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Back to the Future 2 (1989)- Justice for Jennifer!
28 Plays1 month ago
This episode is a pretzel of various lines of thinking all twisting around each other, aka fitting for a time travel movie. We love the future fashion predictions and seeing characters at different life and fashion stages. And justice for poor Jennifer, they did her so dirty in this movie. We discuss trivia from IMDB and again take it for gospel fact because we didn't look anywhere else. Jump in the car for this journey, but try not to get chloroformed.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096874/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_back%2520to%2520the%2520future
Music: Cassette Deck by Basketcase
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm Melinda. I'm Ariel. This is Hot Set, the movie podcast about costume design.
00:00:17
Speaker
All right, we're back with Back to the Future to the squeak wool.
00:00:29
Speaker
but Heart duh. Heart duh. the rid um This movie, I'm hoping that everybody knows what this movie is. If you don't, I'm going to quickly take you through the summary, but I hope you do because this is one of the movies that absolutely shaped my life. I'm sure it shaped yours with same generation. So this is like millennial Gen X. Absolutely. If we're going to break it down to marketing terms, here we go. Real quick summary. Marty McFly,
00:01:01
Speaker
The main character. Our hero. no Our hero. Marty McFly has only just gotten back from the past when he is once again picked up by Dr. Emmett Brown and sent through time to the future. 2015. Marty's job in the future is to pose as his own son to prevent him from being thrown in prison. Unfortunately, things get worse when the time machine is used by Biff. I'm going to add parentheses here. The bad guy.
00:01:28
Speaker
to create an alternate timeline of 1985. Their only chance to restore their original time is to return to 1955 to set things right. who bull That is it's like that plot sounds confusing if you read it and like I definitely stole that summary from INDB and I like was adding like years into it because it didn't spell it out for everything. Which makes it far more confusing.
00:01:57
Speaker
yeah But I was like, we need to know where we are because we are going to talk about that stuff. Yeah, it was sort of like we're here and then we're there and the we're back and then we're going back and then we're going forward and more forward. OK, listen, I used to watch Back to the Future like over and over and over again.
00:02:17
Speaker
That was just one of the movies that was in regular rotation. We didn't have a ton of sci-fi to choose from. We didn't have a ton of fantasy movies to choose from. like Yes, there were iconic movies and there was a lot of experimentation in the 80s and the 70s, et cetera, right but but there weren't a ton. Like now you can go to HBO and you get Game of Thrones, you can go to stars, you get Outlander, like you have a whole channel that's dedicated to sci-fi stuff that's like really well done and then feels like it's filmed in your backyard. You know, you have so much to choose from now that it's pretty impossible. Plus you have B movies like Up the Wazoo. But Back to the Future was so iconic. And then the sequel, I feel like as a kid I watched it a little bit less. Like it came out in 19...
00:03:07
Speaker
Nope, it didn't come out in 1990. The third one came out. Yeah, this one, we're just at the end of the 80s. This came out in 1989, so we barely made it in. Just right at the end. i just I just saw a little note here, which I'm going to put a pin in in my brain so it has nothing to do with anybody. Okay.
00:03:26
Speaker
I love this movie and like watching it now is so funny because I remember being a kid and watching it in the 90s and going like, wow, that future feels so far. Oh my God. Anything after the year 2000 was just like, are you sure that that's going to happen? I don't know. This movie, like aside from the costumes, which of course we're going to get to because that's our bread and butter. That's what we're here to talk about. like and You're probably going to be able to hear Aida in the background because she is definitely trying to run this household at this moment like vocally. Is she succeeding? i mean She's definitely having some conversations.
00:04:06
Speaker
yeah It's going to be recurring. ah Where was I even? oh yeah so like Technology. I'm with you, like I'll just say, I'll give her a chance to like say her piece. You need to get the demons out Aida. Oh my God. She's so happy Phil's home. Oh my God. It is funny when you come back from a trip and your cat is like, actually I've been having some things to say to you for the last few days. I don't want to get them all out. We will get to the costumes, but just to talk about the technology in this movie, just to get that out of the way. It made it feel like it was like in the year 3000 was how far away it was. It really did. We are almost 10 years past the date of the future in this movie. It's like it all makes sense, right? Like in the lifespan of your characters to make something be the future, whatever, and you want it to be futuristic enough that it's different from the 80s. Okay, I'm with you. That's where it becomes fantasy. But like,
00:05:11
Speaker
Knowing that this was 2015 is so crazy because it feels like, did you ever see Demolition Man? That's Stallone and Sandra Bullock. I think I have at some point, but it's kind of gone. like I don't really remember it at all. That's another one that we're going to have to talk about because the timeline is so convoluted that it makes it pretty impossible.
00:05:33
Speaker
so that is but and so crazy. So it's got Wesley Snipes and Sylvester Stallone who get frozen in I believe the 80s. Okay. And then they are like deployed into the future like ice cubes that have been defrosted at some point. And I believe. So far this is just sounding like the plot of idiocracy. But wait for it. The year is I believe 1996.
00:06:03
Speaker
Okay. So that's just like 10 years from when they're frozen? Post-apocalyptic. Okay. Okay. Sure. There was like a cataclysmic thing that happened in this like new society grew up. It's kind of like, I feel like the most unbeable unbelievable part of all of that stuff is like the rate at which they think that we'll like figure stuff back out. But 100% in this movie. Well, that's exactly the same thing. And that's why it popped into my head is because like 2015 was far away from like 1989. Sure. Yeah. It was a little, but it was not.
00:06:42
Speaker
so far away that we would have cybernetics and cyborgs that like teenagers would be able to like upgrade themselves into being cyborgs, as Griff did. you know like right And they have hovercraft that is all everyone's got flying cars everyone has like freeze-dried pizza that she that the which I wanted so bad oh it looks wanted so bad when we we were kids yeah it looks so great and it was like what like Pizza Hut or whatever it was definitely a branded yeah that's a great weekend and the self-fitting clothing, but yet like the thing that struck me was just how anything that goes into the future is so limited by what we have in the present. that like There's a point where like Marty's two kids are sitting at the table in the future,
00:07:37
Speaker
And they both have like basically like a Google Glass phone, like screens on glasses on their faces. And the phone rings, but it's a landline for the house because they couldn't imagine cell phones. And when Marty gets fired over FaceTime, when Marty gets fired,
00:07:56
Speaker
His boss says, read my facts. Facts. And he has, like, eight facts machines that are pulled into the walls. He gets, like, woofed, like, from the office, and all the facts machines go off at the same time. He gets woofed. But it's also, like, how unnecessary to have, like, Jennifer is hiding in a closet, and she gets one of the faxes, because there's a fax machine in the linen closet.
00:08:26
Speaker
Like, why? And it's like, it feels like they don't really have like personal communication devices. No, they don't. You know, certain things. And like there were cell phones in the eighties. They were just gigantic. Yeah. Like they where were car phones. People had them. They just weren't common. Yeah. And they were not common and they were ridiculous. Like you could have killed somebody. Like I remember being a little kid, like very little and my dad had a car phone because he would be like out on people's like vineyards and ranches all the time where you there's no phone for like, you know, acres and acres. And if something happens, like you need a phone. And it was literally like ah the size of like a briefcase. Yeah, they were massive. That's what it was. And that was like the early 90s. So that's just a few years after this movie is being made. Just crazy. And it's like it's like how computers used to be giant, giant rooms. And like, yes, there are computers that are still that way that have like specific purposes. But computers are now essentially our phones. They're tiny, tiny little rectangles that we carry around with us all the time. Exactly. I wrote in my notes that the thing that I felt like was the most realistic prediction of the future was that Jaws 19 was playing in the theater.
00:09:48
Speaker
because we live in the land of like endless sequels and reboots. And I was like, yeah, Jaws 19 is coming. It hasn't happened yet. And I know it's like, yeah, it's an inside joke because like, you know, Zemeckis and Spielberg, like, you know, our buddies and whatever. So like, yes, it's funny. But I was also like,
00:10:07
Speaker
No, that that will happen. It hasn't happened yet, but it was all so close. We're so close. Like the amount just reboots and like the fact that when we do get something that's unique and original in the theaters now that we're actually genuinely excited about it because there's so many remakes over and over and over again. It's just bonkers.
00:10:27
Speaker
Maybe we should talk about the fact that we decided to do the second movie and not the first movie, which maybe would have been like the more go-to thought. i mean I know why I wanted to do the second movie. Why did you want to do the second movie? I wanted to do the second movie because when I close my eyes and I think about it, I think about how there is so much variety in costume. and like When you're watching it, you are always established in the time period that you're in, but there's a lot of bodies and there's just a lot of moving parts.
00:10:56
Speaker
And so there's a lot of design happening. The original Back to the Future is someone going back from the 80s to the 1950s. And the person in the 80s, it's not aerobics wear 80s, it's suburbia 80s. So it's just like it's regular day wear clothing. Going back to the 50s with regular day wear clothing, because it's not like party city 50s, it's just people in clothes. And it's really accurately done and it's really well done, but like it's not super loud about it. And so it's a great movie and it's awesome. I recommend if you've never seen it and if you've never seen it, come on now.
00:11:32
Speaker
Like please, please. But Back to the Future 2 is like we're we're laughing and we're jashing and we're joking about like the future being pretty close and being realistically very far off with like how close have turned out. yeah um It had so much more variety and like so much more, so many more fantastical elements and we are absolutely going to get into them. Yeah, what about you? Like why did why did you choose it? That is kind of the same reason like I love Back to the Future I cut I feel like even as a kid. I kind of liked this movie more because I
00:12:14
Speaker
liked how many different places that we went in this movie and I thought the stuff in the future was like super funny even as like a kid just like how silly and like joyful they were about like what the future might be like. Right. and I love that we, well, I love and I hate the Bizarro 1985 that we returned to. and I always thought that was really like unsettling and scary. I will like get into that. Yeah, i I loved that we go more places, we see more stuff, we go back to scenes from the first movie and get to see them from a different perspective even than we had in the first movie. Which was great. I loved all of that stuff. like
00:12:58
Speaker
Even watching that as a little kid. I just loved the idea that we're like Marty's already there now we have like second Marty so we're like watching him watch himself do this stuff the delicate balance like get through all these different things happening that he already knows about so yeah, I just think it's more there's more to talk about it's more a little bit more outlandish and a little bit more fun for us to talk about here, but yeah, and I'm also Please go ahead i was gonna say i know a lot of people don't like the third movie but i also like the third movie i love the third movie i think that people really love to have a conversation about what is better when it comes to trilogies or duologies and i.
00:13:44
Speaker
I look at them as one story because they are one arc. This movie has constant foreshadowing to the third one because were they filmed at the same time? That's what I read. I think that they were made at the same time. There's just tons of foreshadowing in this one. A couple of them I'm pretty excited to talk about because they are costume related. It's a full arc. The second one ends on a cliffhanger.
00:14:12
Speaker
like right in the middle. So you are ready to go right into the third one. So when it's a whole story and the whole story feels complete, it's kind of hard for me to pull out favorite parts. It's the same conversation people have about Star Wars. I look at them in the units of three because the stories are pretty effectively told in the trilogy settings. yeah You know, i it's I get when people say like, oh, empire is my favorite. But it's like, honestly, it's just that and like said chapter three six that chapter is my favorite because it has all the same characters going through a consistent like story. It's not like they had a vacation and then they're coming back to war. Like it's the same war that they've been surviving forever and seeing how they survive it. And this one is just like this kid gets
00:14:59
Speaker
but mixed up with his friend slash mentor and is like bouncing around through time and is like Oh boy. And like time rules are having an effect that he can't, he doesn't have any control over it. He just has to do what he can work within it yeah and try to fix it. And so it's like, I just love that. One thing that I think is interesting is that, so this movie, the costumes were designed by Joanna Johnston. ah She has an incredible career. Uh, if anyone wants to look her up, I recommend it. She's done a lot of your favorite movies from
00:15:32
Speaker
the 90s and like the early 2000s. She's worked with Spielberg and Zemeckis a lot, but she did not design the first Back to the Future movie, which I thought was kind of interesting because she's having to recreate scenes from the first movie in her design for the second movie. So she's having to work within the bounds of the designer for the original Back to the Future, which was a designer named Deborah L. Scott, who also has an incredible career. And I encourage people to look up what she's done. But yeah, I thought that was so interesting because it's very cohesive. But I think she was kind of, there's ways that her hand is kind of forced to be cohesive, which I'm sure we'll get into as we talk about everything. But yeah, I thought that was interesting, especially like, looking at the stuff that Joanna has done, she's done a lot of movies where she's like come into
00:16:26
Speaker
a franchise and done a movie within it, but not the whole thing. that always I'm always curious about that because when we talk about Back to the Future, in the word iconic is like super overused in in common phrase now. but This is one of those things that is justifiably called iconic because it had a massive effect like in pop culture. It totally affected the generations that watched it. like It was a thing that was something that you could mention kind of almost anywhere in the world and somebody would know what you were talking about. so There are two things here. One, it's super interesting when somebody comes into a movie like this and has to connect it to the first one or a third to the second by using and reproducing. When the first one came out,
00:17:10
Speaker
Did they save the costumes? Because like you know everybody like builds archives, but it's like, how does that work? How do you how do you know when to build archives? I don't know about that because like we can go to you know movie museums and see costumes that are originals from when they were made. But I've learned over the past 10 years, exactly how insane the archiving system is with Hollywood film. It's super nuts. And it was something that was like really not cared about or thought about for a really long time. And like slight derail here, you should be used to it if you follow this. I'm always guilty archiving in costume.
00:17:51
Speaker
is a relatively recent concept. The warehouses where things were stored, all of that stuff. For example, Wizard of Oz, the gingham dress the Dorothy wears, there were multiple versions, like maybe three, right right? And one was found, like basically tucked away on top of like a filing cabinet. And like, I'm not saying the specific things because I might be mistaking it with another dress that was also absolutely found in pieces. And it was like a beaded gown for someone else.
00:18:21
Speaker
And it was found like in a bag, like taking a part of a filing cabinet. And it was just like crunched up in this bag for like 40 years. yeah And then it was taken out and it was like millions of dollars, right? And so it were like hundreds of thousands or, you know, 20,000, like a crazy amount. When Audrey Hepburn became a UNICEF representative, o people in Hollywood blacklisted her to a point because they were like, ugh, this pinko call me. And so they threw out
00:18:55
Speaker
massive amounts of the costumes that they had archived and they were saved by archivists or people who worked at auction houses who literally dumpster dove and pulled them out and put them in their cars. So it's really people like you and me who are the employees of these places who see where this is going, who are like, well, I'm just going to put that in my car. And then someday they give those things to a museum or keep them in a personal collection or we'll sell them. But more often than not, they're saving them because they see the value in them. Yeah, they just care about it. They just care about it. And they're like, why are you throwing this thing away when you've made a fortune off of making copies of it?
00:19:37
Speaker
right or like made a fortune off of the back of the person who wore it. That's so crazy. The 80s are like, maybe people are starting to get a little bit better about it. Maybe directors are starting to see like I should be responsible for an archive of things that are starting to become iconic items, whatever. I would be so curious to know if what they made, if they like literally reproduced the costumes that Marty and Doc and Biff and Lorraine, like everybody wears, or if they still had the wardrobe.
00:20:07
Speaker
So I have like one story about that that was in the trivia for this movie on IMDb. I'm trusting whoever wrote this piece of trivia that they are telling me the correct information. Well, you're going to be a certain amount of gullible in that point. You know what? It's fine. But it was it was exactly what you're talking about when they were like, OK, we're filming. or we're we're going back to 1955, we're going back to the enchantment under the sea dance, we need our characters, and they were like, okay, we're filming it from different angles, so we can't just use footage from the first movie. We have to re-film these scenes because we're seeing it from different angles, we're seeing different moments. Our designer Joanna is tasked with reproducing this scene. It sounded like they had saved some of the stuff from the first movie,
00:20:55
Speaker
but it said on IMDb that they could not find Lorraine's party dance dress anywhere. And that there it says, ah according to whoever wrote this on IMDb, that there were three copies made of it for the original movie and none of them could be found anywhere, which I believe that that's something that maybe people don't always think about, that they're not just making one of an important no costume item. If you're making it, you're making more than one.
00:21:23
Speaker
And just to sneak in for that, if you want to find out more about that process, a really good video to watch is one of the videos off of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They had like extras that they attached to each DVD. And there's like a whole little costume section, which you can just YouTube like Lord of the Rings costumes. And there's like a 12 minute video with a designer where she shows you all of the costumes that they generated for like maybe fellowship. and two hours I can't remember. So it's like 19000 costumes or something.
00:21:52
Speaker
And she she talks about how they had to make multiples, not just for one actor. Because when you think about it like a Hobbit, those actors are not actually that small. They had smaller actors, then they had themselves, then they had stunt doubles. So that's three people playing one character and each person needed multiples.
00:22:11
Speaker
for the regular wear, for when they get wet, for when they are like three weeks into, you know, walking to Mordor, when they're further along to walk into Mordor. So everything has to be at a different level of being distressed. Absolutely. I recommend. So please continue. So yes, they are like, okay, we need the reins, like pale pink.
00:22:29
Speaker
Dance dress. No one has it. They can't find it They're trying to figure out what to do and then apparently Leah Thompson is like, oh I took one of them at the end of filming i was waiting for that and so apparently she brought hers from home and That's what appears in this movie. So it is one of them from the original movie but only because the actor wanted a Save one of the three for herself like if you watch talk shows and stuff and you see interviews with actors sometimes they'll talk about like stealing things from the set at the end of filming and it's like I have complicated feelings about that kind of practice because of like my desire to save and archive things but in this case I
00:23:16
Speaker
that seems like it was the right thing to do. Well, it also is like when you when you understand that like um ah networks and stuff don't have the understanding of how to archive their collections or anything, it usually is the actor saving it. That's why we have archives. I think in Sex and the City, some of those actresses saved the stuff that they have. And so they have these massive archives of things.
00:23:41
Speaker
like actors will sometimes save a thing that the production company is like just thrown away or scared. Because like if something is super iconic for a movie that the network or like you know production company doesn't assume is going to be, again, I'm going to be abusing this word. I'm so sorry, Advanced, but iconic. like They don't think that it's going to be this thing that is like a staple. I'm going to use 13, is it 13 going on 30?
00:24:09
Speaker
ah Jennifer Garner. Yeah, yeah gone yeah. So that one was just kind of like a regular rom com. Yeah, it was just like a regular movie. But to some people, the dress that Jennifer Garner wears in that thriller dance sequence is like a major moment.
00:24:26
Speaker
in like movie history. yeah And I'm sure that that's when the production company was like, this is just one of those snaps snap snap rom coms that we're just churning out to write fill the schedule. And so they don't really have a plan to save those things. But someone was like, no, we're going to save this because this is and like, I don't know that this is how it happened. But there are some times where the actor goes, no, this was a major thing that had to do with a major role of mine. So I'm going to keep it for my personal archive. Right. Or you can just, I loved it and I like the way I looked in it exactly and I want to keep it. they're not going to wear it. And like, it's not something that can necessarily go to a rental house because it's so recognizable. So it's like, it can't necessarily be reworn. Although that is definitely how most costumes function is that they go back to where they were rented from and then they just keep being cycled and altered and changed, which is the environmentally conscious way of doing something.
00:25:22
Speaker
You can find like I found like blogs of people who just obsessively notate. I'm so thankful for the people that do that because I don't have it in me to like track when this like miniseries reuses that dress from that and like I don't have it in me to do that work, but I'm so thankful that there are people out there that do. Absolutely. And like, there are absolutely blogs that do that. And it's super cool to see something that is the same thing. And it just looks different because the the accessories have changed or the person who's wearing it has a different body type. And so it's been altered a little bit, taken in, let out, whatever. Sleeves taken off, made bigger, whatever.
00:26:03
Speaker
styled a little differently. It's super, super cool. But this whole idea of like where costumes go and how they survive is is a pretty interesting one. Costume um lifespans are are a wild ride. They're being resolved today. And um a long time ago, 30 hours ago, I said that there were two things that I wanted to talk about. The second one, it's so funny. This is the note that I noticed is that Joanna Johnston, the costume designer,
00:26:31
Speaker
some of her other design credits, Indiana Jones, Last Crusade and The Dial of Destiny. Right. But Last Crusade is exactly the one that I was going for because of a scene at the end of this movie when Marty McFly is crawling on the light rack to get from one side of the stage above his like past self to get to the three goons and like drop sandbags on him so that they can't beat his past self up so that he can get to the clock tower. And so the first movie can basically be be completed. The way he's crawling over that rack and the way that that rack looks is exactly the same as Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade played by River Phoenix when he's trying to like sneak out of this like cave system. He's on this very similar swaying
00:27:15
Speaker
rack ladder bridge situation. and I was just like, oh that's so crazy, that feels like this. Yeah, exactly. like They worked on that movie together, the designer and the director. Yeah, incredible. Now that we've talked about all of these things, yeah let's get like into the the grit of this movie. okay I have a a blurb that I wrote here that is all stream of conscious thought. okay Now, just imagine,
00:27:42
Speaker
You've met up with your boyfriend to go out on a ride in his Toyota pickup for the purpose of parking slash making out. But he's being a little weird. Then an old man shows up and takes you both in a panic to the future. You get excited. He's in like a ah shiny. Oh.
00:28:00
Speaker
like yellow overcoat and wrap around glasses. glasses that You can't see his eyes. He's got crazy hair, crazy energy. He's in a car that flies by the way. He threw a tie. All sorts of stuff going on. I'm obsessed with that clear tie. I need one. Amazing. But you get pretty excited about it and the implications and then you're asleep.
00:28:26
Speaker
And then when next you wake up, you're listening to your future children, looking at your future husband, watching him get fired. And then you pass out again, again. And the next time you wake up, it all kind of seems like a crazy dream, right? But that doesn't happen in this movie, right? Whose idea was it? And yes, I do agree with Marty McFly. Why did you even bring her?
00:28:54
Speaker
just gonna make her be unconscious. I think in that moment, I think that he's talking in the voice of our screenwriter because apparently, first of all, they didn't want to make any more movies. like The studio's decision to make the sequel what happened independently of whether the director or the writer wanted to work on the project. They decided to work on the project and then had to, they had already made that choice that
00:29:25
Speaker
that Jennifer gets in the car with Marty and Doc, and then when they sat down to actually have to write a story, they're like, we don't want Jennifer here. yeah What do we do? And you can tell. For me, I go, you know what? Doc comes up with an emergency and goes, I'm so sorry, Jennifer, but we've got to drop you off at your house.
00:29:44
Speaker
That's what happens. You know what I mean? Like give her something to do in the future. Literally give her something to do. Give her a job. A person with agency because she was essentially a carpet bag. Like it was crazy. And if we're not going to mention that, we're out of our minds. So it's like we have to mention it because it's so egregiously loud. They did her so dirty. This girl came along and it's like Doc Brown is like, there's a girl in the car. It doesn't even make sense because I'm like, okay, Doc Brown can know that they're traveling around in the future because he invented the time machine. Marty can know that they're traveling around through time and the time machine because he's
00:30:28
Speaker
a boy like what qualification one he doesn't have any like I love Marty he doesn't have any qualifications or like any scientific knowledge or expertise he's a teenager and his silly goofy guy that's like how is he more qualified to to like handle knowledge that time travel exists but Jennifer is not It's just literally reduced to a girl in the boys club and it's so stupid and I'm sure everybody is like well that doesn't make any sense because the first time they offload her it's in an alley and they're like leave don't they leave her under bags of and leave her under bags of garbage. And like right next to her are stacked boxes full of like records. It's like right around the corner from cafe 80s. And Marty goes, are you sure she's going to be okay here? And I'm like, okay, so you had one second as a partner to be like responsible. And then he's like, okay, well Doc said she'll be fine. So off I go. And they do it again later. It doesn't make any sense to me that they have to leave her somewhere because if she's supposed to be passed out the entire time that they're in the future, just leave her in the car. Just leave her in the car. But I guess that Doc, I mean, I guess that Doc doesn't want her to wake up and start messing around with programmable things in the car and then take the car somewhere else by accident, which is kind of what Biff does. Well, though, like, I don't know, I can only speak from my own experience. But if I woke up in like a strange car that I didn't understand and like a vague thought. I would necessarily be messing around with it. I would be getting out of the car. I would get out of the car. And also there is the potential possibility of writing a note that says, hey, please don't touch anything. We'll be back. Like, please don't freak out. Sorry, we had to, like, form you, essentially. We will explain everything in a minute. You know, like, just literally anything, but nope, just had to turn her into furniture, and it's so insane. The justification is, oh, she was too interested in knowing about her future. Like, just tell her you- This is nonsense. Just talk to her.
00:32:36
Speaker
Doug, you haven't been able to keep it clean the whole time because Marty just gets into trouble. That's like literally all he does is he just bonks around the past and the future and does all sorts of crazy stuff. Anyway, so yeah, that happens. So that's how the movie starts is like immediately get in this car, go to the future, knock her out, leave her in an alley, and Marty has to dress as his future son and take his place in an interaction with Biff's grandson, Griff. Griff. because they're really creative when it comes to generational Marty McFly Jr. and Griff. You can tell that they had a lot of buy-in on writing this. Marty has to save his son from being sent off to jail for something that Griff talks him into. Yeah, he gets talked into like a robbery or something, and so Marty is supposed to like take the place of his son and be like,
00:33:27
Speaker
Just say no. Exactly. He's supposed to be like the dare representative in this moment. So Doc puts him in this, like he has this crazy suitcase situation, carry bag that has transparent sides. That's one of my favorite things about past um visions of the future is transparency of items.
00:33:46
Speaker
That's what I think that we're interested in. Everything is going to be vinyl and it's going to be see-through. and It's like a Nike bag or something. and so like Honestly, that is what I'm interested in. so They were right. yes Retailers have not caught up to my interest. and so There's this like this hat, this jacket, and these shoes. Now, the shoes made massive waves when this movie came out. They were super influential. Did you look up anything about the shoes? I know that they actually, because they they were Nikes. Yes. You remember you remember when they came out? They released them in 2015. Okay. So it's even beyond that. So these are called Nike mags and they are auto lacing shoes. And that was the whole thing, right? It was like in the movie, they auto lace. He puts them on his feet and then they just push a button. So these were actually, there was like a petition at some point where people were like, can you actually make these? Because these are awesome. And so
00:34:44
Speaker
In 2011, there was a limited quantity. This is according to Wikipedia. I am not a professional about Nike items. A limited quantity of like 1,500 pairs were auctioned. And all the proceeds went to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease Research. That's nice. And so then there were like a few additional pairs that were sold exclusively at live auctions. A lot of money was raised through all of these auctions, which was pretty impressive. But people were like, come on. These shoes are so cool.
00:35:16
Speaker
In 2016, there was a release, but they were unveiled. So the 2011 ones did not auto-lace. They just were styled because they couldn't figure out how to do it. Well, yeah. Yeah. It it was like, come on, this is technology. Also, it was four years too early, so the technology hadn't been invented yet. Exactly. Thank you. Big brain thinking. And so in 2015, now this is me like skimming. This is pretty ridiculous. Very dense. October 21st, 2015, which is the date that Marty McFly visits the future in Back to the Future 2, Nike unveiled the self-lacing version of the Nike mag, which was set to go out on sale in 2016. the sale was delayed delayed from March 2016 to October and Michael J Fox was the first to get the shoes from Nike in October 2015. So he got to have a pair of auto lacing shoes. That was just super cool. So like they made them and they were like on the date that that the movie said that he was present, the shoes came into being, which is just like stupid cool. That's beautiful and that's like a that's like the good use and influence of internet, relentless campaigning by people on the internet. It forced innovation and it was kind of this cool thing that Nike
00:36:38
Speaker
you know, there's a swoosh on the shoe in the movie. So like they made these like dummy versions. They basically self-fulfilling prophecy where they were like, look at this cool thing. And then people were like, you said that there would be this cool thing. We want this cool thing. Let us have this cool thing. shoot Now we gotta make the cool thing. Also don't even bother trying to buy them.
00:36:55
Speaker
The price is out of this world. You just don't. But look at them because they they do look really cool. They have such a 1980s design. The fact that the autolace is just like really cool. And right now we do have a 1980s throwback time. I mean, we're kind of like doing all the decades in our our current fashion. so Everything is back.
00:37:15
Speaker
It's all back. But especially with like the um pop culture effects of Stranger Things, there is this like nostalgia that I'm totally a victim to of for the 80s and like for for commonplace 80s stuff, not just yuppie wear and not like super over the top aerobics wear. It's like the regular. Actual people. People clothes. I remember when when Stranger Things, the first season came out and I was in school at the time and I said something about, you know, it takes place in like a small town in Indiana and I i loved all the costumes and I loved all the 80s like stuff the way that they were like so slavish to the 80s but I made a comment about how intricate everyone's hair was and that I had kind of a hard time believing that in like a rural
00:38:07
Speaker
Indiana or whatever people would spend that much time on their hair and my shop manager who was a teenager in the 80s like whips her head around and was like No, yeah that was 100% accurate. rent that and She's like, we did that every day. Every day. My birth mother was 14 in 1987. My mom was 40. My grandma was 57.
00:38:38
Speaker
seven in 1987, and they all just, and this movie's 1989, so it's not far off, every single one had a crazy like regimen that was totally different from the other. So it's like my mom was more like, so my mom, who was 40, was more like Princess Di. She had like some of that like frosted, you know, eyeshadow, but her hair was not going anywhere. You know what I mean? And she was also a flight attendant. So she had like this, like- It was aquanetted to the gods. And so was my teenage birth mother who had fringe
00:39:19
Speaker
and kind of like that long mullet situation and braces and also wore like 80s makeup. And I remember, I think and think that she might've told me about this, but there was a whole thing with jeans in the 80s where like, okay, jeans were not what they are now. There was no latex or elastic in the jeans. They were hardcore denim.
00:39:41
Speaker
they would could laugh and They could last forever but they were rigid and there was a specific type of gene that was super popular and I can't remember the name of it but you had to use a tool like you had to get like pliers to pull your own zipper up you had to pull like jump into them lay down and yeah yank that stuff like every day There had to be the craziest get together regimens. like It was no joke. And so it's like grunge in the early 90s that like really released people from that. right But people were like hardcore about their presentation. It was just nuts. And like you think that like makeup regimes and all that stuff are crazy now? Yes, they are. But we've added skincare regimens. And like that did not exist the same way back then. It was like, Calgon, take me away. Oh my goodness. I have in my notes the 1980s equals layers and accessories. Oh, like accessories for the gods. You can't just put on, like if you're Marty, you can't just put on jeans and a t-shirt. You have to then add the button-up shirt. You have to add the suspenders. You have to add the vest. Like you can't just
00:41:02
Speaker
walk out of your house in like a jeans and t-shirt, that's not acceptable. like If you had to think about how your hair was. and like the only yeah i mean This is like gross exaggeration rate because I was very little in the 80s, but the people who were the people who were walking out of their house were in California and those were the surfers and that was pretty much it.
00:41:20
Speaker
That was like a her whole thing. That was a whole separate thing. Otherwise you were putting a lot of attention and focus into like how you were dressing. And cause I mean, like if you think about it, even goths, like that's a lot of work. That's a lot of work to put on all that stuff. Paint your face every day. Like you've got to, you've got to do a lot to your hair.
00:41:37
Speaker
in that time period there was a lot going on so that vibe feels like it translated to this future vision absolutely like we're we're in a land like the future is it's unmistakable from the eighties it's very different but we're still in that mindset of like we're layering pieces where.
00:41:56
Speaker
we have to have this on this on that. We can't just have a dress. We have to have a dress with like a big belt. and Then we have to have the big socks and we need the bla bla we need this. There was like a couple of things that i was like I was really focusing on the henchmen of Griff.
00:42:14
Speaker
okay ie yeah Can I just say one thing that i I have to say because I don't want to forget first of all there's there's a girl in the gang so I was like equality but her scrunchie was steel wool and she's wearing like field hockey padding. And she's got a bullet collar. My girl is hardcore is what I'm trying to say. No mistaking. She's not just a pretty face. She's here to mess you up. She also has like face paint style.
00:42:48
Speaker
icon. like yes Why was I not wearing that in 2015? 100% agree and I feel like we're warned when um Doc Brown, like he and Marty are standing outside the car talking about what Doc wants Marty to do and he's warning him about Griff and his cronies saying like they've got like a screw loose literally because like their cybernetic stuff is like There's too much going on. So they're like literally not firing all things. So they are crazy. That plays into how they're dressed, which is amazing. And like once we're in Cafe 80s, which is where we see them beating up actual Marty McFly Jr. And Marty McFly sneaks in and is like hiding behind the counter and then swaps in. like He tags in when his son gets knocked out. every like the The look back on the 80s from the 80s perspective is so crazy because it it just
00:43:42
Speaker
It's like a weird uncanny valley. like I feel like they nailed they made me what people think the 80s was like. I think when Marty's walking into Cath the 80s, a woman is walking out and she's dressed in like aerobics 80s. So it's like sparkly, spangly stuff, high pony or like a low hair. like a faux leotard that's actually like a footed like unitard but it's like color blocked to look like a leotard and leggings. Perfect. And like i I totally made a note about that where there's stuff we recognize but it absolutely feels cost to me and it's exactly the way that we pull from past eras even right now which is more often than not people are wearing the loudest things from an era
00:44:25
Speaker
not always the regular wear because people kind of interpret daily wear as super boring unless you're like into historical clothing or you're like into vintage wear or whatever. People usually just identify an era with a lot of people who did not grow up in the 80s or 90s and even some who did. When they think of the 80s, they think of Madonna like a virgin.
00:44:46
Speaker
absolutely they don't think of Diane Keaton and baby boom and Diane Keaton and baby boom is wearing business where for like a yuppie woman of the era which was like pretty regular stuff you know so yeah there's like subtle differences in like cut and like types of fabric and things that make it that period as opposed to now, but like the pieces themselves are not so far removed yeah from what we wear now that like somebody looking at it, you know, 200 years from now probably wouldn't be able to like parse out. Unless they were us and people were like researching this stuff, they would mistake it the same way somebody would mistake something from the Regency era and the late Victorian era.
00:45:28
Speaker
Exactly. It's like and so were a wild. One of the things that I really enjoy about this movie and it's something that's kind of forced by the design of the first movie is that Marty, it in this entire movie, he's wearing a red t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans,
00:45:49
Speaker
and a pair of white and red sneakers. He never changes out of those. He adds things on and like switches it up, but he never takes those pieces off. And those pieces can work in all of the decades that we see in this movie, because people had jeans in the 50s, the 80s.
00:46:10
Speaker
the 2015 they're assuming, which they were right. T-shirts, not super common in the 50s, but it's not so weird that you'd have a red T-shirt. You might not- T-shirts would have been under shirts. Under shirts. They still had them. yeah and like he puts another you like He puts a button-up shirt over the top or whatever. The the sneakers are a little tricky because people were not wearing those type of athletic sneakers in the 50s, but it's like he can keep all of those pieces throughout this movie and change up what he's wearing in addition to make him fit in better with where he is. And I thought that was such a smart
00:46:49
Speaker
way of tracking him through this movie, but keeping that base layer. I thought that's like very smart. It's super smart because like he can pull out the t-shirt and become more relaxed, more futuristic, or he can tuck it in and fit in in the fifth because it really is about waistlines and about fit. So it's like if he lifts up and if if he were to still have those suspenders in this movie, he could have just like tightened the suspenders and had his pants up.
00:47:13
Speaker
at his waist, which is where you would be wearing them in the 50s. But in the future, you don't need that to be happening. But in the 80s, people were wearing things at their waist. They weren't wearing them as loose as we wear them now. And so it was really smart, exactly like you said, a really smart base layer that's really versatile. and can be covered and disguised and camouflaged. And it also makes it easy for the viewer to follow along in his story and kind of feel that same urgency that he has where he's like, well, I've got to fit in. Oh my God, what am I going to do? I'll throw on this hat and this jacket and then I'm i maybe I'll tuck in the shirt a little bit and then and like pull out my pants pockets because that's what the kids are doing. It's just like, there's that's it's just super smart. In this futuristic version of 2015, it's interesting to see the eras collide because there is this nostalgia towards the 80s. There's also Biff, who is an old man and is dressed absolutely accurate to my grandparents' generation. And my grandparents would have been 10 years older, I think, than Lorraine, George, and Biff.
00:48:16
Speaker
who are Margie's parents and you know mortal enemy. um right But like the velour, sweater, jacket, the high-waisted pants, like golf plaid, Oh my God, that jeff's kiss oh that was super recognizable as the older folks that we grew up with. And so there is this like note, even with this like high volume future, throwing everything at you, super bright colors, all that. Cause like, even when we're in the eighties and back to the future at the beginning of the sequel and throughout the whole first one, like we said before, we're not in that super costumey part of the eighties where we're like,
00:48:59
Speaker
Jane Fonda workout videos, like it is just regular clothing. And so it's like there's texture there, there's all that stuff, but it's not. If anybody's seen the movie Valley Girl, there's even a little bit more elevation that's like yeah landing it. Like it's the shapes and the textures of things like the hand of the fabrics that we're seeing that really land it and how things are being worn, but it's not over the top. And so it's like the gap.
00:49:25
Speaker
It's the gap. Yeah. And so it's like, it's real. It's like what you imagine high school kids wearing in suburbia who aren't near an entertainment center. Like they're just wearing regular clothes that they're taking care of. And so there's this like grounded reality, even in this like crazy 2015 of this, these older people who are dressing the way that they've been dressing for probably at that point, like 15, 20 years.
00:49:51
Speaker
And then the kids are just like way out of pocket is what they're wearing and like just and that's teenagers do like teenagers want to wear something fun and innovative and like But at the same time, and out at the same time, though, this vision of the future missed athleisure,
00:50:11
Speaker
which is basically what was super loud in the end of the 90s. Like think sporty spice to the Kardashians, right? Like athleisure. It was all like You wanted to look in the late 90s and early 2000s, not everybody, but it was a popular thing to look like you had just gotten off of um soccer practice. with like Or walked out of a yoga studio. kind of Well, it went to that, right? It started it started with the the snap it started with the snap pants on the side. That is true. And like Adidas, the striped shoes, and then you went into Juicy.
00:50:45
Speaker
and like Paris Hilton looking like you came out of a yoga studio or tanning and then tanning went into like Gwyneth Paltrow or Gwyneth Paltrow, Kardashian, other stuff.
00:50:59
Speaker
Kate Hudson's athletic athleisure company. And yoga pants. And then it was just yoga pants. And so that's what's missing from this vision of the future, which is so funny. Because those clothes, it's more about what you do to your body to be able to wear those clothes. like That's what goes into that thinking. This version of the future is about, it's from a perspective that was accurate to the 80s and like a chunk of the 90s, which is,
00:51:27
Speaker
what your clothes are doing for you. regardless of what you're doing to your body. Because like we've talked about this before, like throughout history, this is where undergarments come in, right? Like penne and hoops and corsets and stays and all of these things is that they are a shape that the clothes become, but it does not change your body. And now we have this perspective of clothing where we have to change our body in order to wear clothes. And that's what the clothes will say about us. Is it like, oh, well, we're super fit.
00:51:59
Speaker
Whereas like with closing history, our clothes would talk about our wealth or our station, but our actual bodies did not have to change the same way that they are changing now. You could put on a crazy wig, all that stuff.
00:52:12
Speaker
But now it's like, no, no, no, your hair actually has to be the same. Like we have extensions. We have things that alter our natural state. But like when you're wearing yoga pants, there's not a lot between you and the world. Like you're, you know, it's like, it's that clothing is revealing your body. and so and there's no like virtue or anything to that like there's no good or bad about that that I'm going to be like talking about it's just it's a different point of view so it's interesting to see this future coming from a point of view where that has not come into play yet so right especially since the 80s is sort of what I think of as the rise of like the gym culture and like the you know like we kept talking about the Jane Fonda thing like that
00:52:57
Speaker
changed society yes in America. It just hasn't come into play yet. So it's like kind of at the end of us just like putting on whatever kind of clothes and that shapes are the way that we're perceived versus the cloth the body underneath. dictates what we wear wear clothes yeah yeah so It's just like such an interesting like intersection of like changing perspective and because in that way we're able to see this future in which we have weird cybernetic stuff and crazy helmets and all these different things and it's not
00:53:30
Speaker
really about like the Barbarella future ah situation which is like all about showing our bodies and it's about how we communicate with our bodies and all that stuff like aside from all the other horrible things in that movie it's just it's yeah I think I've run out of words but it's just like interesting seeing that change Yeah, come into play. But that was something that I enjoyed about the design of this movie is, even though we're going to this kind of outlandish future, and it's very, very deliberately like, eccentric in a lot of ways that the design like, like Joanna doing the design, she's still thinking about character journey, and she's thinking about age, and she's thinking about class and
00:54:17
Speaker
she's bringing all of that and so it creates a world that feels more holistic than just everyone wears X, Y, and Z. It's like no, like the people that are middle-aged dress the way that the middle-aged people at this time dress and like there's a different language for each kind of group even within the future. So you can see someone and know certain things about them before they start talking and I think that that's just the sign of good, thoughtful, holistic design that even in this like kind of crazy world that is like the future but probably not one that we're supposed to take super seriously in terms of like a prediction that we still feel like we have
00:55:06
Speaker
a whole society and that it feels like hill valley. Yeah. Just at a different time. Like, and it feels like things are affected by things happening in that world that we don't know about. Right. When we see, um,
00:55:22
Speaker
through Jennifer's eyes, basically, when we see older Marty come home from work, he's wearing a suit. And the suit is exactly the same as suits that we've seen in the past since the 80s now. And yeah, you know, I mean, now being it's like a fairly slim cut suit, which is kind of great because they weren't really doing that in the 80s. So it's sort of like, it's very subtle, but it's like, you know, it's not exactly. It's lucky on him, but it's not like a suit suit, which is like a much, much larger. And so it's like on somebody else, it would definitely read more as like a slim cut. Cause it's like on him, we can see that, but it is like a larger thing. Cause they want him to look kind of dowdy and like gold.
00:56:09
Speaker
Yeah, but then they give him cuz there's the ties and it's really nice. Oh double ties. I want That time there's like there's like an old guy that Marty like approaches on the street before He gets to his like future self like house. Mm-hmm that is that same double tie and then it turns into a vest. I mean, there's just like some stuff in here. play That is just genius. These are genius fun choices because they make it feel
00:56:44
Speaker
like a very specific future. It makes it feel like there was thinking that went into it in between the 80s and this potential 2015. And it's stuff that we don't really recognize. but And some of it just isn't that loud. And some of it kind of is because you notice it and you're like, well, that's not an ascot. That's not a jabot. That's not a regular tie. It's a double tie.
00:57:06
Speaker
And like older Jennifer, when younger Jennifer and she see each other and then each pass out going, I'm old, I'm young. Older Jennifer has this cropped peplum jacket vest situation. yeah Talking about layers, like there's like a vest, a a shirt, a vest, and then this jacket. And both the top layers are pretty cropped. And she has like accessories on. She has all these things. It's really the fabric of the jacket that makes it feel connected to the 80s but not in the 80s. So like something that maybe an older person would be attracted to because it reminds them of of stuff that they like from from their formative years. But it's really her hairstyle that is like absolutely bonkers. It's just like this like... I loved her hair. It's like this Jetsons like unmoving. Yeah, like triangle. Triangle.
00:58:00
Speaker
ah but not bomb I'm like tracing it with my hands it's around my head. It's like a cartoon. It does look like a cartoon. I'm just like zipping all over the place. So like we we do go into the 2015 period and then things happen and ah they figure out that Biff has stolen the DeLorean and has like taken the sports almanac that Marty found and was planning to take back to the 80s so that he could get rich over time. And Biff has beat him to it. And so they have to like get out of this future time, which is just, it's so crazy. Because like we're also seeing
00:58:43
Speaker
I mean, it see it's just so crazy. It's just there's so much. And so it's like, you you have to see it. And it's it's a pretty small chunk of the movie, too. It's not the bulk of the movie that we're here. But it's like, it's so big in my mind. yeah It's so much like when I think about this movie, I think about the 2015 future stuff. And it's like,
00:59:02
Speaker
probably the first like, I don't know, 25, 30 minutes of the movie. And it's also the brightest part of the movie. So it's like when you think of the 80s, you can think about any part of the 80s because there's like so much from back then. But one of the things that is like the costumey, character-y part of the 80s that we kind of like naturally think about now Is the neon right that language translated into this 2015 because there's so many bright things so it does kind of feel like the early 90s in that way where there's like patterns and all this stuff and then we go back in time and everything starts to get more subtle and subdued again.
00:59:40
Speaker
Well, sort of. Well, sort of. Like it's not over the top subtle and subdued. No, we go to a different visual language. We go to a different visual language, but it is still color wise. yeah Not as loud as 2015. That is like a lot of fun. So once we do go back in time, we're now with Marty and Doc trying to fix this like, oh no, Biff went back in time. So maybe, maybe we'll be fine if we just like. so Yeah, they got they go but go back to where they started, 1985.
01:00:11
Speaker
And they don't know, like they don't know what has happened exactly, but I think they go back to take Jennifer home is like original intention. And by taking her home, do you mean, oh, we're just going to leave her unconscious on this porch and then my night at night and then Marty make a comment, huh? I don't remember bars being on these windows and then just, and then just walk away. It's just like Marty, you can't say that twice.
01:00:39
Speaker
when you're walking away from your unconscious girlfriend. Oh my god. But they do it. I'm like, have some care for your future wife. Yes. Have some care for a human person who cannot defend themselves. and Unconscious. Unconscious. conscious so they're in this alternate 1985 and it's a nightmare it's like this just terrible terrible terrible like um kind of like Mad Max sort of vibe like something has gone very wrong yeah like this i there's like the streets are not safe people have
01:01:15
Speaker
Like Marty tries to go into what he thinks is his house and it's not his house that he's being like attacked rightfully by the family there. He climbs through the window onto the bed of a young girl who he is like sitting on top of. And so his parents or her parents just like chase him out of the house. And then he like gets to this other house and it's his principal who doesn't recognize him because the school closed down a long time ago.
01:01:41
Speaker
He just says it burned down. Yeah, it burned down like crazy stuff has happened. And also like they didn't rebuild it. That tells you a lot. That tells you a lot. And this guy is wearing like a loaded vest with like just artillery. And he is also wearing a night dress, which made me laugh. so much, like genuinely got a laugh out of me because he's got this like massive gun and like all these like pockets on his vest with like bullets and stuff. And he's just like ready to rumble. And he like immediately has like Marty in his sights, but he's wearing a night dress, like squirts. He's not wearing pants. And I'm like, is that like an Easter egg for the third movie? I don't know. Why? I hope so.
01:02:28
Speaker
I kind of hope so because, and I forgot to mention this part, we have already experienced a couple Easter eggs for the third movie. And some of them are tech wise and some of them are like video footage, whatever. But the most important one was actually Doc Brown's t-shirt that he's going to be, or not t-shirt, but like polo, yeah why like Hawaiian shirt. It's like a Hawaiian button up. It's the shirt that he's going to be wearing for basically most of this movie. Did you see what's on the shirt?
01:02:53
Speaker
Yeah, isn't it like a covered wagon? No, it's a train. It's trains with horses. And horses. Horses chasing it. And at first I thought it was weird roller skates because like the style of it is so 80s neon like bubble version of a train. Yeah, it's like very like... Very stylized. Yeah. And so that's a massive foreshadowing for the third movie.
01:03:18
Speaker
to jump forward really quick. When we go back again to the fifties, we see Doc from the fifties and Doc and from the fifties and the eighties are actually standing side by side at one point having a conversation. Doc from the eighties is wearing his shirt that has the train with the horses. Right. Doc from the fifties is wearing this shirt that has basically like electrical pulses like likeoo on them. And so like it's especially noticeable at the end of the movie when like the clock tower sequence is finished again, and he's like laying on the ground and pops up, you get like a good close-up of the shirt. And it's just like those V's that are like electrical signals. And so I love this design idea that every time Doc is wearing something, it's influenced by what he's thinking about at that time. Because that 1950s Doc
01:04:11
Speaker
everything he's thinking about is this experiment that's based on electricity. And this other doc from the 80s has made many comments about how he's fascinated by the 1800s and the Old West. And so there's a massive thing about trains and horses chasing trains in the third movie. So it's just like every time he has an obsessive like pursuit in mind, I love that that's what's influencing his wardrobe. I love it so much.
01:04:41
Speaker
So we're back in this like alternate 80s. Jennifer has been left on her porch. Absolutely insane. We've seen the principal with his night dress, his war dress. Then we go to like a biker gang. Which is like most of the population of the city it feels like because it's a massive like Trump-esque tower. I'm very confused about the the makeup of this society. I know. im like how yeah just ah it's just a biker fueled economy. I don't really know. I think so. It's just a biker economy. And so I said, like, apparently biker style, like, characterized a little bit, but apparently biker style never really changes. Yeah, I don't think it really does. and Yeah, there's definitely some biker gang type
01:05:26
Speaker
folks around here. They look like they stepped out of a movie from the 70s. Just leather on leather on leather. I think the only thing... The fringe for days. The headbands, the bandanas. I think the only thing that I could say about this... I mean, this is back in the 80s. It's an alternate 80s, so it's fine. But I was like,
01:05:48
Speaker
no colors just all black all black leather all over the place okay good to know no matter what's happening in the world it's gonna be black leather will like survive all these people just like wearing so much leather that makes me think that like everything that's happening on set if you muted those bikes would just be the squeakiest loudest, most chafey, stinky, sweaty set in the world. Just imagine like the LA heat building. Oh my god. And so we get this explanation of Biff because there's like a little museum at the base of his like giant Atlantic City casino building. Which I kind of love the like cheesy oh biography, museum, vanity. I'm into it. Oh, I love it.
01:06:36
Speaker
And like to help it the footage of 21 year old Biff making his first money at the racetrack. He's wearing a shirt that has like giant plaid and he's wearing a jacket over it that also has very loud plaid and it's in black and white so you can you know that plaid was was loud. because It's read all the colors. I also noted because like the the three goons that he has like at any time in history, they are still with him in this casino building. And yeah I made a note here that Billy Zane and the other two cronies are basically dressed like some of my great uncles in the 80s. Oh, incredible.
01:07:15
Speaker
I'm sure that there are family photos with these Italian men dressed exactly the same as me. I love that. It was crazy. And one of the guys is kind of cowboy coded. He has a cowboy hat, i' like a big one. And that was a thing in the 80s was that like country slime, like a bound lizard.
01:07:36
Speaker
uh cowboy ah just absolutely absolutely great and it's like the bolo ties i was gonna say i think he has a bolo tie which i love bolo ties i feel like a couple of them have bolo ties they're just significantly different styles because they they look like these guys are just coming out of jersey like it's just i want to know like you know yeah we like so many movies and stories like hues this sort of like gang of goons type. I want someone to write like a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern or Dead-esque play about there being a goon in like a sort of mafiosa empire. yes I think that would be pretty funny. Maybe that's what Goodfellas is. I don't know, but I want someone to write that. I like that perspective on Goodfellas is pretty great.
01:08:28
Speaker
but um We also see Lorraine, Marty's mom, which we found out that she ah married Biff. Like forcibly. a Forcibly married Biff because her husband George, Marty's dad was killed. Yeah. moidre Lorraine is wearing she I like, I just, choose I just want to say that like, watching this movie as a young kid, I feel like radicalized me against absolutely everything happening in this sequence. Like, yep, this ah whole ah sequence of like the alternate 80s is
01:09:12
Speaker
dark like really dark it is sad scary and dark like just anyone who maybe is like watching this for the first time just be aware like it's bad for Lorraine in this reality. It feels like a coke-fueled Wolf of Wall Street like side of things, where before it was very much like suburban, like small town kind of feeling. Yeah. And she has basically been forced to get a breast enlargement surgery. And so she's got this, the actress has this prosthetic that is like absolutely wild and kind of like, talk about Uncanny Valley, like you look at it and you're just like, this is nuts. And like
01:09:56
Speaker
I know. It's like I find myself just staring at it because I yeah want to know about the prosthetic. It's very effective, but it feels like a drag ah chest. It really does. Prosthetics wear like the neck, you know, like goes like a high neck and it's kind of hidden with makeup and jewelry. Yeah. And then it just like is this full chest and she's wearing this like deep, deep, deep V wrap dress that feels like a hanger on from the 70s, 80s, like disco moment because it's very sequiny, very shiny.
01:10:24
Speaker
And it's like, she's got super curly hair, all this stuff where she's just like, it is that thing of like holding on to maybe a different era in which things didn't weren't so bad for her because like she and Biff got married in that like retrospective video in the 70s and that little costume moment is also great.
01:10:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a very sad thing because every time we've seen Lorraine, she's been pretty modest. Like all of her clothing has been very modest. So that seems to be her personality is to wear very sweet things. So this feels like something that she did not choose for herself. And it like very loudly speaks to that.
01:11:01
Speaker
because it stands out so much and it's so tacky that it like fits in with this world that Biff has created and Marty is like horrified by it. Not because his mom is like being like a sexual being or anything but because he can see because Biff like is violent against her that this is not her choice and he's like absolutely I have to fix this. so He runs back into Doc and Doc like his His own house is like totally all over the place, like super crazy. And he's just like thrown on like a hat and a jacket. And the jacket that Doc has put over his um Hawaiian shirt with like the train and horses and stuff is straight bully ah Billy Butcher from Hocus Pocus, where it's probably not it's probably not like velvet or anything. It's probably just wool, but the shaping of it feels so hardcore.
01:11:58
Speaker
sir Ichabod Crane. Oh my gosh. I can't picture it. I can't picture it at all. It's really large, but it feels like it's a little bit out of time. And it's it's kind of an interesting thing that when you look at it, you're just like,
01:12:14
Speaker
Huh, this is not something that I would have paid for another Easter egg. Maybe because it feels like, hey, we're going back in time. So we're going to get you slightly a cut accustomed to wearing like yeah older silhouettes, even though the silhouette, like the actual coat, like what it's making me think of is like even a hundred years beyond like where they go. Right. Yeah. Like like about trainers, like, yeah, but a hundred hundred percent. Also this note here, because remember Jennifer,
01:12:42
Speaker
So Doc and Marty are so horrified by this alternate 80s that Biff has manifested that they're like, well, we have to go back to the 50s because that's where Biff from 2015, that's where he influenced this younger Biff was way back in the 50s. So we have to go there and stop any of this from even happening because then we can prevent your dad being murdered. We can prevent this violent, like,
01:13:09
Speaker
Right. Civilization. Thankfully, Marty's like, what about Jennifer? Like, I'm glad you thought of her. Yeah. In passing, because Doc goes, don't worry about it when we fix everything in the 50s. She'll like disappear. No, it wasn't even that. He said it will resolve itself around her and not just her, but Einstein too. So they leave Jennifer and the dog in the past so that they can go even further back.
01:13:36
Speaker
Anything could happen. And so I said, this is psychotic. And yet, you know, okay. I'm like, okay. Just like, well, I guess we're moving on from that and we're just going right back there. I will say I have a note that apparently Carl Sagan considers this one of the best time travel movies in terms of like how they present like what would happen. So I'm like, if Carl Sagan says it's okay for them to leave Jennifer on the dangerous porch alone at night. I guess I'm gonna believe you, Carl. Who am I to disagree? You know what I thought of when watching this was um when we watched Avengers Endgame, which also has like a massive, massive timeline implication. Phil and I, so Phil is my husband, we had this, we usually have our arguments and they're usually crazy arguments that are like, when I say crazy, I mean, they're, they're usually, if it's not like an actual emotional thing, that's a response to something personal. They're usually totally bonkers. We had a fight one
01:14:35
Speaker
and not a fight, but like we were arguing very dramatically Poe Dameron and his behavior in The Last Jedi. And in this one, we were trying to understand the time travel and Avengers Endgame and feel like time travel movies are just like not time travel is very difficult.
01:14:55
Speaker
anyway, because everybody has a different technique for time travel. But Phil is always like, I don't know what I should be following. So he's just like, who, where, what, why, how. And so I was like, oh, well, I feel like I can follow it. And I was like, here you go. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Like, do we need to make, like, I need Doc to get the chalkboard out and draw it for me. Thank you. And Phil asks very pertinent scientific questions. And I go, ha-da-da-da-da.
01:15:25
Speaker
question You just have to accept about 80% of what's presented to you and then just make a few connections to fill in the last 20%. Go with the story. That's it. And so it's like it's just two separate you know modes of of processing. And mine is always like, this is magical. So we're just going to accept the magic system. And that's usually how I take in time travel. And watching this again, because I watched it twice this week, um I realized that this is where my time travel acceptance in pop culture and in reading and all that stuff This is where it came from. This is ground zero. This is it because we are seeing so much bouncing around in different timelines. We are seeing what happens when you change something. We are seeing borderline paradoxes. We're also seeing two versions of people coexisting at the same time and how
01:16:21
Speaker
the knowledge that they give each other affects each other and what happens when one future version speaks to a past version and how that affects things. And we see when a future version ignores and does not interact with the past version in order not to affect the changes that they are going to make and it's just like and then while all of that's happening the first movie is happening and so it's like we're seeing these circles interact and not interact and like circle around each other and knowing that all of this is happening in time and that time is basically like the timeline is like a cooked pasta noodle like a spaghetti noodle that has just been thrown on the wall and it's just like wo look this is where I learned how to accept
01:17:06
Speaker
ah And I think that's why I like this one because you can watch the first movie and just enjoy it. And it's a lot more straightforward with like where we start one place, we go back, we fix something and we come to where we started from. And you then you watch this movie and it's like going all over the place. We're going here. We're going there. We're changing this. This is a being effective, blah, blah, blah.
01:17:32
Speaker
And then you could go back and watch the first movie again and imagine the second Marty McFly running around behind the scenes. And it's so enjoyable to think about and I think that's why this one is maybe my favorite of the three because it is so complicated, but as a kid, I understood what was happening. Like they're doing a good job of explaining it to like eight year old me watching this movie. And your protagonists are like, you're watching Jennifer try to process the time travel exists, that she is going into the future, the implications of that, what her future might look like. And she's trying to process that in about literally 60 seconds before doc
01:18:18
Speaker
puts her out, right? Like, yeah. And that's like a reasonable response is to be like excited by finding out something new, but also being like totally overwhelmed by it and being like, what does this mean? Oh my God, this is super crazy. Well, and then like we've had the opportunity through the first movie to experience that with Marty. So we've already experienced time travel is real. He's already done it. He can see what happens when he changes the future because he has to right wrongs and do all this stuff.
01:18:42
Speaker
So he's gone through his like hero's journey, the introductory part of like learning the lay of the land and like what needs to be fixed, etc. And so he's asked all the questions and we've been with him as he's asked them. In this one, he's more capable because he's already done it. And he literally did it.
01:18:58
Speaker
20 minutes before the movie started. yeah Like no joke. He's gotten home. So all of this is super fresh. He still remembers all of this because it literally happened like in the past few days. and So he's like, okay, let's <unk>s do this again. Yeah. Oh, I know I'm over there. Yeah. So I've got to stay over here. And like yeah costume wise, we are being grounded in each era that we're landing in so that we can like let that part of our brain be quiet, where we just look at the fashion that people are wearing as an interesting note instead of being confused by it because it's like so ah crazy and all over the place. Like, no, it actually kind of makes sense because like it is connected to the 80 styles that we know. It is connected, you know, to things that we know.
01:19:45
Speaker
of these characters in the world that they're in. So it doesn't take us so far out and away. And then we're going back to the fifties, which is a comfortable place for us because we've already been there. And like our protagonist has already been there. He's comfortable. So now that part of our brain can kind of like relax again.
01:20:02
Speaker
and And we're not really thinking about the clothes. They are doing that thing that costumes do sometimes, which is definitely a part of the job of costuming, which is they fade away. There's going to be like key moments where you want to make a bold thing. like When they go back to the 50s in this movie, Doc Brown is like, don't run into your other self that's here. Don't let people like really see you and get you confused with, you know quote, Calvin Klein.
01:20:32
Speaker
And he he yells as Marty's running away, don't be conspicuous. he's like just And we like jump cut to Michael J. Fox and he's wearing a like leather like James Dean jacket and like a Dick Tracy fedora and dark sunglasses. That's a moment where the costumes are the joke.
01:20:58
Speaker
you want something bold that just says this is ridiculous. Yes. But then like he has to continue wearing that and have it not be a joke the whole time. So it's like finding that balance of like, it's just funny enough to take center stage for that moment. And then we have to kind of dial it down.
01:21:19
Speaker
So that he can just do what he needs to do for the rest of the movie in those exact same clothes. But have it not be something that we're just constantly staring at. We want to just watch the story at that point. So it's like so much.
01:21:35
Speaker
Intricacy and like just dialing it up and down like the exact amount that tells the story without distracting you that it's hard to do it is and like there's so much going on with costumes where we're ping ponging like back and forth between all these different stories and so there's there's so much going on and some of it is subtle some of it is not and like there are like you said the joke that's being told with like what somebody's wearing here and the jokes change like in loudness essentially. And so it's like, it's it's so great to watch him like sneaking around dressed as this like pink panther cool cat. I'm like trying to be like real subtle, but like not subtle enough. There's also a scene where we see Lorraine wearing like a big full 50s circle skirt that has trees and giraffes you printed on it. And I was just like, I need
01:22:31
Speaker
I need that skirt in my wardrobe. And like her friend is wearing this plaid dress that I love. So you can have the the giraffe skirt and this dress that her friend is wearing is just like so great with this like little, little sweater. Like they're just so...
01:22:49
Speaker
sweet basically the way that they're dressed like super pastel-y, super girly, super like little and like naive kind of which is like exactly what they were meant to look like for the for the era. Biff is is dressed perfectly in his like his short sleeve shirt which is like very muted. It's the same colors that the friends dress are which is red, black, and gray and white. So there's like a it feels like there's almost like even a tight color palette in the 50s Yeah, it really did. Just enough of a range to make you not notice because there's like the solids, the textures, the plaids, like all these different elements. But it's a there's a there's a palette going on there. It made me kind of wonder if there was
01:23:34
Speaker
a particular reason for that. Yeah, it would be interesting to know why. Because for sure, the color palette of the 50s makes it feel older. It does, yeah. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's very clever, and it's very subtle. But it's very effective. It's just great to see him just running around in the 50s. Oh my god. And just looking at himself, playing the guitar, and going, oh, that's not a map. I can't imagine.
01:24:00
Speaker
ah being Michael J. Fox filming these movies, the amount of time that he spends in a full on sprint throughout all of these movies, imagine doing like 10 takes where you're just sprinting across the set like I can't, props props Michael J. Fox. for And one of the one of like the best things about Michael J. Fox's characterizations of a lot of his actors was that he was one of the actors who was cast for his approachability, right? Because he feels like your're your perspective of like in every man. And so he's like the voice of the audience where something crazy happens and he goes, well, this is crazy.
01:24:42
Speaker
He's supposed to look tired when he start he's not meant to be like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, who's like, I'm affected by the craziness around him. Like he does stuff and he's like, oh my God, that was nuts. And you're like, that's right, Marty, it was. It was so nuts. You look crazy that you sprinted like that. it's It's a great movie. Like, I mean, aside from the crazy resolution of the Jennifer character, for thing is. And it ends with literally like a sizzle reel of movie three, which is rare. You don't get that a lot. You don't get that a lot. It has that it has that feeling because we're ending in the 50s too. So it feels like you would assume, I don't know why I'm led to this, maybe because of like how some old like monster movies ended, but it feels like
01:25:29
Speaker
what you could imagine a movie ending in a drive-in would feel like. And so it like it has that like old retro vibe to it by having this sizzle reel. Yeah, you you do get like foresight into the Back to the Future 3 and like the rhinestone cowboy.
01:25:46
Speaker
oh rachel j hawk oh but pastel runs like I wish we had time because that is so brilliant. And I will say because these movies are filmed simultaneously that Joanna Johnston did design the third movie as well. So which makes sense like they were literally filming them at the same time. Yes, that's obvious.
01:26:06
Speaker
her choice of Marty's clothes in the Old West, like I wish we had time to get it into all of it because it's brilliant. Maybe that'll be another episode someday because it's so funny. Well, you know, technically the third movie came out in 1990, although I don't think it's what we're going to be covering next week. No, I think that if we ever have a Patreon, that might be like a Patreon drop, which would be pretty fun. And I'm seeing one note that I did miss mentioning, which is that cargo pants have apparently survived from the 80s to this crazy future 2015, because I just remembered that version of Doc running around with cargo pants and going like... Which is like true. They are practical. That's true. yeah if They got that one. Nailed it. Nailed it. Told the future very effectively.
01:26:52
Speaker
Well, I think, unfortunately, we probably should wrap this up. I mean, we have we have had a good time talking about it. Yeah, I could continue, but I don't think that is necessary. yeah I don't think I'm going to say anything else that anyone needs to hear. yeah Well, thank thank you, listener, ah for joining us on this wild ride. um If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend. and Please see the movie. Please see it. And please see it looking at all the clothes and the stories that the clothing tells.
01:27:20
Speaker
Yeah, and watch all three in a row. Yes. Thanks so much for joining us. Please join us again next week. We are going to be covering the movie, The Matrix. I don't know what else to say about it. It is the movie, I think, in a lot of ways. I think also for our generation, no argument, the movie. I'm looking forward to it. We are going to get into it on next episode. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. Bye.