While most of us don’t use flying cars or have self-tying shoes, that isn’t stopping many from celebrating the wildly popular “Back to the Future” movie trilogy today.
Why today?
October 21, 2015 is the date to which the main characters in the movies, Marty McFly, Emmett "Doc" Brown and Jennifer Parker, flew using a time machine in the trilogy’s second installment, 1989’s “Back to the Future II.”
In the real world, today is Back to the Future Day, and fans are celebrating in a variety of ways.
The town of Reston ,Virginia, a suburb of Washington, even changed its name for several days to Hill Valley, a nod to the fictional town where the movies took place.
Other celebrations will include a reunion of the cast at screening of the movie at New York’s Lincoln Center, screenings of the trilogy at more than 1,700 theaters across the country, and gatherings at several locations where the film was made.
Michael J. Fox, who starred in the movies at Marty McFly, is using Back to the Future Day to push for more research to combat disease.
The actor is battling Parkinson’s disease.
“Back then, if you’d have told me that I’d go from talking on a cell phone to talking cell biology, I would never have believed you,” said the actor in a statement. “So what’s possible in another 30 years? Call me an optimist, but I believe that by 2045 we’ll find the cures we seek.”
Fox is participating in a White House event for the day that will allow people to interact with scientists and innovators to see what the next 30 years might yield.
While the movie may have gotten flying cars wrong, it did make some predictions about the future were much closer to the mark.
For example, we have flat-screen televisions, video conferencing, electronic fingerprint scanning, hands-free video games, holograms, endless movie sequels and even hoverboards.
