Jul 21 2009'Back to the Futures' Finally Compared
In the years between Back to the Future and Back to the Future II, Michael J. Fox visibly aged and the actress playing his girlfriend was replaced by Elizabeth Shue. Thus, to show the closing scene from the first film as the opening of the second, it was necessary to completely reshoot it. Dig?
Anyway, as you can see above, someone has made a side-by-side comparison of the sequence so you can now needlessly critique how well Robert Zemeckis and crew recreated the scene. The audio is layered together as well, and for some reason hearing a duet of Docs saying, in unison, "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need... roads," is utterly hypnotizing:
Luckily, the rest of the film holds up to intense scrutiny, and this is the only slight flaw.
Reader Comments
1. Mike - July 21, 2009 6:58 PM
1ST...COOL
2. Frost - July 21, 2009 7:05 PM
aWESOME
3. Johnny Lava - July 21, 2009 7:09 PM
the chick from the first one is hawter
4. kirk lee - July 21, 2009 7:18 PM
holy crap. I never knew there was a re-shoot.
I would have never guessed had I not seen a comparison of the two.
so cool
5. Drbendy - July 21, 2009 7:23 PM
No wonder he got Alzheimer's
6. mud - July 21, 2009 8:25 PM
@5 perhaps you have alzheimers,, cause i believe MJF has parkinsons
7. practicecactus - July 21, 2009 10:05 PM
A testament to Christopher Lloyd as the consumate professional, his performance in both is pretty much exactly the same.
8. jaime - July 22, 2009 12:29 AM
i watched the roads part 5 times. it's kind of zombie-ish
9. what - July 22, 2009 1:04 AM
haha @ 6 too funny, and yup its parkinsons - I think that was the only thing that actually visibly aged MJF by a lot.
10. mulletbeastmaster - July 22, 2009 2:16 AM
No way about the first chick being hotter. Second is totally better looking than first.
11. The LC - July 22, 2009 2:18 AM
Wow, IWS Writer is right, can't get enough of both Doc's saying that line in unison. Bravo to whoever made the clip to get it to sync up like that, seeing as the majority of the scene doesn't sync up perfectly.
12. pilgrim - July 22, 2009 7:03 AM
1st chick much better looking, agreed, done and done.
13. Pat - July 22, 2009 8:33 AM
Cool concept, but no video at work. :(
@13 Blasphemy!!
14. Plain Ol' Dave - July 22, 2009 10:57 AM
Bout frickin time! also AWESOME!
15. Tikidoll - July 22, 2009 11:27 AM
That was SO amazing! Thanks so much for posting that. When I first saw Back to the Future 2 I was shaken by the difference. I guess they didn't watch it 800 times and learned every inflection in the time in between like I did. I always hated the way Marty says "Doc, you better back up. We don't have enough raod to get up to 88." in the second one."
16. Josh - July 22, 2009 12:36 PM
ha neat. Such a great movie (both of them). I wonder what happened to the lady who was replaced by shue..
17. Albert - July 22, 2009 12:58 PM
I'm morbidly fascinated by the idea that anyone cared about these utterly forgettable Spielberg knockoff junk food movies from the awful cinematic 1980s enough to spend the time on this. The last line in this post about this movie being virtually flawless *was* intended satirically, right?
18. McWonder - July 22, 2009 1:03 PM
@17= it was Claudia Wells - look her up in Wiki..
19. Anya - July 22, 2009 1:13 PM
Just disappointed that they used the same clip for the garbage scene. Everything else, especially the roads part, was suh-weet!
20. che-che - July 22, 2009 1:23 PM
so yeah. i think its fact the chick from the first one, is way sexier than the first one. i wanna stick my dingus in her mingus.
21. I H8 Biff - July 22, 2009 1:28 PM
I always wanted to beat Biffs ass!!! I always hated that a-hole!!
22. Species 8472 - July 22, 2009 1:48 PM
Elizabeth Shue 24/7/365 people. Is she not more cuddly and perky?
I never paid attention to people aging back then. Now I'm obsessed with it.
Did someone Crispin Glover in the door, or was that something he sued over?
23. Aerialgreen - July 22, 2009 3:46 PM
@22 - "I always wanted to beat Biffs ass!!! I always hated that a-hole!!"
I always beat it off wanting Biffs ass!!! I always wanted that a-hole!!
FIXED? j/k!
24. gorf - July 22, 2009 4:10 PM
I did this exact comparison with my girlfriend about a month ago. We didn't take it this far but it made me laugh to see it so shortly after we were discussing it.
I'm sure our numbers are many, but I am an absolute BTTF freak. I don't think I would be the person I am today if it were not for this series.
When I was younger I had recorded all three film's dialogs to cassette so I could walk around listening to them on my walkman. Obsesses.
25. drbendy - July 22, 2009 5:10 PM
No wonder he got Alzheimers
26. Egon Spengler - July 22, 2009 7:27 PM
"What the hell is going on here?"
Greatest trilogy ever!
27. Egon Spengler - July 22, 2009 7:31 PM
So Gorf, how exactly has BTTF shaped your life? Did you commit the time taboo of schtupping your mother, thus siring the horribly deformed creature that is Gorf?
Just curious
28. J Francis - July 22, 2009 10:33 PM
Haha, recording the dialog to cassette..... I did something similar, I recorded the music from the skateboarding scenes to cassette, and I listened to the music while skateboarding. I felt like I was MJF!
29. Back in the day - July 23, 2009 1:54 AM
lol that reminds me of being a kid and thinking that no better or cooler movie would ever come out. damn i am still waiting on my hoverboard!
30. Momboelitist - July 23, 2009 12:03 PM
No wonder he got Alzheimers.
31. Chris - July 23, 2009 12:51 PM
No wonder he got Alzheimers.
32. 3v1lM1nD - July 23, 2009 1:36 PM
Somebody explin to me what exactly am i looking 4 ? (i have seen the movie) but i don`t understand the catch :/
33. stickykeys - July 24, 2009 10:22 AM
I remember watching Back to the Future II at the theatre, and thinking "That's not the same actress. Why the hell did they replace her?". Apparently she was battling mental illness at the time.
34. Hybridchemistry - July 24, 2009 6:35 PM
I like this alternate ending better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwyrNmrO-NE
35. digiman - July 25, 2009 12:38 AM
that's a jennifer sandwich i could get into
36. Matthias - July 25, 2009 8:13 PM
@6: It really doesn't matter if he spills his beer or simple forgets to drink it.
37. Matthias - July 25, 2009 8:14 PM
Damn, I meant "simply".
38. WhereWe'reGoingWeNEEDCHOADS - July 28, 2009 11:51 AM
Too bad he contracted lou gerig's disease from a poisonous condom he swallowed.
39. Brian Doom - August 1, 2009 12:20 PM
I don't think the differences as really a flaw, per se... the pacing seems deliberately faster. It's also lit better, more cartoony (as is the entire second movie).
Some performance changes are definitely intentional: note MJF's longer pauses in the original. The reason for this is the significance of the pause is lost if you haven't just sat through 2 hours of being in the 1950s.
40. Big Tony - August 3, 2009 12:30 PM
@26
Amen brother!
41. kate - August 10, 2009 4:42 PM
when we get this baby up tp 88 mph your gonna see some serious shit!