Back to the Future Day: Where Were They Now (The Cast Then and Today)

It’s finally here. The day we’ve all been waiting for. A day three decades in the making.

Today is the day that heroic everyman Marty McFly finally arrives in order to do something about his kids. Affectionately known as Back to the Future Day, October 21, 2015 has become something of a symbol for the fans of Robert Zemeckis’ time traveling adventure.

Of course, the real 2015 is absolutely nothing like the 2015 showcased in Back to the Future Part 2, and fans the world over are still waiting for the day they can glide on air with their hoverboards. The Jaws series has been (mercifully) left alone, holograms aren’t nearly as prevalent as we thought they might be, and videogames are in no way looked upon as baby toys.

As much as we’d love it if life imitated art, we’re more or less stuck with the existence we’ve got (even though we’re all still waiting patiently for hoverboards and flying cars). Still, there’s no denying the impact Back to the Future and its subsequent two sequels have had on popular culture. It’s one of the most enjoyed and beloved trilogies of all time, and for good reason. The films are as timeless as they are time-bending, with their relatable characters, hilarious dialogue, and penchant for high jigawatt action.

To celebrate the day, we decided to take a look at the main stars of the series, showcasing where they’re at in the real 2015 vs. where their iconic characters were in their 2015…

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox)

For all his youthful adventures, time would not be kind to Marty who, like so many of us, suddenly found himself over-the-hill, tired, and basically dead inside due to the failure of his lifelong dream of rock and roll superstardom. The reality of existence eventually catches up to all of us, and soon we must put aside childish notions such as our hopes and dreams. 2015 found Marty in a low level position of corporate drudgery, doing everything he could to hold his family’s finances together in the face of spoiled and unappreciative children and a wife who, most definitely, did not sign up for this life. His house, in a once coveted neighborhood, is now in a decidedly rundown, bad part of town that even the Hill Valley police are wary of, and the strings that loosely hold his life together become untied due to the fact that, even as a grown ass adult, he cannot stand to be thought of as a chicken.

Michael J. Fox, on the other hand, is doing pretty great, all things considered. Despite disappearing from the acting community for some time due to his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, Fox has managed to stay mostly active in recent years with television appearances. While his much touted sitcom, The Michael J. Fox Show, didn’t earn the ratings to go beyond a single season, Fox remains in the spotlight with a recurring role on The Good Wife as Louis Canning. Outside of acting, Fox is one of the most outspoken advocates for Parkinson’s, doing charity work and raising awareness for the disease, which afflicts an estimated 10 million people worldwide.

Doctor Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd)

Kooky inventor Doc Brown was the integral part of what made Back to the Future a reality. Persistent in his refusal to fuck with the past, Brown was the voice of reason in the back of your brain. Like your parents, he would warn of the dangers of going against his advice while currently or previously breaking every rule he tried to set. After hitting his head in the 50’s and working tirelessly on what would ultimately create endless time paradoxes and dimensions, Brown’s machine would not stand the test of time, becoming outdated due to its incredible eighties-ness.

The cold reality is that, in 2015, Doc would probably be dead. Well, would be, if not for his uncanny ability to fuck with time more than Doctor Who during a centuries-long bender. If we consider that Doc of 1955 is already, at best, well into his 30’s, he’d be pushing 100 by the time 2015 rolled around. Thankfully, for a man who travels in the kind of style Doc travels, time is a meaningless construct better left to simpler minds, and death is for the weak, giving him literally infinity years to visit and revisit 2015 as he deems fit.

Meanwhile, the real Doc Brown aka Christopher Lloyd has been creating his own time paradoxes in the form of character roles since the release of the third Back to the Future installment. Among others, his accomplishments have included a reviled Professor, a self-hating cartoon, a page-master, an angel, Fester Addams, and countless voice over acting bits. Lloyd has repeatedly reprised his signature character in television commercials, video games, and even a ride or two. Lloyd’s television and film resume is overwhelming, proving that cheating time can in fact work out, as long as you can sufficiently hide your secret machine from the Biff’s of the world. Later this year, you can see Lloyd star in Arnold Grossman’s The Boat Builder, premiering November 6 at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, which finds the actor starring as a salty old coot forming an unlikely bond with a boy decades his junior.

George and Lorraine McFly (Crispin Glover/Jeffrey Weissman and Lea Thompson)

In 2015, George McFly had found himself still happily married, and enjoying a game of golf now and again, as well as being hit with the occasional flying car. It’s safe to assume he retired a semi-celebrity, as an aviator-wearing, best-selling sci-fi author.

In 2015, Crispin Glover has resigned himself to being one of the most celebrated outsiders in the Hollywood system. Having made appearances in the Texas Rising mini-series or big budget disasters playing a CG Grendel in Beowulf, or the Knave of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland: The Tim Burtoning, he’s also known to produce/direct/star in What Is It? and the inevitable follow-up It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine, playing the dual role of “Dueling Demi-God Auteur/The Young Man’s Inner Psyche and Id.”  While he didn’t appear in the sequels to Back To The Future, a franchise known for actors playing multiple roles, he did sue Universal over the actor that replaced him, Jeffrey Weissman, for doing a Crispin Glover impression (and won).

In 2015, like her husband, Loraine Baines McFly was still happily married to her husband, George, though she still spent her time worried about her children. Specifically, her concerns over Marty’s dead end job and possible marriage problems.

In 2015, Lea Thompson continues to work, looking nothing like her future cinematic counterpart from Back to the Future Part II. Her biggest work of note was Caroline in the City, playing the titular Caroline Duffy. She continues to work on big screen projects like J Edgar as well as small screen appearances in shows like CSI. She even reprised her role as Lorraine Baines for an episode of Robot Chicken in 2011. She most recently played herself in a recent episode of the current incarnation of The Muppets.

Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson)

Some people are just assholes, and no amount of aging or experience can or will change their innate assholery. Such is the fate of Biff Tannen, an asshole who never grew out of being an asshole. 2015 found Biff aged, alone, and still miffed about being prevented from committing sexual assault in the school parking lot by the town’s oddball nerd 60 years prior. He was a crazy old codger who roamed the streets of Hill Valley scowling at the world and inexplicably still calling everyone “butthead”. It’s possible Biff’s assholery skipped a generation, as we never do get the chance to see his immediate progeny, but his grandson, Griff, has taken the Tannen family legacy of being a total dick to new and great heights, becoming the kind of criminal that his ancestor Mad Dog would be proud to call his own. This would also be the year that Biff committed grand theft time machine and changed the timeline in order to turn the 1980’s into the sort of Donald Trump inspired theme park of zero regulation and imbalance that many today still long for.

By all accounts, Biff portrayer Thomas F. Wilson is, like, totally the nicest dude that’s ever walked the streets of Hollywood, which, to our minds, makes him one of the finest living actors of this generation. Outside of the Back to the Future trilogy, Wilson is best known to the masses as Coach Fredricks in the tragically short-lived Freaks and Geeks. Wilson has also had guest appearances in basically every show in the last decade, and has carved quite a successful niche for himself in the world of voice acting, appearing in everything from SpongeBob SquarePants to Batman: The Brave and The Bold. On top of this, he’s also a sought after motivational speaker for corporate retreats and other events who uses comedy (which, by the way, he still performs in comedy clubs everywhere) to inspire greatness in others.

Jennifer Jane Parker (Claudia Wells and Elizabeth Shue)

Jennifer’s ignorance and sleeping capabilities were impeccable. Just as Doc Brown’s time machine fueled the adventures sought by the inquisitive Marty, so too did Jennifer’s shortcomings add to believability of the whole thing. Rather than question the obvious bromance blooming between a mad scientist and her spunky boyfriend, Jennifer instead loved Marty to no end. Even after learning of the monotony her life would slowly fade into (and the terrifying genetic match she and Marty would have to accept), Jennifer stuck by her man’s side, sleeping away any doubts and allowing herself to believe that everything was in fact, all a dream.

Aside from questioning the morality behind carrying on a relationship with someone whose opinion of you has been altered by a time jump, Jennifer acted as a constant in Marty’s life. No matter where he was in time, or what incestuous relationship he accidentally cultured, he would look back on Jennifer as the one thing he could count on. Jennifer2 anyway, Jennifer1 was a flaky ass flake who flaked after we time hopped into a new reality. Or at least, that’s one explanation as to the sudden facelift behind Marty’s number one gal.

In the year Jennifer was meant to console her hopefully newly promoted (rather than fired) husband while raising her terrifying and spoiled rotten children, the real Jennifer (Jennifer1) aka Claudia Wells runs a shop in California while still vaguely pursuing her acting career. After leaving the acting scene to care for her cancer-ridden mother, she never quite broke into the spotlight as many of her peers were able to do. Wells is still most well-known for her quick Back to the Future role, a character mostly remembered as 80’s sweetheart Elizabeth Shue. Before appearing in the two BttF films, Shue was already well-known as the cute girl next door who could help you get out of a jam. As Jennifer2 she could pass out on a dime, pretend she was unaware of the future, and forget her monster offspring. As herself, she continues to act in films and television shows like noir cop drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a show that like Shue, refuses to fade into the realm of irrelevancy.

As an added bonus, check out this short video, “Fueled by the Future,” featuring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd discussing the trilogy’s vision of the future vs. what we’ve got today.

Written by: James Roberts, Danielle Houtkooper, and Christian Long