National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Back to the Future Part II was released by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment in November 1989, arriving as one of the most anticipated sequels of its decade. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film expanded the original's mythology into a fully realized future and an alternate timeline, cementing the franchise as a landmark of American popular cinema and science fiction filmmaking.

This cell, titled DeLorean, captures a three-frame progression of the iconic time machine in powered flight against an urban backdrop. Shot from a low angle, the sequence moves from visible exhaust flame through an intensifying blue-white flare until the vehicle is nearly consumed by light, almost certainly drawn from a time-travel jump sequence — a defining visual signature of the series.