ICYMI: Back To The Future Day’s Highlights
As I expect many of you know by now, yesterday was a pretty big day. Bigger than Christmas, bigger than New Year’s: that’s right, it was the official “Back to the Future Day”, an event that is quite literally once in a lifetime. Yes, after many attempted hoaxes that suckered in the uninitiated, yesterday was the canon date that Marty McFly ended up in the future: October 21st, 2015. Fans of the seminal trilogy found ways to celebrate, both in large and small scale. Here are just some of the best examples of yesterday’s festivities:
Nike announces that power-laced sneakers will indeed be a thing.
So first, the bad news: we still don’t have hoverboards. But Nike – singled out in Back to the Future II with its power-laced sneakers – weren’t content to let the future pass them by, and made the announcement that we’ve all been waiting to here: the shoes are coming.
I can totally hear the sound it makes when the laces tighten
For anyone who remembers, Nike actually designed a version of the shoe – called The MAG – back in 2011, having their own mini-celebration of the franchise and manufacturing a limited quantity of the sneaker for charity auction. Knowing that power laces would be the feature that everyone wanted, they teased then that it was something they were working on for 2015. What most people don’t know is that Nike actually collaborated with the production team back in 1985 to design the shoe, so the designs were just as much their property as the studios. And as Nike president and CEO said in a statement for the release: “We started creating something for fiction and we turned it into fact, inventing a new technology that will benefit all athletes.”
While the shoes themselves won’t be ready until 2016, that didn’t impede the impact of the announcement, or the live demonstration of the very first pair by none other than Michael J. Fox himself. His reaction is pretty much what anyone would expect.
Michael J. Fox models the first self-lacing @Nike Mag pic.twitter.com/bgPWM5CKBE
— michaeljfox.org (@MichaelJFoxOrg) October 21, 2015
The shoe, like it’s 2011 incarnation, will be available in limited quantities via auction to support charities. So fans, start saving your pennies.
USA Today replaces their front page with replica from the film.
You might remember that, upon arriving in 2015, Marty gets a copy of USA Today, featuring the arrest of his son after falling in with a bad crowd. In their own mass-produced send up, USA Today is printing a replica of the paper’s front page for all of its editions.
Today’s USA Today cover page
The print doesn’t actually go into release until today, as keen fans will remember that the paper Marty reads is actually dated for the following day. And while some minor changes were made to improve the legitimacy of the original prop, the replica is a perfect collector’s item for anyone who happens to pass by an American newsstand. So keep an eye out!
The White House celebrates Back to the Future day.
Not one to miss an opportunity to celebrate, The White House was in full swing in doing their own send ups to the trilogy. Besides a personal tweet from President Obama to Michael J. Fox, The White House spent the day appealing to fans of the science behind Back to the Future, with a livestream of experts discussing the reality of time travel. Regular updates were made throughout the day that challenged people to consider what the future would look like for the world after another 30-year leap, with discussions about neuroscience and mining in space!
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd
Of course, Back to the Future Day wouldn’t quite be the same without contributions from its leads, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. Universal Pictures arranged for a special message with Christopher Lloyd reprising his role as Doctor Emmett Brown, arriving in 2015 with a special message of his own.
While numerous companies gave their own little nods to the series, Toyota went above and beyond with their tribute that actually reunited the two stars, who have a lighthearted conversation about some of 2015’s innovations. The video is framed around a new car design that breaks down garbage into fuel (hello, Mr. Fusion). It’s entirely packed with references and quotes from the movies, and if that weren’t enough, Marty’s dream truck (which was in fact a Toyota) makes an appearance.
