So I’m driving home on Wednesday and from out of nowhere this silver DeLorean flies by me pushing about 90 miles per hour before jumping a curb and plowing into a row of bushes to finally slow down. Then the driver jumps out wearing an orange-colored down vest screaming for some guy named “Doc” and wanting to know where he can get a Pepsi Free.
What, am I the only one who posted a Facebook photo of this guy who looks like Alex from “Family Ties” and his robotics club contraption-looking car on October 21, 201…wait a minute, I’ve seen this movie!
So right when the new Star Wars blockbuster starts cranking up the hype machine with a trailer debuting on Monday Night Football along with frantic fans jamming Fandango phone lines for advanced opening day tickets – “Back to the Future” steals its thunder with a promotional plan hatched 30 years ago to the day. Take that Skyyy-walker!
All of us who waited for the sequel to 1985’s “Back to the Future” to hit movie screens can now look back on Hollywood’s version of what the future would look like on October 21, 2015, and compare it to the real deal. No hover boards just yet, but I bet today’s mobile devices are way beyond anything that could be imagined back when Milli Vanilli still had us convinced they could sing. Many teens are still trying to wrap their brains around the idea going anywhere without a cellphone and being able to function.
Flash forward to the real October 21, 2015, and a quick 1.21 gigawatts-powered trip to Stevenson High School, where a “Back to the Future” DeLorean mock-up popped into the parking lot. Students who know the movie through their parents or have checked out Marty McFly on Netflix got an up-close look at the time-traveling car that supposedly visited 2015 before high-tailing it back to the 20th century.
Does it look as cool to 2015 teens as it did to Gen-X’ers in 1989? How do those who remember seeing “Back to the Future Part II” during the first Bush administration think 2015 back then measures up with present day 2015? Well, the part about the Cubs in the World Series was nearly right on the money.
Maybe Doc and McFly were just a year off on that one?
Eric Scott is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.