By David Wharton | 7 years ago

Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future is one of the few nearly perfect bits of science fiction and pop culture. It’s the rare beast that I’m hugely nostalgic about, but which still holds up brilliantly, putting it in the same camp as the first Ghostbusters movie. Aside from having a great story, unforgettable characters, and plenty of laughs, the trilogy has also earned a spot alongside Star Trek for being one of the bars by which we measure our technological progress. Each year that ticks by finds us irritated that we still don’t have functional hoverboards or flying DeLoreans or Mr. Fusion. Probably best for everybody that we don’t have time travel yet though. But as consolation prizes go, this massive gallery of images from the making of Back to the Future and its sequels is pretty damn awesome. (Props to Outatime and Geek Tyrant, who first shared all these pictures.)

It’s not just Back to the Future’s story that holds up either. The effects, for the most part, still look great nearly 30 years after the first film premiered. Sure, we know that the hoverboard sequences just have Michael J. Fox and the rest suspended from wires they take out later, but those sequences still look entirely convincing. That’s one great thing about these pictures — they pull back the curtain on how the movies’ effects were pulled off. And sure, there aren’t any real surprises, but it’s still cool to see the creative minds behind the series in action. They may not have needed roads, but they did need a bluescreen and a mess of gorgeous miniatures.

I don’t know why it never occurred to me that city hall might not be a full building, but I’ll admit that this side view revealing it as a facade kicked eight-year-old me right in the stomach. No! Hill Valley is real, damn it!

Some kids wanted to be an astronaut or a firefighter or a movie star when they grew up. I just wanted to be Marty McFly. Never did learn to play the guitar. Regrets, I’ve had a few…

And here are a few really interesting relics, shots taken from the production before Eric Stoltz was replaced by Michael J. Fox. Nothing against Stoltz, but I have to say I think it all worked out for the best. Who could play a better Marty than Fox? Nobody, that’s who.

You can check out the rest, nearly 50 images in all, in the gallery below. Let the nostalgia wash over you and then let’s all say a silent prayer of gratitude to the Movie Gods that they haven’t tried to remake these movies yet…