Back to the Future is one of my favourite films of the 1980’s because of its great story populated with interesting characters and great performances. The ending alluded to the possibility of a sequel though director Robert Zemeckis never initially planned to make one. The huge financial success of Back to the Future led him and Universal Studios to reconsider this and as such two sequels were filmed back to back and released in 1989, and 1990 respectively. So, let’s talk about BttF Part II.
The film opens with a recreation of the final scene of the first film where Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) appears at Marty’s (Michael J. Fox) house in 1985, informing him that he must travel with him to the future in order to stop his children from doing something awful. The film then continues with Marty, Doc, and Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) travelling forward in time to 2015. Marty gets his son out of helping Biff Tannen’s grandson, Griff (Thomas F. Wilson), from aiding in a bank robbery. But whilst in 2015 Marty picks up a vintage sports almanac that details every major sports game and the winner from 1950-2000. Thinking he might be able to use it to make some money, Marty buys the book and returns to Doc. Doc scolds Marty for trying to use time travel to financially aid himself and the almanac ends up in the hands of an aging Biff Tannen, who then steals the DeLorean and passes the almanac on to his younger self in 1955. Marty and Doc, unaware of this, travel back to 1985 and end up in an alternate timeline where Biff is one of the richest men in the U.S and has destroyed not only Marty and Doc’s lives, but also most of Hill Valley. The two take it upon themselves to return to 1955 to try and get the almanac from Biff and destroy it in the hope of returning the timeline back to normal.
This is perhaps the main difference between Back to the Future and Part II. The plot of the original film could be summed up in a single sentence, the plot to Part II however just took me 235 words and I essentially described the first two acts of the film. The plot to Part II is so dense and overblown with time travel and McGuffin’s that it loses the spirit of what made the original film so brilliant. But that does not mean that Back to the Future Part II is a bad film, far from it actually, because in a lot of ways it exceeds the first film and is one of the best sequels of all time.
The film opens with a recreation of the final scene of the first film where Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) appears at Marty’s (Michael J. Fox) house in 1985, informing him that he must travel with him to the future in order to stop his children from doing something awful. The film then continues with Marty, Doc, and Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) travelling forward in time to 2015. Marty gets his son out of helping Biff Tannen’s grandson, Griff (Thomas F. Wilson), from aiding in a bank robbery. But whilst in 2015 Marty picks up a vintage sports almanac that details every major sports game and the winner from 1950-2000. Thinking he might be able to use it to make some money, Marty buys the book and returns to Doc. Doc scolds Marty for trying to use time travel to financially aid himself and the almanac ends up in the hands of an aging Biff Tannen, who then steals the DeLorean and passes the almanac on to his younger self in 1955. Marty and Doc, unaware of this, travel back to 1985 and end up in an alternate timeline where Biff is one of the richest men in the U.S and has destroyed not only Marty and Doc’s lives, but also most of Hill Valley. The two take it upon themselves to return to 1955 to try and get the almanac from Biff and destroy it in the hope of returning the timeline back to normal.
This is perhaps the main difference between Back to the Future and Part II. The plot of the original film could be summed up in a single sentence, the plot to Part II however just took me 235 words and I essentially described the first two acts of the film. The plot to Part II is so dense and overblown with time travel and McGuffin’s that it loses the spirit of what made the original film so brilliant. But that does not mean that Back to the Future Part II is a bad film, far from it actually, because in a lot of ways it exceeds the first film and is one of the best sequels of all time.
Because of this expansion of the plot we don’t get to spend much time with the characters that made the first film so great, George and Lorraine McFly (Marty’s parents). This is also in part due to the actor who played Marty’s dad, Crispin Glover, wanting to completely disassociate himself from the original film and refused to appear in the sequels. The story mostly concerns Marty & Doc hunting down various versions of Biff and trying to get the sports almanac from him. The problem is that Biff isn’t an interesting character, he’s really irritating actually which I guess is the point, but just because your character is supposed to be irritating doesn’t make them a good character. Biff spends most of the film shouting and being really stupid whilst Marty & Doc continually fail to outsmart him, and it almost becomes something like a Looney Tunes cartoon because of it. Marty also doesn’t grow as a character like he does in the first film, and Doc doesn’t really do a whole lot besides fly around in the DeLorean.
This sacrifice of character depth allows the film to be grander in scope, and whilst that certainly pays off, it pays off in ways that are entirely different to the first film. Where Hill Valley 1955 was cool in a similar way to how Grease is cool, Hill Valley 2015 and alternate 1985 are much grander environments with more to learn and see. Hill Valley 1955 was not a particularly exciting place, it was the people that were exciting. But 2015 and alternate 1985 are exiting because of what they contain, not who inhabits it. The special effects look pretty great too, with flying cars, hoverboards, holographic effects, even Biff’s skyscraper casino all look great. But real credit needs to go to the makeup department who manage to age characters up and down on a scene by scene basis only using makeup and clothing. Michael J. Fox also plays every member of his family in 2015 which is a great visual gag, and really clever use of makeup and editing techniques to pull it off.
One final note is that I can’t help but feel that Jennifer gets hard done by in the script because she spends almost all the time she is on screen unconscious, and then a little over halfway through the story Doc and Marty just leave her somewhere unconscious and imply that she’ll be fine once they revert history back to normal. She didn’t play a big role in the first film either, but that made sense because she had nothing to do with the story, BttF Part II implies she has a large role to play because she is brought along for the adventure but in actuality the film would be no different without her there for the few scenes she is actually in.
Is Back to the Future Part II a good film? Yes, I know I have spent an awful lot of this review going on about how everything that was good in the first one is bad in the second, but Part II manages to be grander in narrative scope and in its special effects department. For some this will feel like a downgrade from the original and to others it will feel like an improvement. Personally, I still feel as though the original is the better film, but Part II is certainly a great sequel that does a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat for the whole runtime.
This sacrifice of character depth allows the film to be grander in scope, and whilst that certainly pays off, it pays off in ways that are entirely different to the first film. Where Hill Valley 1955 was cool in a similar way to how Grease is cool, Hill Valley 2015 and alternate 1985 are much grander environments with more to learn and see. Hill Valley 1955 was not a particularly exciting place, it was the people that were exciting. But 2015 and alternate 1985 are exiting because of what they contain, not who inhabits it. The special effects look pretty great too, with flying cars, hoverboards, holographic effects, even Biff’s skyscraper casino all look great. But real credit needs to go to the makeup department who manage to age characters up and down on a scene by scene basis only using makeup and clothing. Michael J. Fox also plays every member of his family in 2015 which is a great visual gag, and really clever use of makeup and editing techniques to pull it off.
One final note is that I can’t help but feel that Jennifer gets hard done by in the script because she spends almost all the time she is on screen unconscious, and then a little over halfway through the story Doc and Marty just leave her somewhere unconscious and imply that she’ll be fine once they revert history back to normal. She didn’t play a big role in the first film either, but that made sense because she had nothing to do with the story, BttF Part II implies she has a large role to play because she is brought along for the adventure but in actuality the film would be no different without her there for the few scenes she is actually in.
Is Back to the Future Part II a good film? Yes, I know I have spent an awful lot of this review going on about how everything that was good in the first one is bad in the second, but Part II manages to be grander in narrative scope and in its special effects department. For some this will feel like a downgrade from the original and to others it will feel like an improvement. Personally, I still feel as though the original is the better film, but Part II is certainly a great sequel that does a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat for the whole runtime.