BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II

Name: BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II
Item: BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II
Author: Tess Farrand

"Where the Future and the Past Collide!"

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II picks up where the original movie ended. In 1985, Doc Brown comes to Marty McFly’s house in a flying time machine and urges Marty to come to 2015 with him to stop something terrible from happening to his future children. In the future, Marty successfully prevents his son from getting arrested. While there, he picks up a sports almanac that recorded all the major wins from the last half of the 20th Century. The almanac gets into the wrong hands, and Marty must travel back to 1955 to set things right and save his whole family.

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II is clever, witty and well executed. Both Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd lead the pack of great actors in what has become a cult classic franchise. The movie has a strong moral, pro-family worldview where the lead character chooses the wellbeing of his family over his own desires. It also contains some positive Christian elements. However, BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II has 46 obscenities and some violence. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

Content:

(BB, CC, LLL, VV, S, N, A, D, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview set in a dark future where a bad man in 2015 has traveled 60 years into the past to change his past and his messing with the timeline has many negative consequences, with allusions to what happened in the classic movie IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, but teenager travels 60 years into the past to correct the timeline and help his parents and end the bad man’s dark reign, plus some Christian elements where a character says, “God bless America,” a couple gets married in a church, crosses are depicted in a cemetery, and lead character shows a recognition of God when he says in his grief, “Please God, no”

Foul Language:

46 obscenities (about half are “h” words, with five “s” words and five “SOBs), three light exclamatory profanities, and manure is used as a comical trope

Violence:

Moderate violence includes a Clint Eastwood shooting scene in THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY when a character watches a TV, character tries to hit someone with a baseball bat but never does, character gets punched in the gut, man points a loaded gun at someone, and then later gunfire ensues, but no one gets shot, mention of someone murdering another character with a gun, but it’s not depicted, a mention of suicide, two empty theaters to kill someone, husband throws his wife to the floor to show his dominance

Sex:

Teenage character brings a porno mag to a school dance, newlywed couple has a graphic kiss, and a dating couple almost kisses but gets interrupted

Nudity:

Upper male nudity in a poster as well as a woman depicted in a bikini, one woman had cleavage that shows, two women appear to be naked in a hot tub, painted females in art pieces appear in lingerie

Alcohol Use:

Woman uses alcohol to cope with her broken marriage, teenager spikes the punchbowl at his high school dance, dance chaperon takes a drink in his office

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Cigar in a poster in one scene and smoking in another, but no drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Lying, dysfunctional family portrayals, marital unfaithfulness, and an actor cross dresses for a different role in movie, but it’s not meant to promote a politically correct homosexual message.

More Detail:

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II is a witty, clever, well-executed science fiction adventure comedy where a teenager from 1985, assisted by a wacky time-traveling scientist, goes forward and back in time to correct a change in the timeline that has destroyed his family’s future wellbeing. BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II has a strong moral, pro-family worldview with some positive Christian elements, but it’s marred by 46 obscenities and some violence.

The movie picks up exactly where the first movie ended. Doc Brown comes to Marty McFly’s house in a flying time machine in the year 1985 and stresses that he must come to the future with him to prevent something terrible from happening to Marty’s future children. Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer is with him, though, so she comes along too, only to have Doc sedate her so she’s not too overwhelmed.

Cut to the year 2015. Marty successfully prevents his son from getting arrested with Biff Tannen’s grandson, Griff. While there, Marty picks up a sports almanac that records all the major wins from the last half of the 20th Century. Little does he know that after he and Doc decide to leave the almanac in 2015, Biff Tannen was lurking in the shadows and uses the almanac to benefit his monetary success and status.

Cut to 1985 again. Marty leaves Jennifer on her front porch, but then gets confused when he tries to go home, and another family lives in his house. After getting knocked out in a fight, Marty wakes up on the 27th floor of a hotel, only to find that his mother is married to Biff Tannen, not his father, George McFly, who’s apparently died!

Marty ventures to the local cemetery to confirm his father is dead. While there, Doc finds Marty and the two go back to Doc’s house. Here, Doc explains that the 2015 Biff must’ve gone back into the past and given the almanac to his past self, which in turn, altered the present 1985!

Can Marty and Doc fix this unfortunate chain of events?

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II is clever, witty and well executed. Both Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd lead the pack of great actors in what has become a cult classic franchise. If viewers see the trilogy and pay close attention, they’ll appreciate the detailed script writing that leaves nothing unanswered.

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II has a mixed moral, humanist worldview where ultimately characters choose the well-being of others over their own desires. Positively, there are some Christian elements too. However, BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II has about 47 obscenities and moderate violence. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II wasn’t as successful as the first movie because of its darker setting and all the foul language (though the first movie had its own share of obscenities too). At the time it was released, MOVIEGUIDE® was barely five years old. Since then, however, MOVIEGUIDE® has had a positive influence on the use of foul language, though foul language has been making a re-emergence in recent years because of an effort in Hollywood to make more edgy blockbuster movies about superheroes.

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Quality:

- Content: -2