After visiting 2015, Marty McFly must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip.After visiting 2015, Marty McFly must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip.After visiting 2015, Marty McFly must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 9 wins & 11 nominations total
Tom Wilson
- Biff Tannen
- (as Thomas F. Wilson)
- …
E'Casanova
- 'Michael Jackson' Video Waiter
- (as E. Casanova Evans)
Featured reviews
BACK TO THE FUTURE, PART II (1985) *** Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson, Elisabeth Shue. First sequel (noteworthy: both pts. II & III were filmed simultaneously back-to-back) takes up where the first one left off: Fox and Lloyd heading to the year 2015 where Fox must help his family of the future (he plays three other characters of the McFly clan) battling arch-nemesis Biff who goes back to 1955 to alter history...again. Darker in tone and plot but still fun all the same with some mind-twisting plot lines and cool effects.
Continuing a movie as perfect as "Back To The Future" must have been a really tough job. What made it even harder was that the writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale had to ignore an important character from part one. Because Crispin Glover asked for too much money, his character George McFly, Marty's wacky Dad, hardly appears in the sequels, which constricted the storyline a lot beforehand.
Still, "Back To The Future II" turned out to be a huge success, commercially and artistically. The movie is every bit as clever and delightful as part one. I think most viewers don't realize how extremely complex this story is, because it's so enjoyable to watch. Gale & Zemeckis wrote a screenplay that takes place in three different periods of time, changes storyline more than once, has characters interacting with themselves all the time, but never seems overdone or confusing. The most original trick the two Bobs pulled was to virtually return to part one and have the main character interfere with the original storyline. I don't think that has ever been done before or since.
No, the movie isn't flawless in a sense that everything can be explained logically. Bob Gale admitted himself that Marty and Doc shouldn't be able to visit their future selves in the first place. There are a lot of impossible time travels in part two (you can read about them in detail here: http://mjyoung.net/time/back2.html). "Mistakes" like that don't take away any of the fun, though, and I still think that the "Back To The Future" trilogy incorporates the logics of time traveling better than any other movie ever did.
Besides the perfect script the trilogy's success is due to Zemeckis ever so beautiful direction and his eye for detail, and of course the great cast. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson, all shamelessly underrated actors, are once again brilliant. It's a REAL pity that Crispin Glover didn't return for the sequels, but as I've said before, Gale & Zemeckis did a great job writing their way around his memorable character. The only other actress that didn't come back was Claudia Wells, who played Jennifer in part one and was appropriately replaced by Elisabeth Shue here.
Summing up, "Back To The Future II" is a more than worthy follow-up to one of the best movies of all time. In fact, I think it's the best sequel ever made, only rivaled by "Terminator 2: Judgement Day". But that's a different story...
Still, "Back To The Future II" turned out to be a huge success, commercially and artistically. The movie is every bit as clever and delightful as part one. I think most viewers don't realize how extremely complex this story is, because it's so enjoyable to watch. Gale & Zemeckis wrote a screenplay that takes place in three different periods of time, changes storyline more than once, has characters interacting with themselves all the time, but never seems overdone or confusing. The most original trick the two Bobs pulled was to virtually return to part one and have the main character interfere with the original storyline. I don't think that has ever been done before or since.
No, the movie isn't flawless in a sense that everything can be explained logically. Bob Gale admitted himself that Marty and Doc shouldn't be able to visit their future selves in the first place. There are a lot of impossible time travels in part two (you can read about them in detail here: http://mjyoung.net/time/back2.html). "Mistakes" like that don't take away any of the fun, though, and I still think that the "Back To The Future" trilogy incorporates the logics of time traveling better than any other movie ever did.
Besides the perfect script the trilogy's success is due to Zemeckis ever so beautiful direction and his eye for detail, and of course the great cast. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson, all shamelessly underrated actors, are once again brilliant. It's a REAL pity that Crispin Glover didn't return for the sequels, but as I've said before, Gale & Zemeckis did a great job writing their way around his memorable character. The only other actress that didn't come back was Claudia Wells, who played Jennifer in part one and was appropriately replaced by Elisabeth Shue here.
Summing up, "Back To The Future II" is a more than worthy follow-up to one of the best movies of all time. In fact, I think it's the best sequel ever made, only rivaled by "Terminator 2: Judgement Day". But that's a different story...
Back to the Future Part II (1989) was green lighted after the success of the first film. The film follows the further adventures of Marty and Doc Brown. This film and the third installment were filmed back to back. However the complexity of the storyline turned off many of the fans of the original. But this is what I enjoyed about this movie. Instead of being the same old run-of-the-mill by the numbers sequel, the film makers decided to do something different and make this a brain twister film. The beauty of this movie is that you have to pay close attention to it.
The film takes place right after the events of part one. Doc Brown comes back from the future to help Marty get his kid out of trouble. Instead of leaving well enough alone, all three of them head off to the future to try and change events. They managed to pull it off but unfortunately they tore a fabric in time due to Marty being greedy and the nosy efforts of Doc Brown. Can Doc and Marty safely restore the space and time continuum before the universe collapses upon itself?
A fun sequel with a few cast changes (Elizabeth Shue now portrays Marty's girlfriend whilst Crispin Glover is no longer with in the film except in stock footage). Most of the original players return to reprise their original roles. Michael J. Fox stretches his acting abilities by playing his son and daughter as well as his older self. If you enjoyed the first film then you'll really want to watch this one (if you haven't already).
Highly recommended.
The film takes place right after the events of part one. Doc Brown comes back from the future to help Marty get his kid out of trouble. Instead of leaving well enough alone, all three of them head off to the future to try and change events. They managed to pull it off but unfortunately they tore a fabric in time due to Marty being greedy and the nosy efforts of Doc Brown. Can Doc and Marty safely restore the space and time continuum before the universe collapses upon itself?
A fun sequel with a few cast changes (Elizabeth Shue now portrays Marty's girlfriend whilst Crispin Glover is no longer with in the film except in stock footage). Most of the original players return to reprise their original roles. Michael J. Fox stretches his acting abilities by playing his son and daughter as well as his older self. If you enjoyed the first film then you'll really want to watch this one (if you haven't already).
Highly recommended.
As a huge BTTF fan, I have to admit that this is the best BTTF flick ever made. It has all the ingredients to please all audience of any age. I personally like the 50's stuff in it, but I am also a huge 80's fan (the present in the movie) and the future is just hilarious. Of course...it has been almost two decades since this movie came out, and now we know that the future that is shown in BTTF 2 is a bit funny, but hey...do you remember Total Recall? Now THAT is also a future that would never see daylight, but at least the BTTF 2 future is amusing.
I have seen this movie over a dozen times, and I tried to find things that don't match, movie mistakes etc. (yes..I am a pain in the ..)but the thing is, I KNOW that there are mistakes (like reflections in window glass) but this movie keeps your mind drifting away, enchanted by the great story and great moments. Of course Spielberg never intended to have more ingredients then the past (50's), the present and the future. But almost 20 years later...it is also a (another) great movie to see what the 80's were all about. (so another great moment for people of my age, born in the late 70's)
I recommend this movie to ANYONE, but watch BTTF(the first movie) first, because you can't watch part 2 or 3 without watching it in the right sequence.
Have fun! (I recommend the trilogy box, you can purchase it anywhere)
I have seen this movie over a dozen times, and I tried to find things that don't match, movie mistakes etc. (yes..I am a pain in the ..)but the thing is, I KNOW that there are mistakes (like reflections in window glass) but this movie keeps your mind drifting away, enchanted by the great story and great moments. Of course Spielberg never intended to have more ingredients then the past (50's), the present and the future. But almost 20 years later...it is also a (another) great movie to see what the 80's were all about. (so another great moment for people of my age, born in the late 70's)
I recommend this movie to ANYONE, but watch BTTF(the first movie) first, because you can't watch part 2 or 3 without watching it in the right sequence.
Have fun! (I recommend the trilogy box, you can purchase it anywhere)
Marty McFly is back, and this time he has to travel back to 1955 after an unfortunate incident which took place in 2015 so that he can prevent the destruction of the peaceful society of Hill Valley (what a great fictional name!). The film provides two hours of absolutely wonderful and fun entertainment.
Every paradox and logical problem of time-travel is explained very well in the film itself, and those that are left out are easily overlooked due to the creativeness of the rest of the film. Who cares that if Marty leaves 1985 in a time machine to 2015, there would be no Marty left in 1985 to grow to up into the 47 year old Marty in 2015? This movie is so much fun that things like this are gladly forgotten about in order to accept the huge amount of satisfaction delivered by the film.
The Back To The Future trilogy is a perfect example of the need to be willing to abandon at least a tiny bit of logic in order to fully enjoy a movie. This suspension of disbelief is necessary for a person to be able to truly experience the effectiveness of all three Back To The Future films, and this experience truly is a great one.
It is so rare that a film or a series of films comes along that is so well written and perfectly acted and directed as the Back To The Future movies are. Although I realize that another sequel would probably be disastrous to the credibility of the series as a whole, I have to admit that I have always been disappointed that they stopped at the third film. All three are so much fun that they leave you wishing that the story left room for a few more sequels.
Every paradox and logical problem of time-travel is explained very well in the film itself, and those that are left out are easily overlooked due to the creativeness of the rest of the film. Who cares that if Marty leaves 1985 in a time machine to 2015, there would be no Marty left in 1985 to grow to up into the 47 year old Marty in 2015? This movie is so much fun that things like this are gladly forgotten about in order to accept the huge amount of satisfaction delivered by the film.
The Back To The Future trilogy is a perfect example of the need to be willing to abandon at least a tiny bit of logic in order to fully enjoy a movie. This suspension of disbelief is necessary for a person to be able to truly experience the effectiveness of all three Back To The Future films, and this experience truly is a great one.
It is so rare that a film or a series of films comes along that is so well written and perfectly acted and directed as the Back To The Future movies are. Although I realize that another sequel would probably be disastrous to the credibility of the series as a whole, I have to admit that I have always been disappointed that they stopped at the third film. All three are so much fun that they leave you wishing that the story left room for a few more sequels.
Did you know
- TriviaTo commemorate the release of a 30th anniversary Back to the Future trilogy Blu-ray and DVD release, a short movie called Back to the Future: Doc Brown Saves the World (2015) was filmed with Christopher Lloyd reprising his role of Doc Brown. In the movie, Doc tapes a video message, explaining that he traveled to the 2040s in a rebuilt DeLorean, and discovered that inventions such as the Hoverboard and dehydrated food will cause people to become massively overweight; even worse, a simultaneous glitch in every nuclear Mr. Fusion device on the planet will cause a nuclear holocaust that decimates the world's population. He subsequently travels back in time, and successfully prevents such dangerous devices from ever being invented, thus explaining why the future 2015 as seen in this movie did not come true in reality.
- GoofsWhen old Biff steals the time machine to change the past, he returns the Delorean back to 2015 so Doc and Marty would suspect nothing. He should instead have arrived in the alternate version of 2015 just like Marty and Doc went to the alternate 1985. No explanation is given as to why he can return to the unaltered time-line while Doc and Marty can only get to alternate versions of the time-line. In The Big Bang Theory (2007), the episode The Focus Attenuation (2014), they suggest that this could be because when Old Biff travels forward, Young Biff hasn't made his first bet that starts the time-line changing yet, thus allowing Old Biff to return to the original 2015. Possible explanation: It is implied that Lorraine eventually got totally fed up with her abusive married life, and shot Biff to death sometime within just a few years after the time when Marty saw them in Alternate 1985 (this is the real reason that Old Biff clutches his chest and crumples to the pavement as he is exiting the DeLorean after returning to 2015, not because his aging body couldn't tolerate the physical stresses of time-warping, as most audience-members would have assumed was happening), removing him and his toxically-greedy influence on the Hill Valley area. The logical "further" idea, therefore, is that the decent-hearted Lorraine --- along with 99% of the other locals, who of course would themselves have also strongly disliked the dystopian wasteland that their community had degenerated into --- would then have banded together en masse --- "in numbers, there is strength" --- and ousted whatever "scum of the earth" officials and politically-influential residents were currently present in the area, and then made sweeping changes for the better to get Hill Valley back to being the peaceful bedroom community that it had been before Biff's interference that had started in the late '50's. Also, Hilldale --- where the McFlys were now living --- was quite a distance from Hill Valley, and so it's possible that Biff's dissipative influence hadn't reached that somewhat-geographically-removed area so much as it had affected his own immediate stomping-grounds.
- Crazy creditsThe theatrical version had a teaser for Retour vers le futur 3 (1990). Some later versions do not have a teaser at all, only showing "To Be Concluded", and skip to the credits. Some have "To Be Concluded" followed by "Back To The Future III". Some cable versions retain the teaser for Back To The Future Part III, but, of course, do not say "Coming Summer 1990". It was, however, added back to the film for its digital download and Blu-Ray versions.
- Alternate versionsSpanish dubbed version also refers to Marty as Levi Strauss instead of Calvin Klein.
- ConnectionsEdited from Retour vers le futur (1985)
- SoundtracksBeat It
Written and Performed by Michael Jackson
Produced by Quincy Jones (uncredited)
Courtesy of CBS Records, Music Licensing Department
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Retour vers le futur II
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $40,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $119,361,197
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $27,835,125
- Nov 26, 1989
- Gross worldwide
- $332,861,197
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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