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Time travel is always a difficult sell in motion pictures. Since the science of time travel is still largely
fictional, each movie dealing with the subject has to create its own rules. Sometimes the rules work,
and other times they don’t. As a result, there are very few solid time travel pictures. Most use time
travel as a convenient contrivance to solve plot problems. There is one time travel adventure
however that can be considered a perfectly crafted story. I am speaking of course of director
Robert Zemeckis’ “Back to the Future.”

Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, is a high school kid in a small town called Hill Valley. His
father, George, is a scrawny wimp who is still allowing an old bully, Biff, to run his life. Marty’s
mother, Lorraine, is a depressed alcoholic. Marty wants to be a rock star, and get out of town. He
spends most of his free time with Doc Brown, a kooky local scientist played by Christopher Lloyd,
who calls him out to the local mall one night.

Doc has invented a time machine out of a DeLorean sports car and is testing it that evening.
Before he can use it, Libyan terrorists shoot him for stealing their plutonium, which he needed to
operate the time vehicle. Marty escapes in the DeLorean, but accidentally activates the machine
and is thrown back to the year 1955, without any plutonium for a return trip. Soon after, he
accidentally prevents the fateful meeting of his parents and finds his very existence now hangs in
the balance. The only person who can help him is a much younger Doc, who doesn’t know him or
anything about a time machine. Now, Marty must bring his parents together and fix the past to save
his future and find a way to repair the time machine and get home.

I’m not going to beat around the bush here. This script is brilliant, through and through. The
exposition is so finely woven into the plot that the movie never misses a beat. Every single moment
pushes the story forward in an important way. Fox and Lloyd are an unmatched comedic duo that
sell the wild science fiction of the film and simultaneously provide endless laughs. Every facet of
this story was clearly meticulously worked out. There are absolutely no logic holes in this
adventure, which is an impressive feat for a time travel flick.

What keeps the film interesting are the other problems that continue to flash into Marty’s way. For
example, his future mother falls in love with him instead of his future father. Now what? The only
thing that can get the time machine back to the future is a bolt of lightning. How will Marty and the
Doc work that miracle? Zemeckis and his writing team never let up on the audience. There is no
time to breath within the last twenty minutes as the tension just keeps building, and culminates in a
satisfying action-packed climax.

The other nice side note about this film is the complete absence of firearms. Most adventures rely
on a gun somewhere in the story to keep things interesting. “Back to the Future” is an adventure
that, only after it’s over, do you realize that it didn’t pander to any action adventure clichés.

With inspired performances by Fox, Lloyd and the supporting cast, including a turn by Crispin
Glover as Marty’s hilarious future father, Zemeckis’ time machine romp remains the one to beat.