In 1989, good sequels to hit movies were rare. Yes, The Empire Strikes Back happened in 1980, but, at the time, it was considered fairly radical for being such a huge departure in tone and structure from the first film. In this decade, sequels were still considered very unsafe bets, and difficult to make. When Back to the Future was a runaway hit in 1985, director and co-creator Robert Zemeckis was initially very reluctant about making a follow-up. In the 2015 Caseen Gaines book, We Don’t Need Roads, Zemeckis said: “Audiences have a love-hate relationship with sequels... Everyone in the world who loves your [original] movie have an opinion. You can’t win as a filmmaker.”
And yet, from this crucible of concern and uncertainty, a brilliant sequel was born, which ended-up creating one of the best sci-fi trilogies ever. Thirty-five years after it first hit theaters, the true strength of Back to the Future Part II is that the stakes of this sequel are a fight to make sure the first movie happened in the first place.
