Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Generally considered the lesser film of the Back to the Future trilogy, mostly because it is darker and less in fun than the other two, Back to the Future II (originally intended to be titled Paradox) is nonetheless an intelligent and well-constructed sequel, partially inspired from Frank Capra’s alternate dark vision of a town gone bad within It’s a Wonderful Life that needs to be resolved, succeeding with high energy and clever twists and turns.  It’s also quite confusing to follow for many viewers, as alternate realities, paradoxes, and time traveling theory aren’t the sorts of things most people who loved Back to the Future spent a good deal of time exploring in their thoughts while watching it. 

This also makes it less palatable for children, especially young children, as the vulgar language and moments of dark and noisy violence push the boundaries of what a PG-rated movie is allowed to show (in fact, I think it definitely should have been PG-13).  However, for more mature audiences, and especially for those into science fiction, Back to the Future Part II fascinates with its interpretation of a possible future, as well as the interesting philosophy behind time travel, striking a more intellectual note than most films marketed as blockbuster family fare.

Part II starts with the end of Part I, although re-shot in order to incorporate the “new” Jennifer, Elisabeth Shue (Underneath, Palmetto).   Doc Brown (Lloyd, Star Trek III) has come back with an urgent plea that Marty (Fox, Bright Lights Big City) and Jennifer need to travel to the future, in the year 2015, because something terrible will happen to their family if they don’t.  There it is revealed that Marty and Jennifer have a son and daughter, Marty Jr. and Marlene (both played by Fox), and that they are in jeopardy, and if Marty Sr. doesn’t stop a certain event from happening, the future of the family will be in ruins.  Marty saves the day, but it comes at a cost, as Biff Tannen (Wilson, Action Jackson), now quite elderly, sneaks back in the time machine with an almanac of sports statistics. 

When Marty and Doc travel back to 1985, they find they are in a different reality than the one they remember, where Hill Valley lays in squalor, while the only industry in town happens to be the hotel/casino owned by now billionaire, Biff Tannen.  It seems Biff of 2015 traveled to meet the Biff of 1955 to hand off the sports almanac to be used to place bets on all the winners in sports until the end of the century.  Marty is shocked to see the world he know destroyed, his father dead, his mother married to Biff(!), and everything in disarray.  With little time left, Marty and Doc must find a way to stop these events from ever happening, and return everything to its proper place in 1985 again.

Complexity is sometimes a double-edged sword, as it will lose part of the audience, while also stimulating interest from the other part that likes to try to piece things together when watching a movie.  How much interest you glean from the complicated structure of Part II will likely depend on your personal preference, so I can’t guarantee you will like it as much as I do.  It’s true that the subject matter is darker in tone than the other releases, but the inventiveness and brilliance of the re-stitching of the science-fiction/time-travel elements more than keeps the action moving and story perplexing (in a good way), thanks to a fantastic script from Bob Gale (Interstate 60, Trespass), who keeps the in-jokes and humor in perfect step with the first film. 

Interesting is the notion that Doc’s tampering, and, along for the ride, Marty, is causing alternate timelines, though their acceptance of any one of them seems to be determined by their own personal fortunes within those timelines.  For instance, when Marty inadvertently goes back to the past in the first film, he affects some significant changes in the lives of his parents and in Biff, with the McFly’s having the upper hand.  Doc sees this alternate timeline as more appealing and considers it acceptable to maintain as the “real” 1985, perhaps partly because Doc did not go back to the past along with Marty, so that makes his older self view the laternate timeline as the authentic one.  However, when they tamper with the future in which Biff affects the 1985 of the past to the point where he is the one with all the advantages, and the McFly’s and Doc are far worse, it is something that must be corrected, partly because Doc feels a responsibility for altering the events of the future, as well as the past, through his own carelessness.

As with so many sequels of its era, Back to the Future‘s sequels are a bit of a happy accident.  Though the original film’s ending certainly portends the possibility of a sequel, as Doc come back to scoop up Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer in order to help their kids’ fates in the future, the fact that Jennifer ends up unconscious throughout most of the film, and when not, she is offered little of significance to do, suggests that Gale and Zemeckis truly didn’t have their notions of what really happens in a potential sequel in mind.  However, the first film’s rampant success virtually assured that that suggested continuation would happen, and the creative minds went to task to up the stakes on the McFly legacy, and put the entire future (and past) of Hill Valley on the line.

Although it is a more ambitious and perhaps even more intelligent film than its predecessor, the film also suffers more from contrivance and shortcuts.  The sidelining of Jennifer immediately streamlines the potential complexity of having three potential agents of change, and, unfortunately continues to perpetuate the notion that it is the male responsibility to fix things, and females are the prize for the men who get the job done right.  Part II also introduces a major personality flaw within Marty to accept conflict in a place where he is supposed to not affect anything, as he repeatedly cannot back down to being called a “chicken”, having to show he’s not a wimp by taking the fight back to the bullies who challenge him.   One wonders why Doc would allow someone with so little control over their impulses to have the kind of responsibility necessary to traverse into space-time dimensions and potentially alter the future, but he is a bit flaky for a genius, so we go with the flow.

Some may be disappointed by these things and more, but, for the most part, not this reviewer.  Back to the Future Part II, despite not being the gentle and genial charmer that the first entry had been, remains an intelligent, heady roller coaster ride that takes us back to the story we know from its predecessor and introduces many new levels of complexity to engage us.  It’s a daring, audacious sequel, and while it doesn’t always work, it does deserve respect just for trying to infuse something different into the mix and do so without losing momentum.  In the end, it is just a bridge between Part I and Part III, but it gets us to our final destination charged up and ready for the last chapter.

Qwipster’s rating: A-

MPAA Rated: PG for language, violence, and mild sexuality (I’d rate it PG-13)
Running time: 108 min.

Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson, Elisabeth Shue, James Tolkan, Jeffrey Wiessman, Charles Fleischer, Flea, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Zane, Elijah Wood (cameo), Joe Flaherty (cameo)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Screenplay: Bob Gale