88 geeky spots in the Back To The Future trilogy

Aside from being just generally one of the greatest movie trilogies ever made, the Back To The Future films are especially notable for just how densely packed they are, both at script level and then again in production. Barely a scene goes by, in any of the three films, that doesn’t contain something worth keeping an eye out for, or that rewards repeated viewings – whether it’s a nod to something recognizable from popular culture, a clever easter egg relating to the ongoing story and characters, or even just a little piece of in-joke trivia.

If you’ve watched the films more than once, chances are you’ll have noticed plenty of them – but we’re not sure anybody’s gone through and put together quite so comprehensive a list of them in one go as we’ve done here. We hope not, anyway. So if you immediately recognize the reference we’ve made in the number we’ve chosen, you might want to join us as we go chronologically through all three films and pick out as many easter eggs and other nerdy things worth spotting as we can find.

(It’s up to you if you want to stick the films on while you read through, although you’ll get extra kudos if you know them well enough to recognise exactly which scenes we’re talking about as we go along...)

1. The Doc's clocks (I)

As the first film opens and we pan across Doc Brown's incredible assortment of clocks – all perfectly synchronized to be exactly 25 minutes slow – the eagle-eyed may notice that one of the clocks features a man hanging from its hands. It's actually silent comedy star Harold Lloyd, dangling from a clock in perhaps his most famous turn in 1923's Safety Last. Aside from being a cool little nod to a past movie, it also prefigures the later scene in which the Doc hangs from the Hill Valley clock in near-identical fashion.

The flat nature of the clock makes it look like a still photograph, but it's actually a genuine model clock that was commercially available.

2. The Doc's clocks (II)

Of course, as well as giving us the opportunity to glimpse into the Doc's clearly fractured psyche, the clock sequence serves another purpose: it's an obvious homage to the 1960 classic The Time Machine, which also opened with a montage of shots of different types of clock ticking.

3. Statler Toyota

As the radio clicks on, we get our first reference to 'Statler Toyota', a car dealership that will later be seen in in Hill Valley's main square (it's the source of the truck that Marty cherishes so much). There's a Statler dealership in every iteration of Hill Valley - they're 'Honest Joe Statler's Fine Horses' in 1885, 'Statler Studebaker' in 1955 and "Statler Pontiac" in 2015 – and so this is basically our first example of the trilogy starting a running gag.

4. CRM 114

A fairly blatant nod here, although easy to miss if you don’t know what it means. The sticker on the amp Marty plugs into reads 'CRM 114'. This is the name of a device from Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove (and in the novel, Red Alert, that loosely inspired that film), and was also re-used by Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange (as 'Serum 114') and Eyes Wide Shut. It’s one of those codes that has cropped up in various places as a geeky nod ever since, from Star Trek: Deep Space 9 to Men In Black III.

5. Art in Revolution

The badge that Marty wears on his denim jacket reads 'Art in Revolution', and the black and red design suggests that it’s somehow connected to an exhibition of Soviet art and design that took place at London’s Hayward Gallery in 1971. We don’t think there’s any deliberate reference on the part of the filmmakers (they probably just had it lying around somewhere), it’s just pretty neat.

6. The Doc’s House

It’s not immediately apparent at this point in the film, but check out the number on the front of the Doc’s shack: 1646. Later in the film, we’ll discover that this building is actually the garage of the Doc’s original mansion (located at 1640), which a newspaper article in the opening scene told us had been burned down and the land sold off – to be replaced with the Burger King that we see as Marty skates off.

7. Used Cars

This may not be a deliberate reference – but hey, we’ve got nearly a hundred of these things to get through, so we’re bound to reach a bit for some of them – but we pass by a reasonably prominent sign that reads 'USED CARS' as Marty hitches a ride to school on his skateboard. That happens to be the name of a 1980 film by the Back To The Future team of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. Given that it’s part of the specially-constructed Hill Valley Square set, it’s not unreasonable to suggest it was put there on purpose.

8. Huey Lewis

Yep, that’s Huey "Power Of Love" Lewis with the megaphone, judging Marty’s band The Pinheads as being “too darn loud” to perform at the school dance (a line that Lewis himself purportedly suggested). A bit harsh, given that it’s his song they’re covering, but there you go.

9. Crew Shoutout (I)

As Marty and Jennifer cross the square after his failed audition, the license plate on a green car that they walk past reads 'FOR MARY'. Rather than being a precognitive reference to the third film’s casting of Mary Steenburgen, it’s actually apparently a nod to Mary Radford, who was the PA to the film’s second unit director Frank Marshall.

10. Save the Clock Tower

When the fundraising woman hands Marty the leaflet about the clock tower, she says that the preservation society “think it should be preserved exactly the way it is”. Unfortunately, by the act of handing Marty the leaflet, she inadvertently causes it to change: it gives Marty his method of getting back to 1985, but in the process, Doc Brown’s foot breaks off a chunk of masonry. This can be seen as still missing in the newly-altered 1985 when Marty returns at the end of the film.

11. Orgy American Style

This delightfully-titled film can be seen as currently showing at the cinema in 1985 Hill Valley. It’s a 1973 production that features among its cast one George 'Buck' Flower – who also happens to be in Back To The Future (and Part II) as 'Red', the town bum (of whom more later).

12. The Honeymooners

As the McFlys sit down to dinner, the TV is showing a 1955 episode of The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason. The episode is called T”, and its plot prefigures the moment later in the film where Marty dresses up as a spaceman in order to scare George into action – so it’s quite notable that George is the one laughing so heartily at it in 1985. It’s also, of course, the exact same episode the Baines family watch "brand new” along with Marty in 1955 (even though, if you want to be massively pedantic, it didn’t actually air until 31st December that year – over a month after the date Marty arrives on).

13. Peanut Brittle

If you're wondering, incidentally, why George is pouring himself a bowl of Peanut Brittle and eating it like cereal: it's a remnant of a deleted scene from just after Marty arrives home, in which George is coerced into buying a huge amount of the stuff from his neighbour's daughter. Presumably intended to show how spineless he is, it's also kind of redundant when you have the Biff scene immediately following, so while it's amusing it's not hard to see why it was cut.

14. Red, Yellow & Green

The date readouts on the DeLorean – instantly familiar to anyone who's had to look at any number of "TODAY IS THE DAY FROM BACK TO THE FUTURE!" hoaxes over the years – are a deliberate visual reference in and of themselves. Their colour scheme of red, yellow, and green LEDs is a nod to the same coloured lightbulbs on the machine built and operated by Rod Taylor's George in the 1960 Time Machine.

15. The Shaggy Dog

Having a scene in which a dog sits behind the wheel of a car – as Einstein becomes the world’s first time traveller in the remote-controlled DeLorean – was, according to Bob Gale, a nod to the 1959 Disney film The Shaggy Dog, which sees a sheepdog not entirely dissimilar to the Doc’s pet doing just that.

16. The Scarecrow

Another one, perhaps, to file under the 'Is it deliberate or not?' file (Zemeckis/Gale haven't said either way, to the best of our knowledge), but there has to be something in the fact that in possibly the most famous movie about someone suddenly finding themselves transported to an unfamiliar surrounding – The Wizard of Oz – the first major character Dorothy meets is the scarecrow. So it is, too – in a manner of speaking – for Marty, who immediately crashes into one upon the DeLorean's arrival in 1955.

17. Peabody and Sherman

Now this one is deliberate. Although it’s not said onscreen, the son of Old Man Peabody the farmer is named in the credits as Sherman – making their monikers a direct reference to the time-travelling cartoon duo who originally first appeared on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and graduated to their own movie earlier this year.

18. Tales from Space

The 1950s comic that features an image similar to that of Marty and the DeLorean isn’t a real comic – but a mockup by the production team designed to look as close as possible to contemporary horror and sci-fi comics. It even uses the logo of legendary publisher EC, and the title font and layout is very similar to the likes of Vault of Horror and Tales From The Crypt.

19. Back to the Fifties

As Marty walks into the 1950s Hill Valley town square for the first time, he’s unsurprisingly hit by an array of period-specific pop culture references. Cattle Queen of Montana is a genuine 1954 film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan – neatly prefiguring the reference to the future President a few scenes later – and 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett' and '16 Tons' (the former of which can also be heard when Marty goes into Lou’s Diner) were both hits in 1955. 'Mister Sandman', meanwhile, had first charted in 1954. There are, however, a few anachronisms in the window of Roy’s Records, with three records being shown that weren’t actually released until 1956 and, in two cases, 1959.

20. 1640 Riverside Drive

The Doc’s original house – which Marty doesn’t know the location of, presumably due to Riverside Drive being renamed John F Kennedy Drive by his time – is recognisable (to fans of a certain kind of architecture) as a historic landmark in Pasadena, called the Gamble House. It was designed by the architects Greene and Greene, and is a prime example of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Hey, we didn’t say all the 'nerdy spots' were going to be about movie references, you know.

21. “I don’t know if I could take that kind of a rejection...”

These words, spoken by George to Marty, are of course a reflection of Marty saying much the same thing to Jennifer earlier in the film (along with “What if they said I was no good?”) It’s the first, but not the last, example of a phrase passing from one McFly generation to another. It’s also, of course, a line that shows up in Toy Story – but we can’t really call it a nod on the part of Back To The Future given that it was nine years later. Although we are talking about a time travel movie, so...

22. Crew Shoutout (II)

Another reference to one of the crew, as a poster on the wall of the high school reads 'Ron Woodward for Senior Class President.' Ronald T. Woodward was the film’s key grip, and had also worked with Zemeckis on Romancing The Stone.

23. Science Fiction Theatre

George McFly’s favourite TV programme was indeed a real show – and did actually broadcast an episode on November 12, 1955. It was an anthology sci-fi series, and the episode George missed by going to the dance and kissing Lorraine Baines will have been The Hastings Secret, in which – according to Wikipedia – 'a scientist discovers a species of termites that consume minerals instead of wood.' He probably made the right choice.

The issue of Fantastic Story Magazine that we see next to a sleeping George in the following scene, meanwhile, is also genuine: it’s the Fall 1954 issue.

24. Darth Vader, from the planet Vulcan

And yes, of course, we’d better cover off this part of the same scene, although we’d be amazed if anyone reading this site doesn’t get the StarWars and Star Trek references. In the longer, deleted version of the scene, Marty also makes reference to George having “caused a rift in the space-time continuum,” and to “the Supreme Klingon.” And in an earlier script draft he goes ever further, saying “This is no dream! You are having a Close Encounter Of The Third Kind! You have reached the Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone!”

25. (Edward) Van Halen

It’s also worth noting the cassette tape Marty uses to disorientate George: it’s clear to see that the name 'Edward' has been hastily added to “Van Halen.” This is because the band Van Halen wouldn’t allow their name or music to be used in the film – but Eddie himself agreed, and created the guitar noise; although he would go uncredited until admitting years later that it was him.

26. The Doc's bribe

It’s a subtle reference – a longer version of the scene, ultimately cut down, would have made it more explicit – but when the street cop asks the Doc if he has “a permit” for the “weather equipment” under the tarpaulin, he starts rummaging in his wallet. Surely the Doc isn’t the kind of guy who’d bribe an upstanding member of the thin blue line? That’d be as crazy as him being the kind of guy who’d get a bunch of terrorists to steal plutonium for him. Or Marty’s dad being a creepy pervert. Funny the things you overlook in characters.

27. Guitar Heroes

Again, obviously we all know that Marvin’s on the phone to his cousin Chuck Berry, who wrote and recorded 'Johnny B. Goode' three years after “hearing” it played by Marty (that’s not Michael J. Fox singing, by the way, but a vocalist called Mark Campbell). But in case you missed any of them, Marty also pays tribute to Pete Townshend (kicking the amp), Angus Young of AC/DC (lying on his back), Jimi Hendrix (guitar behind the head) and the aforementioned Eddie Van Halen (the 'tapping' guitar technique).

28. The Atomic Kid

Just as Marty makes his journey back to 1985, Hill Valley’s other cinema (yes, it has two – the Essex still exists in 1985, but the Town Theatre has become a church by then) is showing a 1954 Mickey Rooney film called The Atomic Kid. The title, of course, feels nicely appropriate to the story – and it’s no accident. In earlier drafts of the script, which saw Marty and the Doc finding a nuclear test site in order to get the time machine working, it was going to see this movie that gives Marty the idea in the first place.

29. Red Thomas?

When Marty sees the “crazy drunk drivers” tramp back in 1985, he gleefully shouts out the name “Red!” This was an adlib by Michael J. Fox – the bum was unnamed in the script – but it’s led many fans to speculate as to whether he’s meant to be Red Thomas, who’s earlier referred to as being mayor of Hill Valley in 1955. There’s no official word either way – except for Bob Gale confirming that Fox made the name up – so make your own minds up...

30. Twin Pines

Possibly the most famous easter egg in movie history, there are still people noticing this for the first time on a rewatch: but yes, what was once the Twin Pines Mall has now, as Marty returns to 1985, become the Lone Pine Mall – a consequence of Marty destroying one of Old Man Peabody’s two pine trees on the farmland that the mall replaced. It’s our first subtle hint (if you don’t count the broken masonry on the clock tower) that Marty’s trip to the 1950s has had a lasting effect on his own present.

31. “If you put your mind to it...”

And here’s another example of one McFly picking up a phrase from the other – only this time, it’s something that Marty said to George in 1955, which the elder McFly then takes as a mantra in the 1980s.

More than that, though, this line could be seen as something that answers what people often bring up as one of the niggling questions of Back To The Future: which is, why don’t Lorraine and George, in the 'New' 1985, remember Marty? A simple answer would be: who says they don’t? Maybe they do. Maybe they’ve had a conversation about it, either between themselves or with Marty (who doesn’t remember it himself because, having travelled in time, he doesn’t seem to have the memories of the 'new' Marty’s life), and this line is a little nod to that?