Okay.
So it has been quite some time since I have written anything to this blog. The main reason for the lack of writing was that, especially as the year 2015 rapidly approached, more and more Back to the Future references and memes and hidden Easter eggs and fan theories started getting around on the Internet. I found that most (if not all) of the theories found on this blog were not nearly as unique as I thought they were when I began formulating them and writing them down years ago. And mine weren't the ones being used as clickbait on Buzzfeed. In my own eyes, I was the unknown kid who came late to the party and looked like I just copied everyone else's style.
I haven't given it up entirely. Ask my coworkers and they will let you know I am still the go-to guy for Back to the Future knowledge. And some will even warn others to not get me started talking about it. A coworker asked me this week what I was going to do to celebrate "Back to the Future Day" and if I was going to dress up or anything. Sadly, I told her no.
And here's why: I think I'm mourning the loss of a future we never got.
As I write this, today is Wednesday, October 21, 2015. At 4:29pm, Marty McFly, his girlfriend Jennifer, and Doc Brown arrive in the DeLorean time machine above Hill Valley, California. In this future, flying cars are common as hover conversions are relatively affordable. This future also has hoverboards, magnetic shoe laces, holographic theater marquees, and self-drying/self-fitting clothing among a host of other futuristic things.
Some things from this future we do have in ours: wall-mounted flatscreen TVs with a ridiculous amount of channels, VR goggles like the Oculus Rift, camera enabled flying drones (although mostly personal - not necessarily used by news agencies for reporting), personal ID entry doors (Bluetooth enabled rather than fingerprint), videogames where you don't use your hands (Xbox Kinect and arcade games like Fruit Ninja), video phone calls like Skype and Face Time, Major League baseball teams in Florida (although neither is actually named Florida - the Florida Marlins became the Miami Marlins in 2011), this whole Cubs being in the World Series thing (that sets the up the plot with the Sports Almanac as the MacGuffin), and obviously their love of 1980s pop culture nostalgia. Oh, and bullying is still a problem.
Some things were inspired by this fictional future: Nike's Air Mags and Pepsi Perfect are actual items you can buy. And several companies are trying their hand at developing hoverboard technologies. But it's definitely not the same.
I remember the 1980s as a sad time. I had fun as a kid, don't get me wrong, but I knew there was a Cold War stalemate going on and the future was certainly unclear. In the '80s, movies depicting the future took inspiration from this uncertainty and were dark or scary. Blade Runner, The Road Warrior, The Running Man, Escape From New York, The Terminator - ones where governments either collapsed or took over completely and the Sun never shines unless you're in a nuclear wasteland. But there was one movie that was stupidly optimistic. Back to the Future II depicted a government that operates swiftly, but efficiently, and you know exactly when the rain will stop and the Sun will come out. It also, technically, had those horrifying, lawless, collapsed government, societal breakdown anarchy scenes, but that was in an alternate 1985 - their present - not their future.
It was something to look forward to. Exciting, in a way, even though it was completely made up in a fictional universe. A far more enlightening future than the dark, war torn futures of other movies of the time. And it was more realistic than a dark future, which was a breath of fresh air.
And I think that is why, aside from all the '80s nostalgia it invokes, this film is being celebrated today. Were people as excited anticipating Judgment Day on August 29, 1997 (later postponed until July 25, 2004 and then again later postponed until sometime in 2017) as revealed in the Terminator films? I don't believe so (we'll see about the last one in a couple years, but I doubt it.)
The 2015 of Part II was bright and sunny (after the rain stopped), technology moved society outward rather than withdrawn in, and people were seen having fun and acting (relatively) normal. As a child, I remember thinking this was actually kind of realistic. The people living in that 2015 were just like us living in 1989, but they had futuristic stuff - just like we did if someone was looking at us from the 1950s. People living in the 1950s also had the Cold War looming over their heads, but nothing drastic ever happened, just like us in the 1980s. Sure, our technology was far more advanced, our clothing style was unusual , our automobiles were oddly shaped, our TVs had color and more than three channels, and we had new kinds of Pepsi but we were still the same society as 30 years before. We still wore blue jeans and jackets, drove cars, rode boards of one kind or another, watched TV, drank Pepsi, got bullied, read news articles, and lived in the suburbs just like our 1955 (and 2015) counterparts did/will.
So maybe I shouldn't mourn a future we didn't get. After all, our current 2015 is a lot closer to the one from Part II than any other futures seen in movies from the 1980s. And that's something worth celebrating, however superficial and insignificant that may be. I mean, we're not being hunted by machines, living in concrete cubes, or fighting over water (except in California.)
So maybe I will celebrate today. I'm going to pull out the pockets of my pants. "All kids in the future wear their pants inside out."
Except I'm not a kid in this 2015...
And the kids today dress more like George McFly in 1955 than Marty McFly, Jr in 2015.
