Posted by Leah Singerman
You guys will never see the end of my fangirling about Back to the Future, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong when I say that movie had one of the best opening sequences ever. It was perfect: it built up anticipation, set the style, and gave us a whole bunch of clues about the rest of the movie. But did y'all know that as late as 1984 the movie was scripted for a completely different beginning?
Check it out.
So, no Doc's house, no skateboarding to school, and a lot more of Marty kind of being a bad kid. In our version it's not his fault that he's late to school. He's a good kid. But in this version he's blatantly not paying attention in class, and then when he gets detention he sets a freakin' fire to get out. That seems a little extreme. And not only that, but the whole 1950s throwback is hinted at way more strongly in this version too.
It's crazy to think of how close we came to a totally different movie. If you're interested you can actually read the whole draft of that version of the script here. But let's just be thankful that it became what it did, because at least as far as we're concerned, this is one of America's finest movies.
What do you think about the beginning that could have been? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @DweebCast.
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