Back to the Future

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Runtime: 1 Hour and 56 Minutes

Rated PG

“Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?!?!”

Brilliant—and slightly unhinged—scientist Dr. Emmett Brown has achieved the impossible: a time machine built from a DeLorean. But when a late-night experiment goes horribly wrong, Doc’s past comes crashing into the present… with deadly consequences.

Left with no choice, teenager Marty McFly jumps behind the wheel and hits 88 miles per hour—only to be thrown back into 1955.

Stranded in the past, Marty makes a mistake that could cost him everything; he interrupts the very moment his parents were meant to meet and fall in love. Now, his future is unraveling before his eyes—his family fading from existence, one moment at a time.

With time running out, Marty must rewrite history, bring his parents together, and find a way to harness the impossible or be erased forever.

Great Scott! This is more than a race against time… It’s a fight to exist.

Themes:‍ ‍

Time travel, the past, science fiction, home, change, bullying, family, parents,

Language:

A*s - 3 B*stard - 5 B *tch - 3 D*mn - 15 Hell - 8 Sh*t - 5 Religious Exclamation - 15

Stuff to be aware of: “1.21 gigawatts!”

‍ ‍Alcohol and Drugs - Characters mention drinking “beer” and are seen drinking beer and vodka. Two underage people drink, and one smokes. A group of musicians smokes weed in a car. When they get out of the car, smoke rises out of the car with them.

‍ ‍Scary - There is a scene where a character dresses up in a hazmat suit to scare someone.

‍ ‍Sexual - At the beginning of the movie, two teens are planning a trip to “the lake” together.

A “Peeping Tom” is up in a tree where he is watching a girl undress. You see the girl he is watching through the window. She is seen in her bra and panties, but there is no nudity.

A male character wakes up in his underwear. A family has taken him in after he was hit by a car. It is referenced by a female character that while he was knocked out (we don’t see this scene), the female took his pants off. The audience sees his underwear briefly when he tries to get out of bed. The girl makes comments about his underwear, moves uncomfortably close to him, and flirts with him. When the girl’s mother calls up the stairs to them, she tells the boy, “Quick, put your pants on.”

A bully makes multiple crude remarks to females.

A male character, when talking through what another male character is going to do to a female character, says, “you're going to touch her on her….” and he gets cut off.

A woman’s cleavage is seen when she bends over, and a guy obviously notices it. After this, a key part of the climax and ending is that a bully tries to rape a girl and a male character has to come in and save her.

‍ ‍Violence/Gore - A man is gunned down by a man using a machine gun. The audience watches this from a short distance away; there is no blood and gore.

Overall:‍

Seeing It With Your Family

If you grew up in the late ’80s or ’90s, there’s a good chance this movie felt like it was always on TV. Because of that, rewatching it later on DVD can be a bit surprising—you may find yourself thinking, “Wait… I don’t remember it having this much language.” That’s likely because cable edits toned down some of the stronger words and more suggestive moments.

Even though it carries a PG rating, it honestly feels closer to a modern PG-13 when viewed through today’s lens.

Outside of the language, the biggest things for families to be aware of are the sexual themes. There’s an uncomfortable subplot where a character’s mother becomes infatuated with him, not realizing who he really is. Additionally, there’s a troubling sequence where a plan is made for one character to mistreat a girl so another can “rescue” her—only for the situation to escalate when a third character intervenes, leading to a near sexual assault scene.

None of these elements dominate the film, but they are significant enough that parents may want to be prepared for some conversations, especially with younger viewers.

What I Thought “Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.”

To this day, this remains one of my all-time favorite movie trilogies. It’s such a fun, tightly written story that even modern time-travel movies still reference it—or poke fun at it—because of how iconic it has become.

This is Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd at their absolute best. Their chemistry, energy, and performances elevate every scene they’re in.

The story is clever and engaging, the humor still lands decades later, and there’s a genuine sense of excitement as everything unfolds. It’s one of those rare films that’s just as entertaining on your tenth watch as it was the first time—and it’s almost impossible not to get swept up in the adventure.