Back to the Future Part II

[School of Movies 2025]

A sequel where the plot is hugely influenced by one of the original cast members playing hardball for a higher fee and getting left off the project should not be this great, and yet here we are. Likewise, the whole first act being set in the (then) faraway future of 2015 was almost entirely only there to fulfil promises from the end of the first film (even if Marty and Jennifer being in the timeline twice actually doesn't even make sense). How is it still wonderful?

A second film that utilises time travel to go back to the first from a new angle in such a singular and unique fashion that any subsequent occurrence is shorthand "doing a Back to the Future II", this also presents us with a nightmare dark alternate timeline where a gaudy, dangerous moron becomes so powerful that he pretty much ruins America. Thankfully none of us have to live in THAT reality.

Most of all though, of the three films this is the most lively, taking the form of a time-hopping adventure and allowing the two amazing leads to play off each other and the wildly up-for-it support cast, aging and de-aging across sixty changing years of Hill Valley.

Guest: Jesse Ferguson @TheDapperDM from the Recorded Tomorrow Podcast

Those early Digital Gonzo shows can be found on the School of Movies Archive podcast feed. They are rough as hell, amateur hour on my part and each barely breaks the sixty minute mark. The best bits of all of them are featured at the end of each of these three new shows. Many thanks to my vintage guests, James Batchelor and Nikki Taylor.