Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015. It’s the day a generation of movie fans have been waiting for since 1989.

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That’s the date that would herald commercially available Mattel hoverboards for kids, Blade Runnerian flying cars for adults, a World Series title for Chicago Cubs fans, and self-tying sneakers for everyone. That was the promise of Back to the Future II.

But like the jet packs and moon colonies of the Space Age, that bright, playful, Robert Zemeckis future audiences saw on movie screens in the waning days of the 20th century never became the reality of the early 21st century. Sure, some of those inventions and achievements are so close to grasp in the present day, yet still heartachingly out of reach (…sorry, Cubs fans, maybe next year). Really, that should be expected when you go mucking around with the space-time continuum.

That hasn’t stop some people, though, from clinging to a dream that the Back to the Future future will arrive, fully formed, today. As Reddit user jerimiahf put it in a post in the Shower Thoughts community: “I’m still really, really hoping that everything from 2015 Back to the Future was already invented and they’re deciding to wait until October 21 to unveil them.”

For Mike Smith, that fictional 2015 date has been both a real-life journey and destination for the past three years. On July 1, 2012, Smith, a 36-year-old IT director from Tulsa, Okla., created the Back to the Future Day countdown website as a sort of pop culture public service page to combat a series of hoaxes about the day being posted online at the time.

“I wanted to have an official place people could know for sure the real date Doc and Marty went to in the future,” he wrote in an email interview. “The site itself hasn’t really changed. It served one purpose: countdown to October 21, 2015. The Facebook page, however, has evolved with varying content.”

Smith also let visitors know that money made from donations or Google Ads will be used to buy a DeLorean—the model of car used to break the time barrier in the Back to the Future films—hopefully as Oct. 21, 2015, rolled around.

Upvoted spoke with Smith about the site, the it has been counting down to, and whether or not he’s the proud owner of a DeLorean.

Why do the Back to the Future movies resonate with you?

Mike Smith: I saw it for the first time when I was 6 years old. I grew up watching it over and over and memorized it. The idea of traveling through time and altering time is a terrific fantasy, and the BTTF movies gave hope that time travel could … happen.

What will you be doing Wednesday on your site, Facebook page and in real life? Will you be trying to go to any of the marathons for the movie?

I am going to watch all three movies at a local theater starting at 4:30 PM (Central time). There will be a special hourly countdown on the Facebook page starting at 12:29 AM (Pacific time) until 4:29 PM (Pacific time).

Is Wednesday a bittersweet day for you? What will you be doing Thursday, Oct. 22?

October 21, 2015 is a day that seemed so far away when BTTF 2 released in 1989. I have worked had the last three years contributing to the BTTF community, and I feel it has been a great contribution. I have a few things to do to wrap up the project, but it will be nice to have an “end.”

spacciacarote.tumblr.com/giphy.com/Universal Pictures

Were you able to raise enough to buy the DeLorean?

I raised money—but not enough for a DeLorean. A decent DeLorean costs $25,000 to $30,000. I am happy with any money raised from the site, and raising enough for a DeLorean was a lofty goal.