Top 10 Back To The Future Trilogy Moments

For many people Doc Brown is one of the most endearing and entertaining characters in the history of film, and with scenes like these under his belt, it’s hard not to see why. Confronted with a scenario that seems fanciful to him – one in which a boy named Marty tells him he’s from the future - Emmett responds with disbelief and sarcasm that produces hilarious results, but at no time comes off as mean-spirited or unlikable. A perfectly crafted moment from the first “Back to Future” that pairs his fanciful mind reading attempt with his disregard for something he sees as outlandish, we realize here that he is not only a man of vision, but most of all science.

When you’re stuck in the old west and your time-traveling car is out of gas, you’re gonna have to get creative if you need it to reach 88 miles per hour. In “Part III,” Doc and Marty must force a train to speeds past its limits and then climb along the speeding locomotive’s side to the car in question, all in order to find their way back to the 1980s. The scene’s emotion was then ratcheted up by the inclusion of Doc’s new love Clara finding her way into peril and giving the audience a swell of joy when he flies off with her.

When we first saw this cinematic classic and Marty had found his way safe and sound to a new idyllic version of his world, we assumed the story was all but over. Oh, how wrong we were. Never suspecting that the filmmakers were going to take our beloved DeLorean to the skies and then cut to black, we were left salivating for more adventures featuring our dynamic duo. Long before movies routinely ending with cliffhangers designed to set up sequels, “Back to the Future” showed future filmmakers how it should be done, even though no sequel had yet been planned.

Welcome to the twisted world that could only be the playground of one man in this series: Biff Tannen. Using a Grays Sports Almanac from the year 2015 to place winning bet after winning bet, Biff becomes insanely rich and incredibly powerful, remaking Hill Valley, California into a wasteland of debauchery. One of the trilogy’s lasting images, we will never forget our initial feeling of horror at the once-innocent city’s new visage when we first beheld it.

Marty may be the hero of the series, but we believe that the first movie’s defining hero moment goes instead to his previously wimpy father George. Finally finding the courage within him to stand up to the bully that had previously dominated him time and again, when George encounters a damsel in distress, Biff finds himself on the floor after a single punch. Followed by another nearly-as-exhilarating moment when George kisses Lorraine after another boy tries to take their dance from him, the senior McFly becomes the man we wanted him to be.

We knew something must have been up when we saw Doc Brown and the DeLorean struck by lightning and explode into nothing. Logically, we knew that it didn’t seem right that they would kill off one of the two leads without any buildup, but that didn’t stop us from having a feeling of despair at the outside chance we’d just witnessed his demise. That was why we were flush with relief and joy when comedy legend Joe Flaherty arrived with a letter from the past with our favorite scientist.

Arguably no moment in this series of films inspired more envy in children everywhere than this chase scene near the beginning of the second movie. Echoing an earlier skateboard chase from the first film, the floating board took things up several notches and even had some people convinced that there was a conspiracy holding the amazing contraptions back from us in real life. A sequence of unbridled fun, this scene grabbed our imaginations and sense of wonder and never let go.

With the only chance of sending Marty McFly back to the future hanging in the balance, the possibility that Doc’s plan will come to fruition seems improbable and while maybe in reality that would be the case, fiction is much sweeter here. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, everything comes together by the skin of their teeth and we as an audience feel like jumping to our feet. Capped off by a jubilant Doc’s dance of celebration through fiery tire tracks, this sequence strikes a balance between action and drama that many films struggle to meet.

If our cousin Marvin called us and told us that he had that great movie music scene that we’d been looking for and played us this, we’d be more than happy to hear from him. Coupled with our relief that Marty and his family were whole and complete in his trusty photo, this guitar solo and its accompanying histrionics left us elated and rocking out at the same time. The movie could have ended here and we would have walked away happy.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Manure

“Back to the Future Part II” (1989)

- Fiery Results

“Back to the Future” (1985)

- Darth Vader

“Back to the Future” (1985)

- I’m Your Density

“Back to the Future” (1985)

- Showdown with Mad Dog

“Back to the Future Part III” (1990)

- Town Festival

“Back to the Future Part III”

All time travel films are defined in part by the machine that makes time travel possible, and in our opinions, the first reveal of the DeLorean defined the tone of the series to come. In our minds, we were echoing Marty as he comically exclaimed “You built a time machine, out of a DeLorean,” and when Doc revealed the vehicle was the world’s biggest remote control car, we knew we were going to have a fun time. We might have seen some serious shit, but we had a glorious time doing it.

Do you agree with our list or are you chicken? What’s your favorite “Back to the Future” moment? For more momentous Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.