"There's something very familiar about all this"

"We knew we were stuck with where the first one left off: something has to be done about their kids because that's what Doc Brown says. That was just a joke!"
-Bob Gale, co-writer and co-producer of the Back to the Future trilogy. And probably some other stuff. But who cares?

Holy Christ do I love Back to the Future. I'm reading Tom Shone's Blockbuster, and a post about it in its entirety is likely coming soon because one bit of it is making me turn my computer back on and type when I really should be sleeping.

Okay, so, Back to the Future Part II. Co-creators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis didn't really want to do one, but they were presented with the choice of sequels being made with or without them, and they chose "with." As Zemeckis says, "When you make a movie that's successful, it becomes a piece of real estate. It becomes a franchise and the reality comes at you very quickly, which is 'We're making a sequel and you guys can either help us or not but a sequel is going to be made.'" So what do they do?

That fun but slightly off-kilter bit in which Marty goes back to the events of Back to the Future? That is a commentary on sequels. As Gale says, "The trick to writing a sequel is that people want to see the first movie but they don't want to see the first movie. They want the same except different. That's what we gave 'em."

WOW! That is so cool. Why don't I notice these things? Back to the Future is somehow even greater than I thought it was. Now watch the hoverboarding scene.