Awesome Music: Robert Zemeckis said in an interview that he felt the story wouldn't stand up on its own, so he told composer Alan Silvestri to make the music as big and memorable as possible to make up for it. And you know...he may have been right.
"Back In Time," "Power Of Love," and especially "Doubleback" deserve special mention!
And "Johnny B. Goode" too. "Earth Angel" as well: or is that Heartwarming Music?
It's both.
Alan Silvestri's score for the train sequence in Part III is nothing short of brilliant. It uses the standard BTTF leitmotifs as a baseline; it throws in a drum beat that sounds like a train chugging; it intertwines the action themes, the tense themes, the love themes, the Western themes; and it ends with pure power.
Better on DVD: The whole saga, though Parts II and III in particular, makes greater sense when watched back-to-back.
Quite a lot of fan animators in the Thomas the Tank Engine community enjoy setting a chase sequence to Part III's musical score of the train pushing the DeLorean.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The Time Machine itself, from the fire trails to taking off into the sky at the end of the first film. The second movie pioneered a computer controlled camera to make complicated panning shots with Michael J. Fox playing three roles at a time, and you can't tell any difference.
Considering it was 1985, and Qaddafi was a serious threat, it makes perfect sense.
Angst? What Angst?: As many a fan pointed out, Lorraine gets over her Attempted Rape rather quickly and has no issue employing Biff thirty years later.
Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The change back to 1985 is heralded by a helicopter flying low over the clock tower, swinging a searchlight around.
Ending Fatigue: The film appears as if it is going to end at least twice before it actually does.
However, before Pontiac went under, they did the Matrix/Vibe crossover car project... with Toyota. Zemeckis was in the ballpark...
When Marty first arrives back in the alternate 1985, he tries to enter his bedroom through the window and crawl into his bed, only to find out that an African-American family is now living in his house and is none too pleased with their bedroom intruder. This was kind of funny originally, but has become absolutely hilarious due to the similarities between it and the recent memetically mutatedbedroom intruder incident.
Also, one of the newspaper's "Newsline" items refers to a female President. The way things are shaping up, that can only mean one thing...
Borderline example: a broadcast has the Cubsfinally winningthe World Series. The adversary is the "Florida Gators", as Florida was the biggest state outside the MLB... and now they have 2 teams!
And the Cubs did end up winning in 2016.
As of 2012, just three years before the fictional setting in the movie, there IS now an MLB team that adopted Miami into its name.
Magnificent Bastard: Biff. He may not be too smart, but with one simple plan from an older (and more experienced) Biff to help his younger self, he starts an empire from successful "gambling" that allows him to start several companies (most highly nuclear power plants that generate enough pollutant to require a waste reclamation sub-industry; hmmm). Considering how he claims he "owns the police," he can certainly manipulate a lot, and he's definitely a bastard.
Newer Than They Think: Although it seems like hoverboards should be a staple of sci-fi as old as jetpacks and flying cars, which have both been in stories since at least the 1930s, this is actually what introduced them.
Genius Bonus: When the Colt salesman tries to get Marty to shoot the Peacemaker, he forces it into his left-hand (causing the first shot to miss completely, being Marty's weak hand) The Colt Single Action Army was actually originally designed to be fired left-handed while riding a horse. It's minor, but this gun-nut appreciated the attention to detail.
Accidental Aesop: The ending of Episode 5 is sort of the logical conclusion to the entire series and films. Screwing around with the timeline keeps fucking things up til you have three older Marty's begging young Marty for help, all from different timelines. At that point, Doc just shrugs and tells Marty to ignore them. Now is important.
It's actually brought up several times throughout all five episodes.
And the Fandom Rejoiced: So Michael J. Fox won't be voicing Marty... but his voice actor is spot on. Now we're at the last episode and... wait... WHAT?! Michael is gonna come back after all?!
Broken Base: There is a certain friction that occurs between those who are longtime fans of the Back to the Future franchise and those who are longtime fans of the Telltale Games company.
Jerkass Woobie: Even after everything, it's hard not to feel kinda bad for 1931!Edna when Marty breaks her up with Emmett.
And then Crazy Mary!Edna. Laughably Evil moments aside, it's hard not to pity exactly what The Slow Path, guilt, and loneliness have done to her.
Just Here for the Plot: Many non-gamers have taken interest in the game strictly for the Back to the Future story line — much to the chagrin of the more avid gamers who are, overall, disappointed with the game play of the series.
Magnificent Bastard: Marty shapes up into a heroic version through the game.
World of Woobie: The Citizen Brown timeline in Episode 3. Everyone seems on the verge of a nervous crackup due to the Dystopia of alternate Hill Valley, Marty seems like he's panicking about 86% of the time, and the only halfway normal person is a Delinquent who would probably be a child psychologist's field day. Even Brown himself comes off as a Tragic Hero.
Ass Pull: The "Who Is Marty McFly?" arc just ends thanks to Irving. No answer to where Lone Pine!Marty went, Doc and Marty have to stop Irving from mucking up time.
The main series finally gives Jennifer something to do.
Doc's rebuilding of time travel technology is explained by him indulging Clara's curiosity and her convincing him that time travel could be kept in responsible hands.
Explains why Doc and Marty had to go right back to November 12th 1955 to stop Old!Biff by revealing that the two are on a cosmic deadline with a Grandfather Paradox liable to wipe them, and the DeLorean, out of existence.
Harsher in Hindsight: Reading about Biff's would be presidential campaign, backed by morally bankrupt right wing individuals who have legitimate political power in Washington D.C., can be somewhat uncomfortable when looking at Donald Trump's attempted coup after losing the 2020 Presidential election which had the support of many prominent American politicians on the political right.
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