Great Scott! After 40 years, it’s time for Back to the Future fans to once again fuel up their flux capacitors and hop in their DeLoreans to see one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made.
Doctor Emmett Brown may have invented time travel on November 5, 1955, but Back to the Future producer and screenwriter Bob Gale chose October 21, 2015 as the date that Marty McFly would arrive in the future, in the second-part of the movie trilogy.
A date, now 10 years in the past, that is known as Back to the Future Day.
Did anything come true? Not really.
First released in 1985 and starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future is being re-released in movie theaters for its 40th anniversary. Universal Pictures, via X, confirmed the movie will return to theaters on Oct. 31.
A 1980s classic, Back to the Future, stars Fox as Marty McFly, a high school student who is catapulted back to the 1950s after an experiment by Doc Brown (Lloyd) goes awry. The film co-stars Lea Thomson as Marty’s mother, Lorraine, and Crispin Glover as his father, George.
In the 1950s, Marty encounters the younger version of his parents and has to make sure they fall in love to secure his future status. In the meantime, Marty has to contend with a bully named Biff (Tom Wilson) who stands in his way.
Back to the Future earned more than $385 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo, and boasts impressive Rotten Tomatoes scores from both critics and fans alike. The movie currently has a 93% critic score and a 95% audience score on the review aggregator.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards in 1986, including Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale for their script. Zemeckis also directed the film. It won an Oscar for Best Sound Effects Editing. Back to the Future garnered two highly successful sequels, 1989’s Back to the Future Part II, which earned $332.8 million worldwide, and 1990’s Back to the Future Part III. The latter, while still successful, was the lowest-grossing film in the franchise, earning $245 million worldwide.
All of the success in the franchise has had fans, for the last few decades, wondering if there would ever be a fourth Back to the Future movie. In April 2025, Gale talked with People about whether that would ever happen.
“I don’t know why they keep talking about that!” Gale said. “I mean, do they think that if they say it enough times, we’re going to actually do it?” He continued, “I mean, it’s like they know in every interview people say, ‘Oh Bob, when is there going to be a Back to the Future 4?’ Never. ‘When is there going to be a prequel?’ Never. ‘When is there going to be a spinoff?’ Never. It’s just fine the way it is. It’s not perfect, but as Bob Zemeckis used to say, ‘It’s perfect enough,'” Gale said.
Gale continued, “If the juggernaut of corporate America or corporate international mishigas [nonsense] says, ‘If you don’t agree to this, we’re going to kill your children,’ alright, well, no, we don’t want our children killed. But Steven Spielberg, of course, he’s got to sign off on it, too. And Steven, just like Steven won’t allow another E.T., he totally respects the fact that we don’t want any more Back to the Future. He gets it and always stood behind that. And thank you, Steven.”
