Sequel City – Back to the Future Part III

Hello again!  Following up on the discussion of Back to the Future Part II (found here, by the way,) Sequel City will visit the final chapter of this trilogy.

After the convoluted mess that was Part II, the filmmakers threw us another curveball.  Part III turned out to be…rather straightforward.  In fact, Part III is essentially a carbon copy of the original.  Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is stuck in the past because of the time-traveling DeLorean, invented by his buddy Dr. Emmitt Brown (Christopher Lloyd.)  Marty’s stuck because the car is busted, and Doc Brown has to figure out how to fix it and get them back to 1985.  And they have inadvertently screwed up history and need to fix it before they leave, and have to deal with the villainous yet buffoonish Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson.)

Sure, a lot of that exists in Part II, but so does a lot of other foolishness.  This one is just wacky fun.  I saw this in an ice-cold theater on July 4^th, 1990 with my mom and my sister, and we all loved it.  Here is my presentation of the movie I think saved this trilogy from The Matrix territory, Back to the Future Part III.

There’s no way to completely avoid spoilers dealing with the end of Part II, but if you haven’t seen it and you’re keen to try, I’ll play along.  After this paragraph, the next spoiler-free section will start with “The crimson chicken chuckles a cacophony.”

Part II ends in 1955 with Marty successfully wrestling the sports almanac from the ’55 version of Biff.  Marty thinks he’s saved history once again, but darn it if Doc Brown doesn’t disappear with the DeLorean!  The car was struck with the same lightning that proved so helpful in the original film and was teleported away, leaving poor Marty to fend for himself.

Sort of.  See, our version of Dr. Brown has gone to 1885 and doesn’t want to come back.  Although he arrived there by accident, he’s happy living in the Old West, and is through with all that time-traveling nonsense.  Doc leaves instructions for Marty (through a cameo appearance by Joe Flaherty of SCTV fame) to contact his 1955 counterpart, find the car where he’s holed it up and go back to 1985 alone.  The instructions are explicit: Marty should not, under any circumstances, go back to 1885.

The crimson chicken chuckles a cacophony.

Of course Marty ignores this, although he does so with good reason.  1955 Doc and 1985 Marty find 1985’s Doc’s gravestone from 1885.  In 1955.  Clear?  If not, just know that the Doc is going to be shot and killed if Marty doesn’t rescue him, and that would probably mess up the space-time continuum, not to mention leave Marty with one less mad scientist friend on Facebook.

Soon the 1985 versions of Marty and Dr. Emmitt Brown are back together, this time in the Hill Valley of 1885.  Just like the other movies, there are McFly relatives to interact with, a version of Biff Tannen to gum up the works, a nasty problem to overcome with the car, pressing worries about fudging up the fragile threads of history, and a girl.  Only this time the girl is a nerdy schoolteacher played by Mary Steenburgen, and she’s into Dr. Brown, not Marty.  How will it all end up?

I love Roger Ebert’s movie reviews—I’ve grown up reading them, and would be honored to be mentioned in the same breath as him.  But boy did he get the call wrong on Back to the Future Parts II and III.  Ebert praised II for being paradoxical and generally all over the place, and panned III being too simple.

The general consensus, which I completely agree with, is that III was much better than II, in no small part because it was simple.  Easier to understand.  More enjoyable, more fun.  Not joy-suckingly depressing in spots.  The Old West works as well as 1955 did in Part I, and as much as 2015 and the Alternate 1985 did not work in Part II.

It was better than Part II—yet not as good as the original—because, again, Part III is basically Part I set in the Old West.  And in a clever move you’ll actually find in both sequels, the filmmakers skirt criticism about viewers having seen it all before by making damn sure they’ve seen it all before.  You are supposed to notice that scenes repeat themselves in different time periods, such as the “Biff soda fountain” scene, the “weird waking up and Lea Thompson is there confusion” scene, the “outrageous Dr. Brown invention that has a million moving parts and takes up a ton of space for amusingly little payoff” scene, and so on.

More than any other sequel or series that I know of, the Back to the Future trilogy delights in doing the same thing again and again.  This has to be the most self-referential sequel made until Kevin Smith’s ode to his Askewiverse in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.  And the result?  Good, I think.  It does get repetitive at times—to be specific, the repetition gets repetitive—and it’s debatable if anything in the sequels ever really tops what’s in the original.  But still, it’s at least very cleverly done, and it all fits together nicely.

And to be fair, there are a few new elements in Part III, most notably with Doc Brown’s character—he’s smitten with Clara the schoolteacher, which is very cute, and overall he seems to enjoy the simplicity of Old Western living.  More than either of the first two movies, Part III is really about him, and it’s a nice change.  We get an a homage or two to famous Westerns in the bargain, and the whole issue of Marty’s ruinous inability to walk away from a challenge is addressed in the trilogy’s final scenes.

Oh, and the theme song is sung by ZZ Top this time, not Huey Lewis and the News.  Not to ruin the entire movie for you, but The Top make a cameo as the band at the dance, and they do their patented wacky guitar-spinnin’ thing.  In 1885.  If you hadn’t seen this trilogy and weren’t already sold on renting it, that ought to do it for you.

Here are some Entertaining Scenes to whet your whistle.

Entertaining Scenes:

• 1985 Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) calls upon 1955 Dr. Emmitt Brown (Christopher Lloyd) after ’55 Doc thought Marty was back to the future.  Now he’s back…from the future!  Direct quote.

• The DeLorean vs. a drive-in theater screen at the magic speed, 88 mph.

• The patented MJF/Lea Thompson “wait, which year is it?” bedroom scene.

• Hill Valley, 1885.  McFly?!

• Another cool Dr. Brown machine that makes…you’ll see.

• While searching for alternatives for the disabled DeLorean, Marty and Doc Brown rescue a schoolteacher named Clara (Mary Steenburgen) from falling into a ravine.  On paper, a nice act.

• Fun scenes at the festival/dance thingy dedicating the clock tower, which is prominent throughout the trilogy.  1885 Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) is there, as is Clara and ZZ Top.

• Marty and Doc switch catch phrases (“It’s heavy” and “Great Scott!”) because of photographic evidence that Marty is in mortal danger…for about the tenth time in three movies.

• Now that they are lovebirds, Dr. Brown tries to tell Clara the absolute truth about his time-traveling ways.  She slaps him, as women in movies are wont to do, so he gets wasted and funny.

• Marty vs. Biff for the final time.

• Marty and Doc in the DeLorean climax.  A little boring, I thought—maybe the only thing in this movie that comes in ranked third out of the three movies.

• The end.  Good, I thought.  A worthy end to a trilogy that appeared to be on the ropes for a while.

So that’s about all I’ve got for this one.  Check out the Back to the Future trilogy sometime if you haven’t in a while.  Or you were born after 1985 or so and missed it entirely.

Sequel City will return next time with a review of a follow-up inspired by a play.  Which play, you ask?  I’m not sure yet.  I may be painting myself into a corner here, but I’ve set those “play/sequel” parameters and I’m sticking to them.  I’ll find something.  Anyways, until then, thanks for reading and please leave me comments!  Got a request for future articles?  Have a special topic you’d like me to cover?  Do you want a picture of me and my beard?  Let me know!