Back to the Future Part III
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| Back to the Future Part III | |
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Theatrical film poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Produced by | Steven Spielberg Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall Bob Gale Neil Canton |
| Written by | Robert Zemeckis Bob Gale |
| Starring | Michael J. Fox Christopher Lloyd Mary Steenburgen Thomas F. Wilson Lea Thompson |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
| Cinematography | Dean Cundey |
| Editing by | Harry Keramidas Arthur Schmidt |
| Studio | Amblin Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 25, 1990 |
| Running time | 113 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$40,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $244,527,583 (worldwide) |
| Preceded by | Back to the Future Part II |
Back to the Future Part III is an American 1990 comedy-adventure film. It's the sequel to the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II and 1985 film Back to the Future and the third and final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy.
The film is a science fiction western adventure, using the time travel premise of the series to take Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett L. Brown (Christopher Lloyd) back to the Old West of 1885.
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[edit] Plot
On November 12, 1955, Dr. Emmett Brown faints at the sight of seeing Marty McFly back from the future leaving Marty to take him back to the Brown mansion to recover. Once Doc revives, Marty and Doc use the information in Doc’s 1885 letter to retrieve and repair the damaged DeLorean. However, as they retrieve the car, Marty spies a tombstone with Doc's name, dated five days after the letter; after learning Doc was killed by Biff Tannen's ancestor, Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, Marty decides to go back to 1885 and save Doc.
With Doc's repairing the DeLorean, Marty travels back in time to September 2, 1885. He arrives in the middle of a United States Cavalry pursuit of Indians; in his attempts to evade the pursuit, the car's fuel line is torn, and Marty must abandon the car in a cave. While walking to Hill Valley, Marty meets his Irish [2] great-great-grandfather Seamus; to disguise his identity, Marty adopts the name "Clint Eastwood". In town, Marty runs afoul of Buford and his gang, who try to hang Marty, but Doc saves him. Doc agrees to leave 1885, but discovers that with the fuel tank in the DeLorean empty and the flying circuits destroyed, there is no way to power the car. Doc devises a scheme to use a locomotive to push the DeLorean up to speed. As Doc and Marty explore the rail spur they intend to use, they spot an out-of-control horse-drawn wagon; Doc saves the passenger, who turns out to be Clara Clayton. The two fall in love, finding many common interests, especially the works of Jules Verne. Buford tries to kill Doc at a town festival over a grudge, but Marty intervenes; Buford then goads Marty into a showdown in two days’ time. Consulting the picture of Doc's tombstone, they note that Doc's name has disappeared, but the tombstone - and the date upon it - has not changed. Doc also confronts Marty to overcome people calling him names to prevent a future accident.
The night before their departure, Doc tells Clara he is from the future; a disbelieving Clara spurns Doc. Heartbroken, Doc returns to the town saloon to get drunk. Marty rides to the saloon and convinces Doc to leave with him; unfortunately, Doc drinks a single shot of whiskey to celebrate his departure and passes out. Buford arrives and tries to call Marty out, hurling insults at him; Marty realizes that his reputation is unimportant and refuses to fight Buford. Doc revives and tries to flee with Marty, but Buford's gang spots them and captures Doc, forcing Marty to fight to save Doc's life. Marty first uses a firebox door from a stove as a bullet-proof shield, and then hits Buford in the face with it. During the ensuing fistfight, Buford destroys the tombstone (which vanishes from Marty's picture), is knocked unconscious, and is then arrested. With Buford no longer a threat, Marty and Doc ride after and steal the locomotive.
Clara, meanwhile, is leaving town on the train when she overhears a salesman discussing a man he'd met in the saloon, utterly despondent about his lost love; realizing the man was Doc, and that he was still in love with her, Clara triggers the emergency brake and runs back to town. She discovers Doc's model of the time travel experiment and rides out after him. Clara intercepts and boards the speeding locomotive while Doc is climbing his way towards the DeLorean. Doc encourages Clara to climb out to him, intending to bring her with them to 1985. Just then, the locomotive's boiler explodes; Clara falls off the side of the locomotive and hangs precariously by her dress. Marty passes Doc his hoverboard from 2015; Doc saves Clara, but can't catch up to the DeLorean, which disappears through time, while the locomotive roars over the edge of the incomplete bridge and is demolished.
Marty arrives safely in 1985, but the powerless DeLorean is destroyed seconds later when a freight train strikes it head-on. Marty returns to his home discovering that everything is finally back to normal and finds Jennifer still sleeping on her front porch swing. Later, Marty avoids being goaded into a street race with Needles, thereby avoiding the potential automobile accident. Jennifer then opens the kept fax message from 2015 and finds the message regarding Marty being fired erased.
Marty takes Jennifer to the time machine wreckage, but as they survey the remains, a steam-powered locomotive equipped with a giant flux capacitor appears, manned by Doc, Clara, and their children, Jules and Verne. Doc gives Marty a gift—a photo of the two of them by the clockworks at the 1885 festival—and explains to Jennifer that hers and Marty's future is not yet written and for them to create through their actions and choices they're going to make as Marty has already demonstrated when he decided not to race Needles without being informed of his supposed prospective. After the Browns bid farewell to their friends, Doc’s train then converts into a flying train and roars off into an unknown time.
[edit] Cast and crew
[edit] Cast
- Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly (aka "Clint Eastwood") and Seamus McFly
- Christopher Lloyd as Dr Emmett "Doc" Brown
- Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton
- Thomas F. Wilson as Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen and Biff Tannen
- Lea Thompson as Maggie McFly and Lorraine Baines McFly
- Elisabeth Shue as Jennifer Parker
- James Tolkan as Marshal James Strickland
- Jeffrey Weissman as George McFly
- Matt Clark as Chester, the bartender
- Dub Taylor as Saloon Old-Timer #1
- Harry Carey, Jr. as Saloon Old-Timer #2
- Pat Buttram as Saloon Old-Timer #3
- Burton Gilliam as Colt Gun Salesman
- Richard Dysart as Barbed-Wire Salesman
- Michael Peter Balzary (Flea) as Needles
- ZZ Top as the band at the dance
[edit] Crew
- Robert Zemeckis: director/screenwriter
- Bob Gale: producer/screenwriter
- Neil Canton: producer
- Kathleen Kennedy: producer
- Frank Marshall: executive producer
- Steven Spielberg: executive producer
- Steve Starkey: associate producer
[edit] Production
Michael J. Fox was asked by Zemeckis, during filming for part 1, about what time period he would like to see and responded saying he wanted to visit the old west and meet cowboys, Zemeckis and Gale were intrigued by the idea, but held it off until part 3. Filming actually started during filming for part 2, but only one scene was filmed during that time. Filming was halted when Michael J. Fox's father passed away and when he gained a son. Mary Steenburgen was cast in mind, while her children persuaded her to star in the film.[citation needed]
[edit] Location
The western scenes were filmed on location in Monument Valley. Some location shooting for 1885 Hill Valley was done in Jamestown, and on a purpose-built set at the Red Hills Ranch, near Sonora, California. The train scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad, a heritage line in California.
The place where the train crashes into the DeLorean in 1985 was filmed at Port Hueneme, California 34°8′41.93″N 119°11′43.79″W / 34.1449806°N 119.1954972°W. The road used for the incident with the white Rolls Royce was Doris Avenue, with the corner of North Oxnard Boulevard, at Oxnard, California 34°12′30.25″N 119°11′58.46″W / 34.2084028°N 119.1995722°W.
[edit] Release
The movie grossed US$23 million in its first weekend of US release and $87.6 million altogether in US box office receipts – $243 million worldwide. On December 17, 2002 Universal Pictures released Back to the Future Part III in a boxed set with the first two films on DVD and VHS which did extremely well. In the DVD widescreen edition there was a framing flaw that Universal has since corrected, available in sets manufactured after February 21, 2003.
In 1990 the movie won a Saturn Award for Best Music for Alan Silvestri and a Best Supporting Actor award for Thomas F. Wilson. In 2003 it received AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award for Best Special Edition of the Year, an award based on consumer online voting. The film received a Thumbs Up from Gene Siskel and a very marginal Thumbs Down from Roger Ebert on Siskel & Ebert which ironically is the exact opposite of their opinions on Back to the Future Part II.
[edit] Video and computer games
LJN released an NES game called Back to the Future Part II & III, a sequel to their game based on the first movie. An arcade Back to the Future Part III game was also released that would eventually be ported to several home video game systems, including the Sega Mega Drive. However, the games ended up being a critical flop due to their odd level design, and few references to the films (In the video game Back to the Future there are no settings, events, items or characters from the movie other than Marty). GameTrailers placed it at number eight in their "Top Ten Worst Movie Based Games."
[edit] See also
- Back to the Future trilogy
- Back to the Future
- Back to the Future Part II
- Back to the Future Part III: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.novamov.com/video/4a54a24e127a4#
- ^ The Irish Filmography 1896-1996; Red Mountain Press (Dublin); 1996. Page 439
[edit] External links
| Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Back to the Future Part III |
- Official Universal Pictures site
- BTTF.com
- BTTF Frequently Asked Questions written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis
- Back to the Future Part III at the Internet Movie Database
- Back to the Future: Part III at Allmovie
- Back to the Future: Part III at Rotten Tomatoes
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