"Where are we? *When* are we?"

September 22, 2013 4:40 PM

Back to the Future: The Trip. "We wanted to take this trip because we love the Back to the Future movies and thought it would be a fun, unique, and interesting trip. What you will see for each tour stop is first of all a picture from the movie from that scene, and then a picture of us at that location or a picture of what the landscape looks like currently in 2007."

tour stops:

1. Hilldale drag race
2. DeLorean death scene
3. Jennifer’s house
4. Hilldale 2015
5. McFly townhouse 2015
6. Twin Pines Mall
7. Strickland’s house
8. Hill Valley High School
9. Lyon Estates 1955 field
10. Doc Brown’s mansion
11. Doc Brown’s front door
12. George McFly’s house
13. Lorraine Baines’ house
14. Biff Tannen’s house
15. band tryouts gym
16. Doc’s lab/opening scene Burger King
17. Lyon Estates 1985
18. Marty McFly’s house
19. Twin Pines Ranch/Peabody Farm
20. Hill Valley 1885 town site
21. Railtown 1897
22. River Road Tunnel
23. DeLorean starting line

posted by paleyellowwithorange (13 comments total)

Wished it was a Word download so I could spend the time yelling ".doc! .doc!" over and over.
posted by hal9k at 4:53 PM on September 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

I used to play badminton at McCambridge Park (the band tryout gym). I went there so many times, week after week. The Back to the Future connection never occurred to me.

That said, I also jog past the Father of the Bride house every week. Never realized this until someone pointed it out to me.
posted by Xere at 4:58 PM on September 22, 2013

6. Twin Pines Lone Pine Mall
posted by infinitewindow at 4:58 PM on September 22, 2013 [6 favorites]

I guess they still have to do the Universal Studios tour, but that would defeat a lot of how anal they are with getting the same angles on the photos, since I don't think you're able to get off the tram (assuming they still have the tour of the backlot that I did 20+ years ago).
posted by LionIndex at 5:05 PM on September 22, 2013

This must have taken an incredible amount of work. It's important to give yourself assignments. (Citation.) Good for them, for following through and doing it. Thanks for posting it!
posted by cribcage at 5:08 PM on September 22, 2013

LionIndex: I'd love to know how many people still ask for Babs on the Universal backlot tour.
posted by dr_dank at 5:09 PM on September 22, 2013

It's kind of refreshing to see how little had changed in most of those.

My first thought as I looked through these: Well of COURSE they don't look much different; after all it was just done in 1985 - just, er...twenty...five...years ago. Um.

My second thought: I am old. :-(
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:19 PM on September 22, 2013 [6 favorites]

I love these kinds of photo dumps. My girlfriend and I did a similar thing for the California locations from Vertigo. You can see those photos here: Vertigo photo set.
posted by Siempre La Luna at 6:48 PM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

The Observatory Tunnel in Griffith Park has ended up in so many films over the years. It seems so innocuous and generic a place, the exact opposite of a recognizable landmark like the nearby Griffith Observatory (which also shows up a lot, especially in the films of the 50s and 60s), but it just keeps turning up again and again over the years, like a visual 'Wilhelm Scream'.

The only film I can remember offhand that has this location is Buckaroo Banzai (the motorcycle chase scene, just after the overthruster is taken by the Red Lectroids from Planet 10), but I've seen it in at least 30 other films and TV shows.
posted by chambers at 10:32 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Observatory Tunnel in Griffith Park has ended up in so many films over the years.

Yeah, but it's no 2nd Street Tunnel, either....
posted by dhartung at 1:04 AM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

But where is the old clock tower
posted by likeatoaster at 7:08 AM on September 23, 2013

The fund raising campaign to fix it failed and it was ultimately taken down despite the protests of former mayor Goldie Wilson.
posted by Atreides at 7:50 AM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

The wife and I finally got our Delorean to pass its smog inspection this week, so I think there will be some driving in our future!

So far, we've only taken the DMC to one BTTF location, though ironically it's one not mentioned in this article, despite the fact that it's not far from the other locations (it's in Hollywood) and is more or less open to the public. The United Methodist Church is where the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance was filmed.
posted by ShutterBun at 5:30 PM on September 23, 2013 [2 favorites]