Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master ListOscar · 1
Spoiler-free premise
Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest.
Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free+
Teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent from 1985 to 1955 in Doc Brown's DeLorean time machine. After disrupting his parents' first meeting, he must restore their relationship and persuade the younger Doc to send him home.
Why it belongs
Through visual callbacks, clockwork plotting, comic performance, and an unforgettable deadline, Back to the Future makes time travel exhilaratingly clear.
Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case+
Zemeckis and Gale make time travel immediately readable through the DeLorean, the clock-tower deadline, repeated locations, and meticulous visual callbacks, while Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd keep the machinery emotionally buoyant.
