Back To The Future Writer: 'We Were Visionaries'

Bob Gale reflects on the makers' predictions for the future and why they didn't want the film to be like Blade Runner.

One of the writers of Back To The Future has been reflecting on what the film got right about the future on the day the characters travelled to 2015.

Marty McFly and Doc Brown came to 21 October, 2015 in the second film in the series - and today is now known among fans as "Future Day".

Bob Gale said when he and fellow screenwriter Robert Zemeckis were writing Back To The Future Part II in the late 1980s they did do some research, but accuracy wasn't their main goal.

"We wanted to present a future that was fun," he explained. "It's a comedy. We didn't want to do the Blade Runner future. I love Blade Runner but ... that's not the way it works.

"It would not be as big of a disorientation as so many movies depict. Some of the things were based on actual trends.

"Flatscreen televisions - that was something we knew was being worked on. The idea that you would do video conferencing from your television, that was something that was sort of being talked about.

"Paying for things using your thumbprint. Again, that was something that was very much in its infancy. And we said 'Hey, that makes sense - that is something that people would do'.

"We didn't really think that we would have flying cars, but it was too great of a fantasy to not show that."

Gale was asked how he feels when he sees inventions in real life that were depicted as fantasy in Back To The Future Part II.

"We were geniuses!" he laughed. "We were visionaries!"

What about our future? What does Gale think we can expect?

"If there was one piece of technology in the film that we could have today ... that would be Mr Fusion," he said.

"If you could just drop your trash into this device and it would power your car, power your house, that would be really neat.

"We may have real working hoverboards by 2045. I think there'll be some major breakthroughs in medical technology.

"I think the way that we access medical services will be through computers and through touchscreens that will be able to monitor our pulse and vital signs and diagnose us."