Back to the Future Part II (1989) Review

“Great Scott”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Just because you had one amazing adventure that changed your life does not mean you can stop having them.


PLOT


1989’s Back to the Future Part II immediately takes place following the events of the first film. Doctor Emmett Brown takes Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker with him to a fictional 10/21/2015 where they must save their children from making a severe mistake. Upon arriving, Doc incapacitates Jennifer to avoid her knowing her own future. He then explains to Marty that he must prevent his son Junior from participating in a robbery with Biff Tannen’s grandson Griff, which will lead to a chain of events that’ll destroy the family. He switches places with his identical son and is able to bail him out, resulting in Griff’s gang to get arrested for chasing him and crashing into a courthouse. Upon reuniting with Doc, he buys a sports almanac from 1950-2000, but his friends suggests him to disregard it knowing there can be consequences of profiting from time travel. Just when he does, Jennifer gets taken by the police to her future home where she’ll unintentionally see her future husband get himself fired for doing a shady business deal and they’ve been in bad deal since an automobile accident during that 30 year gap. They do return her back to 1985 shortly after, but their present has drastically changed due to an elderly Biff stealing the DeLorean time machine before they picked her up. He took the same sports almanac Marty disregarded to secure his own fortune, becoming one of the wealthiest men in the country. He however also expressed corruption by having George McFly (Jeffrey Weisman/Crispin Glover) killed, forcing Lorraine (Lea Thompson) to marry him, commit Doc to a mental hospital and sent Marty to a Swiss boarding school. ‘85 Doc deduces that Biff had to have pulled this off by giving the almanac to his younger self from 1955, which Marty confirms when confronting the alternate ‘85 Biff. With the DeLorean, the young McFly travels back to where he previously visited and follows ‘55 Biff long enough to get the almanac back after a lengthy chase. Just when he burns it, a lightning strike causes ‘85 Doc to leave without him. Shortly after this does a courier suddenly appear to give a letter to Marry, revealing Doc got stuck in the 1885 Old West, his favorite historical era. The film ends in a cliffhanger with McFly going to ‘55 Doc, letting him know he needs his help again after just helping him get home. 


THOUGHTS


Director Robert Zemeckis and cowriter Bob Gale knew they had to up the stakes in every term possible if they were gonna commit with a trilogy and boy did they ever. Not only is this chapter most nostalgic, but the practicality itself is what outdoes the predecessor. It's an impressive feat to see 1955 again, but alternate versions of 1985 and 2015 before getting to see 1885 before Part III was surreal of an experience because the production/costume/makeup design for each era was outstanding to witness. Better yet, the visual effects for 2015 has arguably aged well because the hover-board is just as cool as the flying DeLorean. Since we actually got a version of that in the real 2015, I'm surprised we still haven't gotten power laces for our shoes, a jacket that adjusts to one's size or food that can be hydrated instead of microwaved. With Alan Silvestri's score and Dean Cundey's cinematography together, you will be blown away on the experience of being in more places at once since this one showed exactly how severe an alternate reality can be changed via greed. That sets up the true lesson here to never manipulate anything to happen no matter how well you mean with it because it can blowback before you see it coming. You get two sides of the coin for people who do and don't understand the consequences which play out so fluently. Biff Tannen is of course the bad side of the coin since Thomas F Wilson shows him as a man too bitter to change his ways and rather than find redemption, he manipulated history to a liking he didn't deserve. As if forcing Lorraine to be with him wasn't bad enough, killing George definitely proved how far his villainy would go. The worst part is that he would end up passing down that greed to his grandson and when knowing his grandpa was a cowboy, proof was in the pudding when I said it just ran in the family. It did sound creative for him to go where his downfall began for him to get back up, but he only made it easier for his actions to be undone whereas it was all the more challenging for those on the right side of the coin to undo their own. Michael J Fox & Christopher Lloyd pick up where they left off and don't skip a beat when they're together. The latter still makes Doc a great mentor to Marty because he is on top of him in being careful, knowing no one else but him is gonna tell him. He was even smart enough to accept the time machine is better off destroyed to prevent people like Biff getting their hands on it. Sadly, he didn't think of it sooner and it led to another direction he wasn't prepared for. Fox still makes the young McFly a relatable protagonist because he spends more time learning from his mistakes rather than waste time moping of it. He accepts he messed up and moves forward as soon as he could. It is quite helpful for him to act as such because whenever the going would get rougher, he gets the time to adapt to the situation and figure out how to accomplish his goals, which I find hard to not look up to. Even when he lost Doc again, he immediately found the solution of getting help from '55 Doc again to set things right for the last time, which would all be worth it by the time of Part III. Last but not least, I want to say Elizabeth Shue was a great replacement for Claudia Wells as Jennifer. With the given time she had, In her predicament, her portrayal of feeling timid in 2015 is dead on relatable because I don't think everyone would keep it together seeing their future selves and it was a hilarious situation that played out. It's a good thing she didn't go to 1885 with Marty if it were possible because she likely would've not handled that era either. This sequel is definitely better in more ways than one, but there are still a few things I scratch my head about upon re-watching. For instance if Doc didn't want Jennifer to know the future, she should've not tagged along to begin with. I mean they could've retconned the opening and have him not bring her which I honestly would be okay with. And personally if he wanted to make the trip a little easier, he could've just told Marty what to do when the time comes rather than change it immediately. And if he wasn't gonna consider that, he could've given him a heads up that Griff was a Tannen. Also if Marty was gonna leave the DeLorean to help bring Jennifer back, he could've locked the door. If a dog is being walked by a drone, you bet your ass a stranger like old Biff would find it and use it. And Biff is lucky he figured out how to use it when he never even heard either Marty or Doc. Moving on, why wasn't the school rebuilt after it got destroyed in alternate 1985? If alternate Biff banned that from happening, that'd be insane. It then feels hard to believe 2015 Biff was able to hide the DeLorean at his elderly age when it doesn't have a camouflage and still reach his teenage self in time before the climax of the first movie happens as is. Continuity errors even kick in during the climax where there is at least one frame where '55 Biff's car doesn't have a rearview upon driving to the school dance. Ignore this, then you are still in for a real good time. In conclusion, Back to the Future Part II is an amazing sequel for having the right amount of creativity to raise the stakes and appropriately having us want more. If you loved the first film deeply, see this now.