Is there a conspiracy about Back to the Future? (1 Viewer)

MikeEckman · Jul 22, 2002

This will no doubt be an endless debate, like the whole "Did Back to the Future originally say 'to be continued..'" thing.

Someone posted this in the 'Hannibal edited for DVD conspiracy' thread, and I didnt want to pollute the thread with an off-topic discussion.

So, could anyone please explain to me what conspiracy is talked about in the above quote? Did they remove the 'To Be Continued' in later prints of the movie or something? Because I distinctly remember seeing it as a kid on home video when it first came out. I never saw this movie in the theaters, but I remembered being very excited about a sequel, and when I heard that part 2 was coming out in 1989, I was very happy.

So, whats the mystery?

Click to expand...

John_Berger · Jul 22, 2002

The statement was also there in the theatrical releases.
BTTF ended with "To Be Continued.."
BTTF2 ended with "To Be Concluded.."
I am not familiar with this "conspiracy" as you call it. Anyone else?
I don't see why they would be edited out of the DVDs. They're not politically incorrect. Wait... we're not talking about "E.T." My bad.

Steve Tannehill · Jul 22, 2002

The original theatrical prints of BTTF did NOT end with "To be continued..."

It was inserted into the first home video release (and was very surprising to those of us who had seen the movie in theaters).

I don't know about subsequent video releases, except to say that the laserdiscs I've owned have ended with "To be continued...".

- Steve

John Berggren · Jul 22, 2002

I saw the film in the theater and specifically remember "To be continued..."

I'm quite sure I didn't see it on the first weekend, as my sister took my mother and myself to see it after she had.

Jodee · Jul 22, 2002

I saw this in 1985 at the theatre and I don't recall a "To Be Continued".

David Lambert · Jul 22, 2002

I never saw the movie in theaters. I did read the novelization, as I often did back then, since my parents wouldn't take me to movies as often as I wanted to go (the bums). I was still living at home, at age 19, and working in a bookstore (so I got discounts on the novelizations) and didn't have a driver's lisence quite yet (noone would teach me to drive! Finally took a Sears course!).
I was a big part of CompuServe's Sci-Fi forum at the time.
There were several discussion threads always going at once about the movie BTTF.
I *distincly* remember certain things, like "during the start of the movie, could you see a duplicate Marty McFly looking on from the bushes of the mall parking lot as he watched himself disappear?" (when the film came to cable, I looked hard to figure out what people had been talking about)
Another common theme of those discussions was "what's up with the To Be Continued?...is there a sequel already in the works?"
The conclusion was that the producers WANTED to leave it open-ended for a sequel, but noone knew when it would be made. Of course, years later Speilberg and the two Bobs finally got it together and did two sequels at once. That's still a great trivia question: Who did back-to-back films in a trilogy piece long before Peter Jackson did?

Anyway, I don't know if the To Be Continued was in ALL the prints, but it had to be in some - or many - of them, judging by the CompuServe discussions at the time!

Ian_Fisher · Jul 22, 2002

I saw it in the theatre several times when it came out (I was 12, and at the time it was my favorite movie). It did NOT say "to be continued..." at the end of the movie until it was released on video. I saw it on its opening weekend, and probably every other week after that for 2 months. When my friends and I rented the video and saw the tacked-on teaser, I remember the huge "COOOOOOOOOOL!!!!" that erupted.

I don't know if it is a conspiracy, but "to be continuted..." was added for the video release.

John_Berger · Jul 22, 2002

The original theatrical prints of BTTF did NOT end with "To be continued..."

I do clearly remember seeing this in the theaters and wondering when the sequel would be coming out as I exited the theater.
Looks like another "Star Wars and the Chapter IV in the initial scrolling text" type of thread.

Click to expand...

Steve Tannehill · Jul 22, 2002

I saw it in the theatre several times when it came out (I was 12, and at the time it was my favorite movie). It did NOT say "to be continued..." at the end of the movie until it was released on video. I saw it on its opening weekend, and probably every other week after that for 2 months. When my friends and I rented the video and saw the tacked-on teaser, I remember the huge "COOOOOOOOOOL!!!!" that erupted.

Add ten years to the age, and that's my story as well...

- Steve

Click to expand...

JohnS · Jul 22, 2002

I, without a doubt, remember seeing "to be continued" at the end, when I saw this in theaters for the very first time.

Jeff Bamberger · Jul 22, 2002

The big question I have, is do we really remember seeing the TBC in the theater from MANY years ago, or are our brains just kind of tricked since it has been on TV so many times, etc.......

Personally, I remember it in, but who knows....

All I know is December 17th can't come soon enough!!!

Matthew H · Jul 22, 2002

It's my all-time favorite film, and I can tell you that the when BTTF was orgiinally released to theaters "To Be Continued..." was not at the end of the film. After it was such a hugh success at the cinema, Universal decided to add it to the home video release in hopes of working something out with Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It's been like that since it came to video back in the 80s.

Robert Floto · Jul 22, 2002

I have ONLY seen the first Back to the Future in theatres (never on television), and I remember seeing To Be Continued at the end...

Matthew_Millheiser · Jul 22, 2002

14 years old, saw BTTF in 1985 in the theaters about a billion times, bought the novelization, taped it off cable... in 1985, BTTF was practically a religion to me.
And there was no "To Be Continued..." message at the end of the movie.
Now, perhaps on Home Video, in television broadcasts, or in theatrical re-releases it was added. But if definitely, definitely was not included on first-run prints.
"Why, I'd stake my Pulitzer on it!"

Peter Apruzzese · Jul 22, 2002

No "To Be Continued" on the print I saw opening weekend in New Jersey. First time it was shown was on the videotape release. I was working in a video store at the time and had our "store copy" cued up to the end titles to show to disbelieving friends that they added on the "To Be Continued" tag.

Looks like another "Star Wars and the Chapter IV in the initial scrolling text" type of thread.

Yep, same thing. That "Chapter IV" tag didn't exist until 1981.

Click to expand...

GlennH · Jul 22, 2002

Based on this thread, it appears that it isn't so much a conspiracy as a controversy: "Was it there originally or not?"

I did see BTTF in the theater when it first came out, and then on video, but honestly can't remember about this issue.

Joe_C · Jul 22, 2002

This seems like another one of those "time fucks with your memory" scenarios. How often have we talked about things that people SWORE were in the original print, because they "distinctly remember" them, only to have it be proven that there was no way they could have possibly seen the things they supposedly saw, when they supposedly saw them?
As for me though, I wasn't more than a preschooler at the time, so I don't remember a damn thing one way or the other

Vince Maskeeper · Jul 22, 2002

John_Berger said:

[SIZE=5 said:
THE ANSWER?[/SIZE]]

So if you believe BTTF.com (and given the fact that they are the prime source for about any minutia you can imagine associated with the films), then half the people above [amd probably a dozen more who will come along to post] all have bad memories.
-V

Mark Hanson · Jul 22, 2002

Chalk another one up that did not see the continued during the original theater run. An being of an age to add a couple more years to Steve Tanhill's, I walked out wondering if there would be a sequel. This was first run, first week timing. Since it was around a fair number of weeks and like many films of the time dropped into the dollar theater right before video release. Seeing the comments on film before the video release may have been possible.

Everything else I saw later, had the sequal bit on it. Cool was the comment the first time.

David Lambert · Jul 22, 2002

Why doesn't some enterprising person call the Big Z and ask him?

I'm sure he knows the answer, if anyone does...

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