![\"Independent](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792905740_308_Independent+Membership+White.png\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.<\/p>\n
Join today<\/a><\/p>\n \n Already a member? The mall that served as the exterior location in Back to the Future<\/a> could soon become a data center \u2014 and one of the film\u2019s creators isn\u2019t thrilled.<\/p>\n Puente Hills Mall in southern California served as the fictional Twin Pines Mall in the hit 1985 film that starred Michael J. Fox as teenager Marty McFly<\/a> and Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett \u201cDoc\u201d Brown<\/a>. But under a new proposal, the now largely vacant mall would become multiple warehouses, a bus transit station and a data center.<\/p>\n Responding to Newsweek<\/a>\u2019s report about the future of the shopping center, Bob Gale, the film\u2019s co-creator, co-writer and co-producer<\/a>, told The Independent: \u201cAs to Puente Hills becoming a data center, that’s a question best left to the people who live in the area. I’m ignorant as to what kind of data is involved, but I certainly am not in favor of anything that helps the government or private companies surveil Americans or keep files on us. <\/p>\n \u201cIf it’s secretive, my default reaction is opposition,\u201d Gale continued. \u201cAnd if it involves AI, my position is, if AI was really so smart, it would figure out how to make data centers that can function with far less power within much smaller footprints! <\/p>\n Gale concluded: \u201cWhatever it is, I think I’d prefer that it not be called \u2018Twin Pines Data Center.\u2019 Although if Doc and Marty were to travel to 2035, that’s probably what they’d find!\u201d<\/p>\n Puente Hills Mall opened in the 1970s. The mall\u2019s exterior famously appears in the scene where Doc shows Marty McFly the time machine he built from a DeLorean.<\/p>\n Newsweek reported that the shopping center is mostly vacant now, with just an AMC movie theater and an entertainment space with an arcade and bowling alley remaining.<\/p>\n News of the proposed data center comes as \u201cBack to the Future Day\u201d was celebrated October 21, the day that Marty McFly, Doc and Jennifer Parker time-travel in Back to the Future Part II.<\/p>\n The initial film, Back to the Future,<\/a> became a massive success as the hit film of 1985, spending close to three months at the top of the box office rankings, and spawning two more films in its franchise, which has since earned over $1 billion. The film also skyrocketed Fox\u2019s career.<\/p>\n Fox has spoken about the integral role Gale played while they filmed, especially as the young actor was juggling filming Back to the Future with the NBC sitcom Family Ties.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Log in<\/a>\n <\/p>\n![\"Bob](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2212150019...jpeg\")
Bob Gale has shared his thoughts on the Puente Hills Mall becoming an AI data center (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Lea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/newFile-2.jpg\")
Lea Thompson and Michael J Fox in \u2018Back to the Future\u2019 (Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n