Back to the Future Day is now behind us – two days in the past, as it happens. But there is no end, it seems, to the celebration of the movies that made household names of Marty McFly, Doc Brown and Biff, three of the main characters in the series, who were played (as we know) by the charismatic Michael J. Fox, the eccentric Christopher Lloyd and the all-too-effective Thomas Wilson, who certainly reaches the bottom of the barrel for bad guys.
Of course, Oct. 21, 2015 is the celebrated day for the movie’s die-hard fans, simply because Marty McFly in Back to the Future II picks up the infamous USA Today with that date, which proclaims some very amusing tidbits, including the joking headline that the Chicago Cubs had finally won the World Series of Baseball after what would have been a 106-year drought.
It turns out, however, the drought will go to 107 years at least, as the New York Mets just swept the Cubs in four games to win the National League berth in the series this year.
The newspaper also predicts “Man killed by falling litter,” and “Swiss terrorist threat.” Sadly, it also includes a headline that says, “Washington prepares for Queen Diana’s visit,” referring to then Princess Diana Frances, who wed the Prince of Wales – Prince Charles – in 1981, but was killed in a tragic car accident in 1997.
USA Today celebrated their notoriety by producing a mock-up of the movie’s version of their newspaper, which provoked a good sales day for the paper.
Among the wackiest news items swirling around Back to the Future Day was the news that the snickering, smarmy character Biff was based on current Republican presidential wanna-be Donald Trump.
Certainly, there are similarities. There’s the overly-coiffed blond hair and the unappealing narcissism and the skyscraper/casinos they both build. But Biff, as we know, gets his hands on a sports almanac from the future that allows him to make sure-fire bets on sporting events. Trump, as far as we know, did not make his money quite the same way.
The British newspaper The Guardian, the Daily Beast and others are reporting that the similarities are not a coincidence. Back to the Future II writer Bob Gale now claims that his version of Biff was based on Trump. “Yeah,” he says, “We thought about it when we were making the movie.”
Fans and reporters alike are now going through the predictions with a fine-tooth comb and finding some of the stretchers in the film are true or almost true. It predicts the Jaws movies, three of which here made, would continue through a film called Jaws 19. Some jokes are just good jokes, after all.
The most heartwarming celebration of the week, however, comes from Nike, who had footwear designer Tinker Hatfield send Michael J. Fox an exact replica of the futuristic power-lacing shoes he wore in the film, which snugged up on their own without any need to tie the laces.
The film clip shows the beloved actor trying on the shoes that will be auctioned off in 2016 with the proceeds to go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Fox was diagnosed with the disease in 1991 and made the diagnosis public in 1999. He started the foundation in 2010.
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