In 1989, Robert Zemeckis returned to cinema with Back to the Future IIthe best episode of this cult trilogy. And for good reason, leaving behind the incestuous uneasiness of the first film, here we have an idealized and joyful version of the future. Okay, everything was not very rosy in this world, but who has never dreamed of surfing on a hoverboard or trying mini pizzas?
Above all, as we can happily see today, Zemeckis and his team were rather visionary about the future. Whether with video calls, electronic payments, the significant wave of nostalgia in Hollywood (pokes the production of a film Jaws 19) or the presentation of a virtual reality headset and even the hologram advertisements, the film hit the nail on the head several times about our current daily lives.
A tragically impossible prediction
Unfortunately, even if the BTTF2 was released in cinemas the same year as The Simpsons had started on Fox television, its creative team was not as good at predictions as those behind the adventures of Homer & co. The proof, at the turn of a simple scene at 9 minutes 38 of the film, we can notice that they had imagined a future… tragically impossible.
Remember, while discovering this futuristic world, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) took the opportunity to read an edition of USA Today. However, in addition to learning of his son’s arrest, the front page of the newspaper also revealed this: “Washington prepares for Queen Diana’s visit“. A funny wink? Yes, but unfortunately impossible.
In question? The action of Back to the Future II takes place in 2015, i.e. 19 years after… the disappearance of the Princess in a road accident in Pariswhen she was only 36 years old. Likewise, in the event that she had still survived this tragedy, she would not have been able to arrive in the USA as Queen anyway since Diana and Charles had separated in 1992, before being officially divorced in 1996. And to this end, the mother of William and Harry had therefore lost her predicate of Royal Highness.
An error that we would have preferred never to spot, even if, in another way, we can say that Diana Spencer had her happy ending in Marty McFly’s timeline.
Article written in collaboration with our colleagues from Sensacine.
