Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 55417
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 10-27-2025 06:21 PM
   
With the recent 40th anniversary celebrations for "Back to the Future," clips from the 1985 film have been making their way onto social media. One such video, from the start of the movie, made me realize I had missed a nod to Apollo 11.In Doc Brown's house, amid the Rube Goldberg machine, the CRM-114 amp, the many clocks and the portraits of famous scientists, is a framed photo of Buzz Aldrin descending the lunar module's ladder (specifically, NASA photo AS11-40-5868).  When Marty travels to the past, he never tells 1955 Doc Brown about the moon landings, but there is another reference to Apollo. In the third film, 1985 Doc Brown, having traveled back to 1885, discusses Jules Verne's science fiction with school teacher Clara Clayton. She asks, "Do you think we'll ever be able to travel to the moon like we travel across the country on trains?" Doc replies, "Absolutely. In 84 years, space vehicles will carry man to the moon." Oh, one more thing: Just above the photo of Aldrin is another reference to NASA and the decade when the first movie is set (before traveling through time). I recognize it as one of the popular photo prints of the space shuttle from the 1980s, but I cannot find if it is a NASA photo. With the white fuel tank, it has to be Enterprise or Columbia, the latter from STS-1 or STS-2. Does anyone know? And does anyone remember seeing either the Aldrin or shuttle photos coming up at auction as movie props from the set? |
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