Back to the Future in popular culture

The Back to the Future trilogy is a comedic science fiction film trilogy written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, directed by Zemeckis, and distributed by Universal Pictures. The plot follows the adventures of high-school student Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and scientist Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) as they use a modified DeLorean automobile to time travel to different periods in the history of Hill Valley, California.

The first film was the highest grossing film of 1985 and became an international phenomenon, leading to two sequels which were filmed back-to-back and released in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The trilogy is widely noted for its irreverent comedy, eccentric characters and ability to incorporate complex theories of time-travel without confusing the audience. Though the two sequels did not perform quite as well at the box office as the first film, the trilogy remains immensely popular and has yielded such spin-offs as an animated television series and a motion-simulation ride at the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, Florida (ride now closed as of late March 2007); Universal City, California (ride closed on September 3, 2007), and Osaka, Japan.

Back to the Future

 * In one episode of the American television show Supernatural, Dean is transported to the past by an angel and has several experiences mimicking the film. Dean meets his father in a diner (the entire scene is an obvious parody), there is a minor character named Dr. Brown, Dean asks the angel if they "...got a hold of some DeLoreans or something" to send him back, He is referred to as "Future boy" and many other subtle references appear throughout the episode.
 * In the 1999 film Stuart Little, when Stuart is playing the guitar he does a duck walk similar to Marty McFly. Both Marty and Stuart were played by Michael J. Fox.
 * In the 1989 film Parenthood, the character Gary keeps a Back to the Future video case inside his wardrobe.
 * At the end of Stephen King's IT, the protagonists see remains of the destroyed city of Derry. At one point, they see a sign from the ruined Aladdin Theater that was playing Back To The Future.
 * A Simpsons episode titled "Bart to the Future" has an Indian sachem showing what Bart's future may look like 30 years from now. The bully Nelson Munt is a nightclub owner with a dark suit, turtleneck, and better styled hair than he had as a child. The future Nelson's appearance and business ownership was a nod to the powerful Biff of 1985A and the title is like Back to the Future.
 * The plot of Cinderella III: A Twist in Time centered around the antagonist, Lady Tremaine, finding out about Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and stealing the magic wand so that she can change the timeline to her own gain, similar to what Biff does. In an article about Disney sequels written for the Progressive Boink website, staff member Mike Fireball noted the similarity by jokingly referring to the film as "Alternate 1985 Cinderella".
 * The 2007 movie Knocked Up in the scene where Ben, Alison, Pete and Debbie are having dinner at a restaurant and Ben and Pete are joking about their future with Pete saying "Where we're going we don't need roads.", as well as "I'm gonna throw you in my DeLorean and gun it to 88," much to the chagrin of the annoyed and confused women. There are also some references to Doc Brown.
 * Phil of the Future features a family who is from 2121. The series finale is called "Back to the Future-Not the Movie."
 * In an episode of Fairly Odd Parents, Timmy Turner travels back in time to the 1980s on a time scooter. Just before he arrives, a DeLorean can be seen driving off and disappearing leaving a trail of fire behind it. In the episode "Land Before Timmy", Cosmo and Wanda's wands require 1.21 "Wishawatts" to operate, so they used lightning similar to Back to the Future. Also, in "Wishology Part 1", Jorgen Von Strangle's motorcycle can teleport through wormholes and leaves a trail of fire behind.
 * In an episode of Stargate Atlantis, Major Shepherd suggests you would need a "really nice DeLorean" to travel through time and later names a device attached to a time travelling space ship as a "flux capacitor".
 * Busted's song "Year 3000" clearly mentions the flux capacitor and "a time machine like the one in a film I've seen".
 * British band McFly, named themselves after lead character Marty McFly.
 * In the Disney Channel Original Movie Minutemen, Virgil, Charlie, and Zeke need to get permission to access room 77 in order to build their time machine. They get permission by having a club at their high school called, "Back to the Future Fan Club."
 * In Garfield and Friends, the U.S. Acres episode "Quack to the Future" is a spoof of Back to the Future.
 * The Simpsons episode “That 90's Show” includes an obvious parody of the Johnny B. Goode sequence of Part I: Chuck Berry's cousin Marvin calls him to inform him of “that new sound you've been looking for” as Marty plays Johnny B. Goode, as does Kurt Cobain's cousin “Marvin,” notifying him of Homer's “invention” of grunge.
 * In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "The Shakespeare Code", the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) uses Back to the Future to explain how time can be changed to his companion Martha Jones.
 * Kanye West's song "Good Morning" from his Graduation album contains the third verse lyric "Look at the Valedictorians/Scared of the the future while I hop in the DeLorean". The music video also includes a flying DeLorean not unlike the one seen at the end of the first film. Kanye's "Dropout Bear" mascot tries to fly off to school in the DeLorean in the beginning of the music video when he finds out he is late for his graduation ceremony, but the car stalls and he is left to run all the way. He and his friends are later seen flying in a topless version of the car at the end of the video.
 * In the film Donnie Darko, Donnie expresses his love for the films when speaking with his science teacher about the possibilities of time travel.
 * In the Family Guy episode "Road to Germany," Stewie rides a skateboard like Marty before the Nazis crash into manure. Also, the scene features the film's score.
 * In another Family Guy episode "Meet the Quagmires," Brian takes over the dance band and plays "Earth Angel" while Peter proposes to Lois, and then when prompted, he says, "Here's a song by a gay guy," before starting to play "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. The injured bandleader, Rick's cousin "Marvin Astley" calls him up to listen to the song.  The scene is a spoof on the performance of "Earth Angel" and "Johnny B. Goode" at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance.
 * In the American Dad episode "Delorean Story-an"
 * The Disney Channel series Phineas and Ferb has an episode where the title characters build a "Flying Car of the Future Today" out of their mom's station wagon. Candace and Jeremy late use it on the way to rescue Phineas and Ferb, with the music in the background resembling the Back to the Future theme before they crash it. An earlier episode has Candace walking into Jeremy's house dressed like Marty in his hazmat suit.
 * In I Love You Man Sydney, while playing the guitar, makes reference to the scene when Marvin Berry calls his cousin Chuck, the writer of Johnny B. Goode.
 * Issue #259 of the VG Cats webcomic sees Aeris, fed up with Leo's feeble attempts at humour (mostly from internet forums), use a BTTF-style DeLorean (with visible flux capacitor) to travel many years into the past and kill him in utero, effectively 'aborting Leo from time.' (Ironically, Leo reappears two strips later despite this, claiming he 'got better') The comic features not only the time machine, but Aeris wears Marty's signature bodywarmer jacket and sunglasses; these items, along with the car's key, are initially held in an emergency-break-glass case with the label 'Break glass in case you need to make like a tree and get outta here,' a reference to the one-liner antagonist Biff regularly misuses.
 * In Deason 3: The Curse of Matty O actor Chris Lovingham makes joke of Ronald Regan being president in 1985.
 * The Futurama episode titled Roswell that Ends Well bears heavy similarities with the plot of Back to the Future.
 * In National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj the 'Flux capacitor' is the correct answer to a question in a quiz.
 * In an episode of Danny Phantom, entitled "Double-Cross My Heart:, a book store is depicted and the title of one book in the store is entitled "A Match Made in Space" and is written by George McFly.
 * A recent episode of Pokémon: The Abridged Series has satired Back to the Future, with a girl telling Ash to defeat his future self after he became obsessed with fighting Pokémon thirty years ago, simultaneously parodying the events of lightning striking the clock tower in Hill Valley and Biff Tannen rising to power in 1985A.
 * In the Johnny Test episode "Phat Johnny", one of the venues Johnny plays as a rap star is Twin Pines Mall, sharing its name with a similar Hill Valley location.
 * At the end of an episode of Total Drama Action, it shows the Lame-o-sine leaving the set like the DeLorean going to timetravel.
 * In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas a player repeating a mission can sometimes employ a feature referred to as "Trip Skip" allowing the player to skip parts of the mission they have previously completed. The icon used for this feature is an image of the "Deluxo", a car from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City that is otherwise absent from San Andreas. As the Deluxo is partly based on the DeLorean DMC-12, its usage in such a feature may be a reference to the DeLorean time machine.
 * An episode of Pokémon: Master Quest was titled "Xatu the Future".

Back to the Future Part II

 * In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Blink", minutes after the disappearance of character Cathy Nightingale, her grandson delivers a letter to Sally Sparrow, a letter entrusted to him 20 years previously, explaining Cathy's disappearance to the year 1920 and her subsequent life, despite having only left Sally moments earlier. This clearly echoes the scene in Back to the Future Part II, when Marty receives a letter written in 1885 just moments after Doc's departure (see Plot Synopsis) and the lines of the respective characters are almost identical in places.
 * In the background of one of the mall scenes in the episode "A Fishful of Dollars" of the television series Futurama, a self-adjusting jacket can be seen on sale.
 * Hoverboards and powered shoe laces have come into the English language lexicon of the modern world, even if they have yet to be invented.
 * In the Family Guy episode "Meet the Quagmires," Peter goes back in time and ends up not marrying Lois, altering history much like in BTTF II. In the altered timeline, Brian draws a time-line similar to Doc Brown's (while the track "Alternate 1985" from the film score plays in the background) and adds, among the things different, "for some reason, we now have a chalkboard in the living room." Peter also has a photograph of his children which fades throughout the episode, similar to Marty's.
 * At the end of the Family Guy special "Something, Something, Something, Darkside," Chris receives a letter from a mysterious man. The letter is a duplicate of the one at the end of Part II and the last lines of the special are "He's alive, the Doc's alive, i mean sure he's in 1885, but he's alive!!", mirroring the end of Part II.
 * At the end of the Kappa Mikey episode "Easy Come, Easy Gonard", the Lilymu sequence shows Mikey being thrown off a roof by Gonard, but a split second later, Mikey is shown standing on the Lilymu team jet while it is elevating him back to the top, which is a spoof of a scene from the movie.
 * In The Simpsons: Road Rage video game, Professor Frink has a flying car. He mentions that the car has a flux capacitor and that if he goes any faster, the car will travel through time.
 * On November 15, 2009 episode of Rove, Ryan Shelton is presenting his final Philosophisationing segment which involves the Meaning Of Life and during the segment he says I'm Walking Here, I'm Walking Here in front of the DeLorean Time Machine.
 * In the racing game, Burnout Paradise, it is used as a playable car which has an ability to hover, and has boost flame trails behind them.

Back to the Future: Part III

 * In an episode of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show when the family travels back in time to the old west, when main character and father Wayne Szalinski is asked his name by the town's inhabitants, he says it's John Wayne. When his wife gives him a look of disbelief, he says that if Marty could be Clint Eastwood in Back to the Future Part III, there was no reason why he could not be John Wayne.
 * In The Simpsons episode "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", the girl "Clara" is named after Clara Clayton.
 * In The Polar Express,(also directed by Robert Zemeckis) the locomotive is travelling over a series of hills and dips. Meanwhile in the interior of the train, the engineers are attempting to catch the broken cotter pin that is supposed to be holding the throttle together. In the background a flux capacitor can be seen, a nod to the Jules Verne time machine.
 * Also in The Polar Express, the Hero Boy pulls the train's whistle and acknowledges that he's wanted to do that his whole life. This line was said by Doc Brown after him and Marty "borrow" the locomotive.
 * A third reference present in The Polar Express is in the scene in which the locomotive halts abruptly, knocking down passengers in the process. After which, the train is then shown coming close to the camera. This scene mirrors that when Clara Clayton pulls the brakes on the locomotive she was planning on travelling on.
 * In the American version of Life on Mars, Sam Tyler calls himself first "Luke Tyler" and then "Luke Skywalker" in a manner similar to Marty's chosen alias of "Clint Eastwood" (indeed, the circumstances are similar, too).
 * In the 2009 Family Guy episode "Business Guy, Peter and Lois are watching Carter's video will, but they play the wrong video, in which Carter says, "If you're watching this, it means the train was not able to push the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and I am still stuck in the year 1885." A reference to Part III,

Western homages
On the DVD commentary, Bob Gale and Neil Canton acknowledge that the film gave them a chance to play with a genre they loved as children – the Western. The film is full of references, jokes, and homages to the genre.
 * The three old timers in the saloon are played by classic Western character actors Harry Carey, Jr., Dub Taylor, and Pat Buttram.
 * Doc (in 1955) clads Marty in an absurd outfit based upon B-Westerns of the period.
 * The scenes where Marty arrives in 1885 and is chased by Native Americans, and later when Doc hitches the DeLorean to a team of horses, were filmed in Monument Valley, known as "John Ford country" after the great director who used it extensively in his Westerns.
 * Marty chooses "Clint Eastwood", the most notable modern Western actor, as his alias in 1885. The locals make fun of it as a "sissy" name, and tell Marty that if he does not face Buford, "Clint Eastwood", will forever be known as a coward. Marty also says when he receives the clothes Doc gives him in 1955 looks nothing like Clint Eastwood's. Viewers can see a poster of Revenge of the Creature which was made in 1955, which also marked the first film role for Clint Eastwood. Upon Marty's return to 1985, his brother enquires sarcastically after his costume, using words to the effect of "Who are you supposed to be&mdash;Clint Eastwood?"; an obvious irony, considering that Marty has, in keeping with the film series' preference for paradoxes, apparently created the character.
 * Thomas F. Wilson has said his performance as Buford was inspired by Lee Marvin's character in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
 * Marty defeats Buford by imitating the final showdown in A Fistful of Dollars (which he had seen in Biff's penthouse suite in Part II).
 * The establishing shot of Hill Valley, in which the camera is on a crane and rises over the train station to reveal a bird's-eye view of the bustling main street, is an exact copy of a shot in Once Upon a Time in the West.
 * After Marty gets new clothes in 1885, he wears a poncho and hat similar to what Eastwood wore the Spaghetti Western films he starred in.
 * Doc Brown shoots the rope hanging Marty, much like how Clint's character frees Tuco multiple times in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
 * In the Family Guy's episode "Business Guy", one of the video-testament of Lois' Father says: "If you are watching this video means that the train couldn't push the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour, as a result, I'm still trapped in the year 1885".