Vitals

Emmett “Doc” Brown, eccentric inventor and amateur chronophysicist

Hill Valley, California, November 5, 1955

Film: Back to the Future
Release Date: July 3, 1985
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

If my calculations are correct… 70 years ago today was a red-letter date in the history of science: November 5, 1955. For those who haven’t seen Back to the Future, this was the day that Hill Valley’s resident mad scientist Emmett “Doc” Brown slipped from standing on his toilet to hang a clock, hitting his head on the bathroom sink—triggering his concept of the flux capacitor, which would make time travel possible.

Even a freshly bandaged Doc (Christopher Lloyd) seems unaware of that day’s significance when he’s visited by Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox)—not a space man from Pluto but a high school student from 1985 who was flung thirty years into the past by the DeLorean that Doc had transformed into a time machine. Continue reading →