Martin Seamus McFly is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Back to the Future franchise. He is a high school student living in the fictional town of Hill Valley, California, who accidentally becomes a time traveler and alters history after his scientist friend Emmett Brown invents a DeLorean time machine. He was created by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. In the film trilogy, he is portrayed by Canadian actor Michael J. Fox. Back to the Future established Fox as a film star, such was the commercial success and popularity of the film upon its release in 1985. Marty returned in two film sequels, Back to the Future Part II in 1989 and Back to the Future Part III in 1990.
During the development of Back to the Future, Eric Stoltz was initially cast in the role, but was replaced by Fox. Various other actors have portrayed or voiced the character in other media. In the animated series, David Kaufman voices him, and in the video game developed and published by Telltale Games, he is voiced by A.J. LoCascio, while Fox makes vocal cameos as his future counterparts. Olly Dobson played him in the original stage musical adaptation in the West End and Casey Likes plays him in the Broadway production.
Critics have described Marty as a film character that defined the 1980s. He was named one of the greatest movie characters of all time by Empire. Critics have also described him as a pop culture icon. Since the release of Back to the Future, he has been influential in other media, often being referenced in television and film.
Development
Concept and creation The concept for Back to the Future originated in co-creators Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale wanting to make a film about time travel. Gale said that the story evolved after he found his father's old high school year book and asked himself "Would we have been friends if we'd been at school together?" He considered the realization that parents were once young and also contemplated the idea that people are in charge of their own destinies. Gale and Zemeckis shared a fascination with the way that the future was often depicted in the wrong way in media and thought it would be cool to write a film in which the character changed history.
Gale and Zemeckis started to contemplate the concept while working on Used Cars (1980). They decided that it was impossible to answer the question of whether they would have hung out with their parents because their perception of them as parents could never change. After outlining the story concept, they spent time filling in the details of the McFly family through history. They used index cards pinned to a bulletin board to define each scene and then worked out the details and dialogue. Part of the process involved defining what a young person in the 1980s would take for granted and they used this as the basis for the jokes, which center on the cultural differences between the eras. This proved challenging as neither of them had grown up in the 1950s or the 1980s.
In the early drafts of the script, Doc Brown's technology caused the whole world to change instead of just Marty's family but this idea was rejected. Gale stated that Marty was named after a production assistant on Used Cars because it seemed like a "good, all-American name". Zemeckis then suggested the surname McFly. It took some time to work out how Marty would travel in time, but they knew it had to be by accident rather than for some personal gain. In the first two drafts of the script, many elements of the story were different to the final version and featured a time chamber instead of the DeLorean time machine. Marty was characterized as a "streetwise video pirate", but Zemeckis said that Universal Pictures refused to make a film with a video pirate as the protagonist. Some elements had to be changed or abandoned, such as a joke about Marty's long hair, which was removed due to changes in 1980s hairstyles. Zemeckis said that Marty's encounter with his teenage mother in 1955 was always the most difficult part of the film and they spent a long time trying to get it right.
When they pitched the story, it was rejected over 40 times as it was considered too sweet, although it was also rejected by Disney due to concerns over the subplot involving Marty's relationship with his mother. Others considered that a story about time travel would not make any money. The project was eventually taken on by Steven Spielberg at his production company Amblin Entertainment as he had always believed in the success of the project.
Casting and filming
Michael J. Fox was the first choice for Zemeckis when casting the role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future, as he had seen him starring in the television series Family Ties in the part of Alex Keaton. Fox was still under contract causing concern about his filming availability, so producer Gary Michael Goldberg did not give him the script. Various young actors auditioned for the part of Marty, including Jon Cryer, Billy Zane, Ben Stiller, C. Thomas Howell, Johnny Depp, John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, Matthew Modine, Ralph Macchio, Peter DeLuise, George Newbern, Robert Downey Jr., Christopher Collet, and Corey Hart (who declined to audition). Ralph Macchio also missed out on the role due to concerns that his New York accent and East Coast ethnicity were not the right fit for Marty's "all-American quality". Eric Stoltz was eventually cast as Marty and used method acting, insisting that the film crew call him "Marty" even when not filming. His intense, serious acting style clashed with the light, comedic portrayal that Zemeckis and Gale were expecting from the part. According to Gale, Stoltz portrayed Marty with the approach that he would feel miserable over how his family changes and this underpinned his performance. After reviewing 40 minutes of footage, Spielberg, Zemeckis and Gale knew it was a problem. Despite making the decision to fire Stoltz, filming continued into January 1985, with Stoltz filming the scene at the Twin Pines mall with Christopher Lloyd. Five weeks into shooting, Zemeckis replaced Stoltz with Fox. By that time, Universal Pictures had already negotiated the filming schedule for Fox around his commitment to Family Ties. Zemeckis personally took the responsibility of giving the news to Stoltz, stating that it was "the hardest meeting I've ever had in my life and it was all my fault. I broke his heart". Gale explained that the recasting did not reflect on Stoltz's acting abilities, but they had just cast the wrong person.
With Fox in the role, Zemeckis had to reshoot the previous five weeks of filming with a new leading man. Fox was 23 years old when he took on the role of 17-year-old Marty in 1985. The producers were impressed by Fox's sense of timing and comic ability. Zemeckis commented, "He's got the perfect blend of traditional leading man qualities. He's vulnerable but he's calm." As Fox had joined the production after filming had begun, he was forced to juggle filming of both the film and television series within a punishing schedule. This involved rehearsals for Family Ties from 10am until 6pm followed by filming Back to the Future from 6.30pm until 2.30am. Fox stated that the schedule was exhausting but worth the effort. Fox exclaimed that he could play Marty McFly in his sleep and wrote, "that very nearly turned out to be the case". His presence changed the atmosphere on set and he had a good rapport with Lloyd. Gale said that as well as being a good actor and having a natural comedic ability, Fox "gave the actors more to work with". Lloyd said that although he was worried about the replacement, he had a natural chemistry with Fox and found it easy to work with him. Fox assumed that his exhaustion would result in a poor performance and damage his career, but instead his anxieties benefited his portrayal of Marty: "I barely knew where I was, and I didn't really know what I was doing. That served the film because Marty's supposed to be disoriented." For a scene in which Marty plays a cover version of the song "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry at a school dance, Fox had to be taught to play guitar by Paul Hanson. Fox recalled that he also could not dance, so he worked with a choreographer in order to move like a rock star. He wanted to incorporate all of the mannerisms of his favorite guitarists, including "a Pete Townshend windmill, and Jimi Hendrix behind the back, and a Chuck Berry duck walk". Although Fox mimed the guitar playing and lip-synced the song in the scene, it was Tim May who played guitar, while the vocals were provided by Mark Campbell. Marty's skateboarding sequences were choreographed by professional skateboarders Per Welinder and Bob Schmelze, who also taught Fox, Stoltz and their stunt doubles the skateboarding techniques.
While filming a scene for the third film, which involves Marty being strung up in a noose by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen and his gang, the stunt almost went seriously wrong. In his 2002 autobiography, Lucky Man: A Memoir, Fox recalled that he stood on a box for the first two takes as the shot only filmed the upper part of his body. When the scene failed to look realistic, he decided to try the stunt without the box. As a result, the rope blocked his carotid artery and caused him to lose consciousness for several seconds until Zemeckis realised that he was not acting. This incident later led Fox to contemplate whether his developing symptoms were related to the hanging before he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Characteristics
Marty McFly is the Back to the Future protagonist, who is raised in Hill Valley, California, a fictional town set in 1985. He is a confident teenager who attends high school and dreams of becoming a rock star. He also lives in a family with various personal issues. He is the youngest of three children of George McFly and Lorraine Baines-McFly. He has a brother, Dave McFly, and a sister, Linda McFly. Marty's girlfriend is Jennifer Parker and his best friend is Emmett Brown, a scientist Marty and Jennifer call "Doc". In the third film, Marty meets his great-great paternal grandparents, Seamus and Maggie, who were Irish immigrants in 1885. He also meets their infant son William, Marty's great-grandfather. Despite never explicitly being explained in the film, Gale confirmed that Marty met his friend Doc Brown when he was around 14 after hearing that Brown was a dangerous lunatic. Marty was curious, so he snuck into Doc's lab and was fascinated by his inventions. Doc allowed him to help with his experiments and their friendship began. In the first film, Doc Brown introduces Marty to the time machine that he invented using a DMC Delorean, which Marty uses to time travel when the vehicle reaches 88 miles per hour.
Personality In Back to the Future, Marty is shown to be disappointed by his family, particularly his wimpish father and alcoholic mother. Marty enjoys playing electric guitar with his group The Pinheads and plays "The Power of Love" at a Battle of the Bands audition as his favorite band is Huey Lewis and the News. This ability gives him the opportunity to take the lead in 1955 when stepping in for Marvin at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance, where he shows the fictitious R&B band named Marvin Berry and the Starlighters the chord changes for "Johnny B. Goode". He is a talented skateboarder, often clinging onto the back of vehicles to gain extra speed when he is late for school. He also proves to be an excellent pistol shot, a skill he has honed by playing shooting games such as Wild Gunman.