It's Back to the Future Day, How Will You Celebrate?

Oh, Back to the Future. You’re a trilogy right up there with Star Wars and Indiana Jones—and remember, Indiana Jones WAS a trilogy. They talked about making another sequel, but it definitely never, ever happened. There were no CGI gophers, or nuked fridges, or Cate Blanchetts, or Shia LaBeofs.

But that’s beside the point. The point is this: October 21st, 2015 is the date Marty McFly traveled to in “Back to the Future Part II,” and that long-awaited date is finally upon us. We may not have flying cars, self-drying jackets, or Jaws 19 (yet), but we do have hoverboards, video phones (although we definitely don’t call them that), big screen televisions, computer eyeglasses, and apparently, self-lacing shoes.

But it’s not what the movie gets right or wrong that makes “Back to the Future Part II” so great. It’s a snapshot of how people in the 1980s envisioned the not-too-distant future. It created and defined tropes about “the future” for the decades to come, and is one of those rare visionary tales that’s no less enjoyable now that the year 2015 has finally arrived. In fact, its goofy take on what life is supposed to be like only adds to its charm.

back-future-part-ii_1 — Marty McFly casually borrows a hover scooter and converts it to a hoverboard. Unfortunately, he forgets that “hoverboards don’t work on water, unless you have POWER.”

So, how will you celebrate Back to the Future Day? Perhaps you could enjoy Pepsi’s new “Pepsi Perfect,” a brand of cola featured in the film. Or maybe you could just pop the movie into your DVD player and enjoy Robert Zemeckis’ vision of what could have been.