When The Beatles first set out to make “Let It Be” in 1969, they intended a recording that would be a return to a live performance of just the bare necessities of the band, no studio effects or overdubbing of voices or instruments would be allowed. However, caught in the turmoil of the break-up of the band, the album was re-produced by Phil Spector and never released as The Beatles had originally meant it to sound.

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Another fine flick, The Beatles- Help! The Movie, courtesy of Google Video:

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via limpfish:

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One of the funniest movies ever made . . .

"Pike's Pale, The Ale That Won for Yale."

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The full movie, in its entirety via Google.video:

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"More than any time in history, mankind faces a crossroad. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

-- Woody Allen

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Robert Deniro & Joe Pesci are Hysterical:

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Oh, goody, yet another list. How f$%&ing original!

For some silly reason, there seems to be all this hoo-haa about the silly Vanity Fair article on the top Movie Soundtracks of all time.

These people are wankers for many reasons: 1) The VF weenies press released to death; b) the article is not even available on line; iii) the editors chose Purple Rain as the greatest film soundtrack of all time.

I remain convinced that the purveyors of these annoying lists select a controversial top pick to generate buzz (tho' you would think this would might encourage online posting).

Regardless, let's not play into their hand. Rather than waste too much time telling you how clueless VF's music editors are, or giving them any linklove, I would rather -- in the spirit of Friday Night Jazz -- compile a worthwhile list of films and soundtracks for your perusal.

A few ground rules:

• We are looking for outstanding soundtracks to outstanding films. (Merely o.k. doesn't cut it).

• Groundbreaking films, soundtracks and performances get bonus points. (Mediocre performances get cut).

• Better non-film versions take points away from the movie soundtrack -- where there are superior versions such as the Broadway soundtrack (i.e., Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, etc.) than those flicks don 't make the cut.

• Pure adaptations of Broadway shows also get cut. In my mind, Cabaret, Chicago, Chorus Line are more filmed stage productions, rather than pure movies.  (totally subjective).

Hence, several films failed to make the cut: Apocalypse Now is fantastic in the way it uses music (especially The Doors' The End, and Wagner's The Ride Of The Valkyries), but its not great as a standalone soundtrack; the wonderful My Fair Lady, with Rex Harrison's mediocre voice, and the dubbing of Audrey Hepburn's voice, also doesn't make the cut.

Alternatively, the film can't suck. The greatest soundtrack in the world becomes irrelevant if its attached to a film like, say, Hedwig and the Angry Inch -- a play that sucked two hours out of my life that I will never get back, and will literally regret on my death bed.

These things are totally subjective, and are rarely based exclusively on mere merits. Pink Floyd The Wall was a great album so overplayed when I was in college, that I simply couldn't pull the trigger on it (the film is a bit ponderous to boot). Again, these things are very subjective. We can certainly debate the order of any list, or the contents, and we probably will (thats what the comments are for).

Here's my subjective top 15:

1. A Hard Day's Night:  A brilliant film and album that both remain as energetic and fresh today as they were in 1964. The Beatles personalities were perfectly suited to the medium, so much so that its hard to imagine a better film/soundtrack combo.

A Hard Day's Night

If you want to consider another Beatles sound track, both Yellow Submarine and Help! are fun -- but neither rise to the sheer genius of A Hard Day's Night. 

~~~

2. Stop Making Sense: Quite simply, the best concert film ever made. Yes, some of you will declare The Last Waltz, (with a few stragglers nominating Woodstock) but there is simply nothing else that ha the combination of showmanship, musical innovation -- and the big suit -- like this film does. Marvelous.

Stop Making Sense

~~~

3.  Blade Runner: Forget the ponderous and boring Chariots of Fire, THIS is Vangelis Masterpiece. Not only is the music hauntingly beautiful, but it fits the filmscape so perfectly, making it even better than it originally was. We've already spilled so many words about BR, that the less said the better. "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain." 

Blade Runner

~~~

4. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: I could try to explain this, but I couldn't do it justice. Find a theater where this is playing at the midnight show, and go with someone who's gone before.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975 Film)

~~~

5. Garden State: My "surprise" entry. A charming little film with a soundtrack that simply refuses to stop delighting you with its lovely ballads, nearly all of which are by bands which, prior to this soundtrack, were unknown. This disc was played constantly in our car in 2004/05.

Garden State

~~~

6.  Harold and Maude: One of the most subversive, outrageously amusing, black comedies ever made -- hysterically funny to boot. Cat Stevens (before he became Yusaf) created a wonderful collection of songs.   This is , quite frankly, one of the funniest films ever made.

Harold and Maude

~~~

7. The Graduate: Not only is this a seminal, groundbreaking film, but the soundtrack is phenomenal. The way the various songs are interwoven into the action, mood, psychs of the players is amazing (listen as Benjamin's Alpha Romeo Spider runs out of gas). I don't know if Mike Nichols is a genius, or just gt incredibly lucky. Either way, its a great soundtrack and a great movie.   

The Graduate (1967 Film)

~~~

8. (tie):Led Zeppelin, The Song Remains The Same
The Who, The Kids Are Alright: Perhaps its my age showing, but I have always found each of these to be tremendous films and soundtracks. The Zep concert film was utterly ground breaking; The Who film was a fantastic documentary.

The Song Remains The Same

The Kids Are Alright

~~~

10. West Side Story: Leonard Bernstein's musical update of Romeo and Juliet. The combination of Stephen Sondheim brilliant lyrics, the kinetic choreography and the bravura camera work made for a fantastic wide screen film. The soundtrack created the perfect counterpoint to the dance and action.

Sure, its a bit dated (hence, #10), but it remains an all time great.

West Side Story

~~~

11. Pulp Fiction: The film does so many things so well -- but the way the music is integrated into the actual plot is simply terrific.  Plus, Travolta and Uma can each dance. 

Pulp Fiction: Music From The Motion Picture

~~~

12.  Purple Rain: There is no doubt that the purple one can sign, dance, play guitar. Acting, not so much. Regardless, his sheer overwhelming talent is why this manages to get onto my top 10. True Story: We saw this int he theaters in college, and my remark was "He's going to be bigger than Michael Jackson" -- who was huge at the time. Its a toss up if I got that one right.

Music from the Motion Picture "Purple Rain"

~~~

13. Little Shop Of Horrors: A fantabulous musical/horror/comedy. It's all a whole lot of fun, and the musical styles range from honky-tonk to doo-wop to straightforward rock n' roll. The strength of the film carries what otherwise might have been a mere Broadway adaption into an entire different level.
 

Little Shop Of Horrors (1986 Film)

~~~

14. Saturday Night Fever: One of those seminal films that tremendously influenced the culture.

My choice in music  was rock-n-roll, and I had little interest in blow-dried hair, white polyester suits, or cruising discos looking for Staten Island bimbos. (but if you wanted to get laid . . . )

The music works as well on its own, as it does as a classic piece of pop history. And John Travolta makes the list twice!

Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track

~~~

15. The Tao of Steve: Another charming little film that surprises with its wonderful songs. Lovely.   

The Tao of Steve: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Thats my top list; A few Honorable Mentions are after the jump . . .

Honorable Mentions:

South Park - Bigger, Longer & Uncut: You will laugh until you piss yourself. The soundtrack is very very funny.

South Park - Bigger, Longer & Uncut

~~~

The Breakfast Club: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

~~~

41 Original Hits From The Soundtrack Of American Graffiti

~~~

Trainspotting: Music From The Motion Picture

~~~

Superfly

~~~

Reader suggestions:

Grease   

Sound of Music   
Pink Floyd - The Wall   
Apocalypse Now
Forrest Gump
Round Midnight
Manhattan   
Oh Brother, Wherefore Art Thou
Grosse Pointe Blanke
Easy Rider
Last Waltz
Sorcerer Lost in Translation   
The Virgin Suicides   
The Motorcycle Diaries 
The Mission
Rushmore
Cabaret
Chicago
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Hair
Hedwig
Jesus Christ, Superstar
Oliver! (1968)
Absolute Beginners
All that Jazz
Moulin Rouge
Pennies from Heaven
Phantom of the Paradise
Robin & the 7 hoods
Starstruck
Tommy 
True Stories 
Willy Wonka
Beauty & the beast

~~~

If you've hummed along, tapped your feet, or even danced in your seat while watching "Purple Rain," "Saturday Night Fever" or "Trainspotting," you're not alone.

The soundtracks from those movies have been named among the 50 greatest by the editors of Vanity Fair magazine. The full list will be revealed next month in a one-time Conde Nast magazine, Movies Rock, for subscribers of its 14 titles.

"Purple Rain" topped the chart even though it was described as "perhaps the best badly acted film ever," editors at Vanity Fair said, while "Trainspotting" came in at No. 7 and "Saturday Night Fever" was eighth.

Source:
"Purple Rain" greatest film soundtrack: Vanity Fair
Wed Oct 24, 12:30 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071024/film_nm/soundtracks_dc

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Amusing:

Posted at 09:33 AM in Film, Humor, Television, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fascinating and bizarre (NSFW)

via Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/culture/art/multimedia/2007/10/video_robotsex

Posted at 06:28 AM in Art & Design, Film, Video | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Attention Blade Runner junkies: The offline Wired interview with Ridley Scott, which I mentioned in this weekend's linkfest, is now online.

As we noted previously, the latest version of Blade Runner is in theaters in October, with a 5 DVD disc set to follow next year.

Here's the Ubiq-cerpt:™

"It's a classic tale of failure and redemption, the kind of story Hollywood loves to tell.

Fresh off his second successful movie, an up-and-coming director takes a chance on a dark tale of a 21st-century cop who hunts humanlike androids. But he runs over budget, and the financiers take control, forcing him to add a ham-fisted voice-over and an absurdly cheery ending. The public doesn't buy it. The director's masterpiece plays to near-empty theaters, ultimately retreating to the art-house circuit as a cult oddity.

That's where we left Ridley Scott's future-noir epic in 1982. But a funny thing happened over the next 25 years. Blade Runner's audience quietly multiplied. An accidental public showing of a rough-cut work print created surprise demand for a re-release, so in 1992 Scott issued his director's cut. He silenced the narration, axed the ending, and added a twist — a dream sequence suggesting that Rick Deckard, the film's protagonist, is an android, just like those he was hired to dispatch.

But the director didn't stop there. As the millennium turned, he continued polishing: erasing stray f/x wires, trimming shots originally extended to accommodate the voice-over, even rebuilding a scene in which the stunt double was obvious. Now he's ready to release Blade Runner: The Final Cut, which will hit theaters in Los Angeles and New York in October, with a DVD to follow in December.

At age 69, Ridley Scott is finally satisfied with his most challenging film. He's still turning out movies at a furious pace — American Gangster, with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, is due in November — building on an extraordinary oeuvre that includes Alien, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. But he seems ready to accept Blade Runner as his crowning achievement. In his northern English accent, he describes its genesis and lasting influence. And, inevitably, he returns to the darkness that pervades his view of the future — the shadows that shield Deckard from a reality that may be too disturbing to face."

Other goodies:  An interactive look at the Cultural Influences Before and After the Film in the Blade Runner Nexus , and a full transcript and Audio of Wired's Interview with Ridley Scott.

Its a must read for fans -- even if Ridley gets whether Deckard is a replicant or a human wrong . . .

>

Source:
Q&A: Ridley Scott Has Finally Created the Blade Runner He Always Imagined   
By Ted Greenwald  09.26.07 | 4:00 PM
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-10/ff_bladerunner

Posted at 11:13 AM in Film | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I love this idea:

Color-Coded Criminals by Mr. Purple

Posted at 06:18 AM in Design, Film, Humor, Shopping | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Looks very funny:

Here's the overview from IMDB.

Posted at 06:23 AM in Film, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Clever!

This is a parody of all the "100" list specials that the American Film Institute keeps putting out. It's my first time working with video editing and my first YouTube post. Complete list at here:

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Astonishing:

click for larger graphic

via kottke

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Very well done CG short movie, based on Star Wars universe, it's an Imperial propaganda commercial.

Via Cee-Gee.net

It tooks about one year to complete and features models made from scratch by myself. I've used 3DStudio 4.0, 3DStudio MAX 2.0/2.5, Media Studio 5.0, Autodesk Animator."

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Last week, we looked at a diagram of Star Wars characters.

Today, we have a little more fun:

via starwars.com

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via Threetwoone.org

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Most relationships in Hollywood fizzle after a couple months; Hollywood has been going steady with Philip K. Dick for 25 years. Tinseltown's appetite for his trademark paranoid-futuristic vibe is bottomless, and there seems to be no end to the number of his works that get the big-screen treatment.

The streak began with 1982's "Blade Runner" and included "Total Recall" (1990), "Screamers" (1996), "Minority Report" (2002), "Paycheck" (2003) and last year's "A Scanner Darkly." His work has also served as the basis for a play, an opera and a video game.

This Firday's release of "Next," (starring Nicolas Cage) is about a man who can glimpse the future.

"Adjustment Team"

Published: 1954

Riffing on Dick's favorite theme, the fungible nature of reality, real estate salesman Ed Fletcher discovers that the world is nothing more than a giant soundstage controlled by mysterious guardians. Hmm, perhaps Jim Carrey will star.

"Time Out of Joint"

Published: 1959

Ragle Gumm believes he's living in an idyllic town in 1959, but comes to realize he actually lives in the future and that his reality is a fake, created to shield citizens from the truth: that the Earth is engaged in a nuclear war with colonists on the moon.

"Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said"

Published: 1974

Jason Taverner, who lives in a futuristic police state, awakes in a hotel room to find his ID missing. After a few inquiries, he discovers that his entire identity has been erased and even his closest friends don't recognize him.

"Valis"

Published: 1981

After receiving communion in the form of a blast of laser light, Horselover Fat goes on a quest for God, and finds Him in the form of a 2-year-old named Sophia, who confirms that God is actually a reality-controlling satellite orbiting the Earth.

"Radio Free Albermuth"

Published: 1985

In an America ruled by a corrupt president, record executive Nicholas Brady begins receiving transmissions from a mysterious, all-powerful satellite that orders him to organize a movement to overthrow the government.

Posted at 06:33 AM in Books, Film, SciFi | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nicely done CG animation about a Nazi war robot that wreaks havoc on the Allies.

Part I

Part II

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Help! from The Beatles film of the same name

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Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez pick their 10 favorite movie posters:

Here are 2 of the favorites picked by the auteur directors (plus one of my favorites)

Escape From New York

Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Overlooked by the boys is this one -- both movie and  poster are amongst my favorites:

Blade Runner

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Frickin hysterical:

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photo by Digital Playground courtesy of the NYT

>

Did anything else even come close to this quote last month? That's your money shot:

“HD is great because people want to see how people really look,” Ms. Price said. “People just want to see what’s real.”

Ms. Price is allowing them to do so, mostly. She had laser treatments to diminish tiny purple veins on her thighs that weren’t visible to viewers before.

“You can see things you cannot see with the naked eye. You see skin blemishes; you see cottage cheese,” said Robby D. “But some cellulite is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s kind of sexy.”

The technology makes the experience more intimate, he said. “People look to adult movies for personal contact, and yet they’re still not getting it. HD lets them see a little bit more of the girl.”

That’s not necessarily good, said Savanna Samson, an actress who last December directed her first movie, “Any Way You Want Me.” During a scene in which she played a desperate housewife, she ran into a problem: the high-definition camera revealed she had a tiny ill-placed pimple.

“We kept stopping and trying to hide it. We put on makeup and powder, but there was no way,” Ms. Samson said. Finally, they tried another approach: “We just changed positions,” she said.

"a tiny ill-placed pimple."

That's a wrap, people . . .

Source:
In Raw World of Sex Movies, High Definition Could Be a View Too Real
MATT RICHTEL
NYT, January 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/business/media/22porn.html

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Too funny:

Posted at 06:26 AM in Film, Humor, Video | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Indie cult classic The Tao of Steve is showing over the next few days on IFC -- perfect for our forecast rainy weekend here in the NorthEast.

I've always thought it was a great unknown date movie, along the lines of Chasing Amy or Kissing Jessica Stein (excellent script, great characters, very likable cast).

If you haven't caught it yet, the film is a charming romantic comedy about the prolonged adolescence of a paunchy womanizing slacker named Dex. The "Tao" are Dex's actual rules for how to seduce women, based upon the worldly wisdom of 3 famous Steves: McGarrett, Austin & McQueen.

Guys tend to love the first half of the movie (for obvious reasons); Its where the secrets of the Tao of Steve gets explained. The second act is all about why us guys have it so wrong. Its really a great date movie, but for your own sake, try not to whoop it up too much at an inopportune moment (trust me on this).

Indeed, let's not kid ourselves -- this is a chick flick. A rambunctious, charming rougue, an immature womanizing Man/Boy -- a guy's guy -- ultimately gets broken and domesticated by love. Hence, why the missus will enjoy it, too. 

Tao is one of those flicks made so much better by a killer soundtrack (think Garden State or Desperado).

The closest thing in a mainstream Hollywood version of the Peter Pan syndrome is either the Jack Nicholson/Dianne Keaton vehicle, Something's Gotta Give, or Matthew McConaughey Failure to Launch.

Neither of those are remotely as likable as the Tao of Steve. 

Enjoy!

DVD here

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Fun stuff: I hope Wikipedia doesn't delete it:

This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy.

 
Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for deletion page.

Feel free to edit the article, but the article must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed. For more information, particularly on merging or moving the article during the discussion, read the guide to deletion.

---

Steps to list an article for deletion: {{subst:afd}} • Preloaded debate OR {{subst:afd2|pg=Back to the Future timeline|cat=|text=}} • {{subst:afd3|pg=Back to the Future timeline}} log

The popularity of the Back to the Future film trilogy is due in part to the detailed and believable local history of the fictitious city of Hill Valley and the genealogies of its residents.

Each event described in this timeline is either depicted in the films (or on newspapers or other artifacts depicted in the films), in the novels, in screenplays to the films, or described in interviews by the Bobs (director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis and producer/co-writer Bob Gale). Additionally, a couple of dates (Verne's birthdate and Clara's birth year) are derived from episodes of the animated series, although whether or not that information is canon is subject to dispute by fans. Information from fan fiction is not included.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents 1 Timeline 0 1.1 1850s 1.2 1860s 1.3 1870s 1.4 1880s 1.5 1900s 1.6 1910s 1.7 1920s 1.8 1930s 1.9 1940s 1.10 1950s 1.11 1960s 1.12 1970s 1.13 1980s 1.14 1990s 1.15 2000s 1.16 2010s 2 Timeline 1 2.1 1980s 3 Timeline 2 3.1 1950s 3.2 1970s 3.3 1980s 3.4 1990s 3.5 2010s 3.6 2030s 4 Timeline 3 4.1 1980s 4.2 2010s 5 Timeline 4 5.1 1950s 5.2 1970s 5.3 1980s 5.4 1990s 6 Timeline 5 6.1 1980s 7 Timeline 6 7.1 1950s 8 Timeline 7 8.1 1880s 8.2 1950s 9 Timeline 8 9.1 1880s 9.2 1890s 9.3 1980s

According to Doctor Emmett Brown in Back to the Future Part II, whenever a time-traveler alters key events occurring in the past or future, they effectively bring an alternate timeline into existence at their point-of-entry, and their original timeline is erased, even though its events are not forgotten by the time-traveler. Thus, every time jump depicted in the Back to the Future saga “destroys” a current timeline and “creates” a new one, although Doc Brown often uses the phrase “erased from existence” to describe the deleterious effects of this process. As a time-traveler acquires multiple recollections of these altered timelines, a fourth-dimensional latticework begins to emerge which can be expressed graphically, as Doc Brown actually does for Marty McFly (in a crude chalkboard drawing) in BTTF Part II.

Chart of BTTF alternate timelines
In the graphic below, the term Timeline 0 describes the original timeline in which no time-travel ever occurs (the topmost horizontal black arrow). The red arrows (including one double-headed one) represent the ensuing ten jumps by Doc’s DeLorean depicted in the trilogy, with associated human passengers listed alongside (except for Einstein’s experimental solo jaunt). The resulting timelines, from 1 to 8, are represented by each successive horizontal arrow, and their 4th-dimensional evolution through the trilogy is indicated by the green labels on the right. A few, such as Timeline 1 (the timeline created by Einstein's one-minute test jump) are virtually identical to Timeline 0, while others, such as Timeline 5 in which the events of 1985A take place, are drastically different in terms of their respective events and effects. Accordingly, the events within each timeline are listed (chronologically) as they are understood to have occurred, but most often where they differ (often radically, or else subtly) from those of their “parent” timelines. For instance, permanently unaltered events in Timeline 0 during the 1960s are common to all BTTF timelines and are listed only once. Events that occur prior to a timeline split date are of course identical to those described in the lower-numbered timeline.

The multiple Back to the Future timelines.

[edit] Timeline 0

This is the original, unaltered timeline. In this timeline, Biff becomes George's boss and continues bullying him.

[edit] 1850s

• 1850
  • Date unknown: Hill Valley is founded.

• 1855
  • Date unknown: Clara Clayton is born in New Jersey.

[edit] 1860s

• 1861
  • Dates unknown: The earliest of Doc's emergency money is printed.

• 1865
  • Tuesday, September 5th: Hill Valley becomes a city.

• 1866
  • Date unknown: Eleven-year-old Clara comes down with diphtheria and is quarantined for three months. As a result, her father places a telescope next to her bed for her to use, which sparks her lifelong interest in astronomy and science.

[edit] 1870s

• 1870
  • Date unknown: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is published for the first time.

[edit] 1880s

• 1880
  • Date unknown: Around this year Seamus McFly, his wife Maggie McFly and his brother Martin emigrate from Ireland to the United States. Based on Seamus saying that his brother was stabbed in Virginia City, Nevada, the McFlys might have taken a few years to get to California, settling in a few other places along the way.
• 1883
  • Sunday, November 18th: Railroads throughout the United States officially adopt Standard Time on “The Day of Two Noons”. On that day millions of Americans become “time travelers” as they reset their local clocks to conform to the new standard at exactly 12:00 p.m. According to the New York Herald, "Those in the eastern half of the (Eastern Time) zone are, as it were, 'living a little of their lives over again' but those on the other side are thrown, some of them as much as half an hour, into the future." When Hill Valley gets its courthouse clock in two years, it will be set to Pacific Standard Time.
• 1884
  • Date unknown: Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen shoots twelve men, not including Indians or Chinamen, before the end of this year according to a newspaper article. The article has no follow-ups because Tannen killed its editor.
• 1885
  • April: William Sean McFly born, first son to Seamus and Maggie McFly and the first McFly born in America.
  • Saturday, August 29th: There is a meeting of the townspeople over who will pick up the new schoolteacher on the 4th. No one there at that moment volunteers, so Clara will have to manage for herself.
  • Friday, September 4th: A snake “spooks” the horses pulling the wagon of Clara Clayton. They ride madly into Shonash Ravine, killing Miss Clayton instantly. This casts a pall over the town’s 20th anniversary festival. The ravine where she died will be renamed in her memory, Clayton Ravine.
  • Saturday, September 5th: As part of Hill Valley’s muted anniversary festivities, the new courthouse clock, which arrived on the same train as the late Clara Clayton, is started at exactly eight o’clock PM PST. Photographs with the clock are offered to townspeople wishing to pose with the new timepiece. The clock will remain in faithful service to Hill Valley for the next seven decades (it is presumed the clock was briefly halted for installation atop the courthouse).

• 1886
  • Date unknown: The railroad bridge over Clayton Ravine is completed as scheduled.

[edit] 1900s

• 1908
  • Date unknown: Doc's parents, known as the Von Brauns, arrive in Hill Valley. They were presumably from either the German Empire or Austria-Hungary.

[edit] 1910s

• 1910
  • Date unknown: Marty's grandfather and Lorraine's father, Sam Baines, is born.

• 1914
  • Date unknown (though could be as late as 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I) Due to the war, Doc's father changes his family's name from "Von Braun" to "Brown."

• 1915
  • Date unknown: Marty's grandmother and Lorraine's mother, Stella [Baines], is born.

[edit] 1920s

• 1920
  • Date unknown: Emmett Lathrop Brown is born.

• 1923
  • Date unknown: Gray's, the future publishers of Gray's Sports Almanac, is founded.

[edit] 1930s

• 1931
  • Date unknown: A History of Hill Valley, 1850-1930 is published.
  • Date unknown: At age 11, young Emmett Brown reads the works of Jules Verne for the first time and decides to dedicate his life to science.

• 1932
  • Date unknown: At age 12, young Emmett tries digging to the center of the Earth, inspired by Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.

• 1937
  • Friday, March 26th: Biff Tannen is born.

• 1938
  • Friday, April 1st: George McFly is born to Arthur and Sylvia McFly.
  • Date unknown: Lorraine Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.
  • Date(s) unknown: Biff's future gang members, Match, Skinhead, and 3-D, are born.

[edit] 1940s

• 1940s
  • Date unknown: Emmett Brown works on the Manhattan Project.

• 1942
  • Date unknown: Milton Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.
  • November 19: Calvin Richard Klein, American fashion designer (and Marty's alter ego in 1955 Timeline 2) is born.

• 1947
  • Date unknown: Suitable parts (possibly transistors) for Doc's time-circuits are invented.

• 1949
  • Date unknown: Sally Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.

[edit] 1950s

• 1950
  • Date unknown: 12-year-old George McFly tries standing up for his friend Billy Stockhausen, but fails to do so.

• 1951
  • Date unknown: Toby Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.

• 1954
  • Date unknown: Joey Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.
  • Date unknown: George McFly reads How to Win Friends and Influence People.
  • Autumn: the copy of Fantastic Story that George is reading in 1955 is published.

• 1955
  • Date unknown: Old Man Peabody tries to breed pine trees on his farm. He has twin pines.
  • Saturday, November 5th:
    • Doc Brown slips off his toilet whilst hanging a clock and has a vision of the flux capacitor.
    • While spying on a girl (Lorraine Baines) changing, visible through her window, George McFly slips and falls out of a tree into the street right in front of Sam Baines' car. Baines takes him in, and his daughter Lorraine takes care of George. The two fall in love. Lorraine will tell her kids about this someday.
  • Saturday, November 12th:
    • George takes Lorraine to the dance. There, they kiss for the first time, despite George’s embarrassment at the hands of Dixon.
    • At 10:04 p.m., lightning strikes the clocktower, damaging and stopping the seven-decade-old timepiece. There are no immediate witnesses to this event. Despite numerous attempts, repairs to the clock are unsuccessful. The ledge of the clocktower remains intact, with no cracks in it. Doc Brown attaches no cosmic significance to this event despite his experiences exactly a week earlier.

• 1956
  • Date unknown: The youngest Baines sibling is born to Sam and Stella Baines (name and sex are never mentioned, but Stella is very pregnant in 1955).
  • Date unknown: Lyon Estates, the future home of George and Lorraine McFly and their kids in 1985, is completed.

• 1958
  • Monday, January 6th: Chuck Berry records the single "Johnny B. Goode."
  • Wednesday, March 26th: Biff Tannen turns 21, the legal gambling age. He’s not likely to bet on anything if it’s not a sure thing, however.
  • 1958 model year: Toyota begins exports to the U.S. market, starting on the West Coast. Earliest possible date for Statler Motors to take on the franchise.

[edit] 1960s

• 1962
  • Wednesday, August 1st: Doc Brown's mansion burns down, except the detached garage, which Doc moves into.
  • Date unknown: Doc sells off the rest of the land.

• 1963
  • Date unknown: Dave McFly is born to George and Lorraine McFly.

• 1964
  • Date unknown: Riverside Drive, the street of Doc Brown's residence, is renamed John F. Kennedy Drive.

• 1966
  • Date unknown: Linda McFly is born to George and Lorraine McFly.
  • End of 1966 model year: Studebaker halts all remaining automobile production, affecting Statler Motors' business.

• 1968
  • Tuesday, August 6th: Douglas J. Needles is born.
  • Date unknown: Marty McFly is born to George and Lorraine McFly.
  • Date unknown: Jennifer Parker is born.

[edit] 1970s

• 1973
  • Date unknown: Ito Fujitsu is born. In Timeline 2, he will be Marty's boss in 2015.
  • Date unknown: No recognition for George McFly, who labors thanklessly at an unnamed company where he must complete written reports; if not now, his supervisor will eventually be Biff Tannen
• 1976
  • Date unknown: 8-year-old Marty accidentally sets fire to the living room rug.

[edit] 1980s

• 1980s
  • Date unknown: Marty and Doc meet and become friends. According to the original Part I script, Doc shows up at Marty's house and hires Marty to sweep his garage in the year 1983. Doc gave Marty total access to his record collection, and they became friends.

• 1981
  • Date unknown: The DeLorean motor car that Doc Brown ends up buying is first manufactured.

• 1982
  • Date unknown: Pepsi Free, the drink Marty asks for in 1955, is introduced.

• 1983
  • Diet Pepsi Free, the brand variety of soda sitting on Marty's bedside table in 1985, is introduced.
  • Sunday, May 22nd: Doc Brown is commended and wins an award. Ronald Reagan announces he will run for a second term in office.

• 1984
  • June: Linda McFly graduates in the Class of '84.

• 1985
  • Saturday, October 12th: Libyan terrorists steal plutonium from the local power plant for Doc, but it is dismissed by the FBI as a "simple clerical error".
  • Friday, October 25th:
    • Doc asks Marty to meet him at Twin Pines Mall at 1:15 a.m. next morning.
    • Marty fails his audition with his band, The Pinheads.
    • Marty admires a black Toyota 4x4 at the Statler Toyota dealership (a Statler Studebaker dealership in 1955, and Statler’s Fine Horses in 1885).
    • Lorraine's brother Joey fails to make parole again.
  • Saturday, October 26:
    • 

      

      The DeLorean's time circuits as they appeared one minute after the first demonstration.
      From about 1:18 a.m. to 1:35 a.m., in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall, Doc demonstrates his new time machine. His dog Einstein becomes the world's first time traveller at 1:20 a.m.. This event brings Timeline 1 into existence, and the current timeline fades away.
      As Einstein's time journey had little to no impact on history, events listed after this point are those that would have followed if Marty’s time journey had not taken place.

• 1986
  • June: Marty and Jennifer graduate from Hill Valley High School.

• 1987
  • Date unknown: Marty's driver's license expires.

[edit] 1990s

• 1990s
  • Date unknown: Latest possible decade for retirement of Mr Strickland, the latest in a series of Stricklands who enact discipline in their livelihoods.

• 1992
  • Date unknown: Roberta Needles, older daughter of Douglas, is born.

• 1994
  • Date unknown: Amy Needles, younger daughter of Douglas, is born.

• 1996
  • Date unknown: Griff Tannen is born.
  • Date unknown: Rafe "Data" Unger, future gang member of Griff's, is born.

• 1997
  • Date unknown: Leslie "Spike" O'Malley, future gang member of Griff's, is born.
  • Date unknown: Chester "Whitey" Nogura, future gang member of Griff's, is born.

• 1998
  • Date unknown: Bottoms Up!, a plastic surgery place, opens in Courthouse Square.

[edit] 2000s

• 2001
  • Date unknown: Gray's Sports Almanac is published.

• 2000s - 2010s
  • Date unknown: Continuing a national trend, the Hill Valley local newspaper closes or sells its printing and news-gathering operations to USA Today to create yet another local edition of the nationwide newspaper. The local newspaper is becoming obsolete as national chains with thousands of local editions take over.
  • Date unknown: Invention of: hover conversion, Mr. Fusion, the Black & Decker hydrator, the Mattel hoverboard, power shoelaces and self-drying jackets, skyways, rejuvenation clinics, suspended-animation kennels, automated gas stations, automated dog-walking leashes, thumbprint ID verifications, the 300+ channel universe, automated hovering news units (as used by USA Today), roll-down TV sets (the McFly home runs the Scenery Channel on it in a window).
  • Date unknown: The United States abolishes the trade of lawyers, allowing the justice system to move with far greater speed and efficiency. The National Weather Service develops extremely detailed forecasting ability (to the minute).
  • Date unknown: Relations with Vietnam improve and now there are promotions to surf there
  • Date unknown: Pepsi introduces Pepsi Perfect, a vitamin enriched cola (Marty would have ordered this from the video waiter at the Café 80's).

[edit] 2010s

• 2012
  • Tuesday, November 6th: A female President of the United States is elected or re-elected (in the 2015 newspaper, she says she is "tired" of the "same questions").

• 2015
  • Friday, October 16th or earlier: Jaws 19 debuts at the theater: this time, it's really really personal.
  • Wednesday, October 21st: The Chicago Cubs win the World Series.
  • Friday, October 23rd: Queen Diana visits Washington according to the 2015 newspaper.

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