This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Back to the Future article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help. Assume good faith Be polite and avoid personal attacks Be welcoming to newcomers Seek dispute resolution if needed Article policies Neutral point of view No original research Verifiability

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3Auto-archiving period: 30 days

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

	Back to the Future is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
	This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on February 18, 2023.
Article milestones Date Process Result October 31, 2008 Good article nominee Listed August 9, 2022 Featured article candidate Promoted
Current status: Featured article

This  level-5 vital article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects.

Guild of Copy Editors This article was copy edited by Twofingered Typist, a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, on November 4, 2020.Guild of Copy EditorsWikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsTemplate:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsGuild of Copy Editors Film: Core / American This article is within the scope of WikiProject Film. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please refer to the documentation. To improve this article, please refer to the guidelines.FilmWikipedia:WikiProject FilmTemplate:WikiProject Filmfilm This article is on the project's core list. This article is supported by the American cinema task force. United States: Cinema Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by WikiProject Film - American cinema task force (assessed as Top-importance). California: Los Angeles Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject California, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CaliforniaWikipedia:WikiProject CaliforniaTemplate:WikiProject CaliforniaCalifornia Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by Los Angeles area task force (assessed as Mid-importance). Library of Congress Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Library of Congress, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Library of Congress on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Library of CongressWikipedia:WikiProject Library of CongressTemplate:WikiProject Library of CongressLibrary of Congress Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale. Science Fiction High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Science Fiction, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science fiction on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Science FictionWikipedia:WikiProject Science FictionTemplate:WikiProject Science Fictionscience fiction High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Comedy High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Comedy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of comedy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComedyWikipedia:WikiProject ComedyTemplate:WikiProject ComedyComedy High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Skateboarding Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Skateboarding, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Skateboarding on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SkateboardingWikipedia:WikiProject SkateboardingTemplate:WikiProject Skateboardingskateboarding Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. WikiProject Skateboarding to-do list: Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Cooper Wilt, 5boro Skateboards, Adrianne Sloboh, AntiHero Skateboards, Aidan Mackey, Gino Iannucci, SKATEISM Citing sources : Grabs (skateboarding) Cleanup : Leo Baker (skateboarder), Flip trick, Aerial (skateboarding), Maloof Money Cup, Footedness, Nyjah Huston, Na-Kel Smith, Harold Hunter, Terry Kennedy (skateboarder), Ishod Wair Expand : Category:Skateparks (please see talk page), Cliché Skateboards, Jason Dill, Krooked Skateboards, Patrick O'Dell, Infobox : Template:Infobox sportsperson (add to skateboarder biography articles) Maintain : Skateboarding brands (subject of regular vandalism) Photo : Category:Wikipedia requested images of skateboarding Spoken Wikipedia This article is within the scope of WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles that are spoken on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Spoken WikipediaWikipedia:WikiProject Spoken WikipediaTemplate:WikiProject Spoken WikipediaSpoken Wikipedia

	Other talk page banners
This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report. The week in which this happened: October 18 to 24, 2015 (5th)

The article gives a claim regarding Reagan's purported response upon viewing Back to the Future as the following: "Reagan ordered the theater's projectionist to stop the film, roll it back, and run it again."^[a] This is cited to Vince Mancini's article "Back to the Future at 35". Mancini, in turn, cites Sorcha Ní Fhlainn The Worlds of Back to the Future: Critical Essays on the Films. Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, in turn, cites Bob Gale's interview from a 2002 special featurette included on a BTTF DVD release.^[1][b] In that interview, Gale states:

Reagan loved the movie. We heard from the White House that when he ran the movie in the White House he made the projectionist stop the movie at the reference to who's President of the United States, and watched it again, he was laughing so hard he missed some of the dialogue.^[2][c]

This is problematic for four reasons:

Gale was not present for Reagan's reaction
Bob Gale was not present during the Reagan showing, and is a poor witness to these events. His claim, that "we heard from the White House" is odd. If someone from the White House just called him, out of the blue, and told him this, then he hasn't stated who that person was.

The location given by Gale is incorrect
Gale is wrong about where Reagan viewed the film. He states "when he ran the movie in the White House...", however, BTTF was never shown in the White House. The Reagans only watched the film once, and that was at Camp David, on Friday 26 July 1985.^[3] This is an important detail, because whomever supposedly told Gale this story would surely have mentioned where it occurred.

The actual location has no on-site projectionist
Because Gale didn't know it was screened at Camp David, he also didn't know the setup for watching films at Camp David. In the White House there’s a theater in the East Wing, which looks exactly like a big movie theater in miniature. But at Camp David, where the Reagans watched the majority of their movies,^[4] there is no movie theater. Films were watched in the living room of the Camp David home—known as the Aspen Lodge—a one-story, ranch-style cabin. The Reagans would simply sit on the couch and watch. Extra couches and sofa chairs were brought in on occasions when the Reagans had guests.

The movie projector was set up in a pantry off of the galley. A small hole had been cut in the wall of the pantry to allow the lens to project the movie’s image on a screen that was lowered from the ceiling of the living room. At the White House there was a projectionist, but that person did not travel to Camp David to run the movies there. Camp David is a US Naval facility, and naval personnel there, known as Seabees, were trained on how to use the projector. Because of the pantry's size, Seabees did not actually sit in the pantry while the film ran.

According to Gale, Reagan immediately called to the projectionist to have him stop and rerun the scene. When one considers all the work needed for this to happen, the truthfulness of Gale's claim begins to fray:

If Gale is correct, then that's how the request to rewind would have played out. But look at how awkward it all would have been for Reagan and his guests, to have the film's showing disrupted in that manner. The key to Gale's believability is the on-site projectionist — there simply must be one on-hand, easily accessible, in order for Reagan to "call out to". Without that projectionist sitting in the booth, at the ready, the request to rewind the film becomes a much more convoluted affair.

Another, published recollection of Reagan's reaction is markedly different

Mark Weinberg, a former spokesman, adviser and speechwriter for President Reagan–someone who was actually present at the showing in question–never mentions it as happening that way. Weinberg, in a published account of the evening, describes the showing as very different from Gale's hearsay rendering:

Both Reagans appeared engrossed in Back to the Future, often laughing heartily. In only one brief instance did the mood in the room darken. It was during a scene after Marty McFly arrives in 1955 and meets the younger Doc Brown:

• DOC: Tell me, Future Boy, who’s president of the United States in 1985?
• MARTY: Ronald Reagan.
• DOC: Ronald Reagan? The actor? Ha! Then who’s vice president, Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jane Wyman is the first lady!

The movie continued, but for me—and, I suspected, those around me—it felt as if the air had gone out of the Aspen Lodge. Something lingered in the room. A discomfort. That evening was only the second time in all eight years of my service in the White House that I had ever heard Jane Wyman’s name mentioned or referred to by anyone other than reporters.^[5][6][7]

Weinberg goes on to recount how there was an unspoken ban on mentioning Wyman among the Reagan staff and that "it was as if [Reagan] had willed himself to forget about that period of his life, and was startled and resentful when [the film] asked him to return to it".^[8] With the mentioning of her name bringing so much pain and discomfort, how likely is it that Reagan asked to have it rewound and played again? Not likely at all.

I think this is compelling evidence to discount Gale's claim, a person once described by Crispin Glover as an "outright liar"^[9]—someone who didn't just recast Glover's role, but rather, was comfortable with taking another actor, using heavy makeup in scenes shot out-of-focus or upside down in order to fool the audience into believing they were seeing the same actor when they weren't—so much so that they were sued by Glover for the deceptive practice of using Glover's likeness applied to a different actor, a lawsuit which Glover won.^[10] The Crispin Glover episode demonstrates the mindset of a deceiver, someone who is comfortable with telling tall tales.

I understand that there will be others who, having long been used to believing Gale's tale as truth, will claim that it's gospel and couldn't possibly be fake. This newer information should at least have us modifying the original claim by explicitly stating that it comes from Gale without any verification (e.g., "An unverified, secondhand recounting of Reagan's reaction stated..." or an addendum stating "Other evidence suggests Reagan's reaction may have been more muted...." etc.). Per the Disputed inline template's documentation, I've placed the template in the article at the place of Gale's claim, where it should remain until this discussion is closed. Feedback on this from all interested editors is much appreciated. Thanks!  Spintendo  17:14, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• Sorted, well researched although you probably didn't need to go as far as you have to convince me. If possible though can you add the page number from the Weinberg book to the references please because I don't know themDarkwarriorblake / SEXY ACTION TALK PAGE! 23:30, 24 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Thank you!  Spintendo  06:56, 29 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• Spintendo, is that a different edition of the book from 2018? I'm trying to understand why the year and page numbers were wrong. Darkwarriorblake / Vote for something that matters 20:19, 7 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Darkwarriorblake Those are the page numbers from the first edition publication. The first set of page numbers I put were for the entire chapter (or rather, it was a rough approximation of where I guessed the information would appear within the chapter, my guess being somewhere in the last eight pages) but I condensed it down to the immediate pages where Weinberg discusses the evening they watched the film once I received a copy and was able to check for myself. (I ended up being very close in my guess: instead of it being on pages 144 through 151 it was actually on pages 147 through 150.) Regards  Spintendo  11:51, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest a reference is added to Piccadilly Radio that used to broadcast on the 261 metre frequency, originally located in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, UK. One of its former names was Piccadilly 261. Apparently the radio station's 261 window stickers were in some scenes of Back to the Future, as a neighbouring property in the shots was owned by someone from Manchester that was a fan of this particular radio station. 213.33.68.50 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 21:22, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

it leads to some obscure Indonesian website with apparently no connection to the topic. can anyone enlighten on why it's there and what function it serves? it looks like vandalism but not being an dxperienced editor I didn't want to revert without clarifying Starzajo (talk) 05:13, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

EDIT: clear vandalism when I checked the edit history. someone inserted the same link into basically every embed in the original version of the article. revised. Starzajo (talk) 05:16, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The redirect Chuck, Chuck! It's Marvin! Your cousin, Marvin Berry! You know that new sound you were looking for? Well listen to THIS! has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 November 30 § Chuck, Chuck! It's Marvin! Your cousin, Marvin Berry! You know that new sound you were looking for? Well listen to THIS! until a consensus is reached. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 01:38, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's clearly more than one genre, like many films out there. Nearly everywhere it is cited as a sci fi comedy adventure so why are we only sticking it to one genre? 88.97.163.100 (talk) 22:57, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you search the archives, this has been discussed several times before. We can revisit it, but I lean toward feeling that one genre is sufficient and that BTTF is ultimately more a sci-fi film than it is a comedy film or adventure film. Per MOS:FILMLEAD we should also make an effort to avoid genre bloat, so I'd oppose three genres in any case. Also, rather than saying "nearly everywhere it is cited", it would be more helpful to your argument to list the sources you're using to forward the argument you're making. DonIago (talk) 00:36, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]