A lazy sunday when I meet the De Lorean (for the nth time)

Sunday. Nothing to do and being lazy at home. It is damn hot here. 35 degC. Mom and Dad have gone for a day trip in China, and my brother, like me, has nothing to do for the day.

I have not had that much sleep for a while. I went to bed at 10:20 last night, and only got up at 11:30 this morning. It was already freaking hot out there and my brother and I decided to lay low and order delivery for lunch, only to avoid the steaming heat.

Now Broadband TV was showing Back to the Future Part III. The Back to the Future series is some of my favorite movies. They are a very good teaching material for making commercial movies. The story is about the adventure of the 17-years-old Marty McFly and Dr. Elma Brown on the Time Machine (built from a De Lorean DMC-12 racing car) Doc Brown built. The whole story happens in a small fictional town Hill Valley of California in 4 time frames: the present (1985 the year the first Back to the Future was made), the future (2015, when Jennifer, Marty's girlfriend, meets herself and her kids with Marty), a near past (1955, whcn Marty meets his parents and has her mom falling for him instead of his father) and a further past (1885, when Doc finds his love of his life in this wild west). The Clock Tower which was the iconic building of Hill Valley plays a very important role in all 3 movies.

Technically, the movies are so well written and directed that you can't take a breath from the tense but entertaining cuts. The scenes are so closely related that a tiny thing happens in the background turns out to be an important clue for the development of the movie. One example is in Part II, Biff is watching a cowboy movie in his Jacuzzi. It is a classic gun duet for those cowboy movies. One of the cowboys got shot, but he doesn't fall and reveals a metal plate under his shirt that protects him from the bullet. In Part III, Marty is provoked to have a gun duet with Mad Dog Tannen (the long time nemesis of Marty's family). It was anything but a fair game, because Tannen is a well trained gunman of the time, and Marty only learns shooting from the game consoles in 7-11. So Marty gets shot at his heart, but surprisingly he doesn't die because he has put a metal plate under his shirt.

In a sense the franchise is sort of romantic. You will be attached to Hill Vally from the recurrence of the Clock Tower and the cafe (1959-2019)/tavern (1889) that sits across the Clock Tower. You can even witness the birth of the Clock Tower in Part III. I didn't like Part III that much than the other two movies before, but today as I watched it again (probably the 5th time), I felt the sentiment of the writer/director's for their heritage of explorers of the west, from the scene where De Lorean was pulled by 4 horses on a wasteland in the west to the photo Marty and Doc take in the inauguration party of the clock for the Clock Tower. In fact, the whole story is a child's dream realized on the screen: a time machine that bring you back in time to peer how your parents meet each other, or to the future to check out if you will marry your first love. The best part is, you travel in time on a De Lorean, and you need to get it real fast (88 miles per hour or 140 km/hr) to get the Time Influx circuit work! In the last scene of Part III, you see the ultimate childhood dream of the writers comes true: traveling in time on a steam train!

To all film makers, a good and entertaining movie doesn't take a lot but a theme that connects to the dream of your childhood. You are not alone in the world, and those who share your dream will love your movies, given it is technically sound, or terrific preferably. So dare to dream and don't toss them away.

The trilogy was written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who has also directed Forrest Gump and Cast Away among others.

There is a web site built by fans dedicated to the movie: hillvalleyonline.com.
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Evolution of the Time Machine


De Lorean DMC-12, 1981-83


The Time Machine as appeared in Back to the Future. It needs plutonium to power the Time Influx circuit. The plutonium almost costs Doc his life.


De Lorean as in Back to the Future Part II. It is modified by Doc with the technologies in 2015, turning it into a flying pod (every car flies in the sky in 2015). Doc has also installed Mr. Fusion that utilizes nuclear fusion of atoms in garbage to power the Time Influx circuit.


De Lorean as appeared in Part III. It has been repaired by Doc using whatever materials he can find in 1955: some vacuum tubes piled up on the hood with wooden boards, and the classic 50's wheels and tires.


The Time Machine as appeared in the last scene of Part III. It is built by Doc from a steam train in 1889, and modified using fancy technologies some time in the future.