#while marty is sent back to 1985

[ursaspecter]

what i say: i'm fine

what i mean: in the back to the future telltale game in episode 1 doc was talking about how jules and verne were already getting ready to go to college. and its just not brought up again. what the fuck. at that point marty hadnt seen him since october 1985 and it's may 1986 now. and this was before the idw comics so there was nothing to fill that gap yet. marty's best friend has been gone for so long his own kids are around marty's age now. i love the game and it's my favorite extension to bttf but holy shit why did they do that. i know in the end the timeline gets so changed around that the browns have been living in hill valley since the end of part 3 but marty wasnt around for that. this is another whole new doc he has to get to know now. how many times must marty lose his best friend to time travel

[knickynoo]

what do you think alternate 1985 Marty was like?

Ok, so, I LOVE thinking about 1985A Marty!! We see him for a bit in the "Biff to the Future" comics, but I've mentioned before that I feel like they sort of dropped the ball there. There was so much they could have done with Alt '85 Marty, and they honestly didn't do much. He was just...Marty. And while I like the idea that a lot of who Marty is remains the same no matter the timeline, I have a hard time believing such an awful upbringing wouldn't impact him in some way. Some thoughts!

• I do think there would be that element of "Marty is Marty," even with growing up in '85A. At his core, Marty is kind. He's protective of his loved ones, strives to do the right thing, and puts others first. I don't think that would change.

• However, I see '85A Marty maybe having to hide those characteristics under a bit of a hardened shell. This is out of necessity and a result of being exposed to a lot of horrible things from a young age. He was so little when George died, so likely all he remembers is a world where Biff is his step-father, his mother is miserable, and violence is a daily occurrence. That good heart is still there, but Marty figures out pretty quickly that he's got to keep it under wraps a bit if he's going to survive.

• It's interesting because while our Movie!Marty is a fairly anxious little guy, I don't see '85A Marty as really having any significantly higher anxiety levels. I mean, you would think he'd be a barely functioning anxious mess, but I actually think all the pressure and stress and fear would force him into a state of "I can't waste TIME worrying." He becomes a very take-charge person. Focused on whatever situation is currently taking priority while the anxiety takes a back seat.

• As Alt Biff says in part II, Marty is absolutely a "little hothead." He tries to be careful, and he's able to tread lightly when needed, but it's just not possible in certain situations. Mainly, these are situations involving his mother's safety and well-being. If she's being threatened or hurt, he just does what's needed to help, even if it means he's going to pay for it after.

• Though Lorraine does her very best to protect and care for Marty, there are times she simply can't. And when it gets to be too much and she's lost in the sadness and alcohol, Marty steps in to be there for her. In a way, he learns how to act as a parent of sorts from a young age, guiding and taking care of his mom when she needs it. With Dave and Linda's own issues (and the fact that they're rarely around), he's often all Lorraine has.

• The moment Marty was shipped off to his first boarding school, he started acting out and doing whatever he could to get himself kicked out. He knew it was Biff's way of getting rid of him—taking away Lorraine's main source of protection—and wasted no time in sabotaging the plan. In some ways, it was hard for Marty because he really had to do some bad stuff (and it tugged solidly at his conscience) but he had no choice. He had to get back to his mother. So, every time Biff sent him somewhere new, Marty immediately got to work making himself a Nightmare Student. He gets very good at causing trouble. I think he also forms alliances with other students who become aware of his situation and help him to get kicked out as well.

• So. I have this hc that just popped into my brain where Biff actually tries to like...mold Marty into taking after him when Marty is little? Because Marty is so young and impressionable when George dies and Biff enters the picture, I can see Biff being like, "Maybe I can get the kid on my side." And it's not even that he likes or cares about Marty, he just sees someone he can turn into an heir of his twisted empire. Even have it be a slap in the face to George's memory to have his youngest son turn into a mini Biff Tannen. But Marty is stubborn, loyal, and sees right through Biff, so he resists every act Biff tries to put on to impress him. In turn, this makes Biff hate Marty even more in the long run.

• In the comics, there's a secret resistance group that keeps trying to find ways to take Biff down. George and Doc were both part of it, and I like to imagine that Marty gets involved in some way as well. He's a source of valuable information since he lives with Biff, and I think Marty also does a whole lot of sneaking around to keep up to date on what Biff is up to. He doesn't tell Lorraine about his involvement, though, because he doesn't want to put her in danger if Biff grows suspicious, but Lorraine definitely knows. She just turns the other way and silently prays nothing bad will happen.

• Marty has a tough time in terms of how the citizens of Hill Valley see him. He's disliked by a lot of people automatically because he's Biff's stepson, and they're wary of him. They don't know if he can be trusted. Others simply assume he's a spoiled brat living a cushy life with a rich family and resent him for having it so good while the rest of the town crumbles. So, he has very few friends.

I'm sure I could go on, but I'll stop there. I'd like to write a fic someday that focuses on 1985A Marty because he really does fascinate me. Thanks for the ask!

[averagedeadinsomniac]

We Got To Get ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ-| Marty McFly x Reader|pt-3 

pt-1|pt-2|pt-3

After she had went home back to Doc he has to explain his mom why she left so early. After dinner he went into his room to take a quick power nap before he left so he could gather his energy. He turned on his radio and laid down in his bed wondering what experiment they were going to do next. Next thing he knew he was rudely awaken by the ringing of his telephone. He picked up the phone groaning "Hello?" "Marty, you didn't fall asleep, did you?" It was the doc again. "Ah, Doc, uh no. No don't be silly." He totally did. "Listen, this is very important. I forgot my video camera. Can you stop by my place and pick it up on your way to the mall?" The Doc asked desperately. "Uh, yeah. I'm on my way."

And with that, he headed off with his skateboard quickly to Docs house grabbing the camera and back on the road to the mall. In the parking lot he could see Doc's van illuminated by the led light signs. His skate board skidded to a stop when he saw Einstein and Cypher in the lot alone. But where was Doc? "Cypher, Einstein! There you are. Hey, look. I really sorry about how she was talking about you earlier." He apologized rubbing his neck. "Its no worries. It wasn't your fault." Cypher let out a small smile but he knew it was still hurting her. "Have you seen the Doc?" just then he heard clacking coming from the van as is slowly opened and a car back out with a license plate that said outta time. The car came to stop and out stepped Doc carrying a clip board and pen in his mouth. "Doc!" Marty called gaining his attention. "Marty! You made it! Welcome to my latest experiment and this one is a doozy. The one I've been waiting for my whole life." He rambled excitedly. ""Uh, well its a DeLorean." Marty pointed out obviously. "Bear with me. All your question will be answered. Roll the tape and we'll proceed." He ordered pointed for he to move. "Is that a deco suit?" "Never mind that now!" Marty moved a couple feet back and hit record on the cam.

*REC*

"Good evening. I'm doctor Emmett Brown and this is my Daughter and junior assistant Dr Cypher Brown. We are standing in the parking lot at Twin Pines Mall. It's Saturday morning October 26, 1985, 1:18 a.m. This is temporal experiment number one."

He called Einstein over and rangled him into the front seat of the car and strapped the seatbelt onto him.

"Please note- that Einstein's clock in in precise synchronization with my control watch. Got that?" "Got that Cypher!" "Good." They ducked out from the car and closed the lifting door. "Have a good trip Einstein. Watch your head" Doc closed the door over him and Doc pulled out a remote control similar to the one you would find for a toy car or plane. "You got that thing hooked up to the car?" " Watch this." He fiddled with the buttons of the controller upon the controller. Wherever he steered the car would follow. The car sped around the lot until it finally faced them. "If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles an hour, you're gonna see some serious shit."

And with that he flicked a switch on the controller. He held the brake of the car and continued to hit the gas while the diameter kept going up and up. They looked at each other anxiously while Marty shifted side to side nervously. Doc flicked the switch once more, releasing the car and sent it speeding towards them. Marty went to move but Cypher held onto him before he could do anything and just as the diameter hit 88.4 miles the car seemed to start glowing and sparking and then just...Disappeared!

Two lines of fire raced under their feet where the car would be and they all looked at each other and for a loss of words. "What did I tell you?! Eighty-eight miles per hour!" The Doc yelled for joy and started jumping up and down and Cypher was soon after. She laughed excitedly ad jumped up and down with her father while Marty stood confused. "The temporal displacement occurred exactly 1:20 a.m. and zero seconds!" Cypher expressed excitedly but also noticing her lab coat caught fire a bit. "AH! Pat down! Pat down!" She stomped on the end of her coat. "Jesus Christ. Oh Jesus Christ Doc! You disintegrated Einstein!" Marty panicked. Calm down Marty. I didn't disintegrate anything." Doc pulled out a notepad and started writing. "The molecular structure of both Einstein and the car are completely intact." Then where the hell are they?" "The appropriate question is 'when the hell are they? You see, Einstein has just become the worlds first time traveler! We've sent him into the future!" He ran off pointing off into the distance.

"One minute into the future to be exact. At precisely 1:21 a.m. and zero seconds, we shall catch up with him and the time machine." Doc held his head dizzily while Marty tried to catch up his thoughts. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, Doc. Uh are you two telling me that you built a time machine..out of a DeLorean?" "If you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it in style? Besides, the stainless steel construction made the flux dispersal.."

Before he could explain he was interrupted by the beeping of his watch. "Look out!" They quickly dived and the car came speeding through where they stood and skidded to a halt. They slowly walked up to the car cautiously. It looked like the car was covered in dry ice or something. It radiated gas all around its body. Doc went to open it but he yanked his hand back and hissed in pain. "What? What? Is it hot?" "It's cold. Damn cold" Doc finally opened the door with his foot and revealed Einstein waiting inside.

"Ah, ha-ha! Einstein you little devil" Cypher went in for a closer look holding up their timers. "Einstein's clock is exactly one minute behind mind and still ticking!" Cypher ruffled his hair and picked him out of the car and he went inside the van. "He's alright." "He's fine. He's completely unaware that anything happened. As far as he's concerned, the trip was instantaneous! Thats why he's watch is exactly one minuet behind Cyphers. He skipped over that minute to instantly arrive at this moment in time. Come here. Ill show you how it works!"

They raced back over to the car and Doc hopped inside.. "First you turn the time circuits on." Doc flicked a lever and a device that read 'month-day-year-hour- min'. "It tells you where you're going, where you are and where you were. You imputes your destination time on this keypad. Say you want to see the signing of the declaration of indolence you type in July,4 of 1776. Or witness the birth of christ!. Oh! Here's a red-letter date in the history of science! November 5, 1955. Yes of corse November 5th, 1955." The Doc started laughing to himself, holding his head. "What happened?" "That was the day I invented time travel. I remember it vividly. I was standing on the edge of my toilet, hanging a clock. I lost my step, slipped and hit my head on the edge of the sink. When I came to, I had a revelation. A vision. A picture in my head. A picture of this!" He pointed to something behind the seat. It was triangular and had three main pivots that glowed and looked electric.

"The flux capacitor."

"Flux Capacitor?"

"It's taken me almost 30 years and my entire family fortune to realize the vision of this day. My god, has it been that long? Things really have certainly changed around here." He stepped out the car. "I remember when this was all farmland as far as the eye could see. Old man Peabody owned all of this. He had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees." he remembered his past vaguely as Marty took in every second he could. "This is, uh--This is heavy duty, Doc. This is great. Does it run on regular unleaded gasoline?" "Unfortunately, no. It requires something with a little more kick. Plutonium."

"Uh, plutonium. Wait a minute. Are you tellin' me this sucker is nuclear?!" Marty yelled surprised, putting the camera down. "Hey, hey, hey! Keep rolling there. No, this suckers electrical but I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatt of electricity I need." He explained. "Doc! You don't just walk into a store and buy plutonium. Did you rip that off? Cypher were you in on it?" He asked looking to Cypher next. Doc came striding back making his arms signal a no motion. "Of course. From a group of Libyan nationalists. They wanted to build them a bomb so I took their plutonium and gave them a bomb casing full of used pinball parts. Now come on! Let's get you two in some radiation suits."

"Jesus!"

★━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━★

After they were done getting dressed into their suits they walked back outside where Doc took out a case containing multiple warnings of radiation and carefully took out a red canister containing a red substance. He cautiously inserted it into the engine and it let out a soft hiss and he screwed back on the top. "It's safe now. everything lead lined." They took off their radiation helmets. "Don't you lose those tapes now. I need that as a record." He franticly checked over everything and in the process almost forgot his luggage. "Opps almost forgot out luggage. Who know if they got underwear in the future. I'm allergic to all synthetics and Echo has sensitive skin yet a high pain tolerance." "Wait, the future? You're leaving?" "That right. Twenty-five years into the future. I've always dreamed of seeing the future beyond my years and seeing the progress of man kind and I couldn't dream of leaving Cypher. Why shouldn't we? I also want to be able to see who win the next 25 World Series?" He laughed. "But but this is so soon! Does anyone else know?" Marty asked worried and panicked. "What about our trip Cypher?"

"What trip?" The Doc asked raising an eyebrow. Cypher looked around panicked looking for a way out of this conversation. "It's-- well! It's...nothing"

"Look me up when you get there"

"I doctor Emmet Brown along with Doctor Cypher Brown, are about to embark on a historic journey. Wait what am I thinking! I almost forgot to bring extra plutonium. How do I expect to get back? One pellet, one trip! I must be out of my mind!" His attention is drawn away from the camera by Einsteins barking. "What is it Einie?" He looks to the road and sees a van heading straight towards them.

The Libyams.

"Oh my god. They found me. I don't know how but they found me. Run for it Marty!" He yelled dragging Cypher by her arm. "Who? Who?" "Who do you think?! The Libyans!" Cypher yelled pointing out to the other side of the parking lot. There were men yelling in Arabic with guns stop on top the van. "Holy shit!" He made a ran to the van and the Libyans fired bullets rapidly. the Libyans went to shoot Cypher but Doc in the nick of time covered her with his body and covering her ears taking the fire for her. "NOOO!" The Libyans noticed Marty a shot at him as well but he took cover.

"YOU BASTARDS" Cypher yelled through tears but they ignored her. The car circled around meeting Marty on the other side and he stood, frozen like a deer in head lights. And then he heard the pull of the trigger and...nothing. The Gun had stalled! The man shouted angrily in Arabic and Marty made a mad dash for it again he saw and heard Cypher sobbing and choking over her bleeding father. She couldn't look away from his cold lifeless eyes, his hand still holding her.

He died for her...

Marty came behind her trying to take her away from the lifeless Doc without crying himself. He dragged her kicking body to the car and yanked onto his lap and slammed the door closed. Her nails drew into his skin and she sobbed into his shoulder hard. He put the car in drive and slammed the gas. The Libyans chased after them still shooting relentlessly. He weaved in and out of their line of bullets and looked through the rear view mirror to see them wielding a fucking rocket launcher. "Holy shit! Let's see if you bastards can do 90." He shifted again until the lights around him started flashing he pressed harder into the gas and held Cypher close until...

[jerimystoltzcreations]

Sept 18, 2022 The Creative Multiverse presents: #scifitember #scifitember2022 Day 18 (Ancestry) 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, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, the story follows Marty McFly (Fox), a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean automobile built by his eccentric scientist friend Emmett "Doc" Brown (Lloyd). While in the past, Marty inadvertently prevents his future parents from falling in love—threatening his existence—and is forced to reconcile the pair and somehow get back to the future. #CreativeMultiverse #BacktotheFuture #art #artwork #artistofinstagram #artist #artistforhire #Custom #create #drawing #drawingaday #draweveryday #illustration #pencil #sketch #ink #colordrawing #fabercastell #copic #twitchstreamer #blickartmaterials https://www.instagram.com/p/CjRZQetsHQ-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[0aurelion-sol0]

"There's no place like gnome."

Stranger Things 3: The Game.

Gnomes 1-10. 🧙‍♂️

IT'S FINALLY HERE!

It's no secret that the Duffers take a lot of inspirations from Pop Culture. From the most well known movies to the more obscure comics, they are always able to sneak a reference somewhere everytime. And they are also able to make it connected to the story.

I've bragged about how the Stranger Things expanded universe in media is one of the best out there compared to many others. I think that the Duffers, the writers or people in the highest places of the marketing are really paying attention to what comes out of the ST franchise because there is no way to have such content with so many details without someone looking into them.

And ST3: The Game is a very good example of that.

So let's start! The first 10 Gnomes out of 50 that you have to find in the game.

BE AWARE THAT THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW!

"There's elements that could please those who makes metas/analyzes or theories. Especially things related to possible future plot points, easter eggs, references in previous seasons mainly season 3 like unsolved mysteries or unanswered questions and for future seasons such as season 4 like foreshadowing or teasers, trailers or as of lately the sneak peek."

If you have anything you'd like to add, might think I have missed or think it might be referencing something else don't hesitate to share it by commenting or reblogging.

(Say thanks to @hawkinsschoolcounselor for having helped me with some of them. )

_____________________________

Gnome #1: Johnny

"He's here... with an axe."

Overall plot:

"The film's central character is Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of the isolated historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Wintering over with Jack are his wife, Wendy Torrance, and young son, Danny Torrance. Danny is gifted with "the shining", psychic abilities that enable him to see into the hotel's horrific past. The hotel cook, Dick Hallorann, also has this ability and is able to communicate with Danny telepathically. The hotel had a previous winter caretaker who went insane and killed his family and himself. After a winter storm leaves the Torrances snowbound, Jack's sanity deteriorates due to the influence of the supernatural forces that inhabit the hotel, placing his wife and son in danger."

So I assume a lot of you know The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. A movie which was adapted from the novel of the same name by Stephen King in 1977.

There's a lot of things that could have served as an inspiration for ST.

A boy/child who has psychic abilities = Eleven has psychic abilities such as telekinesis. Will has his True Sight which consist in seeing what the MF was seeing and feeling.

Now there's also the theme of family and parenthood that is also a big theme in Stranger Things. Especially abusive parenthood such as Brenner, Lonnie and even Hopper to a smaller degree.

In Shining, Jack tries to kill his family with an axe due to supernatural forces that are in the hotel but there's a difference between King and Kubrick. While King specifically said that Jack was heavily influenced by the Hotel, Kubrick shows that Jack always had that sinister violence in him even before they arrived at the hotel.

It's interesting to draw a parallel to Billy and Will, both characters called William who tried to kill their families and other people while being possessed. But Billy compared to Will was shown to have been abusive even before that. Dacre Montgomery also said that he was inspired by Jack Nicholson's performance in the Shining for his character Billy.

Joyce and Jonathan were shown to get ready to fight the monsters by taking an axe.

It's also interesting to note that Jack dies in the snow while a blizzard is happening outside the hotel. Much like the storm of the Mindflayer who is in the Upside Down, the same Mindflayer who "likes it cold". While in the book, the Overlook explodes and burn.

(Cold vs Fire much like everything Upside Down related not liking Fire.)

Also "Johnny" = "Jonathan", it's kind of similar and Jonathan did wield an axe before. Maybe this is teasing parts of Jonathan storyline next seasons ?

The gnome was also found in Mike's basement, Mike who wants to be a writer when he's older just like Jack.

Let's just hope that Jonathan and Mike don't get the same fate as Jack.

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Gnome #2: Christine

"Two bright, beaming lights for eyes."

Overall plot:

"Written by Bill Phillips and based on Stephen King's 1983 novel of the same title, the movie follows the changes in the lives of Arnie Cunningham, an awkward and unpopular teenager, his friends, his family, and his teenage enemies in Rockbridge, California after Arnie buys a classic red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine, licence number CQB 241, a car that seems to have a jealous, possessive personality – and a mind of its own, which has a bad influence on Arnie. After working on a car in a junkyard owned by Will Darnell, Arnie drops his glasses, starts dressing like a 1950's greaser and develops an arrogant and paranoid personality. He than decides to invite and date the most beautiful girl in highschool, Leigh, who will soon become the next victim of Christine."

I was actually quite surprised by how this story parallels Stranger Things a lot.

First off, Christine is very much like The Mindflayer, a dangerous supernatural being set out to destroy anyone who is in her way, the people who tries to take the things that she thinks belongs to her or threatens her. This is very much relevant to The Mindflayer who after being hurt by the Fire created by the Hawkins Lab was upset and attacked everyone he could. Or as Will putted "Not me, everyone else."

This is very much like Christine who tried to kill Leigh because she was taking her place in the life of Arnie. Christine also tried to kill the bullies of Arnie who after a conflit with him, tried to destroy the car which angered Christine heavily.

The Mindflayer has been described someone who views himself as superior to other species and wants to conquer them, even if it's not his real "goal", the description fits anyone who is possessive and paranoid.

Both the MF and Christine are associated with the color red. Red storm = red color of the car.

Arnie ressembles Will and Billy alot. Will is an awkward and unpopular teenager who after being possessed by the Mindflayer became very different and more violent. Billy was shown to be paranoid, jealous, violent and his look even ressembles the one Arnie takes after repairing Christine.

Both of these boys have the same name as Will Darnell, the owner of a junkyard. Just like the boys in Season 1 who takes shelter in a junkyard, or in season 2 where they fight the Demodogs.

Billy dies, killed by the Mindflayer just like Arnie who was completely possessed by Christine who tried to kill Leigh and Dennis, his best friend after they tried to destroy the car when they realised the supernatural nature of it.

Billy's car ressembles a lot Christine with those lights on. Especially with shots like in the Void or at Starcourt during the night.

Chrissy, a new character that will be in season 4, the most popular girl in Hawkins High like Leigh, has a name that is the diminutive of Christine. It is said that under the perfect surface lies a dark secret. Much like the car Christine, while a beauty is actually a dangerous supernatural being. We'll see if the both of them actually connects in the show.

Also it is set in California where Billy and Max come from and has been rumored by many people due to set leaks (The Surfer Boy Pizza Van.) that it is where the Byers went. I won't get into it in this post but this could be a tease or hint of that IF the set leaks ARE true and not fake to mess with people and the fandom.

Arnie also dies in a car crash having been completely possessed by the evil powers of Christine which is something we see in the sneak peek of ST4. It also reminds of Carrie who has a bully named Chris who she kills in a car crash with her boyfriend Billy aka William.

So will someone die from that car crash ? Who is it ? Chrissy, Joyce, Lonnie ? We can only speculate.

The gnome is also found outside the Wheeler's house where Karen lives near the community pool where Billy works and where the car of Billy is located during the first few chapters of the game. Again, a "bad boy" hitting on the beautiful girl in town. (with a lot of creepy subtext all over it.)

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Gnome #3: Doc

"Always mumbling something about being late."

Overall plot:

"Set in 1985, in the town of Hill Valley, California, the story follows Marty McFly, a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean automobile built by his eccentric scientist friend Doctor Emmett "Doc" Brown. Trapped in the past, Marty inadvertently prevents his future parents' meeting—threatening his very existence—and is forced to reconcile the pair and somehow get back to the future."

So I don't think I need to explain why this is here given how much it has been shown and mentioned in season 3. But few things are interesting here, the fact that California is mentioned is a big deal for me again. I know you are aware of the set leaks just as I am aware, if we can trust them than this could be a hint of that location.

Next, we have the theme of Time. Now ever since ST4 was announced, clocks and times have been a key feature in the promotion. Who know what this might mean but again, we're not going to develop that in the post.

There is also the whole funny scenes of Robin realising that indeed Marty's mother had tried to "bang" her own son. Now given the nature of the shown, certain images in the show during certain events and certain stories, you know to what it connects and to which theories it connects. Won't develop further on it but it can be used as an element that can go into those theories.

The gnome is also found outside of Starcourt Mall where Robin and Steve talk about "Back to the Future". It is also where Billy has his "Back to te Future" moment with his car going extremely fast just like the DeLorean.

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Gnome #4: Indiana

"Master of Adventure."

Overall plot:

"After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritualistic human sacrifice in honor of the goddess, Kali."

Fun fact, on Twitter for ST3 promo, a parody poster of this same movie has been posted here of the official ST account.

Jim is obviously Indiana Jones, the look speaks for itself and when he is in the Tunnels in season 2, there's a lot of Indiana Jones imagery.

And of course Kali as 008, a Hindu goddess but as we will see here, it parallels more the Mindflayer.

In 1935, Indiana Jones survives a murder attempt by Lao Che, a crime boss in Shanghai who has hired him to retrieve the remains of Emperor Nurhaci. With his young orphaned Chinese sidekick, Short Round, and the nightclub singer, Willie Scott, in tow, Indy flees Shanghai on a cargo aircraft. While the three of them are asleep, the pilots (employed by Lao Che) dump the fuel and escape via parachute, leaving the plane to crash over the Himalayas. The three narrowly manage to survive by jumping out of the plane on an inflatable raft.

(I wonder if this could be something we see in season 4 with Hopper where he tries to escape on a plane and ends up crashing somewhere or is betrayed by someone who he asked the help of. Now it's a trio and in season 3, Jim, Joyce, Alexei and Murray are the main group that fits this trio. Jim for all the fighting and crazy shit, Joyce and Alexei are kind of like Short Round, they are the sidekicks of Hopper. Murray the role of Willie Scott since she speaks Chinese and him Russian and that Jim just like Indy finds annoying sometimes. Alexei is also kind of like Willie since he kinda goes along with them.

But if we also look at season 2, El is alot like Short Round since she is kind of an orphan too and has a father figure later on. It could also be Will since Hopper is with him a lot of times through season 2. Also Willie did felt out of her element like Alexei because of course he is Russian. Willie in itself doesn't have a lot in common with Joyce but still it's another connection to Will since she has a name close to the one of her sons. Something that does fit a bit more is Jim and Hopper both escaping death, of course Hopper at the end of season 3 but also during season 3 at the farm where he's being shot at by Gregori and than the car doesn't work and explodes and they have to make their way through the forest.

Willie Scott could also be referenced when El disguise herself as this pretty blonde girl in season 1.

Now however, Scoop Troops does fit certain parts of these trio. All the fighting with Steve like Indiana Jones but Robin got his brain because she cracked the code. Dustin and Erica are kinda like short round (especially Dustin who has kind of the same hat as short round.) and are referenced with all the others as children by Robin. Steve doesn't feel in his element like Willie with the three of them who are nerds just like Erica who also doesn't want to accept it. And Robin just like Willie speaks some languages.)

They ride down the mountain slopes and fall into a raging river, eventually arriving at the village of Mayapore in northern India. The villagers plead for their aid in retrieving the sacred stone (shivalinga) stolen from their shrine, along with their missing children, by evil forces in the nearby Pankot Palace. Indy agrees to do so, hypothesizing that the stone is one of the five Sankara stones given by the gods to help humanity fight evil. (It's kinda like Alexei who turns his back on the Russians, for his life of course and agrees to help Hopper close the gate to save Hawkins and their kids before monsters start to appear or may attack one of their kids. Now the stone could be something similar to the promethium or the two keys who opens the gate and is a highly valuable ressource. It also may be the Flayed who are needed to create the monster for the Mindflayer.)

The trio receive a warm welcome at Pankot Palace and are allowed to stay for the night as guests, attending a lavish, but revolting, banquet hosted by the young Maharajah. The officials rebuff Indy's theory that the Thuggee cult is responsible for their troubles. Later that night, Indy is attacked by an assassin. After Indy kills him, he discovers a series of tunnels hidden behind a statue and sets out to explore them, overcoming a number of booby-traps.

(This could be like when Hopper, Joyce and Murray disguised themselves as Russian soldiers but was than discovered by Grigori who attacks them.

The tunnels could be both groups discovering that there is a secret russian base underground and a gate which explains why there are monsters again in Hawkins but it also be the Source, Brimborn Steel Works, where the Mindflayer is lurking underground where he has cult-like followers who makes sacrifices for him to grow bigger and bigger.

It's also like the Tunnels in season 2 who explains why the soil of Hawkins seemed to literally rot. )

The trio reach an underground temple where the Thuggees worship Kali with human sacrifice. They discover that the Thuggees now possess three of the Sankara stones and have enslaved the children to search for the last two, hidden in the palace catacombs. As Indy tries to retrieve the stones, he, Willie, and Shorty are captured. Thuggee high priest Mola Ram forces Indy to drink a potion that puts him into a trance-like state in which he mindlessly serves the cult. (It's very much like Robin and Steve who after discovering the gate are catched by the Russians and than drugged to answer their questions. But also like the Flayed who drinks the chemicals and serves the Mindflayer like a mindless cult.)

Willie is prepared for sacrifice, while Shorty is put to work in the mines with the other children. Shorty escapes and returns to the temple, where he first frees Indy and, later, the Maharajah from the effects of the potion. Indy saves Willie and retrieves the stones. After freeing the children, Indy fights a hulking overseer and leaves him to be killed by a rock crusher. (Basically Dustin saves Steve and Robin. Willie being prepared for sacrifice is kind of like El prepared for sacrifice by Billy in 3x08 but also frees Billy from the effects of the Mindflayer by making him remember his mother, a pretty blonde woman like Willie and sacrifices himself. And Hopper fights Gregori, a "hulking overseer" and kills him.)

The trio escape from the temple, pursued by Thuggees, and barely escape Mola Ram's attempt to flood them out. They are again ambushed by Mola Ram and his henchmen on a rope bridge above a crocodile-infested river. Indy cuts the bridge, causing several of the henchmen to fall to the crocodiles and leaving the survivors to hang on for their lives. As Mola Ram and Indy struggle, Indy invokes the name of Shiva, causing the stones to glow red-hot and burn through Indy's satchel. Two of them fall out; Mola Ram tries to catch the third, but burns his hand and falls from the bridge and into the river, where he, too, is eaten by the crocodiles. (This can be connected to all the kids fighting in Hawkins with the Spider Monster. But the bridge could also fit for the key in the secret base where Hopper and Gregori fights. The gruesome death of Mola Ram is similar to the gruesome death that Gregori has.)

Indy catches the stone safely and climbs up just as a company of British Indian Army riflemen, sent by the Maharajah, arrive and open fire against the Thuggees to drive them away; the surviving Thuggees are soon cornered and arrested by more soldiers. Indy, Willie, and Shorty return safely to Mayapore with the stone and the missing children. (While it may end well in the movie, we know Billy and multiple people die, the Thuggees unlike the Russians have been captured while the Russians where all able to flee before the US Army arrives and Hopper is presumed dead. Only the children in both stories are alive but are probably traumatized for life.)

All in all we can see that this movie might have had a big influence on the plot of season 3 through many characters and more. It may have some hints about possible events for Hopper in season 4 or even beyond but that's about it for. It's a nice package of comparaisons and references though.

The gnome is found in the Hawkins Community Pool where Billy is. The same Billy who obeys mindlessly the Mindflayer and sacrifices people to it. Just like the Thuggees with Kali.

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Gnome #5: Chunk

"Posed in some odd dance maneuver."

Overall plot:

"In the film, a band of kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who want the treasure for themselves."

So first, let's get this out of the way, Sean Astin who play Bob Newby, our beloved who plays a character named Mikey.

The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure comedy film co-produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg. In the film, kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who want the treasure for themselves.

I wonder if this might hint at some Season 4 plot right here. The Hawkins gang faces the threat of Hawkins becoming a literal ghost down and might need to find something to save it. Also Willy like William, again Will is still there.

The Goonies include optimist lead Goonie Mikey Walsh, his older brother Brandon, the inventive Data, the talkative Mouth, and the overweight klutz Chunk.

Rummaging through the Walshes' attic, they come across a 1632 doubloon and an old treasure map purporting to lead to the treasure of legendary pirate "One-Eyed Willy", believed to be located somewhere nearby. Mikey considers One-Eyed Willy to be the original Goonie. (It kinda reminds me of Mike who got mad at Max in season 2 and told her they didn't need another party member. And he mentionned Will first right after him.)

The kids overpower and bind Brandon and make their way to an abandoned restaurant on the coast that coincides with the map; Brandon soon follows alongside Andy, a cheerleader with a crush on him ( there has been cheerleaders that have been reported in season 4 such as Chrissy.); and Stef, Andy's friend. The group quickly discovers the derelict restaurant is a hideout of the Fratelli crime family: Francis, Jake, and their mother. (Maybe it is both a reference to the Russians in season 3 who have a hideout under the mall who have many restaurants. Or the Lab who OBVIOUSLY does a lot of illegal activities. )

The Goonies find a tunnel in the basement and follow it (like the tunnels made by the Mindflayer in season 2), but when Chunk flags down a motorist to go to the sheriff’s station, he gets abducted by the assailants and imprisoned with their hulking, deformed, younger brother Sloth. (This is obviously like Dustin who befriends Dart in season 2, a literal Demogorgon in the making.)

The Fratellis interrogate Chunk until he reveals where the Goonies have gone, and begin pursuit. Chunk is left behind with Sloth, but befriends him. After Sloth frees both of them, Chunk calls the sheriff, and both follow the trail of the Fratellis. (This is very reminiscent of Hopper in season 1 who gets interrogated by Lab agents or Steve and Robin by the Russians.)

The Goonies evade several deadly booby traps along the tunnels, while staying ahead of the Fratellis. Finally, they reach the grotto where Willy's pirate ship, the Inferno, is anchored. (Will also has a ship, the rainbow ship he drew for Joyce, also Inferno literally means Hell just like what Hawkins has been called.)

The group discovers the ship is filled with treasure, and they start filling their pockets, but Mikey warns them not to take any on a set of scales in front of Willy, considering that to be their tribute to him. As they leave the ship, the assailants appear and strip them of their loot. They start to bind the Goonies and make them walk the plank, until Chunk arrives with Sloth and distracts the assailants long enough for the Goonies to jump overboard and swim to safety. (It's the opposite of the season 2 finale, where Dustin has to distract Dart so that the other could pass through the tunnels.)

The Fratellis proceed to grab all the treasure they can, including those on Willy's scales; this triggers another booby trap that causes the grotto to cave in. With Sloth's help, the Goonies and Fratellis barely escape.

The two groups emerge on Astoria's beach, where they reunite with the Goonies' families and the police. The Fratellis are arrested, but Chunk prevents Sloth from also being taken; he invites Sloth to live with him, which Sloth accepts. ("Unfortunately", Dart compared to Sloth probably died.)

As the kids describe their adventure to their parents, the Walshes' housekeeper, Rosalita, discovers that Mikey's marble bag is filled with gems he took from the ship and had not been seized by the Fratellis. Mikey's father triumphantly rips up the foreclosure papers, declaring they have enough money to negate the foreclosure. As the Goonies celebrate, they see the Inferno, having broken free of the grotto, sailing off on its own in the distance. (Could it be hinting at a possible happy ending for Stranger Things ?)

So Fratellis, is similar to fratello which means "brother, fellow, neighbor" which perhaps could be a reference to the Mindflayer who is kind of our neighbor since he is basically in the same places but in the Upside Down. The Mindflayer also has been paralleled to Billy and other abusive father figures. Billy who is the brother of Max. He has also been paralleled to Kali through his anger and him attacking people who hurted him or might hurt him. Could in itself The Mindflayer should be taken or seen as some sort of family figure ? Maybe him being always associated with Will The Wise especially in 2x04 or someone who has the name Will like Billy is a connection. The same Billy who also parallels Russians who just like the Fratellis have secret hideouts.

Though the Fratellis are more motivated by greed which fits Brenner, Lonnie (who tried to use his son's death to gain money.) or Russians most.

Now Willy, Willy is a captain. Maybe it could be hinting at the fact that Will has more importance to the story than we think. There's also Inferno, "Hell" which is Hawkins but also the name of the ship. And Will has a rainbow ship... Could Hawkins be the ship of Will where his adventures are taking place ?

As for the dance... well as you've seen upper in the post: it's the "Truffle Shuffle Dance". It's something that Chunk has to do before entering Mikey's house. It's similar to what Dustin do at the beginning of season 1 to the bullies when he makes his bones crack due to his medical condition, cleidocranial dysplasia.

As for where this gnome is located, it's in Weathertop where Cerebro is located which is fitting since Dustin has a lot of Goonies as inspiration for his character.

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Gnome #6: Elvis

"He's not dead!"

"Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known simply as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy." - Wikipedia.

It is a lot known that people in the 80's thought that Elvis Presley was still alive due to his status and the aura he had as a celebrity. However, no matter how appealing this myth may be, he died of an excessive usage of prescription drugs which reminds me of Nancy who said she thought Tom was on drugs when he fired her and Jonathan while he an the Flayed were drinking chemicals. He also died in 1977, the same year "Heroes" by David Bowie came out which is a song that was used two times when we thought a character died when he was actually alive which are Will and Hopper. Will and Hopper both have a lot of rock in their Spotify playlist.

Also, I personally think that Steve has kind of an Elvis Presley aura to him especially in season 1. After all, Steve has a nickname "King Steve" and Elvis Presley is often nicknamed "The King" and both were popular with girls.

Fun fact: Dacre Montgomery who plays Billy who literally becomes the new "King" of Hawkins will play in the biographical music drama "Elvis" about Elvis Presley where he will play a character called "Steve Binder".

Also actor David Harbour also got married with singer Lily Allen by Elvis in Las Vegas.

It's also found hidden behind bushes near the Public Library. Maybe indicating that Elvis is still out there in the world and hiding.

Which also may be a reference to Brenner who has a similar haircut but also about the novel "Suspicious Minds", a prequel of ST taking place in the Lab when Brenner was doing his sinister experiments which is the same title as one of the songs of Elvis. Like Elvis, Brenner is still out there, hiding in Hawkins.

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Gnome #7: Jack

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull gnome."

Again another reference to Shining. So what you are seeing here is a proverb, it means:  "It means that without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring."

In Shining, it represents Jack's slow descent into madness. But it could be a reference to Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy who all work their asses off and don't take a lot of time for themselves and so don't have the time to explore anything else than work which also cause for them not to be there when Will got kidnapped. It may also represent Jonathan's words to Nancy in season 1 where he "called out" the boring life she will have and that she will live like her parents so in this case the proverb becomes about societal norms.

Mike just like Jack is an aspiring writer, Mike just like other members of his family falls into these societal norms that are expected like work and overworking in this instance which makes them boring in the eyes of people like Jonathan. "No play" may also reference D&D which Mike started to ignore in season 3 and worried more pointless and superficial things.

Again, hope it doesn't foreshadow anything for these two characters.

This gnome is found in the Library which is fitting considering Jack wants to be a writer.

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Gnome #8: Flynn (Flynn Rider from "Tangled" (2010))

"Looks like he rides well."

Overall plot of Tangled (2010):

"The film tells the story of Rapunzel, a lost, young princess with magical long blonde hair who yearns to leave her secluded tower. Against her abusive foster mother's wishes who kidnappee her when she was young, she accepts the aid of an intruder to take her out into the world which she has never seen."

This story is literally what the boys was arguing about at the end of season 1.

1)The lost knight...

Flynn Rider is actually the son of a king and queen that were from a kingdom that got destroyed by a powerful opal. He was evacuated and placed in an orphanage. He made his reputation as thief.

So Mike and El both parallels this guy, well Mike is a palladin in D&D and he is the son of a wealthy family so he is basically a night. El however also lost her parents like him and has more attributes of a knight in season 1 than Mike.

Flynn is arrogant, which Mike can be a bit sometimes but the both of them can be extremely courageous and care a lot about the people they care about though they are not very strong, nor athletic. Maybe Flynn a bit more.

Also fun coincidence Flynn = Finn, the name of the actor who plays Mike. (almost the same name).

Both him and El run into each other in the woods. Just like Flynn who discover Rapunzel while trying to enter Rapunzel's tower but is knocked out by her who is none other than the...

2)The proud princess...

Well first Rapunzel = Eleven. Both of these girls have magical powers and are used by an abusive and evil parental figure who needs them for their own interest, Mother Gothel used the powers of Rapunzel to stay young forever (like an addiction, a drug) and Martin Brenner aka "Papa". They are both locked away somewhere. El in the lab and Rapunzel in the tower which they both seeked to escape out of. Both believed that these parental figures loved them while it was not true. El also has long blond hair in season 1 like Rapunzel. And both quickly form a relationship with a boy they just met. Both don't know who their real parents are and wants to find them. While Rapunzel has long blonde hair, El had a shaved head.

Also in season 2, El is locked in a cabin in the woods because of Hopper because he believe it is not safe out there which is exactly what Mother Gothel tells Rapunzel. Just like her El disobeys and seeks to discover who her true parents are.

Rapunzel seeks to know what are those floating lights that always appear on her birthday, it is actually her parents who are the king and queen of a kingdom not so far away that do that every year hoping one day she will come back to her. She is a "lost princess". It is very similar to Terry Ives who was communicating through the lights to El.

Rapunzel's power comes out of something that is also connected to something famous in ST.

3) Weird flowers in the cave...

Rapunzel's power come from a flower called "Sundrop flower". = Sunflower which is said by Terry Ives.

This flower can pretty much heal anything including mortal wounds. The Queen got pregnant with Rapunzel but was also terribly sick so she took this flower to heal herself and while doing so, Rapunzel got this ability.

This is very reminiscent of Terry Ives who was pregnant with El and took part in the MKUltra experiences that gave her these powers including certain drugs. She is also "ill" in a way as she is now stuck in a loop. At least from what we saw.

But Rapunzel also parallels another character.

Will Byers. Will could communicate through lights to his mother, just like the parents of Rapunzel and Terry Ives.

The weird flowers could be referencing the sort of vines that entered inside of him in the Upside Down which gave him his "now-memories".

Both had abusive parental figure that would lock them somewhere for whatever reason. (Lonnie with Will in his trunk.)

(Also Hopper may have tried to separate Mike and El but he wasn't like what a Lonnie or Brenner would have been. This is why yes, the situation in season 2 parallels but Hopper truly wished good for El while Brenner and Mother Gothel didn't care for any of these two.)

Same is for Lonnie, he doesn't care about Will.

Since Will is a cleric, both him and Rapunzel have the same time of power. Powers that El doesn't have:

To heal the sick and injured

To revive the dead

To work as a shield

Given this story, it may hint at the fact that Brenner and Lonnie may try to take El and Will for their own greed and purposes.

Since Rapunzel parallels both Will and El, you know what that means for Flynn who parallels Mike.

Flynn in the movie is stabbed by Mother Gothel and dies before cutting the hair of Rapunzel killing Mother Gothel in the process. Rapunzel mourns him and one of his tears heal him.

If Flynn parallels Mike, than something bad could happen to him. If Will does have powers and has feelings for Mike, a supposed death may reveal his powers.

And if he has the same powers as his cleric role, than he could heal those who get hurt or even bring the dead back to life.

If Lonnie sees Mike around Will, given he is homophobic. He may try to hurt him so that he doesn't go near Will again which could lead to him being in grave danger.

Of course all of that is just speculation.

This gnome was found on the parking lot of Starcourt where El decided to break up with Mike and we saw Will smiling in the background.

Also I don't know but... "Looks like he rides well", I mean there's certain undertones to that which are... I don't know how to process that but from what you've just read, Mike apparently rides well. I mean I have nothing against gay sex jokes but still...

Even if it's unintentional, it's how it'll sound on the internet.

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Gnome #9: David

"At 399, he's the oldest gnome around."

So this gnome was already in the first ST official mobile game. And this reminds me a lot of The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit but also and of course; Dungeons & Dragons.

The World of David the Gnome, originally titled David, el Gnomo (also known as David, the Gnome), is a Spanish animated television series based on the children's book The Secret Book of Gnomes, by the Dutch author Wil Huygen and illustrator Rien Poortvliet. The series was originally created in Spain by BRB Internacional (who were also responsible for the Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds franchise (Like Dart in season 2 and Mike, Lucas and Dustin where very much like the Three Musketeers in season 1.) and other cartoons such as Bobobobs and Around the World with Willy Fog)

The series presents the gnomes as a kind species, of 15 centimetres (6 inches) of height, and between 250 and 300 grams (8 and 10 ounces) of weight depending on gnome body mass. According to their habitat, different types of gnomes are distinguished: the ones of the forest, the ones of the garden, the ones of the farm, the ones of the house, the ones of the dunes, those of Siberia (David = David Harbour = Hopper = Hopper is in Russia), and nomadic "gypsy" gnomes (commonly looked down upon by other gnomes). A gnome's lifespan is usually 400 years, though there is one example of a couple in the Balkans living 550 years.

Gnomes such as the main characters live in pairs in comfortable caves or holes under trees [kinda like Hobbits] (in their case in the company of a pair of mice and a cricket). Their diet is mostly vegetarian. They are helped by the animals of the forest (kinda like Radagast who is the password to Castle Byers who is located in the woods) when travelling long distances or when they need to arrive quickly at a specific location. Gnomes work in various ways to repair the damage inevitably caused by humans. They also have the power of telepathy and mind control. (kinda like El or the Mindflayer, or even Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings.)

Their main enemies are the trolls, malevolent and clumsy creatures who always make trouble for the other inhabitants of the forest, as well as gnome poachers. They have supernatural powers that are really strong but they have a weakness, if the sunlight gets on them, they turn to stone.(could be referencing all the Upside Down creatures who don't like sunlight and everything hot.) [Also very much like the Hobbit.] Also one of the trolls was voiced by someone who had the name Henderson, like Dustin Henderson. I also think it references a comic where some bullies attack Will and Mike calls them trolls.

Here are the most important characters:

David is a gnome of the forest. David is 399 years old, making him the oldest gnome around (since gnomes live no more than 400 years exactly, except Franklin, the gnome from the west, who lived 550 years), although he possesses exceptional constitution. David is a doctor, and he uses his knowledge of many fields, such as hypnosis and acupuncture, to heal his patients, usually animals, such as his faithful friend Swift the fox, or other gnomes. David also befriends a bird that, when he whistles, immediately arrives to quickly transport him to wherever necessary. For longer trips, he sometimes travels in a basket attached to the neck of the bird. (It may be a reference to clerics who are known to heal their allies and travelling with birds reminds me of Gandald who sometimes has the help of Eagles in some stories.)

Paul is David's twin brother. Not only does Paul have a normal moustache in contrast to David's handlebar moustache but his jumper is a darker shade of blue, he has a bigger nose, his gnome hat is dark blue whereas David's is red, and his trousers and boots are an inverse of David's: David's trousers are brown and his boots are beige, while Paul wears beige trousers and dark boots. (Of course this is a reference to Will and El who have been compared a lot of times throughout the show and who a lot of people in the fandom consider them siblings and twins, Will has a lot of Red in his wardrobe while El has a lot of blue.)

This gnome was found in a secret Russian base underground in Weathertop where Dustin discovers the Russian transmission coming from their main base located under the mall like a cave (like where gnome lives.). There are also gnomes in Siberia and having the name David, the name of Hopper's actor creates a connection since right now Hopper is in Russia. It may also be a nod to the group of kids who are all little gnomes running around the forest with their magical powers.

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Gnome #10: Baskin

"Robin's favorite gnome."

Now this is a funny one.

This is a reference to the famous Baskin-Robbins which is a chain of ice cream restaurants that did special ice creams for Season 3 because of Scoops Ahoy. It is Robin's favorite gnome because they literally share the same name.

Baskin could also be a reference to the film of the same name where Five police officers, Remzi, Arda, Yavuz, Apo, and Seyfi, are dining at a restaurant, during which they have a discussion. Their meal is interrupted when they receive a distress call from Inceagac, a town known for being the focus of strange rumors. During the trip Seyfi has a terrifying vision of a bloody figure and accidentally drives their van into the water. Stranded, the officers eventually make their way to Inceagac, where they find themselves in an abandoned building (back in the Ottoman days, this used to be a police station), captured by cult members and are subjected to a number of increasingly bizarre and surreal scenarios. In the end, they realize they have all inadvertently wandered into Hell.

It has alot of similiraties with stories like Silent Hills or Hellraiser, two stories that inspired Stranger Things especially Hellraiser for Stranger Things 4. And it fully embraces the satanic imagery and themes which is something we are going to see with the satanic panic and also has the theme of time, dreams and visions.

We'll see how much season 4 decides to use those sort of elements in the show.

Well this gnome is easy to find. It's in the Scoops Ahoy parlor next to Robin. USS Butterscotch seems to be very popular there

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Gnomes 11 - 20 coming soon.

[rob-nobody]

A Match Made in Space

TITLE: A Match Made in Space AUTHOR: George McFly ORIGIN: Back to the Future (movie directed by Robert Zemeckis, 1985) The best-selling debut novel of George McFly! Theirs was a love that was cosmically ordained—or was it? Raylene was from Chicago. She was young, beautiful. . . and her heart belonged to another. Roger was from Kansas. He was young, ordinary. . . and an incident at age fourteen had caused him to shun the opposite sex. Garth D'Vade was from the Planet Culvan, where love was unknown. He was sent to Earth on a mission regarding the gate of the entire Universe—a mission involving Raylene and Roger. But what was his mission? And how could the lives of two young people have cosmic repercussions? Was Garth D'Vade, with his ability to create sonic frequencies powerful enough to melt a human brain, really a galactic matchmaker—or did he have a secret, insidious agenda? I. Fiction — Science Fiction — Blatant self-inserts II. Fiction — No, of course it's not based on actual events — W-why would you suggest such a thing III. Temporal anomalies — Alternate timelines (improved) This book comes from the alternate 1985 created at the end of Back to the Future, where Marty find his father is now a confidant and successful author just releasing his first novel, clearly based on Marty appearing in a hazmat suit as "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" who uses a Walkman and an Eddie Van Halen tape to threaten 1955 George into asking 1955 Lorraine, Marty's mother, to the dance where they fell in love. Will fall in love. Will supposed to have fallen in love. Whatever. ANYWAY, the official[!] summary up there is actually from the back of the "paperback edition" of A Match Made in Space that appeared in Back to the Future: The Ultimate Visual History [published, of course, on October 20, 2015.] This came with a bunch of fun paper doodads, including a dust jacket for A Match Made in Space. While I can't find the original source of the picture I used here, I'm 95% sure this is where it actually came from.

Oh, and according to the special Back to the Future II tie-in copy of USA Today that was released on October 21, 2015, a movie version of A Match Made in Space was released in 1989, and was considered a complete creative misfire with added martial arts and country-western songs. A more faithful remake is being mounted, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring, George McFly hopes, Christopher Lloyd as the alien.

Screenshot:

Official replica prop (probably):

[rose-tinted-juls]

juliana's comfort movies

updated: 15.06.2021.

dead poets society (1989)

main actors: robert sean leonard, ethan hawke, robin williams

short summary (imdb): "maverick teacher john keating uses poetry to embolden his boarding school students to new heights of self-expression."

why i love it (in a few words): incredible actors, loveable scenes, heartbreakingly good performance, perfectly written lines, i love robin williams, dark academia aesthetic, full of adorable (and attractive) characters

hacksaw ridge (2016)

main actors: andrew garfield, sam worthington, luke bracey, vince vaughn

short summary (imdb): "world war ii american army medic desmond t. doss, who served during the battle of okinawa, refuses to kill people, and becomes the first man in american history to receive the medal of honor without firing a shot."

why i love it (in a few words): incredible actors, ww2 movie, true story, inspiring and breathtaking, really graphic (this can be a warning as well)

little women (2019)

main actors: saoirse ronan, timothée chalamet, emma watson, florence pugh

short summary: "jo march reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the march sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms."

why i love it (in a few words): the aesthetic, so many incredible actors, i love this story (loved the novel and the original movie too), somehow it's so relatable, i absolutely adore greta gerwig

good will hunting (1997)

main actors: matt damon, robin williams, ben affleck, stellan skarsgård

short summary (imdb): "will hunting, a janitor at m.i.t., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life."

why i love it (in a few words): i love matt and ben and i'm so impressed that they wrote this whole thing so young, inspiring, somehow relatable even though i'm not a math genius, the aesthetic, the actors' performance oh my, as i already said i absolutely adore robin williams, young matt damon looks breathtaking (sorry not sorry)

the godfather i & ii (1972, 1974)

main actors: al pacino, james caan, robert de niro, robert duvall

short summaries (imdb): "an organized crime dynasty's aging patriarch transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son." and "the early life and career of vito corleone in 1920s new york city is portrayed, while his son, michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate."

why i love it (in a few words): for some reason i have a thing for mob things, i love al pacino (phenomenal acting talent, pretty attractive), this one's a true classic, literally oldie but goldie

dunkirk (2017)

main actors: fionn whitehead, mark rylance, tom hardy, harry styles

short summary (imdb): "allied soldiers from belgium, the british commonwealth and empire, and france are surrounded by the german army and evacuated during a fierce battle in world war ii."

why i love it (in a few words): i love christopher nolan's movies, ww2 movie, perfectly written script with all the needed things, so many amazing actors and characters, the cinematography

memo (2016)

main actors: tamás lengyel, áron molnár, péter haumann

short summary (imdb): "an ambitious psychiatrist is researching a strange and unique mental state: hypermnesia, just so he could help his amnesic father. when he finds a patient with hypermnesia, he decides to take him out of the mental hospital at his own risk and study him. an unusual relationship is formed between the two men, which starts to endanger the doctor's career, his marriage and even the patient himself."

why i love it (in a few words): it's one of the few hungarian movies that i truly love, amazing actors that i love so much, such interesting story, could watch whenever and endless amount of times

back to the future i, ii & iii (1985, 1989, 1990)

main actors: michael j. fox, christopher lloyd, lea thompson

short summaries (imdb): "marty mcfly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent thirty years into the past in a time-traveling delorean invented by his close friend, the eccentric scientist doc brown." and "after visiting 2015, marty must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip." and "stranded in 1955, marty learns about the death of doc brown in 1885 and must travel back in time to save him. with no fuel readily available for the delorean, the two must figure how to escape the old west before doc is murdered."

why i love it (in a few words): could watch endless amount of times, i love michael j. fox and christopher lloyd, they are perfect for these roles, it's funny interesting and so enjoyable, time travel

when harry met sally (1989)

main actors: billy crystal, meg ryan, carrie fisher

short summary (wikipedia): "the story follows the title characters from the time they meet in chicago just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years of chance encounters in new york city. the film raises the question: can men and women ever just be friends?"

why i love it (in a few words): so much fun to watch, honestly though somehow it's so fanfic like, these two actors oh my, this is the standard of romantic movies, it set the bar to high so no romcom ever could reach it, oen of my favourite romantic movies ever

about time (2013)

main actors: domhnall gleeson, rachel mcadams, bill nighy

short summary (imdb): "at the age of 21, tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. his decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think."

why i love it (in a few words): i love domhnall and rachel SO MUCH, bill nighy is in it and he's phenomenal, this is such an interesting concept, it makes me think and try to live my life with a more positive mindset, this is my other favourite romantic movie ever, it makes me feel so happy whenever i watch it, time travel

[tsukinikawatteus]

Smarty McFly

Recently I found myself really bothered with this one thing: in collective consciousness (and therefore, in the majority of fan-made content) Doc and Marty are perceived as an archetype “Brains and Heart” duo, with Marty being presented as this extremely cool and resilient teenager, though severely lacking in understanding of science/mechanics/any other intelligent activity. Basically, Marty is a dumb dumb.

Let’s look into this issue more carefully.

First, Marty considers Doc, the town’s nutcase scientist, his best friend and obviously spends a lot of time at the lab assisting with various inventions and experiments. We don’t have a solid answer on how long exactly they’ve been friends for, but the fact that they’re willing to risk their lives for each other? I say it’s been long enough for Marty to slowly develop interest in all the science-y stuff Doc’s constantly working on; by helping him out he totally should’ve gained some practical experience and has an idea of how things work, why they don’t work and how to make them work. Besides, seeing Doc so passionate about his inventions and listening to him explaining complicated processes in an entertaining way makes it quite difficult to not be at least interested in science.

With all that being said, it’s worth paying some attention to evidence. In one of the “Back to the Future” deleted scenes, we can see Doc rummaging through his 1955 lab looking for tools to examine the DeLorean. Meanwhile, Marty is trying to connect the JVC video camera from ‘85 to a ‘55 TV set. Doesn’t this seem kind of strange? Shouldn’t Doc be doing the “brainy” work as the local genius, instead of a 17-year old rock-and-roll loving teenager? Well, it gets better: Marty asks Doc if he has a 75 Ohm matching transformer:

and after getting a “What?” for an answer, he realizes it hasn’t been invented yet and he would have to come up with something else to show Doc the footage on the camera.

First of, excuse me? A 75 Ohm matching transformer? Is this what they taught kids in small towns’ schools back in 1985?

While Doc is inspecting his future self’s “personal belongings”, we can see Marty on the background, explaining what a hairdryer is and literally making the ‘85 camera work on a 30-years old TV set even without the 75 Ohm matching transformer or any help whatsoever.

Furthermore, here’s a Polaroid picture taken behind the scenes in Marty’s room set:

He has a fancy keyboard and a heart-warming photo of Jennifer, but that’s not the point right now. As we can see, there’s a yellow envelope - the one which contains the Pinheads’ audition tape, ready to be sent to the record company (Marty finally decides to actually send it and he is carrying the envelope after waking up in the new ‘85 timeline). What’s more interesting is the tangled wires, tools, empty tape cases, batteries, the Rubik’s cube and audio equipment the table is practically buried under. This leads to a conclusion that Marty worked on cutting and editing his band’s tape himself, making sure they sounded their best, and it requires solid technical skills, as well as decent hardware (maybe he borrowed some from Doc?).

Also, how fascinated, yet attentive he looks when Doc explains how the time machine works? Very nice.

To sum it all up, Marty is not a dumb dumb. He may have one brain cell, but this brain cell is extremely intelligent, into science, tech and everything in Doc’s field of work, eager to learn new skills and able to use them brilliantly when necessary.

[baby-harrington]

hi can i request a marty mcfly x female reader where shes from the future and he travels to the future and they fall in love and she teaches him how to use phones and stuff ❤ thank youu

girlfriend from the future - marty mcfly

hi! thank you for this lovely request :) I hope you enjoy💖

- you met marty when he arrived from the past

- ...into your front lawn

- obviously your house wasn’t built in 1985 so he didn’t expect anything to be there

- your dad heard an almighty crash and ran into the yard, cursing and yelling at the now beat-up delorean

- marty apologised over and over and helped to push it back out to the road again

- meanwhile your mum felt sorry for him and thought it would be nice to have him stay while he went about fixing it up

- he hesitantly agreed but felt better when he saw you looking through the front window in confusion

- at least he got to spend his time in the future with a pretty girl

- he headed in behind your parents, who introduced you to him and told him to make himself comfortable

- he sat on the couch on the other side from you, taking his jacket off as he did so

- “sorry for crashing into your yard” he said awkwardly

- “it’s okay” you smiled and turned on the tv

- his expression when he saw your large flatscreen was one of wonder and awe

- “wow, your tv... it’s so, flat?”

- “of course?” you said, confused. “why, you never seen a flatscreen before?”

- “no, actually”

- you were obviously puzzled but agreed to hear him explain his situation

- but first you headed upstairs, in case your parents heard

- once in your room, he told you all about where he’d come from in the time machine

- you were unsure at first, but when he explained it all you decided it would be best to believe him

- he was glad you did

- so he continued to stay at your house for a week, where the two of you actually talked quite a lot

- he was closest person to your age in the neighbourhood so it made sense that you’d be good friends

- you got close pretty quickly, and he was of course attracted to you anyway

- you thought he was cute and it was hilarious and adorable when he got confused by all the things in the future

- by the middle of the second week of him staying, the two of you decided to just start dating to see where it took you

- there was a connection and marty wanted to act on it, in case he didn’t come back to the future and see you again

- he didn’t even wanna leave though!!

- he wanted to stay in the future with all the cool gadgets and cars and other stuff

- and most of all he wanted to stay with you

- he was always interested in the little thing you carried around everywhere

- “hey, y/n? what’s that thing?”

- “this? it’s my phone”

- “as in like a telephone?”

- “yeah. but you can do other stuff with it and you can carry it around wherever”

- he looked so shocked at the idea of a phone without cables that was so small

- “what else does it do?” he continued

- “shuffle over here and I’ll show you”

- so he scooched over from his spot at the end of the bed and snuggled up next to you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder

- “you can use it to download apps, to play games or talk to people or take photos” you said then showed him all the different apps you had

- “you can text people instead of having to call them or send a letter” you sent a text to demonstrate

- “you can make videos, watch movies or listen to music”

- you opened spotify and played a song from the 80s that he’d know

- he recognised it instantly and looked so excited and shocked

- “you can play any song whenever you want? you don’t need a cassette player!”

- he was absolutely bewildered

- “can we take a photo with it?” he asked

- you opened up your snapchat and turned the camera around so you could take a selfie with him

- “woahhh” he said, looking at your faces on the screen

- you smiled at it and he copied, so you took the picture

- it was so cute

- you took some more, like one with him kissing your cheek and one where you squished your faces up together

- and you took some silly ones with different faces and filters

- he looked so amused and happy in the photos so you saved one and put it as your lock screen

- “I can print them for you too if you want, then you can keep them when you go home again”

- oh yeah

- 1985...

- he’d forgotten about going home

- “but I don’t wanna go home anymore!” he whined loudly, “the future is much better, plus you’re here! I can’t just abduct you back to the past”

- “I don’t want you to go either, marty. but my parents won’t let you stay forever. and surely your parents will be worried about you back in 1985?”

- “I don’t care about all that, I just want to stay here with you a while longer. I’ll only go when I absolutely have to”

- “okay.” you sighed, a little upset but still glad he was going to stay longer

- “I’m glad you crashed into my front yard, marty mcfly”

[aion-rsa]

Back to the Future Not Being Planned as a Trilogy Is What Makes It Great

https://ift.tt/34hAAGt

In the last decade, it’s become a common refrain among fans and industry players alike: the filmmakers should’ve “planned it better.” This trilogy could’ve been mapped out; those five sequels needed to be outlined first. Perhaps this is inevitable in an era where “shared universe” is part of the everyday vernacular, yet I cannot help but be amused when folks grow wistful over sequels with allegedly concrete roadmaps: franchises like Star Wars, Godfather… and the Back to the Future trilogy.

Whenever social media discussions about sequels or franchises that most smoothly told their sagas rear, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s little trio of time traveling adventures always spring to the forefront. With their economy of storytelling and strong fixation on characters, particularly lovable Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and eccentric Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), the three movies’ narrative is as stainless as the steel doors on the DeLorean. Even innocuous, seemingly throwaway details in the first movie turn out to have unexpectedly delightful payoffs in the sequels, such as the Doc’s interest in discovering who will win the next 25 years’ worth of World Series games.

Of course the irony in this is that Back to the Future was not planned as a trilogy; this was a “universe” structured around only one story, with its sequels acting as mere expansions on those initial foundations. Even the “cliffhanger” ending of the first movie, with Marty, Doc, and the original Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells) piling into a now flying DeLorean to “do something about your kids,” was never meant to be more than a gag.

“We never designed the first Back to the Future to have a sequel,” director Zemeckis confirmed on the 2002 DVD release of Back to the Future Part II. “The flying car at the end was a joke, and it worked as a great joke and a great payoff. Everyone assumed we had this grand design like George Lucas did about Star Wars and had all these sequels. My only hope for Back to the Future ever was that it would make its money back.”

He goes on to say that if he had planned on doing a sequel, he would’ve never put Jennifer in the final scene—hence why in the sequel, the character (recast with Elisabeth Shue) spends most of the film asleep on a front porch.

Said Zemeckis, “I would’ve had only the Doc and Marty be in the car, and then I could’ve put them on any adventure. But what happens when you make a movie this successful is it becomes a piece of real estate, it becomes a franchise. And the reality comes at you very quickly, which is ‘we’re making a sequel. You can either help us or not, but the sequel is going to be made.’”

Fortunately, that sequel was made with most of the key players who turned the 1985 film into an enduring classic still in place, including Zemeckis and his co-writer/producer, Bob Gale, at the top of that list. Indeed, it’s even fair to look at the success of the trilogy and conclude that world-building is overrated. What makes Back to the Future shine all these decades later, both as a singular film and an appealing trilogy, is it was always about developing an intriguing story, as opposed to an open-ended milieu of content.

The first movie was originally conceived of by Gale based on a simple epiphany. While going through his father’s old high school yearbook, he came across a photograph of the old man that revealed he’d been elected class president.

“I had no idea,” Gale told Den of Geek last year. “And I’m looking at this picture of my dad, and he’s very proper and straight. And I’m thinking about the president of my graduating class who was just somebody I would have nothing to do with. We were just in completely different circles.”

This raised a million-dollar question: Would he have been friends with his dad in high school?

The dawning realization every young person must come upon, when they realize their parents and authority figures really were young folks like themselves once upon a time, had never been captured on screen before, much less in a mainstream movie through the prism of science fiction. But that’s what the original Back to the Future script did with its yarn about an ‘80s teenager inadvertently traveling 30 years into the past to spend the week with his mother and father in high school.

Granted, it’s more than the premise that makes Back to the Future so winsome. While the movie unquestionably benefits from the striking social distance between 1950s teenagers and their ‘80s counterparts—with the sexual revolution, Vietnam, civil rights, and second wave feminism between the two eras—it still plays to kids another 30-plus years later because of its intelligence and timeless universality. Taking the concept of “Chekhov’s gun” to its breaking point, there is not a single element, character, or detail set up in the first act in 1985 that isn’t paid off once Marty travels back to 1955, and then paid off again when he returns home in the denouement.

Marty’s mom, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), attempting to micromanage her children’s love lives with apparent 1950s social values? Well, in the actual ‘50s, she was smoking, drinking, and had no problem “parking” in cars with boys. Mayor Goldie Wilson running for reelection in 1985? He’s a young ambitious man on the make in ’55 (and with a keen eye for a good campaign slogan). The clock tower that hasn’t worked since it was struck by lightning 30 years ago? It becomes the gosh darn centerpiece of Back to the Future’s climax.

Everything flowed together with the precision of an actual, working clock tower, and it worked in service to the self-awareness which springs from young people seeing their parents in a different light. Plus, Alan Silvestri’s musical score just made everything Marty and Doc did seem to have the import of charging across the frontlines.

Read more

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Back to the Future: Why You’ll Never See More Eric Stoltz Marty McFly Footage

By Chris Cummins

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Why Fan Response to the Back to the Future Sequels Changed

By Chris Cummins

So this proverbial little ‘80s teen comedy overperformed at the box office after ending on a teasing note that left viewers hanging. Zemeckis and Gale did not write Back to the Future to lead anywhere but the line “where we’re going, we don’t need roads,” but audiences (and the studio) wanted to see what was at the end of that skyway.

Thus Back to the Future Part II and Part III came into existence—but with the ambition of its creators to make them every bit as narratively complex as the first film they were borne out from. While the sequels were very much designed on the conventional wisdom that audiences want to see their favorite characters get up to the same shenanigans, Back to the Future Part II particularly subverts this. The sequences of the film set in the future of 2015 plays into “the same but different” by bringing nearly every actor from the first film back to play their same character at a more advanced age—or younger in the unnerving case of Fox being asked to play all of Marty and Jennifer’s children—but that sequence is then quickly jettisoned for something closer to It’s a Wonderful Life than Back to the Future.

Even when Gale first began conceiving of the sequels, he imagined Marty and Doc winding up in 1967 to “correct” the future. There Marty would again see his parents, George and Lorraine McFly, in shocking ways: George would be a college professor while Lorraine would’ve become a flower child, joining the hippie movement.

However, it was Zemeckis’ input that had the story fold into itself. Instead of just playing with different time periods and doing the same setup again, the director suggested using the third act of the sequel to enter the first movie from a different vantage point. He actually did what mainstream audiences supposedly want—basically remakes of the same story—but with a much more skewed sensibility with two Martys and two Docs running around, and all of them converging on a plot that involves further cliffhangers and switchbacks on the first movie, like an ending where the sequel’s Marty surprises 1955’s Doc Brown moments after Doc had sent Marty home. Now the Marty we’ve followed for the whole second film runs up behind the Doc to say, “I’m back from the future.”

Also in a quaint departure from how sequels are conceived today, the absence of Crispin Glover as George McFly in Part II and Part III stemmed from Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment failing to lock actors into sequel clauses. Back then, it was assumed movies were a one-off experience, and when Glover decided he didn’t want to appear in a sequel… well, there’s a reason George McFly had to die in the alternative 1985 ruled over by a Trumpian Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson).

All of these concessions and choices made on the fly were not preordained or sketched out, but the talent involved was so keen on connecting their limitations to previous successes that they made a satisfying three-part whole out of a one-off, and without getting bogged down by fan service or further world-building. Nearly every choice made in the Back to the Future sequels—with exception to the inexplicable development of Marty being unable to withstand the insult of “chicken”—organically built off character traits or story concepts in the first one, flowing into a self-perpetuating circle.

Sure, there are inconsistencies. Consider the way the third movie is seeded into the second; it betrays a looseness to the world-building when Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen’s photo in Part II looks nothing like the character design in Part III. But it doesn’t ultimately matter. The elements that really determine the films’ quality, such as character, structure, and dialogue, are airtight across all three pictures.

Strangely though, this connective tissue was hidden at the time of release. As Gale told Den of Geek last year, there was a resistance at Universal to let general audiences know a third movie was on the way until after they’d seen the second one. There was even a fight to exclude the trailer of scenes from the third film at the end of Part II (at Gale’s suggestion).

“The biggest fight that I had with the president of Universal when we were planning the release of Part II is that I was adamant that I wanted to advertise this as part two of the three-part Back to the Future series, part two of the trilogy, and he didn’t want to do that,” Gale said. “He just wanted to say, ‘This is part two. Let them find out about part three later.’”

Gale is convinced that lack of understanding that Part II was setting up Part III led to both films being somewhat underappreciated during their releases. Now their legacy is as tightly woven with the first film, as well, those early Star Wars movies are. To the point where Back to the Future is often singled out as this rare thing—a near perfect film trilogy. That might be true, but it wasn’t set up that way. There’s a lesson in that.

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The post Back to the Future Not Being Planned as a Trilogy Is What Makes It Great appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[knickynoo]

“Back to the Future”: Thoughts, commentary, and general ramblings on the (bonkers) novel by George Gipe. Pt 4

Parts: 1, 2, 3

Guess what? Posting another one of these today because I make the rules around here. Two-for-one special, everyone.

- After taking some time to enjoy the wonders of 1955 radio, Marty finally decides he should get moving and figure out how to get back to 1985. He wanders into town and to the cafe, where he tries to order his Tab and Pepsi Free, and Lou eventually brings him water and black coffee. We are told that Marty does not like his coffee black, and there's additional banter as he asks for Sweet 'n' Low and explains to a confused and impatient Lou that it's a calorie-free, artificial sweetener. And, as I've wondered in the past when watching the movie, I'm left curious as to if Marty's not wanting sugar is specific to this particular scenario--because he's already frazzled and sugar will make him jittery--or if he makes a point to avoid sugar in general for dietary or health reasons. I could see either one being true for this more mysterious book-Marty, but for movie-Marty I definitely lean towards the first theory. Especially seeing as, if movie-Marty is trying to limit his sugar intake, all of the sweets on his nightstand and shelf of his room tell me he isn't doing a very good job, lol.

- Marty tries to pay for his coffee with a 20-dollar bill, which makes Lou even more suspicious because what kid in 1955 is walking around with that kind of cash? Marty explains to Lou that he is, "a spoiled rich kid."

- When Biff is tormenting George in the cafe, he does deliver his, "What are you looking at, butthead?" line to Marty, which piques my interest since I've heard Tom Wilson has claimed to have added that little catchphrase on his own during filming. So either that isn't true or this book was in fact being put together while they were actively filming, and Biff's signature phrase was added in.

- Instead of just staring at George in wonderment and fear, Marty doesn't give a second thought to chatting away to his future father. Much like at dinner with his family, book-Marty doesn't shut up and tries to prove he knows George by doing the whole, I know your birthday and parents names, etc thing. One particularly interesting fact he drops is that George's father enlisted in WWI at 16, was sent to France, and then immediately sent back home upon his age being found out. George is understandably like ????? and Marty is having a blast messing with his dad's head, and then he tells George that he's his GUARDIAN ANGEL (book-Marty, why are you like this??)

- Marty goes to George's house, and he considers going inside but changes his mind out of fear of running into his grandmother. He's convinced she'll be able to "sense" who he is and it'll scare her. The book also makes mention that Marty was very close to his Grandma Sylvia, which is a lovely little detail. I've always wondered about Marty's relationship with his grandparents.

- After Sam Baines hits Marty with his car (we're told that Marty is crouched when it happens, and the fender hits his shoulder and head--ouch) the man kneels next to Marty and prays, "Please God, let him be all right. I can't afford to be sued." *gestures emphatically to Sam* Ladies and gents: Grandpa Baines! Would love to know more about this guy and his relationship with his grandchildren. Especially when it comes to him saying Marty is an idiot & his "You ever have a kid who acts that way, I'll disown you," line. Does Grandpa Baines soften up over time? Or is he just a difficult, critical kind of man overall, even when his own grandkids come along? Does 1985 Sam think his own grandson is an idiot?? (A thought which makes me sad)

- Mrs. Baines asks Marty how long he's been part of the circus, since his clothes are so funny. He's wearing green shoes and a t-shirt with a U.S. Patent Office facsimile. This:

I mean...weird for '55, sure, but not exactly "You look like you're in the circus" worthy.

- Okay. So. We are getting a much better picture of Sam Baines in the book than we're able to in the movie. So far, he is noted as being "gruff", speaking "coldly", and he snaps at Lorraine after a comment she makes. And Stella Baines is said to have "rather sad" eyes. Which is all making me lean much more towards the headcanon that he's just not a very friendly man and probably not too warm of a grandfather.

- Also, once Sam rolls the TV over to the table so they can watch, we get this: "Mrs. Baines sighed wearily. About the only time she commanded attention was during dinner hour. Now Sam had found a way to take that away from her. But she was wise enough to know she couldn't fight it." :(((

I suppose I'll end there for now. This book is weird in many ways, but I'm so enjoying it as a companion to the movie. Seeing as everything in here was, at one point, in the script is adding lots of great layers to the BTTF universe.

[ubuiltatimemachineoutofadelorean]

On This Day In

Back To The Future History

[12th November, 1955]

Weather Experiment

The younger Emmett Brown interacted with his 1985 self while setting up contraption to conduct Lightning which will power (1.21 gigawatts) and send Marty Back to his present

Marty Burns the Almanac and reverse Biff Timelines changes

March 16, 1973 Marty Father History Changes from Murdered to Hondered

May 23rd, 1983 Emmett Brown Committed changes to commended

9:30PM The Delorean is struck by Lightning and Doc Brown is sent to 1885

Lightning Strikes the Clock Tower 10:04 PM

[bonesgadh]

Okay so I think I’ve figured out a way in which Hopper can still be alive.

I think lots of us, if not most of us were left with the idea Hopper wasn’t killed in the blast. Mainly because Hopper is a character we all love and he is a fan favorite, but also because of that cryptic “No. Not the american” line the russian soldier says in the epilogue of 3x08.

I’ve spent the last twelve hours thinking of how a “Hopper is alive” scenario could work within the narrative of the show, and I think I finally have the answer.

But first, some evidence that could sustain our claim that Hopper survived:

The first scene from 3x01 features a russian experiment gone wrong, an experiment we are meant to believe is intented to open a gate to the upside down. When the machine explodes all the nearby workers‘ bodies transform into burnt flesh. The blast from 3x08 is technically bigger and at the moment of the explosion we see four scientists desintegrate, but they didn’t show what exactly happened to Hopper. I guess you could say the Duffers thought it would be too traumatic to show him burst into a thousand pieces but I find it interesting the camera focused not once but twice in the spot Hopper was standing before the blast.

I see certain similarities between Eleven’s “sacrifice” from 1x08 and Hopper’s actions from 3x08. They both knew what they had to do to ensure the rest would survive, they weren’t afraid to die to save others and their “deaths” were tragic because they were witnessed by people who loved them (Mike, Lucas and Dustin in Eleven’s case, Joyce in Hopper’s) and they couldn’t do anything to save them. The ending of 1x08 made it seem as if Eleven was gone—which was the Duffers’ original idea—but they still chose to leave things open-ended just in case, in the form of Hopper leaving the Eggos in the forest. When Eleven “sacrificed” herself to kill the demogorgon in 1x08 they showed her vanish, but it turns out she only teleported to the upside down.

There are reasons to believe they are aiming to do the same thing with Hopper. He apparently dies in the blast but there’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment that hints at the possibility he may be in Russia instead.

But in case he survived, how did Hopper end up in the other side of the world?

Here’s the possible explanation:

Hopper travelled through the upside down and onto Russia.

It sounds crazy but hear me out.

There have been lots of references to espionage in Stranger Things, Eleven herself was used to spy on russian officials. What if the russians found out about the gate she opened and the upside down, and they wanted to use it to their advantage?

What if the russians weren’t trying to open a gate to the upside down, but what they intended was to create some sort of portal to travel to the US through interdimentional travel?

In the context of the Cold War this could work like a charm for them. They could send weapons, men and equipment into the US without danger and without being noticed.

The first scene from 3x01 is set in Russia, where the original machine is being built and tested. However the machine Joyce destroys is in Hawkins, which makes me believe the one in Russia is only one end of the road, and the one in Hawkins is the other end. Like point A to point B.

Now, during season 3 there were many references to Back to the Future. They showed many scenes from the first movie and the poster can be seen in the background on at least a couple of occasions, and the mall’s parking lot remembles the one in which Marty went back in time. 

In case you haven’t seen the trilogy, in the final minutes of the second film ‘Doc’ Brown is riding the DeLorean in a storm and he gets hit by a lighting bolt, and he is accidentally sent to 1885. In the third and final movie of the saga Marty goes back in time to rescue ‘Doc’ and to take him back to 1985.

The lights that emanate from the mysterious machine that opens the gate look very similar to lighting bolts, and to the flux capacitor in the DeLorean as well. In fact, when they hit those poor workers in 3x01 it seems as if they are being hit by lighting.

What if the blast sent Hopper into the upside down through the gate and, because it is a portal, he ends up in Russia instead of in the upside down? And what if season 4 finds El and the gang trying to bring him back through that same portal, just like Marty tries to do with ‘Doc’ in BTTF3?

Also there’s another possible hint at this being true: Dustin’s transmisor.

Dustin brags about his transmitor being able to receive and transmit signals from and through long distances, which is proved twice in the season. What if “Cerebro” is a metaphor of what is happening beyond ground? The portal is able to link point A to point B, just like Dustin’s transmisor.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that “Cerebro” is located at the highest point of Hawkins, while the portal the russians are trying to build is located underneath. That’s a very blunt contrast.

I know this all sounds crazy and maybe I’m just grasping at straws, but I believe Hopper is alive and I will continue to do so until proven wrong.

[abouttiimeadjacent]

        unexpectedly propelled into the past by an unreliable time machine, marty was willing to risk another trip to get home to jennifer.  and, you know, there was the band, school, his family, but if there was one thing he was certain of while his own history was blowing up in his face, it was that he loved jennifer jane parker.  which is why another time traveller in hill valley just... really complicated things.

        marty tried to ignore her at first.  he was, well, shaken when they met outside his grandparents' house. understandably.  and as curious as he was to know why she was there-- he didn't think he needed her help.  he just needed to find doc.  doc would know what to do, how to get him home.  

        he sees her again the next day.  and the next, at school.  still, he's sure he doesn't need her help.  that day in the cafeteria though, kim hits biff with a lunch tray.  he deserved it, of course he did-- it was biff, but now not only did lorraine have a crush on marty, george had developed a crush on kim and, marty hated to admit it, but he had too.

        marty has to remind himself that he's just working with kim because, well, his continued existence depends on it.  that's it.  and, sure, you know, she's cute and everything and it was-- really good how she kicked biff's ass the other day but-- continued existence. that was also the goal here. focus, mcfly.

        they've got a schedule to keep the night of the storm, and even though marty can't wait to get home to jennifer (assuming the plan works out), he also can't help but feel like he's running out of time to do... something. he and kim get a dance in. they barely have time for it, but it was important somehow.  and the kiss. just between friends.  you know.  it had been a stressful week.

        outside the courthouse, marty surprises himself when he impulsively asks kim to go back with him to 1985.  he doesn't know why (he knows why) and finds he's just a little heartbroken when kim turns him down.

        he doesn't expect to see her again after that night-- and he loses the letter she slips into his pocket in 2015-- but when he finds himself back in 1955 under less than ideal circumstances, marty's not as upset as he should be because, well, kim is there.  after he burns the book, after doc and the delorean get sent back to 1885, and after yesterday's marty meets the lightning bolt in courthouse square, marty rushes to the clocktower not just to find this time's doc (though he could just as easily catch up with him at his house) but kim too, before she goes back to the future.

        he can admit now that he might be in over his head.  he needs her.  part of marty hopes that kim's sticking around because he asked her to and not just out of an obligation to see the situation through.

        over the next few days, knowing that his timeline is restored, his father alive, marty is able to enjoy kim's company without the threat of being erased hanging over him.  of course, there's the matter of doc being killed by mad dog tannen in 1885, figuring out who the hell clara is-- but they've nearly finished repairing the delorean and marty's sure they can sort things out no problem.

        marty is perhaps... a little overconfident upon their arrival in 1885 and things are off to a rocky start when he's almost attacked by a bear, falls down a hill, and crashes into his great-great-grandparents' farm.  the next day's not much better, when he runs into tannen and is nearly hanged.  he's especially grateful towards kim when she patches him up with a first aid kit from the future.  'you're the best.'  

        things take a decidedly drearier tone over the next couple of days.  the photograph of the gravestone, the realization that the old west might just kill him.  but the festival was a much-needed break.  doc was happy dancing with that schoolteacher he'd rescued, marty and kim had fun dancing their own future styles to the beat of the music-- and for a little while, it was fun.  

        until tannen showed up and brought the mood right back down.  and sure, it was impulsive what he did, but he couldn't have just stood there while tannen took a shot at doc and clara-- after all, hadn't they gone to 1885 to save doc?  but even he would admit how reckless it was to agree to face tannen on monday. this wasn't like dealing with biff in 1955.  he might die.  but he couldn't back down.  a combination of bravado and stupidity kept him from doing so.  anyway, marty figured he and doc would be meeting the train by then... long gone, until his friend had planted the idea of the train possibly being late...

        so it was with own mortality staring him in the face again that marty approached kim.  this could be his last chance.  it wasn't like going home, where at least he'd be, you know, alive.  this could be it.  tannen could kill him, or the ravine-- and if he didn't talk to kim he'd regret it for the rest of his life.  however long that was.

        he never expected her to reciprocate his feelings.  it was elating and depressing all at once because it did nothing to change what he was going to do tomorrow.  despite the repeated mantra of 'everything's going to be fine,' marty wasn't sure he believed it.  he still had to face tannen, still planned to meet the train, still planned on making it back to the future where he would see jennifer again.  and marty felt guilty that he'd nearly forgotten about her.  after doc's reassurances that she was fine where they'd left her sleeping on the porch, marty had become so focused on tannen and their plan to get home that he'd barely thought of his girlfriend.

        but at least kim seemed fairly certain things would work out, though maybe she was in denial as much as he was.  

        “Right now, I think we should worry about you – me? I’ll be fine. The worst thing that’s going to happen to me tomorrow is –”  She stops short, because she’s not sure if she can say the words – she manages to harness the courage to after a few moments.  “– is possibly losing you. And that’s not going to happen. I don’t care if I have to use my chronomanipulator to go back in time and stall, or steal Tannen’s horse or something – you’re making it out of here alive, and we’re getting you back to 1985. Alright?”

        monday morning, after the showdown, after securing the train and readying the delorean, they say their goodbyes.  they agree to meet up in the future.  they set a date.  marty's sure their plan will work out, and it does, more or less.  doc and clara end up riding off on the hoverboard but they're alive and marty's-- well, he nearly died when the train ran over the delorean but he's survived too.  

        only no delorean means no future.  it means doc is stuck in the last century and marty won't see kim until he's almost fifty.  of course, he does see doc again-- and clara and their family.  it's uplifting for a little while.  maybe they'll come home soon, home to the here and now and maybe marty'll be able to get a ride to the future.  but they don't, and he doesn't and without anyone to talk to about everything that happened... things aren't easy for marty.

        months later he and jennifer have broken up.  a mutual thing, and for the best, but that hadn't made it any easier.  not with everything else.  doc is still gone, had been since October.  he's been having nightmares-- about doc, about how he fits in.  it's why a letter he wrote to kim goes unsent. what if it didn't matter what they'd felt back in 1885 if he technically wasn't even the same marty she met in 1955?  

        in june 1986, after the appearance of a new delorean and the start of a new adventure-- and after his return home, marty tried to forget about the letter.  it wasn't in his room, so he figured that maybe he hadn't even met kim in this timeline. this was especially upsetting since nothing else seemed different.  doc and clara were still together, his parents were fine, but he and jennifer were still broken up, though at least she was still his friend.  that hadn't changed.  and even if she didn't know exactly what he was going through, she still knew how to help.  she sends the letter, bringing kim to 1986...

[itsblosseybitch]

Off-Hollywood Producers: Interviews with Griffin Dunne & Amy Robinson by Clarke Taylor (Sept 1985; Part 1)

It could be said of Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson that, as producers, they represent the refined essence of what independent film-making in America, in 1985, is all about. By their own admission, they live “charmed lives” as producers. They have managed to make the movies they wanted to make, the way they wanted to make them: humane films about people living and struggling through their particular time, made on single-digit budgets--from $2.5 million to $4 million ($5.9 million to $9.5 million in 2019) --unheard of these days in Hollywood. (OP NOTE: God damn this sentence aged well) And they are doing all of this at a comfortable distance from Hollywood, in New York.

There were two films--Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter (co-produced with Mark Metcalf), released by United Artists in 1979 as Head Over Heels, and re-released by UA Classics in 1982 with the original title of the Ann Beattie novel on which it was based, and John Sayles’s Baby, It’s You, distributed by Paramount in 1983. Now Dunne and Robinson are hoping that After Hours, directed by Martin Scorcese, will be their “breakthrough” film. Its $4 million budget was financed through a bank loan (as was Baby, It’s You) and was picked up by the David Geffen Company for distribution through Warner Bros.

After Hours in one way represents a synthesis of what Dunne and Robinson , both of whom started out as actors, say they want to do: focus on both the creative and the business side of film-making. For Dunne, who has pursued his acting career in films such as An American Werewolf in London, Johnny Dangerously, and Almost You, Scorcese’s new film may also mark a turning point. Dunne plays the leading role in the film, a nightmarish New York comedy, heading a cast that includes Teri Garr, Cheech and Chong, and Rosanna Arquette. 

Whatever the outcome for Dunne, he and Robinson have two other feature films in development: The Foreigner, a comedy by Larry Shue, at Disney, and an untitled project at Lorimar, based on the producers’ own story idea about the children of sixties underground radicals. They are thinking about producing a third property, The Moonflower Vine, a “family saga” by Jetta Carlton, as a television miniseries.

(OP NOTE: The Foreigner never materialized, and so far, I have no information as to why. The film about sixties underground radicals would eventually become Running On Empty (1988), directed by Sidney Lumet and starring River Phoenix and Martha Plimpton. The Moonflower Vine didn’t materialize either, but I found a blog post by writer Kathleen Rowell about that project, who was going to adapt the screenplay.)

Question: How do you see yourself--as an actor or as a producer?

Griffin Dunne: I always see a hyphen between those two words. It’s just that one always takes precedence over the other, depending on the project. Certainly I’ve made very different choices as an actor than I have as a producer, up until now.

Question: How have the choices been different, and what do you mean, up until now?

Dunne: I’ve acted in films I would have never produced, and I haven’t been very selective, or taken the films very seriously. Often it’s been because of the pay, or because I’ve liked the people who were involved, or because I thought I might do a good enough job with the character I was playing to get the next  job. I’ve cared much less about the overall movie, the director, or how well it might do at the box office. After Hours has revitalized my interest in acting: it’s really inspired me.

Question: This is what you mean when you talk about taking your future acting choices more seriously?

Dunne: Yes. With this film I think I’ve crossed the line that divided my acting and producing choices. Now, as an actor, I’m taking into consideration all the things I’ve always thought about as a producer: Am I repeating myself? What about the overall film? Who’s the director? I don’t want to make a nothing picture next, no matter how I  might shine. 

Question: You started out as an actor, rather than as a producer. 

Dunne: Actually, I set out in another direction altogether. I wanted to be a journalist. But there was a guy at my boarding school [Fountain Valley, in Colorado] who talked me into auditioning for The Zoo Story, the Edward Albee play, and this changed my direction, my life. I got that part. It was at this same school where I got caught smoking dope and was kicked out. (OP NOTE: He also got cast in the school’s production of Othello, playing Iago. What I would give to see that)

Question: But you continued to act?

Dunne: Yes, back in Los Angeles I very quickly got roles in TV series, such as Mannix (OP NOTE: will have to track this one down), but I also realized that I was not going to learn how to act from television. I started studying, but I only lasted for about eight months. I enrolled in a kind of let-it-all-happen class, with a lot of weird people, including Miss Linda Lovelace. It was very unsatisfying, very disillusioning-it was a terrible class, that’s what I’m trying to say. 

Question: What did you do?

Dunne: I headed for New York and enrolled at the Neighborhood Playhouse. I also started to go up on auditions, and in no time I got an audition for a segment of Kojak [the TV show]. It turned out I didn’t get the part, but at the time I thought everything was going to happen incredibly fast. Instead, for the next four years, I continued to read Backstage and go up on auditions for plays that never happened. I also waited on tables, which I hated more than anything.

Question: What was this period like for you?

Dunne: Very discouraging. There was this one woman with a long Russian name who claimed to be the writer and director of a new play, who was the first to say to me, “You’re going to be great.” She said I was perfect for the part she was casting in her play, so she sent all the other actors who had come to the open casting call home, and took me out for coffee. I soon realized that she was stark raving mad, and then I realized she was a bag lady. I also realized that anyone can hold open casting calls in an effort to meet people, although this is one trick I haven’t employed yet as a producer. 

Question: It was during this period that you met Amy Robinson?

Dunne: Yes. I met Amy and Mark Metcalf, another actor, and eventually our co-producer on Chilly Scenes of Winter. None of us were getting much work, so to keep ourselves busy we tried to mount an off-off-Broadway production of a Sam Shepherd play, Cowboy Mouth. We never did. But one day Amy showed us Chilly Scenes, and we became interested in producing the film.

Question: Once Chilly Scenes was out of the way, did you set out on a plan of action to produce more, to act more?

Dunne: At that point, we had no game plan. We were just three actors who produced a movie. But interest was generated in us; suddenly, we were New York producers. 

Question: Is there an advantage to being based in New York?

Dunne: Well, we’re here in part because there are fewer producers here. We’re also here because none of us wanted to live in Los Angeles; we go there to pitch our projects. But there are also a lot of creative people who are known here before they go to L.A. and become famous. We can also shoot a film on a smaller budget here because the NABET [The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians] crews are here; we’ve used these crews on our last two films.

Question: Did either of you think of directing  after Chilly Scenes, instead of producing, since you all came from the more creative side of the business?

Dunne: Our first inclination was to continue to produce; I don’t know why, except that we had no directing experience. Also, it was at the time Sylvester Stallone started to direct the Rocky films, and it seemed at every meeting [with a studio] someone would say, “Now, you don’t plan to direct...?”

Question: How did you come upon the script for After Hours?

Dunne: Amy was handed the script, which is by a first-time scriptwriter, Joe Minion, while she was lecturing at Sundance [Robert Redford’s film study center in Utah] a couple of years ago. She read it, saw it as a vehicle for me, and we optioned it. Naturally, I agreed that the role was for me.

Question: How did Martin Scorcese come into the picture, and how did you convince him  that the role was for you?

Dunne: He simply seemed the perfect director, and he said yes. We then sat down to talk about casting, and some people we had in mind, such as Teri Garr, who’s in the film. I forget who was doing the talking--at some point, I blanked out--but Amy spoke up and said, “Griffin would like to play Paul.” He said fine, just like that. 

Question: This is one example of when playing producer and  actor pays off.

Dunne: Well, I think I’d come very close anyway, but there might have been some flavor-of-the-month actor who would have gotten the role, and luckily I didn’t have to deal with that.

Question: What was it like working with Scorcese?

Dunne: Well, it’s the largest role I’ve ever had, and unlike the other roles, where I’ve pretty much relied on my natural behavior, the character moves from A to Z--typical Scorcese anxiety-induced behavior. Scorcese’s also the first director I’ve worked with who understood the character as well as I.

I’ve never worked harder for anybody in my life, and I was filled with energy at the start of each new day. He makes great demands on you to get the scene right. Scorcese gets what he needs in the first or second take, but he might do a dozen more, just to see what might turn up. You don’t leave for the day until you’ve done the best work possible. 

Question: It sounds as though Scorcese can be very demanding, even obsessive, to work with.

Dunne: Yes. But he’s also able to laugh at himself. For instance, Marty is allergic to cigarette smoking. There’s absolutely no smoking allowed on the set. He’d come on the set, and even if someone had been smoking hours before, he could smell it and would come on the set saying “Who’s smoking? Who’s smoking?” There was this one night--most all our shooting was night shooting in the Tribeca section of New York--during a scene in which my character came around the corner, scared to death of something that had been happening to him, sprawled on his knees, and screamed to the heavens, “What do you want from me?” Suddenly, from a window above the street, this woman stuck her head out and began shouting, “Shut up, shut up!” Of course, she ruined that take, but Marty noticed that a cigarette was hanging out of her mouth, and as though to add insult to injury, he yelled to the crew, “Tell that woman to put her cigarette out!”

Question: What is it about Scorcese that calls on the actor’s total commitment?

Dunne: Well, his enthusiasm is infectious. For instance, there was this one scene that required a Steadicam operator to run back and forth through aisles of desks in an office to the accompaniment of Mozart of a jaunty piece of Mozart that Marty had chosen. The guy was a new, young Steadicam operator, Larry McComkey, and working with Scorcese was a great opportunity for him. Anyway, after going through this scene once, carrying seventy pounds of equipment on his back, and sweaty and exhausted, Larry came up to Marty and said, “How was it?” Marty said, “It was good, it was good, but you hear that music? You have to run with the music, feel the music, and keep going until it’s over.”

We had a lunch break, and just as though he was an actor, Larry stayed behind to prepare for the next take of the scene. After lunch, he had a whole new expression on his face, a look of total commitment to his work. We went through the scene again, and he did it perfectly, this time dancing elaborately with the camera on his back between all the desks to the beat of the music. Afterward, he came up to Marty and asked, “How was that?” “Perfect, perfect,” Marty said, “except for that fourth beat.” And suddenly, they were standing around talking about Mozart. Marty had tapped into the camera operator’s creative side, and made him work hard for him just like he makes actors go through take after take after take. 

Question: Did anyone during the production become confused as to your roles as both actor and producer? 

Dunne: Well, there was a second AD, and it of course was the AD’s job to let actors know when they were called for shooting. He seemed terribly confused about whether he was to call me, assuming, since I was a producer, I would know of the call. I missed an entire rehearsal because of this--nobody had told me about the rehearsal. So I made a firm point of this and said to him, “I am an actor, and you are a second AD.”

Question: Were there occasions on this film when your tendency to produce overcame your concentration on acting?

Dunne: Well, first of all, Marty and Amy and I were in sync on this from the start, so I didn’t have to worry about such things as “control.” But when I’m acting, the tendency is to drop the producing ball altogether. The phrase “meal penalty” never crossed my mind. Of course, during pre-production, I’d worked on locations, script, casting, but once production began the only way I’d know about problems was if I were to ask. The only problem I actually caught wind of on this picture was that a lot of film was being used. This was because of all the takes Marty shoots, which, as an actor, I love. And since most of the footage being shot was with me, I didn’t see this as a “problem” at all. As far as I was concerned, we had all the time and all the takes in the world. But seriously, knowing that Amy thought we were using a lot of film caused me a slight distraction, but I was able to use this anxiety in my role. 

Question: Once After Hours  stopped shooting, did you find it difficult to fit back into your role as a producer?

Dunne: Yes. At first there wasn’t a lot for me to do at the office, because things had been running fine without me. I found that if I waited to pick up my own responsibilities, such as obtaining music rights for the film--it turned out I always dealt with music rights to our movie--I found that I really had to assert myself. And I did, because this producing really gives me a tremendous stability. This is one of the reasons I’ve never good at being an unemployed actor. I hated waking up in the morning and thinking, All I have to do is go to the gym. Now I don’t go to the gym; I go to the office.

Question: This sounds like a bizarre film, not by Scorcese standards, perhaps, but by your standards, and Amy’s. 

Dunne: It’s certainly the most extreme movie we’ve ever produced, and the most controversial. 

Question: Controversial in what way?

Dunne: In the way it speaks to a kind of paranoia and victimization that I think a lot of people living in big cities can relate to. It’s a nightmarish quality of the story that appealed to me, and that I found very funny. I’ve had nights like this in New York, on a more mundane level, when there’s a chain of reaction of events over which you have no control. Just today, on the way to this interview, I passed two men in business suits, on Fifth Avenue, going at it, hitting away at each other. My inclination was to try to break them up--I could so easily have become involved in a mess.

Question: You think the gates are open to the kinds of movies you and Amy want to produce?

Dunne: The great thing about the movie business is that it’s totally unpredictable; the rules are always changing. The kinds of movies the studios are making now are based on what’s been successful in the past, and success comes in lots of unexpected ways. Amy and I want to make movies that a lot  of people want to see. If they do, if After Hours  makes a lot of money--and it can, because it cost so little to make--we’ll have more credibility with the studios the next time out with the kind of movie we want to make. 

Question: And Griffin Dunne will have more credibility as an actor  as well. Are you prepared to make hard choices of which role you will play next, actor or producer?

Dunne: I’m told that one of the advantages of being tremendously successful is that you can arrange your life in the way you wish. This is what I’m told. 

[racingtoaredlight]

Leo Fender, Les Paul and the Birth of the Solid-Body Electric Guitar Industry

Interesting timing on a number of fronts...chiefly being that a book about this very subject is being released shortly.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve really dove into all the various design details that Leo Fender engineered in the 1950′s, and my favorite parts have been talking about the designs in a historical context.  Design features like the foam mute on the P-Bass “ashtray” that helped combat issues with primitive amplification.

And while I’ve alluded to things like “there not being third party parts manufacturers at the time,” I never really touched on the industry in general.  Given that some of what I’ve written the past few weeks might be fresh in the memory, it’s a good time to look at the two titans of the guitar world, and how things came to be.

***

The top picture is the two most famous electric guitar models ever made.  On the left, a reissue 1957 Gibson Les Paul “Goldtop.”  On the right, a reissue 1957 Fender Stratocaster.  The bottom picture is the third most famous electric guitar model, an original 1952 Fender Telecaster.

Fun exercise time...I’m going to take every guitar player I mentioned in my Greatest Guitarist Series, and mark if they primarily played one of these three models.  I’m going to strike any classical musicians, (non-fusion) jazz musicians, acoustic-primary guitarists and guitarists who made their impact before the Korean War.

Jimi Hendrix STRAT Eddie Van Halen *MODIFIED STRAT SRV STRAT Andres Segovia John McLaughlin Jimmy Page LES PAUL Eric Clapton STRAT (also played Les Pauls) David Gilmour STRAT (has played all 3) Steve Vai Danny Gatton TELE (has played all 3) Julian Bream Chet Atkins Pat Metheny Duane Allman LES PAUL  Les Paul LES PAUL Ry Cooder STRAT (has played all 3) Yngwie Malmsteen STRAT Keith Richards TELE (has played all 3) Wes Montgomery Tony Iommi BB King Charlie Christian John Petrucci Prince TELE James Hetfield John Jorgenson TELE Chuck Berry (has played Les Pauls and Teles...famous for ES-335) Robert Johnson Steve Howe  (has played Les Pauls and Teles...famous for ES-175) Joe Pass Al DiMeola LES PAUL Django Reinhardt James Burton TELE Brian May Jerry Garcia (has played Strats and Les Pauls) Paco de Lucia Paul Gilbert Eric Johnson STRAT (has played all 3) Brent Mason TELE Shawn Lane  Muddy Waters TELE Buckethead Billy Gibbons LES PAUL (also plays Teles)  Slash LES PAUL Larry Carlton (has played all 3, but his nickname was Mr. 335) Frank Zappa STRAT (has also played Les Pauls) Christopher Parkening Marty Friedman Robben Ford TELE (has played all 3) Jeff Beck STRAT (has played all 3) Buddy Guy STRAT Lowell George STRAT Mark Knopfler STRAT (has played all 3) Ritchie Blackmore STRAT Elmore James LES PAUL John Lee Hooker Joe Satriani Woody Guthrie Hank Marvin STRAT Kirk Hammett Dimebag Darrell Jerry Reed TELE

That is a decent representative list of great guitar players, and those three models...the Fender Telecaster, Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul...account for the easy majority.  And even if a guitarist wasn’t known for one, they likely recorded with one at some point in their careers.

It’s easy to know where to attribute Fender’s success...Leo Fender was an engineering genius.  Gibson, however, had an established reputation long before they ventured into the solid-body world...but they wouldn’t have made that transition if not for Les Paul.

***

The State of Things Today

Before we get into the feud, it’s probably a good idea to get to know where each of these two companies are today.  The companies we’re going to talk about in 1952 bear little resemblance to each in the modern era, having both been passed from numerous ownership groups.

I’ve talked a lot about Leo Fender’s ouster at the hands of CBS...which led to the company’s darkest period which took more than a decade to dig out of.  CBS themselves were ousted by a group of Fender employees in 1985, and the company they started (they couldn’t use the original facilities) now boasts annual revenues well over $500 million.

It’s reflected by the company’s offerings.  Never attempting to be high-end our boutique, Fender’s brilliant branding allowed them to manufacture the same instruments that Leo designed, keeping costs low and making it easy to freshen up long-standing iconic models.

Gibson on the other hand, filed for bankruptcy last year.  Long derided for resting on the laurels of their name, Gibson is another victim of predatory private equity...being used merely as a conduit to acquire more debt.  Bad news intensifies...they’re also responsible for having strict international regulation regarding the types of wood used.  Gibson got in deep doo doo for using illegally farmed woods, and varieties of woods that had been prohibited from foresting due to excessive use (Brazilian rosewood).

Their offerings were staid and stale.  Any new innovations were seen by the guitar market as clumsy and hideous.  And, making things worse, the nature of their guitars’ construction is much more expensive and labor-intensive than Fender’s ever could be.

Fender will live to see the next 50 years.  Gibson likely will not...certainly not under this ownership group.

***

This is Les Paul holding his prototype solid-bodied electric guitar, nicknamed “The Log.”  Yes, it looks ridiculous.  No, another solid-bodied electric guitar did not exist at the time.

Les Paul had a longstanding relationship with Gibson.  Gibson was good to him.  Being a jazz guitarist, the whole Gibson lineup was perfect for Les, and they gave him ample ear to chew with all his (at the time) crazy ideas.  It was a great partnership.

Me being a Fender fanboy and my comments regarding their business should by no means suggest that I’m not a fan of Gibson guitars.  I absolutely love them, especially the Les Paul model.  They feel like the guitar version of driving a Cadillac...smooth, comfortable, refined, classy.

But, like I said above, Gibson was a long established company even in the late 1940′s.  They didn’t make gimmicks.  They made works of art out of the finest woods that produced these beautiful, natural, organic tones.  Even their electric hollow-body models replicated an acoustic tone as close as possible.  Philosophically, it was going to take something major to get Gibson to budge.

"If you don't do something, Fender is going to rule the world."

-Les Paul

***

When Les Paul received Leo Fender’s prototype in 1951, he knew what it meant.

Sure, it was a gift in the sense that Leo Fender wanted him to have that instrument, but it wasn’t just an instrument, it was an overture.  Gibson was a guitar behemoth that dominated an industry that was teetering on the edge of being revolutionized.  Fender was that metaphorical disruptor.  Both were already well aware of each other.

Fender wanted Les Paul on board, plain and simple.  They were hardly even a real company at that point, and getting someone of Les Paul’s status on their roster would be a coup of epic proportions.  From a marketing and branding perspective, Les Paul was a guitarist that could’ve established their brand before they even released a product catalog.

But that wasn’t it.

Les Paul’s reputation for having prototype solid-bodied guitars had created waves.  He was a recording maven, had a giant audience, and whether Gibson wanted him to or not, exposed people to the sounds possible with a solid-bodied guitar.  Leo Fender wasn’t a musician, but he was making the same type of noise within in the industry.

Fender sent out one of his right-hand men who reported back to him on the gift-giving.  That dude thought Les Paul was kind of an egotistical dude and didn’t think much of it.  Les Paul himself actually did like the instrument a lot...a huge amount given what he said to Gibson execs...and as the two guys who were leading the solid-bodied guitar revolution, there was equal parts kinship and rivalry.

*Les Paul with Leo Fender’s gift...a 1951 “Nocaster”...called that because Fender hadn’t come up with the name Telecaster yet, and there was no model under the Fender logo.

I don’t think it needs to be said that Les Paul ended up staying at Gibson.

***

In 1952, Gibson released their first solid-bodied model that had Les Paul’s name on it.  It would define their company.  Also in 1952, Leo Fender released the Telecaster (and Precision Bass), the genesis of the company that would grow into the largest guitar manufacturer in the world.

The sheer amount of music that’s been recorded using Les Pauls and Telecasters (as well as the Strat) is simply mind-boggling.  It’s almost impossible to quantify.

While the electric guitar industry might be well past the point of peaking, they’re still a major part of American culture.  Something that’s come to define us internationally as much as baseball or apple pie.  And it’s these three models from Fender and Gibson that so many people are able to instantly identify, that have recorded so much iconic music, that will live on well into the future like a Stradivarius violin or Steinway piano.

And for a brief period in the early 1950′s, it almost came to be that the two most prominent figures in the modern electric guitar world joined forces.  Almost.  It’s a shame they didn’t...might have been a good thing, given that each was given full creative control without the other’s presence...but the modern musical world was largely impacted by these two guys tinkering around in their basements.

It’s a cool story and easy to let your imagination run wild about what they could have done together.