Comments on: Not as simple as dumping a can of dog food, it turns out.

Not as simple as dumping a can of dog food, it turns out.

joseph conrad is fully awesome — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 11:43:20 -0800

Back to the Future: The Opening Scene - Kevin Pike Interview - Part 1 (SLVimeo)

By: joseph conrad is fully awesome

joseph conrad is fully awesome — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 11:44:15 -0800

By: entropone

entropone — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:27:51 -0800

I love this opener. Woah, my old man friend isn't home. Better break in and check it out. But Rock out first, ask questions later.

By: rebent

rebent — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:43:16 -0800

ahhhh so awesome! Man, those shoes. I love all those clocks, too - thought about getting the Cat Eye Clock a couple of years ago but of course the ones they make these days are plastic junk.

By: savetheclocktower

savetheclocktower — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:46:37 -0800

> Woah, my old man friend isn't home. Better break in and check it out. It's amazingly daring to me that the movie never feels the need to explain why Marty and Doc are friends. Over the course of the trilogy we don't even learn how they met. It ends up not mattering at all, of course, but I can't imagine how a first-time, no-information viewer of this movie wouldn't just spend the first twenty minutes wondering why this kid is friends with a crazy scientist. On the commentary track, Zemeckis (I think) tells the story of the test screening. The audience knew almost nothing — they knew it was a comedy with the kid from Family Ties — and he could sense their confusion until the scene with young George in the diner, where young Biff comes in and reprises the scene that had played out between their old counterparts in 1985. At that point, he said he could feel the audience recognize "oh, THIS is what this movie is about." Everything else, even the sci-fi, even the 50s nostalgia, is secondary to that core "when I was your age" idea. You don't need to explain why Doc and Marty are best friends; you just need to show that they like each other. It's a credit to Zemeckis and Bob Gale (the screenwriter) that they understand this when a lesser filmmaker would try to cram in an origin story and bloat the film in the process.

By: ChurchHatesTucker

ChurchHatesTucker — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:49:38 -0800

Woah, my old man friend isn't home. Better break in and check it out. Actually, that one shot of Marty's foot letting the welcome mat unfurl is remarkably concise "show don't tell" storytelling.

By: signal

signal — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 13:11:46 -0800

It's amazingly daring to me that the movie never feels the need to explain why Marty and Doc are friends. To my 15 y/o self, the fact that said old man has a guitar amplifier that can freaking blow you across the room is more than enough explanation.

By: Rash

Rash — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 13:31:14 -0800

On the commentary track, Zemeckis (I think) ...also explains why Marty is wearing those ridiculous glasses (product placement money, natch) and what a pain it was setting up the shots so they didn't create undesired reflections.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 13:59:49 -0800

The fact that Marty and Doc are friends from the beginning with no explanation has always suggested to me that the BttF films are just one installment in a series of goofy SF adventures. If you actually read the rest of the books or watch the rest of the movies you know that they met while [INSERT AWESOME THING HERE].

By: cosmic.osmo

cosmic.osmo — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:32:20 -0800

It's amazingly daring to me that the movie never feels the need to explain why Marty and Doc are friends. The fact that Marty and Doc are friends from the beginning with no explanation... Isn't the entire film the explanation?

By: anazgnos

anazgnos — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:43:11 -0800

On the commentary track, Zemeckis (I think) ...also explains why Marty is wearing those ridiculous glasses Does he explain about Marty's ridiculous little guitar?

By: joseph conrad is fully awesome

joseph conrad is fully awesome — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 16:00:40 -0800

posted by savetheclocktower Heh.

By: Servo5678

Servo5678 — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 17:45:25 -0800

BTTF Co-writer Bob Gale has explained how Doc and Marty met and became friends. From Mental Floss:

Okay, from the horse's mouth (yes, I'm the horse — er, co-writer, co-creator): We never explained it in the movie. But the history of the characters that Bob Zemeckis and I created is this... For years, Marty was told that Doc Brown was dangerous, a crackpot, a lunatic. So, being a red-blooded American teenage boy, age 13 or 14, he decided to find out just why this guy was so dangerous. Marty snuck into Doc's lab, and was fascinated by all the cool stuff that was there. when Doc found him there, he was delighted to find that Marty thought he was cool and accepted him for what he was. Both of them were the black sheep in their respective environments. Doc gave Marty a part-time job to help with experiments, tend to the lab, tend to the dog, etc. And that's the origin of their relationship.

By: chortly

chortly — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 18:11:05 -0800

Aren't they friends because Doc carefully befriended Marty in order to ensure that the future where he anticipates, appears to die from, but survives the shooting would continue to come to be? I don't think Doc built that giant amp just for his own lols. It also puts all the "ah Marty, always blowing my stuff up, you scamp" in a different light; the guy definitely can't afford to cut Marty loose or go off on him until the shooting is safely past.

By: cosmic.osmo

cosmic.osmo — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 18:13:55 -0800

the guy definitely can't afford to cut Marty loose or go off on him until the shooting is safely past. That doesn't sound like the Doc Brown that I know.

By: chortly

chortly — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 20:31:54 -0800

Probably too much Rick and Morty inflecting my reading, I'll admit...

By: Strange Interlude

Strange Interlude — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 21:22:11 -0800

Technically speaking, Doc and Marty are just another alternate-universe version of Rick and Morty. If Cronenberg-Rick-and-Morty exists somewhere in the multiverse, then surely there must be a Zemeckis-Rick-and-Morty too. Poor saps.

By: howfar

howfar — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 03:00:22 -0800

Aren't they friends because Doc carefully befriended Marty in order to ensure that the future where he anticipates, appears to die from, but survives the shooting would continue to come to be? Possibly, but only in the timeline as it stands at the end of the film. The opening scenes take place in the unaltered timeline. Timey and, indeed, wimey.

By: symbioid

symbioid — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 10:09:26 -0800

Well, uh, thanks for that "Rick and Morty" info, Strange Interlude. I have yet another awesome cartoon to watch :D