Empire UK

024

NOVEMBER 2015

DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE SEEMINGLY

thousands of fake memes telling you otherwise:

October 21 2015 is the day that Marty McFly

and Doc go to the future in Back To The Future

Part II. And it’s finally upon us. Co-writers Robert

Zemeckis and Bob Gale came up with

a dizzying array of predictions for their future

Hill Valley. Some were inspired and one or

two were way off the money...

SPECIAL REPORT

GREAT

SCOTT!

SCREENWRITER BOB GALE ON

WHAT BACK TO THE FUTURE

PART II GOT RIGHT — AND

WRONG — ABOUT 2015

THE REHYDRATOR

A handy unit that expands dried food in seconds. “That was

a great gag” says Gale. “Doesn’t seem like anybody’s working on it

though.” Indeed – Black & Decker’s website sadly lists no such

product. Get on it B&D R&D.

DRONES

Look closely at the picture. “There’s aUSA Todayphoto drone that

comes down when Griff (Thomas F. Wilson) is arrested” laughs Gale.

“That’s a pretty damn good prediction!”

FAX MACHINES IN THE HOME

Old Marty gets fired by fax. Yes byfax. “We didn’t predict

the smartphone” laughs Gale. “We had all those fax machines in

Marty’s house!”

JAWS 19

Sadly Steven Spielberg’s son Max hasn’t followed him into filmmaking;

nor has he churned out 15 Jaws sequels in time for his October deadline.

“The film hasn’t happened yet but look at what we did predict” says Gale.

“Imax 3D and that people would still be interested in shark movies!”

SELF-DRYING CLOTHES

Wet clothes? In this version of 2015 that’s no problem.

“That technology may be beyond people’s ability” says Gale.

“You’d need fusion batteries to make that happen.” Maybe in 2045

for the reboot.

HOVERBOARDS
A futuristic skateboard this is the single-most requested invention from
the sequel. “We envisioned it because of the maglev trains that were
coming out then. If you can levitate a train you can levitate a skateboard!”
A company called Hendo claims to be close to a breakthrough.

WEATHER FORECASTING

Forecasters can predict thesecondit will stop raining. “That was a joke

but also to solve a problem — if it’s raining you wouldn’t see wires on

the car. But we didn’t want rain for the rest of the scene.” We’re not quite

there yet... “But there’s an app that almost does that which is amazing.”

MR. FUSION

The portable fusion generator that powers Doc Brown’s car. “It was the

most wonderful optimistic thing we could think of to show in the

future” says Gale. “We knew the cleanest version of nuclear power

would be fusion power.”

FLYING CARS

The only way to get around Hill Valley. “We knew that wasn’t

going to happen. People have a hard enough time driving in two

dimensions — probably not a good idea giving them a third!”

THE MICROSOFT KINECT

In the Cafe 80’s two kids (including a young Elijah Wood)

dismiss Wild Gunman as “a baby’s toy” because Marty has to

use his hands. It’s not referenced directly but they’re clearly

familiar with a system like the Kinect.