there in the moment, family ties and cheers. And those were really the biggest two sitcoms for a little. while there. Michael J. Fox was a massive star. And when he parlayes, the family ties, which was already massively successful with this movie at the same time, he becomes an A-plus, plus-plus-plus-lister to the point that Teen Wolf ended up having a rewatchable cable tail just because he was in it. It's obviously not a good movie, as much as we love it. But the Michael J. Fox piece of this, Sean, really hard to even point to anybody else who's been like him in the last 50 years.

He's five foot five. He's a comic actor. You have to be able to believe him punching somebody who's six feet tall and having hot woman lust after him, which he was able to always pull off. Just seemed like this authentic, funny, awesome actor. Like everybody was in on him. He had 100% approval rating. Yeah.

And think about his life in 1985. Family Tye is one of the biggest shows. the world. And then as soon as the show concludes its season in June, Back to the Future comes out. And Back to the Future is the number one movie at the box office or the number two movie at the box office for nine consecutive weeks. It's just the sort of thing that in the middle of the summer, that just is never going to happen again. Even in the age of Avengers, we're never going to have a movie be so dead set in the middle of the culture. And the only reason that it moves out of the one and two spot at the end of the summer, the week in August 23,

is because ET was re-released three years later in 1985 and was the number one movie in the box office. Another thing that will never happen. We'll never have a movie that came out three years ago, go back into theaters and become the number one movie. And ET is such an important part of this story in addition to Michael J. Fox because I think if ET is not this incredible phenomenon and doesn't set the template for all those movies you were talking about, Bill. I don't think Steven Spielberg has the juice to get back to the future made. That's such a big part of this story. You needed the perfect star, which they did not have it first, needed the perfect executive producer and shepherd, and then needed all the right creative people around it. It's really like a, it's like, it's a kind of a miraculous movie in a lot of ways. E.T's also got a lot of the DNA of Back to the Future in it in the sense that it has both elements of sci-fi and nostalgia in it, but is actually, for the most part, set in what was then present-day suburbia, contemporary suburbia. And those movies, it's very rare, actually, I feel like that you see hugely significant.

successful movies that are capturing a moment in like American culture as they are happening. They're usually either nostalgic or they're futuristic, but it's not very common that you see a huge blockbuster. I guess it was more common in the 80s that's set for the most part. I mean, I know this is a 1555 second act, but a lot of what drew people to back to the future was seeing suburbia on screen. So it's probably the latest you could have made this movie and gone back to the 50s. Because you remember, the big. show the 70s was happy days. It was the number one show for years and years and even goes into the 80s and really runs through about 1983. But people like going backwards. And, you know, we also had

a lot less entertainment choices back then. So even in the, you know, mid to late 70s in the early 80s, we don't have that many channels. We don't really have the VHS DVD scene is still far away. We don't have the internet. So you ended up, you did watch a lot of old shows. So, so. somebody like me who is 15 when Back to the Future came out, I still had a real concept of what the 50s were like from all the different shows I watch, you know, or shows that I watch with my dad, things like that. I think once you got into the 90s, like I think Pleasantville is a good example in Pleasantville when they go back to basically some version of the 1950s, it seemed really far away. And now I think like if Back to the Future came out now in 2020, going back to the 50s,

I don't even know if people would know what to do. It would be like, you might as well go to like the 1890s. Like people would have no connection with it at all, but I do think that was really important for this. There's one other reason that that's true, what you're saying, Bill, is that it needed to be a time in which it could be far into the past, but also not so far that Christopher Lloyd needs to look exactly the same. You know, I mean, Doc Brown in 1955 and 1985 and 1985 looks the same.

Now, Christopher Lloyd, if you've seen him recently, also looks exactly the same. He's been 62 years old for 60 years. It's remarkable. Him and Gene Hackman. So that's a great call. I think if you, we could talk later about what would this movie be like if you did it now. But the experience I would compare it to it would be like if 30 years ago was 1990. If you went back to 1990, people would get it.

wouldn't work because it wasn't really an error, right? You'd almost have to go back to like 1993. You'd have to go back into like Gen X and grunge and have him land in Seattle. And even that wouldn't really work because it wasn't as identifiable. The 1950s were just so wholesome. Like you get the ice cream shop and it's just like, oh yeah, I get it. I'm in the 50s. There's a movie theater. There's a drive-in. We're going to have a prom and it's all going to be innocent. People might make out in a car. It's the perfect error for that. What else stands? out about going backwards to you, Chris? I think for this particular movie, they do something really, really smart, which is that

they set it in this small town so that they can essentially do one-for-one replacements with everything. So it's so tight if you go back. And the reason why it's so fun to rewatch is that you can see the different movie on the movie marquee. The guy who's working at the diner who becomes the mayor, the guy who is the mayor who becomes the homeless guy. You know, all the, like the sort of rise and fall of the suburbs that you can kind of watch

through this movie. And also, you know, you can start to get into all the games that I'm sure we'll get into later in this podcast about like, okay, so if this happens, then doesn't that mean that this happens? Yeah. And I think that's another reason why this movie succeeded when it came out in the biggest way you can succeed, but also had a tail. Because this was the 80s, you had sit in somebody's basement playing beer pong until four in the morning, arguing about stupid shit. Like, who is better, bird or magic? How is Marty McFly in the same place in two different ways? Can you do that? Wouldn't that been the law of physics? Well, wait a second. If he's nowhere else, then what happens to the... You would actually get into these arguments. Now you just happen on the

internet. Now you're just on a message board. You find people. But back then, these were things like we had like two-hour conversations about. Back to the future led to so many arguments in my life about how conceivable this was. And, you know, what would have happened if Doc had not done the lightning one second earlier, would he have just crashed into the building? And there's all these what if variables that I think makes it really fun. Yeah, what if your mom was smoking hot and you went back to the future? Would you make out with her?

That's a big one. Well, that's basically how they conceived this movie. And you had Zemeckis. and you had Bob Gale who wrote the, they worked together on used cars. Bob Gail has this idea would I have been friends with my dad if we had been in school together

and that eventually becomes the script that they write and it just is getting rejected for years. Now this was an era where you had the teen comedies, you had fast times and porkies, there was a certain type of losing it, there's certain risky business, there's certain type of comedy that was happening,

this was too innocent. studios keep rejecting it. They even pitch it to Disney, which would have seemed like a logical home, and Disney's like, eh, the mother falling in love with the sun. That's a little weird for us. We're going to pass.

So Zemeckis makes Romancing the Stone, which is a monster movie. Huge movie. Kathleen Turner is the biggest female star in the world coming out of that movie. And now he has the juice. And he hooks up with his guy, Spielberg. Spielberg blesses it

and we're off. But it's amazing to me that people rejected this script for four years. Like it's the old William Goldman, nobody knows anything. People are like, eh, cool idea. To me, if somebody pitched this in a room, it would be like the ultimate no-brainer, right? Yes, but

I think a lot changed about the story before the movie was made. And I think that they made a couple of subtle but really important choices that after the movie was already on its way to being made that I think played a huge part in it. Like I don't want to step too much on half S internet research, but if this movie was about a refrigerator that was a time machine, which was the original plan for this and not a DeLorean, this just isn't, it's just not back to the future. It's just not this cultural

phenomenon that it becomes. And they made all of these little subtle choices throughout the way of telling the story that that helped it become such a, almost unprecedented success. Yeah, also, Bill, the funny thing that you mentioned porkies and fast times, this movie has a little bit of that in there. You know, like, I think that when I, when I, it's got a whiff. When I think of back to the future, I just think of this kind of effervescent innocence and charm. It's pretty horny. You know what I mean? Like, Marty definitely checks out girls' asses and is like really concerned about whether or not, like, he really just wants to go on dates and talk to girls.

And that stuff is like pervasive throughout the entire movie. So it has a little bit of that early 80s teenage sex comedy, which probably gives it an edge that it otherwise wouldn't have if it was just about time travel. Where we end up is an unassailable premise of guy goes back to the future 30 years, stumbles into his mom and his dad, and inadvertently screws up their potential future together, which would then vaporize him. You know, I don't know if that's how it would play out.

And I guess we could talk about that and probably in answerable questions. but this movie made 381 million worldwide. It won an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects, editing, two other nominations. Highest grossing film at 85. It made 210 million just domestically. The next two films were Rambo at 150 and Rocky 4 at 127. The lesson is always, sly fucking Stallone. Only three movies make 100 million bucks in 1885.

he has two of them. The franchise, they end up with two sequels, an animated series, a theme park ride, several video games, a series of comic books, and a stage musical. Another underrated development here, Robert Zemeckis, who puts up Romance in the Stone and Back to the Future and Back to Back Years, which is ludicrous, does the other two Back to the Futures, makes Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is a movie that has not aged well just because the animation is that good, but in the moment was a really inventive success.

creative movie that did great. Death Becomes her, wasn't bad. Forrest Gump, one of the ten biggest movies of the last 40 years, as we just covered. Contact, hilariously bad. I'm pro. You're pro? It's a good peanut gallery movie. I like contact.

Not like a shitload of sexual attention with Jody Foster and Matthew McConaughey. I'm just a little stiff. Well, McConaughey plays like a religious scholar. Isn't he like a past? A little stiff contact there. Then what lies beneath in Castaway in Polar Express? I can't imagine how much money he's made, but it's got to be insane amounts of money.

I'm also, I'm pretty into flight. I'm pretty into a- Oh, yeah, coming later. Coked up Denzel flipping the plane over in the air. Yeah. Can I just say? Do his Zemeckus thing, Sean. We'll give you 90-nerty seconds.

I'm obsessed with him. I think he is the weirdest, most, interesting brain that came post movie brats out of anybody in America. The range and the obsessive quality of his movies is fascinating. Not all of his movies are good. Bill, you and I had a lot of fun at the expense of Forrest Gump on this show. I just think basically... Wait, we like Forrest Gump, though.

It's really, really good. There's a lot to kind of rag on about it because Zemeckis is obsessed with the past. and he's always going back into the past in his movies, even if not directly, like what Lismanith is a Hitchcock movie, you know, Beowulf. Like, he's always kind of looking at mythologies and archaeology of American life

and then bigger life beyond that. But specifically, after Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Millius, right after the movie brats, the next generation of American filmmakers, he's like the first guy who clung onto those guys and was like,

these guys know how to show the way to being a successful filmmaker in America. He's right on their heels. And he, as a kid at USC with Bob Gale, basically stalked Steven Spielberg to get his attention to show him his student film. And that really sets up his career. And he has so much diversity through the first 25 years of his career. He makes so many different kinds of movies. They all have this weird Zemeccasian quality about them. They're all basically like adventure movies. And we don't really get like adventure movies anymore. That's back to the future as a total adventure. It's just like Raiders of the Lost Dark. And I don't know. Romancing the Stone is the same thing. I'm so

impressed and amazed. I love going back to his movies because it remind me of my childhood, but also I underestimated how ahead of the curve he was technologically in every step of movie making. I mean, he's really one of the first guys to try stuff across the board. Sean, can I give you a take that you then take? Of course. You feel about Zemeckis the way people feel about Nolan. that mixture of narrative and technological innovation and that, you know, every movie is an event. Now, obviously, like, Zemeckis has kind of like had valid periods or whatever, but the way that people talk about Nolan, where it's like, he's the only one defending original storytelling in Hollywood, making movies for movie theaters, making these big idea, big entertainment, big top

films. And I know, I'm a big Christopher Nolan fan, but I feel like that's how you feel about Zabekas. Totally. And he let the technology kind of get the better of him in the last 20 years. Like you mentioned Polar Express Bill, which really kicks off him getting so obsessed with this animation style that dominates his movies, Beowulf and a Christmas Carol. And he brings it into the walk and he brings it into Welcome to Marwin, which is like kind of one of the most fascinating disasters in recent movie history. But that first 25 years, he is as prolific and original, an American mainstream movie maker as we had. You know, so he follows the movie brats,

but he's a generation before Tarantino and that whole crew. I think part of the reason he's not discussed like those guys is he's not part of a bigger group. You know, it's like he had no dream team. The 80s, this is such a wasteland. And, you know, there's a ton of cocaine going on back then, and I'm sure there's a couple of careers that fell by the wayside. But you don't hear about the Zemkechus generation because it didn't really exist.

No, it's like the B-movie genre guys like Joe Dante and Zemeckis and Joe Johnston, maybe Carpenter, although I think Carpenter might be a little older, I'm not sure. But that kind of like, those guys who just kind of come out of that era that we revere of the late 70s. And then these dudes actually just make like pound for pound. really entertaining movies throughout the 80s and into the 90s. I mean, you could technically say Michael Mann and Zemeckis, they're coming into Hollywood at the same time, but nobody would ever group them together. That's exactly right.

I was going to say most of the people who dominated as directors in the 80s were unlike the people who came before them and unlike the people who came after them were most closely identified with genres. So John McTiernan is an action director. He's one of the best directors of the 80s, but he's an action movie maker. You know, John Hughes makes coming of age. movies, and that's it. That's how we think of him. Zemeckis isn't like that. Like, Zemeckis makes all different kinds of movies. And he has much more in common, I think, with the

Tarantinos and with the Scorsese's who kind of bounce around to different settings, different kinds of stories. But all of their movies have this very specific feeling, this very specific style. I just think he's so interesting and it was so good for movies in the 1980s. Well, we'll talk about it when we do most rewatchable scene, but the action scene, just as a pure action scene of Marty going from 1955 to 1985 at the end is just an awesome like eight minutes. It's so good. Every piece of it is perfect and it's so well executed. And I can't believe it was 35 years ago.

I wouldn't change one piece of that scene. The reason we're doing this rewatchable is now is it's on Netflix again. And my son watched it last week. And he had never watched it. My son's 12 and a half. and he was, you know, it's a fair task to get him glued to a TV. The movie has to be good. Like, he's a pretty tough audience.

He was glued. He's really into it. And there's a huge payoff at the end. And then when Doc finally springs back to life, like, it's, oh, he's alive. You know, it's just, it's so good. It's so well done. Bill, did he know that there are two other ones? Yeah, he actually is watching two today.

He's doing the other two this weekend. Because that's also... I don't know how often this has happened or if this is one of the first times where it's very obvious that there is going to be a sequel at the end of this movie. And you knew it in the theater or you know it the first time you watch it where you see at the end of the movie like, oh, the end of the movie is just a setup for the next movie. And of course they would do that by shooting two and three together and having the plan for them. But you're like that. This was the first time that I felt like I was part of a franchise, I think. Yeah. And I don't think two and three

were received in the moment as well as the tale of those movies are, especially like Biff's Sports Almanac, things like that. My recollection is people being fairly disappointed by two. Now I think it's come around. I think people actually appreciate and like it.

And I think there's been a lot of stuff that's come out of those movies that have just entered the lexicon. And even like producer Craig was telling us he hadn't seen this movie, but he felt like he had seen it because there have been so many references over the years to it. And I think that's a good way to put it.

We have to talk about the Eric Stoltz part. It's too big for casting what-ifs. It's, I don't know if it's like the number one recasting as they're filming something decision ever made, but it's certainly on the Mount Rushmore, whatever the top four is. It's got to be top four. It's up there against Keitel and Apocalypse now.

That's pretty good, too. That would be a good, maybe on Apocopuops now, we'll put some time into our Mount Rushmore. So they wanted Fox, couldn't do it because he's filming Family Ties. And Meredith Baxter Bernie, who played his mom in that show, was having a baby in real life and wasn't in a lot of the episodes when they needed Fox. And the Family Ties producers, like, we can't lose him. He's like, he's carrying our show. We basically, like, we can't, like, loan him out. So they get Eric Stoltz

And he films I didn't realize it was five weeks Films five weeks of scenes And it just doesn't feel right There's something He's handling it too dramatically He doesn't look authentic on the skateboard He doesn't have the comic timing

And it's just off And he's on the set He's telling everyone to call Marty Like he's gone full 80s method actor And the vibe is just off. And at some point, they, they just are like, well, what the fuck? They go to the studio head, Sid Scheinberg, and they say, let's fire Stoltz. We'll replace him with Fox. He's now available. It'll cost us an extra $3 million. We'll have to refilm everything. And Spielberg gets into and it's like,

yeah, we got to do this. This can be such a big movie. This is going to hold it back. As they're doing this, they're still filming scenes with Stoltz. He gets fired, but they don't have. have Fox yet. So now they're filming more scenes, but really only caring about the other parts of the scene, not the Stoltz part. And then they bring them in and they're like, you're fired. Sean, in movie history, is there a worse story than this for an actor who misses out on being in a huge movie? That might not have been as huge if he was in it, but still. And then this movie goes on to be this huge success. It's basically Ralph Cox in the 1980 Olympic hockey team when he's the last cut

and then that becomes the most iconic sports team in the 20th century. I can't imagine what his life. He claims he doesn't care, whatever, it was only five weeks of my life, but he has to care. I think it's only mitigated by the fact that Eric Stultz did go on to have a really good career

and did get to be a part of really good movies and has a good reputation as an actor. And, you know, he goes on to be in, you know, aside from like kicking and screaming in a lot of movies, he's in Pulp Fiction. You know, he's in some great stuff. stuff, it would have been much more tragic if he never went on to do anything ever again. You know, if he seemed like this white, hot young star gets cast in what was going to be the

biggest movie of 1985 and then gets shunted aside. I mean, the people, the way that people talk about him during this production, though, is not, is a little unkind. People seem to think that he was a little bit of a tough hang. You mentioned that the method acting and people calling him Marty. It just really seemed like he wasn't clicking with everybody. And this is totally a chemistry movie, you know, like Doc and Marty have to work together. Biff and Marty have to be adversarial in the right way.

George and Marty have to click. And if he wasn't working with those people, then it was, I mean, it was obviously for the best. Yeah. And also, I think that even in the, both in like some kind of wonderful and mask and the stuff that he did as a younger person and then in the stuff that he does in the 90s, like water dance. And he's in killing Zoe, right? Like, like, he obviously probably wanted that kind of career, I think. Like the choices that he makes going forward are not the choices of somebody who's like, shit, I missed out on Marty McFly.

I got to try and find another one. And the footage of him in a couple of scenes is on YouTube. You can see it. And it is strange. It is like watching, what if they sent a Smiths fan back to 1955? He's kind of moping around town.

He seems a little scared, not confused the way Marty is in the movie that we know, but a little bit more like depressed by all of it. So it's a great what if, but I think it wound up being what Stoltz actually wanted out of his career. So Christopher Lloyd said, I felt for Eric. He was a really good actor. Although he was doing the part well, he was not bringing that element of comedy to the screen. Well, it's a comedy. So that's a problem. Leah Thompson said, it was hard for me because I was really good friends with Eric. They'd been the wildlife together. He could be very difficult. He had such an intensity.

he saw drama in things. He wasn't really a comedian. They needed a comedian. He's super funny in real life, but he didn't approach his work like that, and they really needed somebody who had those chops. To me, it's amazing they cast him.

And now I'm really going to step on casting what-ifs because I'm going to give you... So Zemeckis was looking at Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen, and John Cusack initially. So he was told Michael J. Fox was off limits. They ended up offering the role to Ralph Machio, according to my half-fasternet research,

Machio turned it down saying later he thought the movie was about a kid, a car, and plutonium pills. Johnny Depp auditioned, and apparently it was so unmemorable, they didn't even remember years later that he auditioned. And it came down to Stoltz and C. Thomas Howell. And Stoltz beat him out. And I actually think C. Thomas Howe, I'm a defender.

I think he's really good in secreted buyer. Big Soulman guy? I am. I'm a big fan of Soulman not as much. Soulman is a flawed rewatchable. Flawman is a what the fuck happened rewatchable. I like see Thomas Howe though and I actually think he would have done an okay job. But you know, getting Michael J. Fox. He's cool in the outsiders. Yeah. I think I think QSack would have worked really well. You think so? I do. Because I think he's one of the few guys from that time who can do the comedy and the drama pretty well. And he's got like an awkwardness, he's got a charm. I think he would have been good.

I think the thing with Fox that I always thought was underappreciated about him was the physical comedy with him. He's like weirdly athletic, which he could see in Teen Wolf when he's just, you know, when he's not the wolf in the final scene, he's just wreaking havoc. He's like Steve Nash. But the stuff like when he's sliding over the Dolorian hood, when he's running full speed and like the stuff on the skateboard, he, there's a physicalness to him that I think that character are really needed. And I can't imagine Eric Stoltz in a million years having that piece of it. It's such a weird miss by Zemeckis. There's also, if you go on YouTube, you can see the bloopers from back to the future and you can see like how much fun Fox is having on set. And if that was the

gear change that they were looking for, it was like somebody who would really bring the kind of energy and comic nature of the part, you could just kind of see him like having an absolute blast, like just like being like, this window won't open or I'm sliding across the hood. And Yeah, they really made the right choice. He needs to have this like Charlie Chaplin or Jerry Lewis kind of physical comedy too, where last night when I was rewatching with my wife, the scene when he wakes up in Lorraine's bed and she sits down next to him on the bed and he starts sliding back and back and he falls out of the bed. My wife was like, asked me to pause it just so she could remark upon how funny Michael J. Fox is. You know, like it's so uncommon that someone can do like Pratt Falls like that.

while still being really slick and the hero. It's just like you were saying at the top, Bill, he's so unique. He's such a special dude. Yeah, and he was also a beloved actor, like on the set, one of those, even like when they did Spin City, like one of the reasons,

you know, Bill Lawrence has a whole thing about just convincing him to come back to TV. And once they got him, like everyone wanted to be on the show, just such a legendary reputation back in the 80s and 90s. So you go from this weird stolt. dynamic where he's doing this Morrissey going back to 1955 type of dynamic to the role. And then you bring in Michael J. Fox, who's just a happier, better actor, everything.

He's a Huey Lewis fan. Stolt said, last thing on Stoltz, he said, I went back to acting school. I moved to Europe. I did some plays in New York. I actually invested in myself in a way that was much healthier. If I had become a massive star, I don't know if I wouldn't have gone into therapy. on the other hand, I would have been exceedingly rich, which would have been wonderful.

So that was his take. I wanted to ask you guys about Michael J. Fox as a movie actor because I feel like he has a pretty underrated career. He was in some really good movies in the 80s, and he had good taste, and he worked with a lot of good directors. Yeah, I like Teen Wolf. I like less than, no, was it not less than zero, was the other one.

What was the other cocaine movie? Secret of my success, yeah. No, that wasn't a lot of, Oh, Bright Light's Big City. Bright Light's Big City. Secret of My Success. What was the other one? Oh, and then he was in the Sean Penn movie.

He's good in that movie. He's a war. He's really good in that. I don't know. He had a great 80s. Where are you guys at on 1991's James Woods cop movie the Hardway? Directed by John Baddam. Because that's a constant rewatch for me.

That's a bit of a tough beat. Things get dark in the 90s. He picks some tough I do really like Greedy from 1994. I feel like that's like the slept-on comedy of the 90s. I agree. Greedy's good. I think he had an issue because he was the boyish kid next door

and then all of a sudden he's 30. And what do you do at that point? Where people just use pigeonhole to some degree. You know, the Alex P. Keaton character was such an awesome character. It was really like one of my favorite TV characters of all time. You have just the whole premise of he's got these, you know, hippie parents who are kind of now in the real world, then they end up with this son who, like, thinks Ronald Reagan's a hero.

He's just a devout Republican. It was really good. Everything he saw the world through was framed through this lens of what his life was going to be when he was in his 40s. We're going to do the categories in a second. Roger Ebert, three and a half stars. Loved it. Felt back to the future.

had similar themes to films of Frank Capra, especially It's a Wonderful Life. Also, praise Stephen Spielberg for, quote, emulating the great authentic past of classical Hollywood cinema, who specialized a match in the right director with the right project. Hey, I don't know, speaking of Raj, I gotta give Raj a shout out. There was this, did you see the Roger Ebert quotes that were on Twitter this week? No. About stuff he wrote about fandom?

No. This is what Roger Ebert once. A lot of fans are basically fans of fandom itself. It's all about them. They have mastered the Star Wars or Star Trek universes or whatever, but their objects of veneration are useful, mainly as a backdrop to their own devotion. Anyone who would camp out and a tent on the sidewalk for weeks

in order to be first in line for a movie is more into camping on the sidewalk than movies. Extreme fandom may serve as a security blanket it for the socially inept who use its extreme structure as a substitute for social skills. If you were Luke Skywalker and she's Princess Leia, you already know what to say to each other, which is so much safer than having to ad libid. Your fanish obsession is your beard. If you know absolutely all the trivia about your cubbyhole of pop culture, it saves you from having to know anything about anything else. That's why it's excruciatingly boring to talk

to such people. They're always asking you questions they know the answer to. In other words Raj. Eat shit binge mode. Raj, throw in darts. Wow. That's rough. I mean, you know,

grain of salt there. Like, the guys devoted his entire life to knowing about the obsessive details about the making of, you know, Stanley Kubrick movies. You know,

six of one half dozen. Everybody is like, fandom is stupid except for the fandom that I have. Exactly. Yeah. You could be like, oh, look at these nerds.

And then you're like, I'm going to go line up for Sicario too. You know. Raj, when we do the rewatches awards, I can't wait for the Raj section. It would be great. All right. Most rewatchable scene.

Unless you, do you guys consider opening credits a rewatchable scene? How well that opening credits is with Doc's whole layer and everything. Because it's really well done. It's incredible. Yeah. And I just want to say that is the most accurate depiction. of 80s maximalist tech, where all of your friends were like, dude, I have so many components to my stereo. Like, check out these dials. And it was like, now everything is just like, I have the phone. That's everything I need. I can watch TV. I can listen to music.

Back then it was like, no, man, I have 17 graphic equalizers for my stereo. This one, I don't even know what it does. I just have it here. And all the computers were giant. So I love how going through that. And it's, there was a real like feeling of like a kind of like, demented like PBS science show where it's like everything is an experiment or like a chain reaction

I remember being really into that when I was a kid. It's so close to a scene in a movie that comes out one month later. It's so close to the making breakfast scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventure

where we're in Peewee's house and all these contraptions are all fitting together and moving together to make breakfast. And the scene is basically doing the same thing. Imagine being Tim Burton

going to the movie theater seeing back to the future's opening credits and being like, fuck, this is the same, it's the same move. It's like, again, it's a Charlie Chaplin thing. It's like a city lights thing. It's a modern times thing. It's like using technology to tell your story. And that's like an obsession of Zemeca.

So it's a perfect way to open this movie. Second rewatchable scene, Doc Brown sends Einstein the dog into the future. He's all right. He's fine. And he's completely unaware that anything happened. As far as he's concerned, the trip was instantaneous. That's why his watch is exactly. exactly one minute behind mine.

He skipped over that minute to instantly arrive at this moment in time. Come here. I'll show you how it works. Riving stuff. I can only imagine PETA during this scene. Peter on the sidelines. I'm just really, really concerned about Einstein's welfare as is going 88 miles an hour.

I really like that. I would have loved the takes about that, like, in online where it's just like why the depiction of Einstein is not okay. Yeah. Did they go too far with Einstein? Stein. I had a dog named Einstein. Here's my first person personal essay about the time he fell out of my car

and why this should never happen to you. This is when the movie, the ceiling gets removed from the movie. Because you're like, oh, this would be cool. And then Doc Brown's like, watch this. I'm going to. My dog's going to disappear and then come back a minute later. It's like, what? The dog just gets out. Look, the clock's name. It's like, what the fuck is going on? Next scene is Marty in 1955

meeting his dad and then his mom in the coffee shop. What? You're George McFly. Yeah, who are you? Say, what do you let those boys push you around like that for? Well, they're bigger than me.

Stand tall, boy, have some respect for yourself. Pretty big coincidence. He just ends up right next to his dad. It's definitely, yeah, they moved that part of the movie Long Fast, but then meeting the mom, She thinks his name's Calvin Klein after he gets knocked out, all that stuff, really good.

Calvin, why do you keep calling me, Calvin? That is your name, isn't it? Calvin Klein? It's written all over your underwear. Oh, I guess they call you Cal. No, actually, people call me Marty. Chris, you want to do 20 seconds on Leah Thompson here

or you want to save it for later? We could save it, but I think we need to save it for a larger unpacking of this cycle. psychosexual overtones with this film. Great. Next one is Marty goes to see 1955 Doc and tries to convince him he's from the future

and that they've known each other forever and they have the Who's the President in 1985, Ronald Reagan and Doc's reaction in that. Really great. Tell me, future boy. Who's president of the United States in 1985? Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan.

The actor? Ha! That who's vice president? Jerry Lewis. I suppose Jane Wyman is the first lady. Whoa, wait, Doc. And Jack Betty, his secretary of the treasury. You got to listen to me.

That's also got, like, my favorite bit of Fox in this movie is maybe when he's like, all right, Saturday night. You can show me around for a couple of days. We can do that. Next one, Marty punches Biff. All right, punk. Now, what, Biff? What's that?

That's Calvin Klein. Oh my God. He's a dream. Ends up with the chase scene and just like a million pounds of manure being dumped on on Biff's car. And he invents skateboarding. Oh, that's really good. And he invented skateboarding.

Some great skateboarding. Some great skateboarding just in general in this movie. The next rewatchable scene, Marty playing Johnny Be Good, creating rock and roll music. All right. This is an oldie. But, well, it's an oldie where I come from. All right, guys, listen to this is the blues riff and B. Watch me for the changes and try and keep up, okay?

Some people say it's Chuck Barry. Other people say it's Marty McPly. Chuck Bear's cousins calling Chuck during the scene. Marvin! Your cousin Marvin! Chuck, Chuck is Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin, Bear. Marty says, guess you guys aren't ready for that yet, but your kids are going to love it.

That scene's great. In fact, I asked my son what his favorite scene in the entire movie was, and he said that scene hands down, which was interesting because Zemeckis almost cut it out. He felt like it actually slowed the story down. He wanted to get Marty back to the clock tower. But they had a preview audience screening where they had this, and they all listed this scene as their favorite scene. So there you go.

that. And then the last one is just my, my pick for most rewatchable. Marty actually going back to 1985, an amazing plan by Doc Brown. One of the great action scenes, not only the 80s, but I would argue ever, it just keeps, it keeps going to where you think it's going to get fucked up. And Doc's on the clock tower. And all of a sudden, he can't connect to it. And now he's got to slide down. And it's just so many beats and it's so well done. It's really great. What do you have for most rewatchable? I agree with you that the most rewatchable scene is the final 12 minutes of the movie. I think also, Chris, you hit on this a little bit.

The end of the movie, which sets up the sequel, you know, the sequel was not greenlit before they, while they were making this. So they were just kind of teasing the idea that they could or they would do a sequel. And the movie had to be a success for that to happen. But I know, I didn't see the movie in theaters. I was too young when it came out. But I know that the first time I saw, thought, I have never been more, I've never had the hairs on my next stand up straighter than

when the car, the wheels flip and they start flying. I was like, what is this? You can do this in a movie. This is unbelievable. And even though, you know, I think that's ultimately a part of the scene that you're talking about, Bill, that final scene. But that whole stretch run, the final 12 minutes or so is so perfect, so perfectly paced, so fun, so exciting. That's sort of what I'm saying. what I'm talking about when I say an adventure movie. Like, it doesn't matter that it's 195. It doesn't matter that's 1985. It just,

it feels like you're literally on a ride at an amusement park. Yeah, and an underrated part of that end run is also the best, like the, you know, the best case scenario version of the Mcfly family. And them coming back from playing tennis or whatever and the guys in the suit and she's like,

I have so many boyfriends and biffs watching the car. And Marty's kind of like, you know, interaction with that whole new scenario is great. I agree. Do you think that this movie has the best example of a character in the movie saying the title of the movie in a scene? Next Saturday night, we're sending you back to the future. That's such a long list. We should do that at some point.

My favorite is actually when Michael Douglas is like, welcome to Wall Street in Wall Street. Or when Michael Douglas is like, she's got a basic instinct in basic instinct. My favorite is always going to be face off because they clearly deliberately wrote a whole scene where it's the face off, face off. I'll say that my most rewatchable scene is actually tripping Biff and inventing skateboarding. That, to me, was like,

I remember when I saw that and just immediately went out and got a Veriflex after that. I was just like... I had this for unanswerable questions, but do you think, can you tie the skateboard boom to this movie? The mainstreaming of it.

Yeah, I mean, it was already a thriving thing out of like Southern California punk and stuff like that. But the idea of like a kid in Ohio seeing this movie in a theater and just being like, I guess I have to get a skateboard now. Also, very little skating done in this movie because most of it is guys grabbing onto the back of trucks. I'd love to know whether or not that led to a lot of horrendous accidents. Yeah, that's not a good idea. I told my son, like, don't do that. Please. I remember that being a thing that I asked.

asked my dad about in the 80, like I'd be like, is it cool if I'm riding on a skateboard and I just grab onto somebody's bumper? And she was like, you wouldn't want to do that in Philadelphia. They're just going to throw it in reverse. You're back to the future of your death.

Last thing on this, this is a movie that just gets better as it goes along. And I think even the last 25 minutes is just one of those movies. It was on cable a lot in the mid-80s, like a lot, like a lot, lot, lot. And it was one of those movies if you hit it at a certain point, you're like, all right, I'm in for the rest of the way.

What is this? 35 minutes left, I'm in. Twist my arm. Let's go. I have a new category just for this movie. Most mid-80s moment, hear your nominees. Huey Lewis, the Twin Pines Mall, a Dolorian, Pepsi Free, or an X-rated movie theater

just casually being in downtown of a normal American city. What was the most mid-80s moment for you, Chris? It's either Pepsi Free and Tab or the absolute majesty and omnipresence of Huey Lewis's sports LP, which is, you know, he's got the, I think he's got the poster up in his room

and Power of Love. It's so weird that Huey Lewis was like, for a while, was like the biggest music in the world is just so wild to me. He really was. Are you guys pro Huey? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

For sure. Huey rules. Huey's just like an American Elvis Costello, man. Wow. Huey had one of the best two-year runs, I think, of any male musician ever. Crossing over into this movie at the height of his fame when he's already had his whole run and then he parlays into Back to the Future, it's unbelievable. Which one do you give the edge to?

Hughie Lewis in the news is sports or Bob Dylan bringing it all back home. You sure you don't want to put Sinatra's in the wee small hours on that list too? And Beethoven's ninth. No, it was him, Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruce Springsteen. Madonna, it's an unbelievable run

of just really famous, famous, famous, famous positions. And he was as famous as any of them. With that said, the winner of most, mid-80s moment is Pepsi Free. That is like a specific mid-80s was the only time you could even get it and it's just so funny that it's in this movie. Are we absolutely sure it's not the DeLorean itself?

Well, you had the DeLorean in the early 80s, too, is the only thing. Oh, okay, so just mid-80s. But it's definitely, it's definitely a nominee. Pepsi Free was like a burp. It happened for a split second. What's age the best? Reelect Mayor Goldie Wilson, how they tip that off and then it pays off when he's in the ice cream shop.

I love that. The power it love is just a good song. 35 years old. A lot of 80s pop songs have not aged well. That song is just fucking good. Don't need a credit card to ride this train. It's just really solid. And I like that back in time.

It's not bad either. I like that. He just specifically wrote that for the movie. He saw a screening. They were like, Huey, one more. He's like, all right, let me see a screening. sees the screening and he's like, breaks his no pet out.

What about back in time? I love how Marty plays power of love at the Battle of the Band's tryout. It's great. With Huey Lewis. As a judge, yeah. As a judge, I mean,

you could only do this stuff in the 80s. Isn't it crazy that there was a 35-year-old white dude playing blues music, and he was the biggest music star in the world? That's another thing that will never happen again. And he called his album, and he just called his rap. They were like,

album called sports. Fuck yes. I also think Huey stepped in in the mid-80s with the ladies. Oh, sure. That was another thing that was going on with him. Handsome cat. Great job.

Great job by Huey. Thumbs up all the way around. Another what's aged your best. Marty being horrified by his flirty mom. I actually think it's an underrated part of this movie, how horrifying it would be to have your mom hit on you. Not realizing it was her son.

that I can't even imagine. That's my worst nightmare. This is a great follow-up to the Godfather Part 3, incest conversation that we can have here again. It keeps coming back on this show. Incest-re-watchable. Still possible. 1950s ice cream shops has age the best.

George punching biff at the end has aged the best. I like what he says, what happens to us in the future? Do we become assholes or something? The odds are probably yes. And then my last one's age the best. Claudia Wells. and there's a whole

I might as well do it now I mean did it age the best though because you know this is her first and last shot at the back to the future future franchise I just think it's a great job

by her she's and I'm just going to throw those guys out to you Claudia Wells or Sloan Peterson who do you got Claudia Wells

I'm Sloan also such she's so supportive like Marty Marty is not a good musician you know what I mean like straight up. And he's just like, I'm going to send my tape to the record labels and they're going to reject me.

She's like, no, you're talented, Marty. Yeah. The pinheads are going somewhere. Then he checks out a bunch of other chicks and she's just like, well, you know, like puts it and brings his like face back towards her. She's just like so ride or die. Yeah. We all need a Jennifer Parker. That's why I married my high school sweetheart.

She's great. Her and Sloan Peterson, the best girlfriends, best movie girlfriends of the 80s. Any other, out what's age the best for you guys. Yeah, I want to say that studio backlots have aged the best. Yes, I was going to say this, Chris. Yeah. So, like, if you guys, I don't know if you guys ever went to Universal in Orlando, but there's a lot of Back to the Future vibes there. And I remember, like, the small town when he goes back to the 1950s and all the crane shots of the small, it's pretty obviously a backlot shot. And I think that was maybe the first time where I, when I went to a theme park

a couple of years later. And I kind of was like, oh, so this is where they do it. Like, this is how they make movies is they build a suburban town square and they can do anything they want at it. So I feel like it has like a very cool vibe because of that. I so miss that in movies too. I mean, it doesn't hold it back. It doesn't make it seem any less realistic.

It doesn't distract you from the movie, but it is so obviously a universal lot if you've ever stepped foot on any of them. And that one is still there. Universal, I believe, in LA. That's like a legendary lot where so many great movies have been made. Well, now we're not making any movies. So I'm the stodging for all movie sets in all places. But yeah, I remember the first time, what's the one, Warner Brothers and Burbank? Yes. Getting a tour and driving around and just seeing like these man-made little downtowns where they just film whatever in there.

And then when it's the next movie, they just change some of the signs and they're off again. And once you know how to look for that in movies, it's pretty funny. It's especially, like, you can see it a lot in sitcoms, even today. But, like, you know, if you're just like watching how I met your mother and you're like, that's not New York, you know. Yeah, you can go see Central Perk right now and visit the friend said if you want to. That stuff is still happening. I also think obviously Christopher Lloyd has aged the best because he hasn't aged at all.

I mean, that's remarkable. He's literally aged the best. I would also throw out Alan Silvestri's score. Yes. iconic up there with any John Williams score at the time and really, really, like, I forgot when it first dropped last night, I was like, oh my God, this is a fucking famous theme.

He's still doing it, man. He does all the music for the Avengers movies. I mean, he is, Alan Silvestri is still at the peak of his powers. And he's got like a winery also up in the, in Carmel, FYI. Great life. I have Huey Lewis as my wife. winner for What's Age the best? What's age the worst? Okay. My Claudia Wells stock that I bought in,

like, what's next for her? What was next? I don't know, but why couldn't she have played Michael Corleone's daughter and the godfather? Where the fuck was she? Add her to the list. She went on to a long and storied career of small roles on TV shows. Well, it's a sad story. She had to drop out of the second one because her mom had cancer and they replaced her with Elizabeth Shoe and just kind of kept that character going. But it's it's a bummer because obviously that would have been awesome for her. I think a lot of people think Elizabeth Shoe was in the original because she was more famous and two and three came a few years later. And by that point, she was more of a known quantity. And I always forget when I rewatch that Claudia Wells is in the original. Elizabeth Shoe would have been,

I would have been fine with that. As much. as much as I love Claudia Wells. I'm full support of all Elizabeth's shoe appearances. Ammore what's age the worst? Leah Thompson's fat mom makeup just looks really fake 35 years later. It's like, oh, it's three and a half hours to put it on. It's like, eh, it doesn't look great. It's a real, like, precursor to fat bastard.

Yeah, it's tough. The terrorists coming to kill Doc Brown has never, has always been, like, a loophole in this movie that he borrowed. of plutonium from Libyan terrorists and uh-oh, they're coming to get them. Yeah, they don't really explain the geopolitical whatever's of the Libyans being in suburban California

so that Doc Brown can make them a weapon, I guess. There is a really funny joke about Soviet guns in the movie though, although Zamekis has basically like apologized for this whole part of the plot. He's basically like, my bad, this was insensitive. Yeah, sorry.

Sorry, everybody. Also insensitive George McFlack. Peeping Tom? He's climbing in a tree to watch Leah Thompson address. Like, you're getting arrested for that now? My son flagged this immediately is, boy, that's weird. Biff assaulting Leah Thompson in the car leading to George coming to save the day. It's like kind of insane.

I can't believe they did it 35 years ago. That's Marty's plan, though. Is Marty's like, I'm going to get handsy and then you're going to punch me, right? What do you mean? Isn't that like Marty's plan, but Biff takes him out of the car? Right, but then Biff is like basically going to commit an assault. Exactly. It's not, it's, it goes awry there for a second.

I don't know why they had to. Although, I mean, it's 1955. It's not like there weren't monsters date raping girls. Like that was definitely something that was happening. So, you know, given the time period, I don't know if it's, maybe it aged the best in a fucked up way. Yeah, I just, I'm not positive. I want to date rape and back to the future, I guess.

True. Good point. This movie's PG, right? Yeah. There's a lot of stuff in this that is surprising. It's like it's pretty violent. They say shit a lot in this movie. I was surprised at these PG. That was Spielberg's thing is to slip in a couple of curse words into those.

I remember whenever you would see like goonies, you'd get really fired up during the curse word parts. Yeah. And then Michael J. Fox's guitar playing is atrocious. I know they had to, I mean, it's just not even close to looking realistic. It's really bad. I think Marty McFly inventing rock and roll has probably aged the worst as a concept. Yeah. I guess he took this from, he took this into Forrest Gump as what if I have Forrest just interact

with every single significant person? I can't believe you guys didn't get into this on music exists, Chris. I feel like this was a, this was a, this was a topic for you. The lost episode. Season two. Yeah. I forgot in what age the best. I love the high school prom band.

I love those guys. It's a great job by them, by Chuck Barry's cousin and his whole crew. Casting what ifs, we hit a lot of them. Did you know that Christopher Lloyd was not the first choice for Doc Brown? Yes, who was? It was John Lithgow. Oh, he would have been good. Similarly, like, ageless kind of guy, you know, like, yeah.

Could make a case he might have been better. I've never not liked John Lithgow in a movie. He's always good. Yeah. I still feel like his cliffhanger villain was, toe-to-to-to with Hans Gruber in the action movie villain finals. I loved his Clifanger villain. Don't think we won't be doing

Clifanger on the rewatchable. Great movie. Thomas F. Wilson cast as Biff Tannen because they had originally cast somebody named J.J. Cohen, who they didn't feel like was physically imposing enough to bully Stoltz. So they made him one of

Biff's cohorts, and then Stoltz got bounced. And Michael J. Fox came in who could have been, anyone could have looked physically imposed the next time. tough break for him. And then Malora Hardin originally cast as Jennifer and let go after Stoltz dismissed because she was too

tall to be next to Fox. Always like Malora Hardin. Loved her. Yeah. Jan from the office. I have a lot of stock. And then finally, a lot of people don't know this, but Al Pacino is supposed to be Doc Brown. Chris,

Chris, you have that, right? You have the screen test. No, yeah. So let me just let me just bring it up. It's a weird file I got. He said he was going to play it a lot like the guy from Heat, and that's, I think, why they decided bad idea. If we could somehow harness this lightning, channel it into the flux capacitor,

it just might work. Next Saturday night, we're sending you back to the future. So he dialed it up too much, and it just didn't work. Yeah, Zemeckis was like, you know what, I'm good. I know you've won some Oscars. You're a major guy, but I just think the turns off. If the chicken got overcooked. I was sending you back to 1985.

Motherfucker. Could you make the case that Al Pacino basically just stole Doc Brown's acting style in the 90s? He's kind of just doing Doc Brown. That's why I sent the quote to Chris to ask him to read their Ruchamas, because I felt like the Vincent Hanna and Doc Brown.

We're like way closer that I was prepared for. Marty, your mom. She's got a great ass. Oh, man. Best that guy, a.k. the Joey Pants Award.

Well, it's a murderer's row because we have the bald guy from Top Gun. Yeah. Playing the bald guy from Top Gun. Like the same

just carrying it over. Maybe just took that scene and sent it to the guys from Top Gun. We have George Descendant. who's one of the all-time that guys from that era. He plays Leah Thompson's dad.

And then my personal choice, Malachi, from Children in the Corn, who was also the red-headed guy and Can't Buy Me Love. Oh, yeah. That guy. He cuts in in the dance. How are we not going Billy Zane here?

Well, we could. He doesn't have a speaking line, though. I think Mark McClure is on the board, too, who was Jimmy Olson from the Superman movies. He plays Dave McFly. I vote for Males. Malachi. He wants you too, Malachi. I'm on board with that.

The Vincent Hanna, give me all you got award for most overacting. It's a two-man race here between Crispin Glover and Christopher Lloyd. I don't know what Christopher, what Crispin Glover is going for in some of these scenes. I never got it. I never was a fan. I happen to be watching Letterman the night that he sent the kick near Letterman's head and Letterman just ended the interview and got him the fuck out of there. Never a fan. I actually don't like him that much in this movie.

And he's my winner. All time weird guy. I thought about making him what's age the worst, too. I just, if you read about the movie, they say that he was really nervous during the making of it. And that accounts for a lot of the weirdness in his performance. It's very memorable. I mean, you kind of have to give him points for being original. There's not a lot of people who have that acting style.

And honestly, if you look at Joaquin Phoenix's acting style, you can see a little. little bit of crisping glover in there. It's not like he wasn't an influential person. You know, he's in like Rivers Edge. He was in some important and interesting movies. But there are scenes where he just feels like he's in a different movie. Wait a minute. Don't I know you from somewhere?

Yes. Yes. I'm George. George McFly. I'm your density. Yeah, I don't enjoy him in this movie. And it definitely, he has a real, like, creep vibe. to him, but his performance is perfectly calibrated to the movie.

I mean, this movie is essentially a cartoon come to life, and all of his gestures are so big and so, like, greasy hair and the hand slowly turning into a fist. Like, he was really right for this style of acting. I just don't love spending a ton of time with him. I think the Joaquin Phoenix analogy is a good one, because if you take Wachin Phoenix 10 years later and put him, it'd be like 12 years later and put him in this movie.

It's just more interesting. I think he's almost playing like an S&L sketch version of Marty's dad and I don't know. I just didn't think it worked. The Brandy Booth Award for Best Performance by a Pet, we have Einstein the Dog Here

with some really strong. I'm going to eight out of ten chewys for Einstein. I liked completely non-flummox by the time travel. It just gets, didn't shit in the car. Seemed cool with it. Just jumped out.

It holds his nerve in front of the Libyans. Yeah. I would say he did a poor job of alerting his master to the arrival of the Libyan, so I'm going six. Okay.

Die have waiter's a word. Best heat check. Who do you have? I mean, is this a time to talk about Thomas F. Wilson and Biff? We can. I think he's in too many scenes.

I it's weird I don't I actually don't think there's a Dion winner for this one there's nobody coming in hot for like two scenes unless you wanted to go with Leah Thompson's dad because he's I guess fairly fine Or the principal Yeah James Tolkien

Yeah you could go James Tolkien as But I mean where does Biff fit into this conversation then I wish that had been a better actor too Oh I love him I think he's so great Oh I'm so perfect for the 80s yeah I agree You wouldn't want somebody more famous, though? Somebody whose career was headed somewhere?

I kind of like that he's like just, I mean, it's probably sad for him that he is just Biff for his career. Yeah. But he is, I mean, he is such an, like an icon of that kind of character, of that kind of bully character. I think he's great in all three movies. Hello? Hello?

Anybody home? Hey, think with fly. Thing, I got to have time to recopy you. You realize what would happen if I hand in my homework? and your handwriting. I'll get kicked out of school. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you? Bill, what about we replace Biff with Albert Gans from 48 hours?

James Remar. I don't know. He's fine. I don't feel as strongly as I did about Crisp and Glover. But we'll all agree to disagree. Recasting couch. It's Crispin Glover's part, but I don't know who the actor is. I don't know who you would have gone with.

I don't really know. I'd have to really look at the landscape of the mid-80s trying to figure out who the perfect person was. But it's definitely, in my opinion, not Crispin Glover. Could Anthony Michael Hall have done that part? Oh, that's good. Yeah, yeah. Why not? Or would that be weird?

Would that not work? There's something about Crispin Glover that, like, it just almost does look like he and Michael Fox are weirdly related in someone. ways. They have like, you know. Could I throw Tom Hanks at you for here? Is he a little old by this time? He's like mid-20s. He's bosom buddies, right? I guess it's Michael J. Foxx around. It's funny that you see Tom Hanks. I was going to say, what if Meg Ryan is Leah Thompson's

character? Hmm. Wow. I feel like that would work. Yeah. I love Leah Thompson and she's untouchable for me in this movie. Bill, what about for George? And then she respawned herself with Zoe Deich. Zoe Deutsch. She's keeping it going. That's an interesting word for giving birth to a lovely daughter.

She just spawned a second. Respond. It's like if Michael Jordan had like Jeffrey Jordan had just become like a five-time all-emba person, like wow, more impressive for the resume. What about Robin Williams as George? I think he's too old, but I like it. I think like 1978 Robin Williams would have been perfect. I really think that part could have been amazing in the right hands.

I don't think he totally got there. What about Zabka as Biff? See, now you're talking my language. There we go. That's what I mean. I need a Zabka. I don't feel like Biff on the Zabka scale is not there. Half-Fast Internet research.

We hit a lot of this stuff already. The original climax was Marty went back to 1985 by, by driving through a nuclear explosion during a weapons test in Nevada and they decided it was too expensive and they audibald and did the clock tower sequence that was crazy. I did some Leah Thompson research.

What do you mean by that? For the podcast but also just because I like Leah Thompson. She was dating Dennis Quaid at the time they filmed this movie. Oh. Dennis Quaid. What's Quaid's pod called again? It should just be called the woman I've

Because I think it's a long way. The denisance, yeah. He should talk about this on the denissance. Eric Stoltz is actually in a scene in this movie when Biff gets punched by Marty. They used the footage of when they shot that with Eric Stoltz. So that's his hand. There's some weird Biff versus Eric Stoltz stuff where there's some shoving. And Thomas Wilson thought Stoltz was going too far and had bruises after and was like,

when we have our fight scene, I'm going to get it back, but then he got fired. And then Fox film Family Ties during the day and Back to the Future from 630 to 230 to 230 and was just working 18 hours a day for a while there. To be continued at the end of Back to the Future was on the VHS release, which is why people remember it. It was not in the theater, and then it was not on the DVD release. So when they released it in VHS, when VHS was really taken off in the mid-80s, that was in there.

And then, do you think Hewee Lewis won the Oscar for Power of Love in the 1986 Oscars for the 1985 movie campaign? I do not. No. No. He was nominated, though.

Do you know what won over Huey Lewis's Power of Love in 1985? Was it Cindy Lopper for Goonies? No, it's way worse. It was say you, say me in White Nights, by Lionel Richie. Oh, yeah. I'm a fan. I'm pro.

Overpower of love? Well, I just like Lionel Richie. I'm glad that he has an Oscar. I do, too, but that's... I think if it was hello by Lionel Rich, I'd like, all right, that's fair, but say you, say me? Do you think Huey would have given up

all the ladies he betted in the 80s to have one Oscar? No. The answer is no. Stopping you now. I have a huge apex mountain. Yeah. Michael J. Fox has to be yes. It's really hard.

I think as an actor to top being on an iconic sitcom and being in an all-time iconic movie in the same summer. That's bonkers. Huey Lewis, I'm going to say yes too. Christopher Lloyd coming right at a taxi into this. It's got to be yes. Claudia Wells, yes. Crisp and Glover, yes.

Thomas F. Wilson, yes. Libyan terrorists? Apex Mountain? Yeah. Was this it for that? No. Was this as good as it? I think I say Qaddafi has ownership of that one.

Just the entire Gaddafi right. Throw it out there. Pepsi free yes. What about Pepsi? So I think so. Because then Pepsi goes on to be associated with the... When did Michael Jackson the fire happen? Right after that.

Yeah. So that's like, that's a dip. You know, so this is definitely like maximum. Right. They took a hit. Yeah. Robert Zemeckis. I say yes because the movies that he makes after this

that he gets people to give him money for. You mentioned who frame Roger Abbott, which I really still really like, is insane. I mean, the pitch on that movie is so high concept, and it was so risky and so expensive. It's one of the all-time Katzenberg heat checks, where he's like, doubt me if you dare,

this is going to be a fucking home run, and he was right. And kind of an anti-quibby. And I think, so it probably has to be for Zemecas, even though he wins best director for Forrest Gump, and even though he, you know, goes on to this amazing career, I think this is what sets him up for anything he wants to do. I think the combo of romancing the stone going into Back to the Future is pretty insurmountable.

It's hard to imagine a better one, too, than that. Chris, what about time travel for Apex Mountain? Was this it? Did we peak here? It's this or lost. And I think it's... Ooh. I think it's this because I think this essentially popularizes a ton of ideas about time travel that really only scientists or physicists had ever contemplated before.

like the idea that you could go back and affect your present by going into the past. I don't think that people were really like... H.G. Wells was on that, dude. Yeah, but I would argue that the most popular movie or one of the most popular movies ever made is like got a bigger cultural footprint

than HG Wells. Shots fired at H.G. Wells. That's right. It pop cultured time travel. Picking Nets. Did we figure out why the pinheads got just so dismissed so quickly at the 1985 high school tryouts. He's got them off the stage in five seconds.

Marty acts like they are just like his backing band and he walks on five seconds before and doesn't do any practicing or rehearsing and is more busy hanging out at this old man's house checking out a bunch of clocks. Okay. I think if he had performed the heart of rock and roll instead of some bullshit Eddie Van Halen ripoff,

he would have been in good shape. Fair. What about, is it the older brother who works at Berger King's, Dave. And then when Marty goes back to 1985, but everything's much better and happier now, he's there in a suit headed to work,

but he's still living at home? What the fuck is that guy doing? Move out of the house, buddy. You have a job? You're like 28. Get an apartment? Yeah, it sticks out. You're in middle America.

Get an apartment or rent a house. What are you doing? You share bathroom with like your sister and your brother still? You morad? I think the idea is, that they have a bigger house and maybe he has more room to himself, but yeah. The Jeep that Marty gets at the end, I still go on the record, that's a really nice Jeep.

Yeah. For the day, almost a little too nice. I think his reaction, he's flabbergasted, but it could have been a little more flabbergasted because he's like, in the old 1985 version, he's like borrowing his dad's shitty car, and now he's got this fucking kick-ass amazing Jeep. I would have passed out. So George McFly gets a copy of his first novel at the end of the movie. But what is his job?

Unclear. He's a self-help book. It's a self-help writer, right? At the end or in the beginning? Like, what's he doing? No, at the end, his first book is published and it's a science fiction novel, which is like him, like, following his dream, which Marty encourages him to do when they're in the cafeteria earlier in the movie.

But it's unclear, like, what job he does that allows him to buy his son that sweet Jeep. I have another picket nits. you guys are going to make fun of me. I think you really own at the end of the movie how much better everything is, including Leah Thompson. I would have had her in like the Jane Fondo aerobics outfit ready to go to like an aerobics class,

just looking smoking fucking hot. I would have added that, add to that wringle. Good note. Good note. Yeah. Just more for her Mr. Skin page, you know? That's all you're looking to add. Not fair.

Best quote, we've mentioned a bunch of them. The signature quote of this movie is probably just Great Scott. Right, Scott! What are you watching? Yeah, well, I might have sort of bumped in than my parents. Great Scott.

I don't ever remember hearing that before this movie and it actually became a thing of people saying that, Great Scott. Where we're going, we don't need roads. Hey, Doc, we better back up. We don't have enough road to get up to 88.

Roads? Well, we're going, we don't need roads. Yeah, that's another. good one. Probably unanswerable questions. Would Marty end up with tinnitus from the beginning of the movie with the speaker being so loud, it blows him backwards by 20 feet? I feel like his hearing's never the same after that. I feel like hearing was just better back then. Like people could take more, you know? Guys used to turn their stereos up real loud. But that whole generation of guys is deaf now.

Right. It's true. How many concussions? did he get in the trilogy, it's at least like three or four. He gets knocked out over and over again over the course of like five days. It's tough. I think honestly, like there's Tom Rinaldi's at his house right now. I'm with Marty Muffly. He's had a lot of issues over the years. Will Smith's like, like, tell the truth.

Yeah. Tell the truth. Here's a question. Doc Brown, good dog owner? I think more of an 80s dog owner where dogs were just like kind of there. You know, you didn't have like, like, this huge relationship with your dog and have an Instagram page and think that it had like an internal life. You just kind of like, that's my dog. And he might come along on this on this time

traveling experiment. So unwilling to feed his dog himself, he builds a giant robot contraption so then that he could cut canned food for his dog and then just dump it on a plate like the dog's like in a penitentiary. Strike one. Strike two. Experiments. with time travel with this dog. If this doesn't work, where do I care? It's a dog. I'm going bad dog owner for Doc Brown. And frankly, I don't

blame the dog Einstein for not warning him about the Libyan terrorists. You said it, you know, warn your master. I think the dog's like, fuck that guy. Wow. Maybe he deserves more chewis on my rating then. Do you think the Einstein is pro-Libian terrorist? Like, he goes that far?

I think like if the Libyans wanted to take him, I think he would have went with it. He would have been like, Maybe I'll at least get fed. Can I ask you another question related to Doc Brown? Yeah, I have another one after yours. I think that we accept this now because I don't know if you guys watch Rick and Morty, but Rick and Morty is obviously really inspired by Back to the Future and the characters and the professor and the or the scientist and the younger guy.

But what the fuck is going on with Marty hanging out with Doc Brown? That is just really creepy. Yeah. So this is, this also is the era of the. Karate Kid and Daniel's son, Mr. Biagi, and relationships of lifelong bachelors hanging out with kids in high school, which now would just be flagged in five seconds. Yes. The thing that's weird is that Daniel is new to town. So it makes sense that he doesn't have a crew yet and then he hooks up with this guy who's teaching him martial arts. Marty, while his family is on tough times,

has a really cool girlfriend and is like in bands and you'd think he would have some friends but it doesn't seem like he has any. It's just he has Claudia Wells and then there's just Doc Brown. He has no car and his best friend is this old creepy scientist

and Claudia Wells is like, I'm in. That 5 foot 5 guy? I'm locking him down. The 5 foot 5 guy who keeps grabbing onto people's bumpers and skating around town, yeah. Who's leering at every other girl in my school and doesn't have a car. Lock me up. I added my other Doc Brown question was,

Doc Brown, just lifelong bachelor, like secretly getting it in out there, asexual or just gay? What would you pick out of the three? Was Dr. Brown gay? He was married to his work, married to science. Married to science. Yeah, we need him for the coronavirus. You know, we need that kind of ingenuity right now.

Early porn, like huge porn collection from the late 70s. What? Doc Brown. Bill, I just want to hear you say Doc Brown legendary stick man. Legendary porn collector. Don't know. Don't like, Marty, I've got every video cassette of porn by Gerald Damiano from the late 70s. And every wee magazine that's.

ever been made. Doc Brown, what a fucking weirdo he was. All right, I have one more unanswerable question. Can a person be at the same location in two different versions of himself? What's the example that you're using in the movie?

At the end of the movie, Marty goes back, but he's also there and he's watching himself. Can that actually happen? Have you actually wrapped your mind around that? Well, it's a big, it's a big plot point in two. This comes up frequently where he's observing himself doing things when

he goes back to back to the future. And I wanted to ask you guys if you thought we should or could do two because even though two isn't as good of a movie, it's probably a much more fun movie to talk about in a lot of ways because of the sports almanac but because of the kind of question that you're asking

Bill, which is like, you know, this broke my brain aspect of two is so intense and fun to unpack. that it's all about like alternate realities, temporal loops. Like the dog is named Einstein for a reason because a lot of this movie is based on a lot of the speculative writing of Albert Einstein and his ideas about time travel. There's a deleted scene where Doc Brown shows up and watches himself watching porn that they were

like, this is too dark. It's fucking weird. We got to get rid of this. What a strange guy that Doc Brown. But this brings up sort of the, also a larger question that's actually been, it's been kicked around recently because James Gunn, the director of Guardians of the Galaxy,

had a tweet like a couple of weeks ago where he was essentially like, here's my biggest issue with Back to the Future. How do Marty's parents not recognize him 30 years later? You know, when he is, the age that he is when he comes back to 1955, how would they not know, like, wait, how come our son looks exactly like Calvin,

who is the guy who hooked us up at, Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. And I think people tried to explain it away in a bunch of different pseudo-scientific ways. But essentially Bob Gale was like, think back to when you were 17. They only know Calvin, Marty, for eight days. Can you really remember somebody from 30 years ago

that you only knew for a week? Now, I take his point. I do think that if the intensity of the relationship was the way it was, I would never forget that person. You know what I mean? But that has been like one of the biggest time travel questions posed at this movie. Sounds like we should do it as a flawed rewatchable. I mean, if we did Draft Day, we could do it back to the future too.

Sure. It's a lot better than Draft Day, having just rewatched it. It's really good. It just doesn't stand up to the original. Who won the movie, Sean? Gosh, I made this huge case for Zemeckis, but I kind of feel like it's Michael J. Fox. I also vote for Fox because of the backstory of how wrong. this movie could have gone in the wrong hands.

Exactly. A recurring theme of the rewatchables that we've hit again and again, how much luck you need with this stuff. And if Sidney's Scheinberg, whatever his name is, it'd been like, no, fuck you, I'm not doing the three million, make it work with Stoltz. And you don't have the comedy and the physical stuff. And I just don't think it's as big of a movie. I think he ends up getting criticized, not like in a Sophia Coppola and the Godfather

three level, but he probably. it becomes the thing people point to, like, eh, you know. Well, I just think it winds up being more of a, there's a world in which this is like a bunch of sci-fi movies, teenage sci-fi movies that came out in and around this time period, like explorers or something like that, where it's like people like it. People, maybe it's even a cult classic, but it doesn't have like the paradigm shifting impact on culture that Back to the Future did. I think Fox is the person who wins the movie.

He just knows is out. that's a good point yeah they because they look out with huie lewis too yeah because that easily could have been like thomas dolby or Howard jones this goes rock a bit oh back to the future it's on netflix now it's 35 years old it's still fucking awesome thanks to uh state farm thanks to chris thanks to sean we will see you on wednesday on the rewatchables with armaged so until then