UPDATE: If you weren’t able to pick up one of these commemorative USA Today issues at your local newsstand, gas station or wherever you buy newspapers, you can still get your hands on it. USA Today is selling the Back to the Future Part II edition of yesterday’s paper for $4.95 plus shipping and tax. Just head over to the newspaper’s online store and snag your copy now. Thanks to Collider for the heads up. Our original story from October 21st, 2015 follows.

We’re not sure if you know this, but we happen to be pretty big fans of Back to the Future here at /Film. Really. It’s okay if you didn’t pick up on that. So today is a special day, a day that will enthrall the initiated and make everyone else grow steadily numb until they quietly curse Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It is October 21, 2015, aka, the day Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrived in the future during the opening moments of Back to the Future Part II. But surely you already knew this. You’re on the internet, after all.

However, it’s not just the fans celebrating this 30-years-in-the-making day. USA Today is joining in the fun by recreating the futuristic front page that plays a key role in the film. What was once a prop, a cute little piece of product placement, is now something that you can actually own.

Check out the Back to the Future newspaper for yourself after the jump.

As you surely remember, Back to the Future Part II begins with Christopher Lloyd‘s Emmett Brown dragging Michael J. Fox‘s Marty into the distant future of October 21, 2015. The plan: prevent Marty’s future son from getting arrested and throwing the family into chaos. As you surely remember, things do not go according to plan, leading to one of the more clever time travel storylines in movie history. Although the 2015 scenes only make up the first third of the film, they have become iconic, with the inaccuracies growing more fun and charming by the day.

The faux newspaper will be a one page “wrap” that covers tomorrow’s actual paper, giving fans and totally baffled normal people the chance to actually go buy a publication with headlines about Marty McFly Jr. being arrested and pizza rehydration. Since the newspaper prop in the actual film only featured above-the-fold content, Matt Urbanos, the vice president of brand and creative strategy at Gannett publishing, was taken with creating additional stories to fill in the gaps. AdWeek has the details:

Only the top half of the cover was remade to be featured in the movie. The bottom half of the paper was never featured in the movie and was just old content that happened to be left over from an old version of USA Today. We worked with Universal and Bob Gale to update the bottom half and add content that was relevant and cohesive as our way to finish the story and punctuate this moment.

Eagle-eyed fans will note some differences between the film prop and this final version (including the substitution of one headline that originally referenced “Queen Diana”), but for the most part, it’s an admirable recreation. There’s even an ad for Jaws 19 on the inside cover of the wrap! Until you rush out and get a copy of this thing for yourself, feel free to peruse the digital version below. Back to the Future aficionados will find all kinds of fun details and easter eggs, but we’re especially fond of the news about a new A Match Made in Space movie. After all, we think the first adaptation didn’t do justice to George McFly’s original novel.



Enjoy this while you can. As of tomorrow, the entire Back to the Future saga takes place in the past.