The Beloved Sci-Fi Trilogy You Need To Watch Before It Leaves Netflix
Hello, McFly! This your PSA that time is running out to revisit a certain classic cinematic trilogy on Netflix!
No, the streaming giant is not on the verge of dropping The Matrix trilogy (it's actually playing elsewhere at the moment), and all three Star Wars trilogies have already migrated over to a certain mouse-eared rival platform. The Ocean's Eleven trilogy appears safe for the moment too, by the way, and it's not exactly sci-fi anyway. The cinematic adventures of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and crazy old Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), on the other hand, are about to power up to 1.21 gigawatts and jump to parts unknown for the foreseeable future.
Just in case you aren't a child of the '80s and those allusions flew over your head, we speak of the Back to the Future trilogy. If you really don't know anything about said trilogy, there's no time like the present to get familiar — especially since all three flicks are set to depart Netflix at the end of 2020.
Yes, it's a genuine bummer that the Back to the Future trilogy is leaving Netflix land so soon, but the good news is you've still got tons of time to plop the family down this Holiday season and learn all about Flux Capacitors, quantum paradoxes, DeLorean cars, and of course, hover-boards. Frankly, you'd be hard-pressed to find a trilogy that's quite as much fun for the entire family as the Back to the Future flicks, so what better time than frosty December to get all caught up?
The Back to the Future trilogy is one of the best in cinema history
For those of you who've somehow managed to avoid the Back to the Future flicks for the past three decades-plus, the 1985 original kicked things off with future Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) at the helm. Prior to his Back to the Future breakout, Zemeckis had made a bit of a name for himself in Hollywood, and was seen by many as a filmmaker cut from the same cloth as the great Steven Spielberg.
It seemed only natural then that the duo would end up teaming up on a project, and Zemeckis' Back to the Future (which he co-wrote with Bob Gale) became exactly that project, with Spielberg producing and Zemeckis calling the shots on set. The duo more than delivered, crafting a witty, whip-smart, and absurdly clever sci-fi treat that delighted critics, scored big at the box office, and is widely viewed as a legit sci-fi masterpiece.
That film famously followed a hip '80s kid (Fox), who — with the help of a kooky, genius-level mad scientist (Lloyd) — is accidentally transported to the 1950s where he struggles to fit in, attempts to avoid altering the course of his own future, and tries desperately to, ya know, get back to the future.
At the risk of playing spoiler, he's mostly successful in those endeavors. Unexpected troubles arise once Marty gets back in time, and a new adventure begins as soon as the original ends. While the ensuing sequels (one set in the future, one in the old West) aren't quite as well-regarded, both are fascinating genre experiments in their own rights. In conjunction with the iconic Back to the Future, they form one of the greatest film trilogies of all time. Catch all three before they're gone.