Back to the Future part 3

PLOT:

After lightning strikes the clock tower and sends the Back to the FutureMarty back to 1985, Marty McFly (Michael J Fox), who is stranded in 1955, takes “Doc” Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) home. He explains to the Doc of that era that Doc’s future self and the DeLorean time machine were accidentally sent back to the year 1885. Marty learns from a letter written by Doc in 1885, that the DeLorean is hidden in an old mineshaft. The letter instructs Marty to find the car, return to 1985, and then destroy it in order to prevent further disruption of the space-time continuum.

With the help of the Doc of 1955, Marty retrieves the DeLorean. In the process, he discovers a tombstone which leads him to learn that Doc was killed in 1885 by Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen, just seven days after having written the letter. Ignoring Doc’s urging to return to 1985, Marty decides that he must save Doc, who had no idea he would be killed days later. Marty takes the DeLorean back to 1885, and arrives in the middle of a skirmish between a group of Native Americans and the United States cavalry, resulting in the DeLorean’s fuel line being ruptured. Marty reunites with Doc, who agrees to leave when he learns of his upcoming fate. Doc sees Marty’s photograph of his tombstone and concludes from the inscription that he was to have fallen in love with a woman named “Clara”. Learning that the new schoolmarm he has promised to pick up is named Clara Clayton, Doc decides to leave without meeting her.

However, the ruptured fuel line has left the DeLorean’s gas tank completely empty; and the DeLorean cannot reach 88 miles per hour without gasoline. After several failed attempts to accelerate the car through alternate means, Doc decides to push the DeLorean up to speed with a steam locomotive, but finds that the only track straight enough ends in an incomplete bridge over a deep ravine. The car will have to reach 88 miles per hour before reaching the bridge, so that it can travel to 1985 where the bridge is completed. As they scout the location, they save a woman from falling into the ravine on a runaway carriage, only to discover that she is Clara Clayton. She and Doc immediately become enamoured with each other.

At a festival dedicating the newly constructed clock tower, Buford attempts to kill Doc, only to be thwarted by Marty. Marty, however, is goaded into a gun duel after Buford calls him “yellow”. With Doc’s original death averted, his name disappears from the tombstone in the photograph, but the date remains. Doc warns Marty that his name may end up on it if he chooses to meet up with Buford. Still infatuated with Clara, the Doc expresses his desire to stay with her in 1885, but Marty talks him out of it. Doc decides to say goodbye to her and, when pressed, tells her that he’s from the future. Thinking this an obvious lie, Clara angrily slaps him in rejection and starts to cry as Doc heads to the town saloon to get drunk. Marty convinces him to leave the saloon, but not before Buford shows up and insists that it’s time for the showdown. Marty is forced to participate and defeats Buford by using a stove cover as a bullet-proof shield. Following the duel, Buford is arrested for having committed a robbery the previous day. Clara, meanwhile, hears about how heartbroken the Doc was when she rejected him and sets off to find him.

Doc and Marty manage to hijack the locomotive and start to push the DeLorean; Marty waits in the DeLorean while Doc remains on the train to add specially-created logs to the boiler that will overheat it and increase its speed. Clara catches up with the locomotive on horse and climbs aboard as Doc makes his way to the DeLorean. Seeing Clara in the cab, he is forced to return for her, and manages to fly off with her on the hoverboard just as the DeLorean reaches 88 miles per hour and transports Marty back to 1985 alone. The locomotive, which subsequently runs past the track, falls into the ravine and explodes.

As planned in the parallel year 1985, Marty coasts safely across the ravine bridge, but he immediately encounters a modern-day diesel locomotive bearing down on him. Marty escapes, but the DeLorean is smashed to pieces. Marty picks Jennifer up at her house where he left her in Part II, and having learned his lesson back in 1885, refuses to take part in a drag race with Needles, who calls him ‘chicken’. This causes him to avoid the automobile accident which resulted in the ruined future depicted in the previous film. Marty takes Jennifer to the site of the destroyed DeLorean, where he accepts that it is what Doc wanted. At that moment, however, a time machine built out of a locomotive appears. The door opens to reveal Doc, Clara and their two sons, who are named Jules and Verne (before appearing in Back to the Future: The Animated Series) after the author Jules Verne. As Doc prepares to leave again, Marty asks if they plan to go to the future. Doc replies that they’ve already been there, and the train lifts off from the ground and flies off into time.

REVIEW:

The finale in the Back to the Future saga goes out with a bang. For my taste, though, it’s not as good as part one and takes a bit of a dramatic turn that really wasn’t necessary.

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reprise their roles as Marty and Doc Brown, respectively. Fox also hit the makeup chair so that he could play Seamus McFly.

Just as the first one was almost completely about Marty with Doc in a supporting role, this one is more about Doc with Marty in the supporting role. It’s an interesting shift, especially since their roles are pretty even in the second.

Thomas F. Wilson gves his best performance of the saga as  the eccentric Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen. One must wonder if real outlaws were like that.

Mary Steenburgen does not fit into the cast. This may be a bit of a biased observation by me, but she just feels like they threw her in to give Doc a love interest and a female lead other than Lea Thompson.

Lea Thompson does appear in this film, but her biggest role in the trilogy was the first film.

I love the old west, so I really liked the fact that they chose to go back to that period of time. However, I wish there would have been more gags with steam engines and horses and such, rather than spending valuable film on one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever seen on a film, Clara Clayton.

Don’t get me wrong, I respect the fact that she stopped the train she was on and chased after Doc. It was nice to see a woman chase after the guy for once, but she got him stranded in the past, all because she didn’t give him the benefit of the death. Just my two cents, though.

To close up the trilogy, this is a pretty solid film. I belive there are things that could have been better or changed, but it’s still a good film. I recommend you watch it.

4 out of 5 stars