Back to the Future Part II

"Getting back was only the beginning."

1989 1h 48m EN

🙌

7.8

BANGER

★7.8TMDB · 14,368

AdventureComedyScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Marty and Doc are at it again as the time-traveling duo head to 2015 to nip some McFly family woes in the bud. But things go awry thanks to bully Biff Tannen and a pesky sports almanac. In a last-ditch attempt to set things straight, Marty finds himself bound for 1955 and face to face with his teenage parents -- again.

“Getting back was only the beginning.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Michael J. Fox
Marty McFly / Marty McFly Junior / Marlene McFly
Christopher Lloyd
Doctor Emmett Brown
Lea Thompson
Lorraine
Thomas F. Wilson
Biff Tannen / Griff
Elisabeth Shue
Jennifer
James Tolkan
Strickland
Jeffrey Weissman
George McFly
Casey Siemaszko
3-D

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Bob Gale, Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 8.3× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

37 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Back to the Future Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, shot by Dean Cundey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Editor Harry Keramidas shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Getting back was only the beginning.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Zemeckis directs. Dean Cundey behind the camera. Alan Silvestri scores. Harry Keramidas cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 8.3× over at the box office.
237 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "Back to the Future Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Robert Zemeckis, shot by Dean Cundey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Harry Keramidas shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Getting back was only the beginning.".
9IMDB entry: tt0096874 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1014,368 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
11Classified under 20 themes, including "flying car", "skateboarding", "car race", "lightning".
12Released under 38 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Dean Cundey
Original score: Alan Silvestri
Editing: Harry Keramidas
Production design: Rick Carter
Costume design: Joanna Johnston
Makeup / hair: Dorothy Byrne
VFX supervisor: Ken Ralston
Stunt coordinator: Walter Scott
Runtime: 108 min · 1h 48m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.78:1 (16:9)
Status: Released
Budget: $40,000,000
Box office: $332,861,197
Return: 832% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Awards

BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

Back to the Future Collection

An American science fiction–comedy film series that follows the adventures of a high school student, Marty McFly and an eccentric scientist, Dr Emmett L. Brown as they use a DeLorean time machine to time travel to different periods in the history of Hill Valley, California.

Also by

Robert Zemeckis

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-07-08
★ 8/10
You gotta go forward to save the past and back to alter the future. Yikes! Back to the Future Part II sees Marty & Jennifer coerced by Doc into travelling forward in time to correct the future. But Biff is still around and spies an opportunity for untold riches; which he takes. Meaning our three time travelling wonders have to find a way back to the past to stop Biff from changing the course of history. The gargantuan, and deserved, success of Back To The Future ensured {demanded} that a sequel would follow. So taking the bull by the horns, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gray crafted not only a sequel, but a trilogy, of which part two is ultimately a sort of interim plot filler for the finale to come a year later. There's no doubt about it, part two is at first a puzzle box of a picture, one that had this particular viewer back in the day venturing in for multiple viewings to unravel the deft, daft, but intricate plot. I have grown to love part two very much as I have got older, with each viewing tending to reward me just a little bit more. Directed with absolute keenness by Zemeckis, the film moves at such a pace there is barely time to catch breath, something that hardly helps one to follow exactly what is going on. But it does make sense under scrutiny, and as we lurch from one magnificent set piece to another, we find a dark undercurrent of bleakness in amongst the froth. The makers offer up two visions of the future, one is all colourful and swamped in glorious 80s nostalgia, yet it's knowingly enveloped in consumerism and hi-tech reliability. The other is bitten by greed and almost under despotic control, it's food for thought and rather wry in its telling. Not content with that, the makers whisk us back to 1955 just to remind us that a time of innocence and hope did exist; and simultaneously with skill they repeat the ending of part one with the additional story of part two! Clever eh? The returning cast are again uniformly strong {Michael J. Fox, Thomas F. Wilson & Christopher Lloyd} while Elisabeth Shue confidently steps into Jennifer's shoes after Claudia Wells {Jennifer in part one} fell ill and was unable to continue the role. Alan Silvestri's score still packs a cross dimension's punch and the effects crew again come up trumps {it's ace in HD}. It now can be seen as the bridge between two better movies, that's for sure, but I liken it to Spielberg's Temple Of Doom-more darker than the more favourable films in a series; but one that is crucially still having fun. It may be a high-tempo ball of funny confusion at times, but this one, courtesy of it's ream of homages and sly observations, is one of the best trilogy sandwich fillers going. Munch it. 8/10
JPV8522020-10-28
★ 8/10
This was one I think I was slightly disappointed in when I first saw it in theaters back in '89 and even with subsequent viewings on VHS and DVD, however I've come to appreciate it more over the years post-2000s. Lots of fun though feels disjointed at times going back and forth in time from 1985 to 2015 to alternate 1985 and back to 1955. But I did like the technical aspects re-creating the events of the first movie. 4.0/5 PS: Still remember back in the day seeing a TV special and believing the hoverboard was real, lol.
Andre Gonzales2023-04-22
★ 8/10
My favorite out of the series. I like this one better, because your rewatching the 1st one as the 2nd one is helping the 1st one at the same time. So you get to enjoy the 1st one again with new twists added from the 2nd one. But you can't see yourself watching the 1st one while watching the 2nd one, because the 1st one is not suppose to see the 2nd one watching it, and vice versa. Otherwise something bad will happen if the 1st and 2nd one see each other. Lol you get what I'm saying!