Back to the Future Part II
Year: | 1989 |
Studio: | Universal |
Director: | Robert Zemeckis |
Producer: | Steven Spielberg |
Writer: | Robert Zemeckis/Bob Gale |
Cast: | Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F Wilson, Elizabeth Shue, James Tolkan |
They also brought Thomas F Wilson as Biff/Griff Tannen more into focus as the villain of the story.
The story follows the dramatic structure that also served as the basis for Asthon Kutcher vehicle The Butterfly Effect, where trips across time enact more unperceived consequences that we don't realise until we return to our starting point.
In trying to help out Marty's kids in the year 2015 (in some of the coolest scenes about the future from any movie), Doc and Marty unwittingly cause chaos by leaving the possibility of riches and influence in the elderly Biff Tannen's hands.
He travels back to 1955 to give the secret to his younger self, so when Marty and Doc return to 1985 they find a Hill Valley turned into a deadly slum of vice and corruption, Biff Tannen lording over it all from his garish casino hotel on the site of the iconic Hill Valley clock tower.
Realising they have to return to 1995 and stop the elderly Griff's plan form working, they have to also avoid their other selves who are already there trying to undo the damage wrought to the space time continuum in the first film.
The movies explores the time paradox question a lot more than the original movie did, and becomes much more a sci-fi film as a result, but with the charm of the characters and self-referential humour still very much intact.