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film1985

Back to the Future

Disciplines:
science fiction
film
science fiction/time travel
spielberg
zemeckis

Summary

Robert Zemeckis's 1985 comedy science fiction film about a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 — one of the highest-grossing films of its decade, notable for its tight screenplay, perfect casting, and inventive time travel logic.

Core Contribution

Creates the most perfectly constructed time travel comedy — Back to the Future's screenplay (every detail planted in act one pays off in acts two and three) is considered one of the best constructed scripts in Hollywood history; it popularized the DeLorean and the concept of the grandfather paradox.

Historical Influences

Robert Zemeckis Bob Gale Steven Spielberg

Intellectual Lineage

Robert Zemeckis Bob Gale Universal Pictures

Allied Works

Back to the Future Part IIBack to the Future Part III

Contemporaries & Peers

E.T. The Terminator

Minds Influenced

Science fiction film Pop cultureLenny's Podcast

Intellectual Posterity

Back to the Future Great ScottDeLorean as time machine

Discussing

Back to the Future

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