Back to the Future Day: Why is it celebrated every October 21st?

Did you know that Back to the Future has its own day? Released in 1985, starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and the iconic DeLorean , it's the first film in a trilogy that's been in high demand in streaming catalogs around the world (in Argentina, all three are available on Amazon Prime Video , while only the first is also on Netflix ).

But almost 40 years after its premiere, Back to the Future remains so relevant that we watch it regularly on cable channels, too. A phenomenon of such magnitude that it even has its own celebration on the global calendar every October 21st. Why?

Year 1985. The adventure begins when a young and rebellious teenager named Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox ) who lives in Hill Valley, California, meets Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall.

The goal is to test his friend's latest invention: a time machine built into a DMC DeLorean (the most modern car of its time). But terrorists shoot Doc, and Marty escapes by getting into the DeLorean, which displays the date 1955 on its dashboard.

Because of this fortuitous mistake, Marty travels back 30 years, where he meets his parents long before he was conceived. A series of interconnected events will change the fate of his present and future, and the young man almost jeopardizes his birth and that of his own siblings.

The producers hadn't planned a sequel to Back to the Future . But after it became a box office hit that grossed $388.8 million worldwide—not bad for an initial investment of $18 million—and with the public extremely curious to know what would happen if McFly traveled to the future, Back to the Future 2 arrived in 1989.

In the second film in the saga, Marty has a new destiny marked in Doc Brown's time machine, and what everyone expected happens: on October 21, 2015, he arrives from the past to his own town of Hill Valley to save his son from being imprisoned.

The time machine dashboard scene with the date in color became iconic, and gave rise to the celebration of October 21st as Back to the Future Day. A date on which millions of fans around the world fill social media with memes and memories.

This collector's item, a mix of science fiction and comedy, was written by Robert Zemeckis , based on the idea of ​​his screenwriter and partner Bob Gale , and produced by Steven Spielberg .

The first film in the trilogy was released in 1985, but before that, the script for Back to the Future was in the works for over five years and was rejected 44 times.

All the major studios turned their backs on this "crazy" project. The producers' feedback was always the same: perfectly crafted story, fresh and relatable characters, a highly original idea... but ultimately, no one was willing to produce it .

The truth is that Zemeckis and Gale had to break the industry ice with other scripts—and several flops—before they managed to bring their creation to screen. With the story of the film 1941, they met Spielberg, who, even after directing that black mark on his resume, ended up being one of the producers who bet on Back to the Future .

The success of the first installment in 1985 led to two sequels that complete the saga: Back to the Future 2 (1989) , which grossed $336 million in theaters; and Back to the Future 3 (1990) , which grossed $246 million. All very significant figures for the time and for a project that was expected to be much less.

Such was the success of this franchise that Universal Studios Florida created an attraction called Back To The Future: The Ride at its Orlando theme park, based on the saga, which became the most visited attraction for years . In 2007, the ride was replaced by The Simsons Ride, but the park still has a copy of the DeLorean, and an actor occasionally plays Doc.

The saga that shaped entire generations created a language of its own. And to this day, it challenges us to think about what we would do if we could travel back in time and change it, knowing that such a journey will inevitably impact our present and undoubtedly influence our future.

The trilogy's soundtrack was composed by Alan Anthony Silvestri, who later worked with Zemeckis on Forest Gump and many other films. However, the most memorable track on the soundtrack was "The Power of Love" by the band Huey Lewis & The News.