Back to the Future

Back to the Future (1985) is an American science-fiction adventure comedy directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Bob Gale. Michael J. Fox stars as Marty McFly, a teenager who accidentally travels from 1985 to 1955 in a DeLorean time machine invented by Dr. Emmett Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd. Stranded in the past, Marty must ensure that his teenage parents, George and Lorraine, fall in love before he can return to his own time. The film also stars Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson and Claudia Wells. Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, it became the highest-grossing film of 1985 and launched a trilogy.

Back to the Future was filmed almost entirely in Southern California, with locations throughout Los Angeles County and additional filming in Chino and Newhall. The fictional town of Hill Valley was created by combining real suburban neighbourhoods, schools, historic houses and shopping centres with the Courthouse Square backlot at Universal Studios. Principal photography began in November 1984 and continued into April 1985. The production used the same locations to represent different periods, with particularly extensive changes to the town centre and the McFly family’s surroundings.

The centre of Hill Valley was filmed at Courthouse Square on the Universal Studios backlot in Universal City. The outdoor set consists of a central courthouse surrounded by streets and commercial façades, and had previously appeared in numerous productions, including To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Gremlins (1984). For Back to the Future, production designer Lawrence G. Paull transformed the existing buildings into a small American town as it might have appeared in 1955. The shops included Lou’s Café, a record store, a travel agency, a florist and a cinema, while the courthouse was given its distinctive clock tower.

Courthouse Square appears extensively in both the 1955 and 1985 sequences. When Marty first arrives in 1955, he walks through the square, encounters the young George McFly and visits Lou’s Café. The diner scenes were filmed inside a specially dressed backlot building, with its entrance opening directly onto the square. The same streets are used for Marty’s encounters with Biff Tannen and the scene in which Biff’s car crashes into a truck carrying manure. For the 1985 scenes, the production replaced the carefully maintained 1950s businesses with modern shops, including a pawn shop, an adult bookshop and an aerobics studio. The courthouse lawn also became a car park, with the building itself converted into the Hill Valley Department of Social Services.

The courthouse is particularly important during the film’s climax, when Doc Brown attempts to channel a lightning strike into the DeLorean as it passes beneath the clock tower. The production used the actual backlot façade for the exterior sequences, while additional sections were constructed closer to ground level for shots involving Christopher Lloyd climbing around the clock and working with the electrical cables. The courthouse and surrounding buildings were damaged by several fires over the years, most notably the major Universal Studios backlot fire in June 2008. The square was subsequently reconstructed, and its present appearance differs from the original 1985 film set.

The opening scenes at Doc Brown’s workshop were filmed beside the Burger King restaurant on North Victory Boulevard in Burbank, near the junction with Cypress Avenue. The production constructed a temporary garage façade in the restaurant’s car park to represent the modest building where Doc lives in 1985. After Marty discovers that Doc’s clocks are running 25 minutes slow, he rushes outside with his skateboard and passes through the Burger King drive-through area, grabbing onto the back of a passing pickup truck. The garage was built specifically for the film and dismantled afterwards, but the location was an actual operating Burger King. Its design was based on the garage of the historic Gamble House in Pasadena, which represents Doc’s much larger family residence in 1955.

Marty’s audition with his band, The Pinheads, was filmed inside the McCambridge Recreation Center at 1515 North Glenoaks Boulevard in Burbank. The gymnasium appears when Marty and his band perform an unusually loud version of “The Power of Love” before being rejected by the audition committee. Huey Lewis, whose band recorded the song for the soundtrack, makes a cameo appearance as the teacher who stops the performance. The recreation centre is part of McCambridge Park, a municipal facility containing sports grounds, tennis courts and recreational buildings. The gymnasium used for the audition is separate from the location used for the Enchantment Under the Sea school dance.

Hill Valley High School was filmed at Whittier High School, located at 12417 Philadelphia Street in Whittier. The main school building and its entrance appear during scenes set in both 1955 and 1985, including Marty’s arrival at school, his encounters with Principal Strickland and his efforts to bring George and Lorraine together. The school was established in 1900, while the distinctive buildings seen in the film date largely from the twentieth century. Their Art Deco-influenced appearance suited the fictional town’s history, allowing the filmmakers to use the same architecture for both time periods. Future US President Richard Nixon was among the school’s former students.

The production also used Whittier High School’s side entrance off Whittier Avenue for the scenes surrounding the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Marty parks the DeLorean near the entrance, while George later confronts Biff beside the parked cars. The same area appears when Marty prepares to leave the school and drive back towards the courthouse. Although most of the school’s interiors were filmed at Whittier High, its actual gymnasium was not used for the dance.

Marty’s family home in 1985 is located at 9303 Roslyndale Avenue in Arleta, in the northeastern San Fernando Valley. The single-storey suburban house represents the McFly residence in Lyon Estates, a modern housing development on the outskirts of Hill Valley. The building appears when Marty returns home from school, during the scenes involving his family and again after he returns from 1955 to find that his circumstances have changed. The production selected the location partly because of the large electricity pylons visible behind the property, which emphasised the relatively ordinary suburban surroundings. The house remains standing, and the surrounding street is still recognisable.

The entrance to Lyon Estates in 1985 was filmed nearby, at the intersection of Kagel Canyon Street and Sandusky Avenue in Arleta. Marty skateboards through the residential neighbourhood, passing the development’s entrance sign on his way home. The filmmakers installed temporary signage and decorative entrance features, while the existing houses and tree-lined streets supplied the suburban setting. The same neighbourhood appears in several brief driving and skateboarding scenes.

One of the film’s most famous locations is Puente Hills Mall at 1600 South Azusa Avenue in the City of Industry. Its southern car park represents Twin Pines Mall, where Doc Brown demonstrates the DeLorean time machine to Marty during the early hours of the morning. The large parking area was used for the experiment involving Doc’s dog Einstein, the arrival of the Libyan gunmen and the chase that sends Marty back to 1955. The original JCPenney department store is visible behind the illuminated Twin Pines Mall sign.

The parking lot also appears near the end of the film, when Marty returns to 1985 and watches the earlier events from an elevated position overlooking the car park. The production selected Puente Hills partly because its sloping terrain allowed Marty to observe the action from above. After his visit to 1955, the shopping centre’s fictional name changes from Twin Pines Mall to Lone Pine Mall. Although the actual shopping centre opened in 1974 and has undergone significant changes to its shops and tenants, the southern parking area remains recognisable from the film.

The farm where the DeLorean lands in 1955 was filmed at Walt Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch, located at 19802 Placerita Canyon Road near Newhall, north of Los Angeles. The property is an extensive production ranch containing rural landscapes, roads and agricultural buildings. Marty crashes the DeLorean into a wooden barn belonging to the fictional Peabody family, who mistake the vehicle and its driver for visitors from outer space. The surrounding farmhouse, dirt roads and agricultural land were also photographed at the ranch. During his escape, Marty drives over one of the farmer’s two pine trees, accounting for the later change in the name of the shopping centre. The rural buildings and filming arrangements have changed since the production, although Golden Oak Ranch remains an active filming facility.

After leaving the Peabody farm, Marty reaches the future site of Lyon Estates, where he discovers that his family’s suburban neighbourhood has not yet been constructed. This scene was filmed on agricultural land near Cucamonga Avenue in Chino, approximately 50 kilometres east of Los Angeles. The production installed temporary stone entrance pillars and a billboard advertising the proposed housing development, while the open fields represented the undeveloped land of 1955 Hill Valley. The location is near the former intersection of Cucamonga Avenue and Chino-Corona Road, where the rural surroundings provided a contrast to the completed neighbourhood filmed in Arleta.

Several of the residential scenes set in 1955 were filmed along Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Lorraine Baines’s family home is represented by the Craftsman-style house at 1727 Bushnell Avenue. The property appears when Marty first encounters his teenage parents, particularly during the scene in which George is perched in a tree outside Lorraine’s bedroom window. Marty intervenes after George falls from the tree and is struck by Lorraine’s father’s car. The street and the house’s upper-floor windows are visible in the sequence. The same property also appeared as the Howard family home in Teen Wolf (1985), another film starring Michael J. Fox.

Although 1727 Bushnell Avenue provided the exterior of Lorraine’s home, the interior scenes were filmed at 1705 Bushnell Avenue, a different house a short distance along the same street. Its entrance hall, staircase, living room and dining room were used for the scenes in which Marty wakes up in Lorraine’s bedroom and later meets her parents over dinner. The house’s period architectural details made it suitable for the 1955 setting, while the exterior shots were edited together with those of the neighbouring property. Lorraine’s bedroom itself was created as a studio set.

George McFly’s family home was filmed at 1711 Bushnell Avenue, close to the houses used for Lorraine’s residence. Marty visits the property to persuade George to ask Lorraine to the school dance. The front of the house appears during these visits, while the backyard was used for the scene in which Marty discusses his plans with George as he hangs laundry on a clothesline. The property also represents George’s home during the nighttime sequence in which Marty dresses as an alien and frightens him into taking action. The surviving exterior and front garden remain recognisable from the film.

Doc Brown’s mansion in 1955 was filmed at the Gamble House, located at 4 Westmoreland Place in Pasadena. The large Craftsman-style residence was designed by Charles and Henry Greene and completed in 1908 for David B. Gamble, a member of the family associated with Procter & Gamble. Its extensive wooden balconies, broad terraces, landscaped grounds and detached garage provide the setting when Marty arrives at Doc’s home after travelling back in time. The driveway and lawn are particularly recognisable during the nighttime scenes, as Marty approaches the property to seek Doc’s assistance.

The Gamble House’s original garage also appears in the film as Doc’s laboratory. Marty and Doc use the building while examining the DeLorean and planning how to return to 1985. The garage is connected to the main residence by a covered passage, and its exterior was reproduced for the earlier scenes beside Burger King in Burbank. The historic property has been preserved as a museum of American Arts and Crafts architecture, with its original woodwork and much of its interior furnishing intact.

The entrance and interior of Doc’s mansion were filmed at another Greene and Greene residence, the Robert R. Blacker House at 1177 Hillcrest Avenue in Pasadena. Built between 1907 and 1909, the house shares many architectural features with the Gamble House, including elaborate timber construction, stained glass and Japanese-influenced detailing. Marty knocks on its front door when he first encounters the younger Doc Brown, and the house’s rooms were used for their subsequent conversation. The filmmakers were not permitted to photograph the interior of the Gamble House, making the Blacker House an alternative that closely matched its architectural character. The Blacker House remains a private residence.

The Enchantment Under the Sea dance was filmed inside the gymnasium of Hollywood United Methodist Church at 6817 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood. The church was completed in 1930 and is known for its Gothic Revival architecture and prominent tower. Its gymnasium was transformed into the fictional Hill Valley High School dance venue with elaborate underwater-themed decorations, including fishing nets, coloured lighting and a stage. The location appears throughout the sequence in which George and Lorraine finally kiss while Marty performs with Marvin Berry and the Starlighters. The stage was also used for Marty’s guitar performance of “Johnny B. Goode”.

The filmmakers had initially used Whittier High School for most of the school scenes, but its gymnasium had been modernised and no longer suited the 1955 setting. Hollywood United Methodist Church provided a more appropriate interior. The adjoining stairwell and corridors also appear as Marty prepares to leave the dance and return to Doc’s time-travel experiment. The gymnasium later served as a filming location for other productions, including That Thing You Do! (1996).

The starting point for Marty’s return to 1985 was filmed on Vermont Canyon Road in Griffith Park, near the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. After synchronising his departure with the approaching lightning strike, Marty positions the DeLorean on the road and prepares to accelerate towards the courthouse. The sequence uses the real roadway and surrounding trees for the starting position, while the continuation of the drive and the encounter with the lightning strike were filmed on the Courthouse Square backlot at Universal Studios. The production combined the two locations to create the appearance of a single straight road leading directly into downtown Hill Valley.

The final scenes return to several of the original locations, including Courthouse Square, Puente Hills Mall and the McFly residence on Roslyndale Avenue. After witnessing Doc survive the shooting at Lone Pine Mall, Marty returns home to find his family’s circumstances transformed. The closing sequence outside the McFly house was filmed on the same Arleta street used earlier, with Doc arriving in the modified DeLorean to collect Marty and Jennifer. The car’s flying departure was completed using special effects, while the real suburban houses and electricity pylons remain visible in the background.

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