In 1985,Robert Zemeckis’Back to the Futurechanged movies forever. It took a lot to get it from page to screen,with even Disney rejecting itfor its supposed incestuous plot, butit ended up becoming the biggest box office draw of the year.Michael J. Foxbecame the most famous actor on the planet, the DeLorean a car everyone wished they had, and the story between Marty McFly and Doctor Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) so compelling that there had to be a sequel.
That sequel arrived four years later with 1989’sBack to the Future Part II.Outside ofCrispin GloverandClaudia Wells, nearly every other actor returned, this time with the story taking Marty and Doc not to the past but thirty years into the future. It wasn’t just the plot that was futuristic though, but also the technology. This was the first time thatthe VistaGlide, created by Industrial Light and Magic, was used. Because of it,an actor could be shown on screen playing multiple characters in the same scene.
‘Back to the Future Part II’ Has Characters Running Into Other Versions of Themselves
InBack to the Future Part II,Marty has no sooner than returned to a better version of 1985when Doc Brown returns, telling him that both he and his girlfriend Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) need to come with him to 2015 because Marty Jr. has landed himself in jail. When they get there, everything goes haywire, as Marty buys a sports almanac, which is later stolen by his nemesis, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), who then goes back to the past to give it to his younger self. This leads to young Biff making millions in sports bets,thus changing 1985 for the worseandmaking Biff an evil man who is now married to Marty’s mom(Lea Thompson).
With characters from 1955, 1985, and 2015 overlapping with each other, there are going to be many scenes where they interact.Marty discovers that his son is a coward when he won’t stand up to Griff Tannen (Biff’s grandson, also played by Wilson). Jennifer shows up at her future home and runs into her future self, causing both versions of her to pass out from shock. Marty shows up at his future home too, where we see an older Marty, Marty Jr., and daughter Melena (also played by Fox) sitting at the kitchen table together. There are also scenes of older Biff speaking to 1955 Biff about the sports almanac, and Doc Brown running into himself at the clock tower. So just how did they make it all happen?
Industrial Light and Magic’s Creation of the VistaGlide Made This Possible
The visual effects were done by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), which wasfounded byGeorge Lucasin 1975to helptell the storyStar Wars. They quickly became one of the leaders in visual effects, but in 1989 they would make history withBack to the Future Part IIdue to the creation of the VistaGlide.
Every ‘Back to the Future’ Movie, Ranked
“Marty, the future isn’t written. It can be changed. You know that.” -Doc
According to ILM’s website, they describe the VistaGlide as, “a portable motion control dolly system with video-playback— which enabled camera operators to record and review their work almost instantly.“The computerized dolly could remember the camera movementsthen recreate them so that multiple images could be put together at the same time. This then made it look like an actor was impossibly playing multiple characters at the same time and acting with themselves.
‘Back to the Future Part II’ Was Nominated for an Oscar for Its Visual Effects
BeforeBack to the Future Part II, if you saw a movie or a TV show with the same actor playing multiple characters, they’d get around this by either cutting back and forth from one character to the next,showing only one person at a time, or if both characters were in the same frame, then one would be a double shown only from the back.
However,withBack to the Future Part IIbeing so futuristic and having a convoluted story, it needed to be able to show characters actually interacting to make it feel real. If it had done things the old way, then audiences would have had a harder time buying into the outrageousness of the plot. The innovation paid off, with the scenes coming off so seamlessly thatBack to the Future Part IIwasnominated for an Academy Award in 1990 for Best Visual Effects. They didn’t win,losing out toThe Abyss, but ILM and the VistaGlide changed the way movies were made forever.
Back to the Future Part II
