LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23 (UPI) — Back to the Future: The Complete Screenplay, available now in Collector’s and signed Limited Editions, is more than just the script to the 1985 film. For every script page, co-writer and producer Bob Gale shares photos and stories from production.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Gale, 75, said he was frustrated that many published screenplays are “basically transcripts of the movie.” Gale also discusses earlier drafts he and director Robert Zemeckis revised.
“It’s my personal copy of the script where you can see my own notes, my handwritten notes,” Gale said. “You get a really good sense of how scripts come together. They keep changing while you’re making the movie.”
Alternate 1985s
The first page of the book comes from an early draft in which Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Fox) copy videotapes. Gale felt one page of that draft provided enough sense of the road not taken.
Bob Gale, seen with Charles Fleischer and Darlene Vogel at the Hollywood Museum’s 2019 “Back to the Future” exhibit opening, co-wrote “Back to the Future.” File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
“Hey, this is actually literally where we did start with the first page one of draft one,” Gale said. “We thought it was a great idea because it was a brand new crime in 1981.”
Early stories were called Professor Brown Visits the Future. When writing in 1981, Gale and Zemeckis had Doc turn the present, then 1982, futuristic.
Bob Gale sits in a DeLorean in a photo from “Back to the Future: The Complete Screenplay,” available now. Photo courtesy of Insight Editions
“We were always going to have flying cars,” Gale said. “Because Doc was able to understand more about technology in the ’50s, he became this big tech magnate. People didn’t like that. They didn’t want the future to be changed because it was the present.”
Doc’s time traveling De Lorean flies at the end of the film, and in the sequel. Gale was excited by Elon Musk’s recent Roadster 2 demonstration.
“Back to the Future: The Complete Screenplay” is available in a Limited Edition, pictured, and Collector’s Edition now. Photo courtesy of Insight Editions
“That’s pretty cool what he showed us,” Gale said. “It was exciting.”
Gale notes which scenes were filmed with Eric Stoltz before Michael J. Fox replaced him. Recasting allowed them to change Marty’s wardrobe to the orange vest.
“Back to the Future: The Complete Screenplay,” available now, includes photos and Bob Gale’s account of production. Photo courtesy of Insight Edition
Footage of Stoltz was included on 2010 editions of Back to the Future. Gale said everything Stoltz filmed still exists for historical purposes, but he will not release it while Stoltz is alive and working.
“The internet is such a nasty place that we put this stuff out there and people are going to be writing reviews that Eric Stoltz sucks,” Gale said. “We don’t want to hurt anybody.”
Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson play Marty’s parents, George and Lorraine, whose courtship he accidentally interrupts in 1955. The actors play the roles at both ages, with prosthetic makeup in 1985 scenes.
“We always wanted them played by the same actor,” Gale said. “Although there was a point where we thought about wouldn’t it be interesting if you had Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas playing the same character?”
Time Travel Theories
Back to the Future inspires fans’ time travel theories. Starlog magazine published an article by Bruce Gordon in 1986 about a figure visible crossing the mall parking lot when terrorists shoot Doc.
“It’s really fun when people look so deep into things that they see things that we didn’t intend,” Gale said.
Gordon suggested that the figure is Marty returning from 1955. Gale’s only nitpick is that suggests time is predetermined, contradicting Marty’s changes to the past, but neither theory can be proven.
“If that was really Marty, does that say that we’re in an endless cycle and we’re always repeating?” Gale said.
When fans, and Universal, demanded a sequel, Gale and Zemeckis had to create new conflicts. Marty makes several mistakes when Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) or Biff’s relatives (also Wilson) call him chicken, the one addition Gale wishes he could set up in the first film.
“We’d probably figure out a way for Biff to call him chicken and him to say, ‘Don’t call me chicken’ in the first movie,” Gale said.
Gale said the “chicken” trigger emerged from Marty’s volatility fighting Biff in the first film. And, people in real life still react aggressively to perceived slights.
“Road rage, people get shot over this,” Gale said.
One moment not in Gale’s script is when Marty first meets George in 1955. Biff turns his attention to Marty, causing George to laugh at Marty’s bullying.
“That was a direction that Bob Zemeckis gave to Crispin,” Gale said. “He’s not going to be on the side of this weirdo wearing the life preserver.”
Fans unearthed some materials even Gale hadn’t seen since production. Tom Silknitter found continuity Polaroids taken of the sets.
“Lo and behold, there was a Polaroid of the toilet in Doc’s lab with the clock above it,” Gale said. “He tells the story of falling off his toilet while he was hanging that clock.”
The Musical, The Ride and leaving Doc and Marty in 1985
Back to the Future: The Musical premiered in 2020 and is still touring. It modifies some of the plot for the stage. At the end, Marty’s girlfriend does not get in the DeLorean with Marty and Doc.
“We couldn’t fit a third person in the car and make it fly,” Gale said.
In the play, George publishes the book Back to the Future IV. Gale said composer Alan Silvestri suggested the joke.
“In the original version of it, the book was Back to the Future II,” Gale said. “Alan said, ‘Let’s make it Back to the Future IV because it doesn’t exist.'”
The screenplay book includes a picture of Gale, Zemeckis and producer Neil Canton wearing T-shirts with “IV” crossed out by the universal no symbol. Gale once entertained revisiting Doc and Marty in 20 years, but life has ruled that out.
“By 2010 we knew that Michael had Parkinson’s Disease so that was just not going to happen,” Gale said.
Even if fans accepted a timeline where Marty McFly had Parkinson’s Disease, if Fox wanted to, Gale thinks Marty McFly belongs in 1985.
“We didn’t like seeing Indiana Jones at age 80,” Gale said. “We really didn’t. We want these characters to be the way that we envision them.”
Gale has not seen Cobra Kai, in which the creators pitch a Back to the Future series in a cameo. Other Back to the Future related projects are still ongoing.
The film was converted to 4DX motion theaters, which Gale supervised.
“They just want to shake your seat as much as possible,” Gale said. “I said, ‘Don’t do that.'”
Gale is exploring whether Back to the Future: The Ride could be shown in 4DX. Universal Studios replaced it with The Simpsons Ride in 2007.
“I think there were some rights issues that made that not feasible,” Gale said.
The Hollywood theme park dressed the Courthouse Square as 1955 Hill Valley for Fan Fest Nights in 2025. Another production was using the space this year, but Gale thinks the film’s continued popularity might warrant restoring the ride.
“The Simpsons is now owned by Disney,” Gale said. “When their license expires, Disney might say, ‘We want this in our theme parks.'”
Gale remains in touch with Zemeckis monthly. They hope to collaborate again.
“Business is just so strange these days, it’s hard to know what makes sense,” Gale said.