Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox as teenager Marty McFly, who accidentally travels back in time to 1955, where he meets his future parents and becomes his mother's romantic interest. Christopher Lloyd portrays the eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, inventor of the time-traveling DeLorean, who helps Marty repair history and return to 1985. Zemeckis and Gale wrote the script after Gale wondered whether he would have befriended his father if they had attended school
Back to the Future show's success. With co-star Meredith Baxter on maternity leave, he refused to allow Fox time off to work on a film. "Back to the Future" was originally scheduled for a May 1985 release and it was late 1984 when it was learned that Fox would be unable to star in the film. Zemeckis' next two choices were C. Thomas Howell and Eric Stoltz. Stoltz impressed the producers enough with his earlier portrayal of Roy L. Dennis in "Mask" (which had yet to be released) that they selected him to play Marty McFly. Because of the difficult casting process, the start