1.21 Gigawatts

The fantasy of time travel has glimmered in our imagination since childhood. Without a doubt, whenever we make a mistake or experience something amazing, we say to ourselves, “if only I could travel through time and…” With movies like Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 3 July 1985, USA) and The Time Machine (George Pal, 17 August 1960, USA), our imaginations run wild with thoughts of changing our pasts and seeing what we could become in the future. Though no solid proof exists of time travel being possible, science cannot disprove the plausibility of actually traveling through time.

In these films the time machine is quite a mysterious device and in no way is it portrayed as a technology that is easily accessible to anyone in the future. It is constructed, in both Back to the Future and The Time Machine by the odd ball scientists and done in a very do it yourself fashion, not some sort of marketable futuristic product from a company. Because there is no known existence of a physical time machine its form is up for interpretation by the films. The designs of both time machines are a product of the times they are built in, in the films. In The Time Machine it took on a sled like look with a large rotating dish, a Victorian chair for the pilot and brass railings around the chair as described in the H.G. Wells novel, which the film is based on. Being that the film took place in 1900s they could not yet use the idea of the time machine being powered through any sort of atomic or nuclear power and again went back to the novel and used a crystal as the machine’s source of power. The crystal sat at the top of a lever, which was attached to a console that displayed the dates that the machine was traveling through. Back to the Future takes place in the 80s, so now, not only can they take advantage of the idea that time travel is achieved through something more mechanical, but also through the use of plutonium all packaged within a DeLorean car. Zemeckis and Gale imagined Doc Brown to have the knowledge of time travel through working on the Manhattan Project. So you can imagine the kinds of secret technology Doc Brown might have access to, or knowledge of, to create a machine that travels through time.

Both films abided by a similar principle: you can travel through time, not space. Both machines never moved spatially upon arriving in the past or future, they arrived on the exact spot that they occupied in the present time. However, both films chose to display the act of time travel quite differently. Back to the Future had Marty cruising at 88mph then sparks whirled out from the car and it appeared to almost instantaneously explode and reappear in another time period. Another difference from The Time Machine is that the DeLorean has to be set a to a specific date to travel to, whereas H. George Wells simply pulls a lever where time passes faster the more he pulls the lever. Time-lapse photography and stop motion animation were used in The Time Machine to show George traveling through time. The strongest image to portray the passing of time was the time-lapse of the clouds rolling past and the sun rising and setting and then having it gradually speed up and George applied more pressure on the lever. It seems like a natural choice to display time travel in this manner due to the technology being used. Although a crystal could perhaps have some kind of fire and spark inducing effect that would trigger time travel, a mysterious acceleration of time seems like a much more believable and natural way to handle time travel through the power of a crystal. With the DeLorean, a large blast and a set of flaming car tracks seems very believable, being that it is coming from a steel machine with all kinds of flickering lights and gadgets going off. Bob Gale, writer of Back to the Future, says that using a machine to travel through time makes sense because it is proven that machines can “do things”, where as the possibility of a person magically traveling through time seems far less likely. Then to bring the possibility that in someway harnessing natural power such as a lightning bolt to project through time is quite a fantastic and somehow making time travel almost tangible. Neither films in anyway technically describe how the machine can travel through time is, but the visual does enough to make you believe that machine can in fact travel through time.

Time travel has yet to be proven possible but no one has proven it impossible either. We currently cannot travel through time in the same sense that Marty or George did in the films. In our measurements of time there have small ways one could technically travel into the future. Through suspended animation the organs of the body are slowed and in a sense frozen in time while everything else continues. Of course this can only be done for a short amount of time before damaging the body but it technically brings one forward in time without aging for that amount of time. There are also various other theories on the possibility of traveling back in time using a wormhole, which appears to be possible in comparison to Einstein’s ten equations of general relativity. There are many theories of time travel but we have yet to be able to harness the power needed to do so. Even if we have the power to travel through time, we would have to be cautious as to what the repercussions of traveling through time might do to our present time. Paradoxes such as the Grandfather Paradox, in which say a man travels back in time and kills his grandfather before meeting the traveler’s grandmother and in turn never being able to create the traveler. This would mean that the traveler could have never traveled in time to kill his grandfather. These paradoxes could be explained away by the theory that in traveling back in time you instantly create a parallel universe as suggested by Hugh Everett’s many worlds interpretation. His thoughts were that “there is a very large, perhaps infinite, number of universes and that everything that could possibly happen, or could possibly have happened, in our universe (but doesn't) does happen in some other universe(s).”

Back to the Future clearly addresses the issues of time travel and the possibility tearing the fabric of time and space. One of the main struggles in the film is for Marty to make sure his father gets back with his mother after intervening in how his mom and dad were supposed to meet. As the film progresses and the further the younger versions of his parents drift apart he sees a photo of his brother and sister and him begin to disappear. This would happen because if his parents don’t get together there is no way Marty can exist. It also proposes the notion that the future is not unchangeable, if you were to travel back in time and in anyway interact with the past you will have changed the course of time. In the film when Marty returns to 1985 he finds that his family is no longer “in the dumps” and his father just had his first novel published and the rest of his family is doing great. Kind of a storybook ending to this tale, but later in the series you see how taking things from the future and bringing them into the past can lead to a drastically different present time. Also in The Time Machine, George raises the question, “Can man control his destiny? Can he change the shape of things to come?” George goes into the future only to find very bleak conditions every time he slows down to assess the situation. His curiosity drives him further into the future past the point that all human civilization appears to have been destroyed. Finally he stops in a place that seems promising only to find the human race has become a bunch of mindless drones being treated as cattle and food for the underground dwellers: the Morlocks. Once George has defeated the Morlocks he returns back to 1900 only to return back to the people of the future to help build a better society for them. It’s as though he feels there is no way to change his immediate future with the time machine, so he goes all the way into the future and tries to start a new civilization the way he believes it should be run.

Although the reality is that we may never experience time travel; these films help us realize that we need to make the best of the time we are in now. Knowing the possibility that our world could be a dark decrepit place can only inspire people to become better with the environment and with others. While we wait for the most intelligent minds in the world to discover the possibilities of traveling through time, we will be immersed in fantasy films like these that help us visualize what time travel could possibly be like and let our imaginations do the rest.



1. Back to the Future. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Crispin Glover. 1985. DVD, Universal
2. The Time Machine. George Pal. Perf. Rod Taylor, Alan Young, and Yvette Mimieux. 1960. DVD, Galaxy Films Inc.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Everett

Special Effects Screen Grabs

Time Doesn’t Fly, It Explodes

The speedometer climbs, 85, 86, 87, 88, flashing beams of light and sparks shoot out in front of the windshield and, BAM! You’re suddenly you’re driving in a field 30 years ago leaving only a trail of fire behind you in the present. The DeLorean has become an iconic image in our minds when we think of time travel. You can chalk all that popularity up to the use of special effects. Without all the flames, explosions, and dry ice the idea of time travel would not have been as interesting. “The rise of effects-centered films, the decline of narrative, the return of the cinema of attractions, the sequels and simulations ad spectaculars—all suggest that we seem to be witnessing is the end of offscreen space(1).” Bukatman speaks about the use of special effects really taking the spotlight over the importance of the narrative in the film and in the case of Back To The Future (Zemeckis, 3 July 1985, USA) I don’t think this rings true to the film. The use of the time machine and special effects enhances the realism and allows the story to really become something believable instead of pushing the narrative aside.

The special effects of the time machine were never created to be this spectacle that was to be looked at apart from the story. Bob Gale (writer) states (in the behind the scenes material of Back To The Future) that the time machine was the most believable way to simulate time travel. When coming up with the concepts of how time travel would look Zemeckis and Gale agreed that it shouldn’t be a huge elaborate process, because that would just detract from the story. “Time travel should be instantaneous; this is a story about people, not about hardware. The hardware is just what we use to make it believable (2),” says Gale. Though they did think that if it was a machine that transported them through time it would be much more believable than a wish or being knocked over the head. Initially a nuclear explosion (a scene that would have cost them $1 million to shoot) was the only way Marty could go back into the future. With this limitation brought about a better idea of using the bolt of lightning that strikes the clock tower be the only way to harness the power needed to transport the DeLorean back into the future (and of course this kept the image of time in the film). It was that kind of creative thinking and low(er) budget effects that kept the story in balance with the visuals.

Although they meant the DeLorean to only function as a means of enhancing the story, you can see how audience members would become fascinated with the machine as there imagination ran wild with ideas of time travel. It was clear that images and the actions of the car would be a huge selling point of the film. It was so popular and intriguing that Douglas Trumbull went on to develop a ride film based on the time machine at Universal Studios theme park. The ride film gave you a first person point of view in driving the time machine in an adventure with Doc Brown. Clearly the time machine had taken on a life of it’s own beyond the film that the Zemeckis and Gale had never intended, but certainly didn’t disapprove of.

1. Bukatman, Scott, “Zooming Out: The End of Off-Screen Space.” The New American Cinema. ed. Jon Lewis. Durham and London: Duke University Press. (248 – 272)
2. Back to the Future. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Crispin Glover. 1985. DVD, Universal

tentative screen grabs

Striving for Masculinity

Nate Theis
American Sci-Fi (319)
3/25/09

Back To The Future (Zemeckis, 3 July 1985, USA) and Star Wars (George Lucas, et. Al., 1977-2005) are the epitome of a boy’s dream action/adventure lifestyle. I can easily say that as a boy, I had plenty times were I created or was imagining traveling through space or time and battling enemies with my lightsaber until it was time for bed. These stories brought alive my imagination and invigorated my sense of adventure and that feeling has never left me to this day every time I view them. From this essay’s prompt I realized that not all people are able to approach these films with such innocence and lack of psychological knowledge. From various readings I have discovered that people associate both these films with the Oedipus complex or more loosely, a family romance and the use of technology to maintain masculinity.

In Cornea’s writing she says, “The adolescent protagonist, Marty (Michael J. Fox), in Back to the Future, returns to the past and goes about trying to create the ideal father. Marty, is actually attempting to orchestrate his own rites of passage into the Oedipal world of the father (1).” This can be seen as a legitimate comparison, but that is only if you ignore the story slightly. Marty is not traveling into the past with the purpose of changing the way his father is in present time or to have some kind of Oedipal relationship with his mother. He goes back in time due to a series of events involving Doc Brown and the Libyan terrorists. Marty tries to escape the terrorists and ends up activating the time machine and traveling back to the date when Marty’s parents are supposed to meet. Upon meeting his father he slowly begins altering the course of history when a car hits him, when instead his father should have been hit. Marty is woken up by his mother from the past (who is now his age) and recalls the story his mother told him about her falling in love with his father after being hit by a car. Marty has now accidentally taken the roll of his father and somehow needs to put things back to normal. Although Marty does not like the way his father carries himself in the present time he is not out to change his father so that his life becomes way better once he returns to the present, he is simply trying to find a way for his father to get back with his mother after he accidentally messed things up. The only way Marty can do that is by empowering his father (of the past) by having him stand up for himself so that he can win over Marty’s mother. There are a few scenes that really reflect an Oedipal relationship between Marty and his mother, such as the scene before the dance, when his mother asks to park. The thing that makes this so much more innocent than the story of Oedipus or Star Wars, is that Marty knows it is his mother and is trying to avoid any sort of love attraction she thinks she has for him. When she actually kisses Marty she compares it to this odd feeling of it being like kissing her brother. Once Marty has restored things to normal he returns to find that his interaction with his past parents has changed his and their life for the better.

Upon looking around for Oedipal comparisons for Star Wars I came upon an article written only under the name, Brian; who points outs the symbolism of the lightsaber as being a phallic symbol.
He says, “The Oedipus complex occurs during the "Phallic" stage of sexual development, when a boy first discovers that his penis can be a source of sexual pleasure. In Lucas' work, the penis is clearly represented by the Light-saber used by many of the films' characters; most importantly to us, we should note that Luke Skywalker and his father, Darth Vader, use these weapons. Their phallic nature can be seen in their rod-like shape, and the manner in which they extend from a small, flaccid length into long, hard beams for use. Leia, Luke's sister, has no such weapon; being female, she has no penis, and her frustration can be clearly seen; at one point she tells Luke "You have a power I don't understand, and could never have"(2).”
Although I understand the symbolism, I just think reading that far into the film really strays away from its intention. To me the lightsaber was created as a futuristic way to depict a sword, just as a spaceship is a futuristic version of a sea vessel. Putting my opinion aside, you later come to the epic battle between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Luke comes to find the enemy he hates so much is his own father. Vader strips Luke of his masculinity by cutting off his hand, which holds the phallic lightsaber. Later Luke artificially replaces these masculine/phallic symbols through artificial technology. You see a robot working on his hand, which contains a network of wires and circuits. He then goes to join his love interest/sister at a large window looking out into space. In Return of the Jedi you find Luke has crafted a new lightsaber restoring his masculinity.

Luke Skywalker’s Oedipus complex does not involve his mother, but rather his sister. Their meeting is a little more akin to the Oedipus’ story; it was fate that Luke and Leia are reunited and fall in love with one another. Not only are Oedipal qualities found in the first trilogy but also in the most recent: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). Michael points out, “As in the Oedipus story, the attempted avoidance of a future outcome is what prompts the outcome to occur anyway (3).” Anakin Skywalker foresees the death of his lover, Padme, but when he tries to avoid it he inadvertently causes her death. Both Anakin and Oedipus also share a similar but opposite “tragic flaw,” Anakin’s being anger and Oedipus’ being hurbris (or excessive pride). It is also fitting that a story that is set in space would have such connections with the Greeks whom were obsessed with the star and the stories that the constellations told.

In both films you find Luke and Marty wanting to change their fathers. Marty, in a way, wants his father to become more assertive and in turn become more successful. Later on in the series Marty is constantly using the time machine to fix his families problems so that he can retain his masculine pride. Luke, at the end of the trilogy is filled with hatred towards his father. In the heat of their battle Luke cuts off Vader’s hand (again holding the phallic lightsaber); Palpetine then says, “Fulfill your destiny and take your father’s place at my side.” Again you see the connection with Oedipus taking his fathers place, but Luke realizes his love for his father and wants to save him. You also see the symbolism of technology being evil, as Luke looks at his prosthetic hand and then looks at his almost completely robotic father and his missing hand. As Cornea mentions, both Lucas and Spielberg (Producer for Back to the Future) seem to model their films after the idea of traditional masculinity. Both protagonists realize that technology will only bring about evil, but still they feel the need to use it in order to retain their masculinity at all costs.


Works Cited:

1. Cornea, Christine, ed. Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality. (pg.118-119) Rutgers University Press, 2007
2. Brian, The Oedipus Complex and Star Wars. http://rumandmonkey.com/articles/90/
3. Michael, Star Wars quasi-review. May 21, 2005 http://hereswhatsleft.typepad.com/home/2005/05/im_sure_precise.html
4. Back to the Future. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Crispin Glover. 1985. DVD, Universal
5. Star Wars (trilogies). George Lucas. Perf. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Hayden Christensen, and Natalie Portman. 1977-2005. DVD, 20th Century Fox

Back In Time

Back To The Future (Zemeckis, 3 July 1985, USA) stemmed from the idea: what would it be like to see and interact with your parents as teenagers? One logical way to approach creating a story about that is by traveling back in time. Both Zemeckis and Bob Gale (writer) thought that the character could not just come into the past through wishing or being hit on the head such as in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Tay Garnett, 22 April 1949, USA) but through something much more plausible, like a machine. The biggest influence on Back To The Future was The Time Machine (George Pal, 17 August 1960, USA) which brought the idea that with time travel you travel through time but not space. Many films involving time travel had the travelers going from California to ancient Rome. This idea of time travel did not seem genuine to Zemeckis and Gale, so they stuck to the idea of centering it around one location: Hill Valley.

What makes this film fall into the realm of Science Fiction is the notion of traveling back in time by means of mechanics and science. Also in the film you see many references to outer space and aliens, such as when Marty drives the time machine into the barn and the boy shows the dad the cover of a sci-fi comic book with a spaceship that looks similar to the time machine. Another cameo appearance of the sci-fi genre in the film was Marty’s dad as a teenager was writing stories about outer space. This movie is kind of at the further end of the sci-fi spectrum. Time Travel seemed to be just a logical mode to get to the real idea of being able to see your parents as teenagers.

This film was a Hollywood production, but it took a while to get it into production. Prior to Back To The Future, Zemeckis and Gale had made two movies (Used Cars and I Wanna Hold Your Hand) that were major flops and it was only after Zemeckis directed the box office hit Romancing the Stone (Zemeckis, 30 March 1984, USA) that studios started wanting to do Back To The Future. He then went back to Spielberg to produce, whom from the beginning, had faith in the story. The studios also had a problem with the film’s content; everyone seemed to think the film was too soft. The popular teen movies at the time were much more R rated. They wanted it to be more like Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 13 August 1982, USA) or Animal House (John Landis, 28 July 1978, USA). Then there was Disney who thought the somewhat incestuous relationship between Marty and his teenage mother was far too dirty.

The film is set in the present (the 1980’s at the time of production) they had Marty traveling back to the year 1955. They meticulously researched everything about that era to get the look just right. They portrayed as many easily identifiable 50’s icons as they could to really make the place feel real. The time machine itself had a real authentic appearance in relation to Doc. Brown, whom created it. Christopher Lloyd based his character to be a cross between Einstein and Leopold Stokowski and wanted to have a real excentric look. The time machine is meant to look like something that was built in his garage. Pieces of an airplane and other blinking buttons and switches really gave the feel of a machine that could possibly transport someone through time. Although there was much doubt in the ideas of the film it quickly became a box office hit. Through all the doubts in film about what would be popular to the audience, Zemeckis and Gale stuck to their instincts and ended up creating a film that captured everyone’s imagination no matter the age.