Despite kick starting his film career, Michael J. Fox has only realized why there is so much love for Back to the Future
Although he almost lost out on the role of Marty McFly to Eric Stoltz, Michael J. Fox became an instant cinematic icon when he appeared on screen as the time-traveller in Back to the Future in 1985. However, it is only now that the actor has come to realize just why the movie has such a huge following and has endured over almost four decades. When it comes to the influence the franchise has had over those years, the three films have contributed to pop culture as the inspiration for animated series Rick and Morty, the real versions of self-lacing boots and hoverboards, but unfortunately not yet flying cars or Jaws 19.
The original Back to the Future tells the story of teenager Marty McFly who inadvertently finds himself transported into the 1950s in a time machine built by his neighbor, Doc Brown, where he must ensure that his parents meet and fall in love before he is wiped from history. With an overall story that ends up spanning a over a century across the three movies as McFly travels to the future, the past and everything in between, the films have now crossed the generations and are just as loved today as in the 80s.
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Fox, who has now retired from acting, revealed in an interview with AARP Magazine that he finally had an epiphany moment when he suddenly got what it is that keeps audiences coming back to the franchise after so many years. He explained:
“I came across it on TV last Christmas. And I thought I was really good in it, better than I thought I’d been. More important, I got the spirit of the movie. I understood…that we all need…to take credit for what we’ve done and the lives we’ve touched and to occasionally step back a bit and appreciate that much of life has been great and that there’s a lot more to live.”
The Back to the Future series has gone well beyond just being a series of movies, having branched out into children’s TV with Back to the Future: The Animated Series – which would be the last entry in the history of the franchise on screen, discounting a few short sketches and advertisements to have featured Fox and co-star Christopher Lloyd over the years. It has also inspired fashion brands, recent toy lines based on the original characters from the movie, and has also recently seen a branch new musical version take the stage in London’s West End, ensuring that the legacy of the series continues on well into another decade.
One of the biggest attributes of the Michael J. Fox led movie, looking back on it after all these years, is that it brought its own sense of nostalgia for those who, at the time of its release, could remember the 1950s with fondness. That has now expanded to include a similar nostalgia for the 1980s, as despite none of the films spending too much time in “current reality” 1985, it still conjures memories of being younger in the decade when the movie was released, and it is partly that nostalgia that has kept the movie alive for so many years.
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About The Author
Anthony Lund
(1119 Articles Published)
Anthony Lund is an author, songwriter and puppeteer from a small village in the U.K. with an avid love of all genres of TV and film. As well as keeping up with the lastest entertainment news and writing about it for MovieWeb, he works as a video editor, voice over artist and production designer. A child of the 80s, he is the owner of almost 2000 books, more toys than his children, three Warner Bros. Store Gremlins and a production used Howard The Duck movie script.
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