National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment released Back to the Future Part II in November 1989, reuniting director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale with the cast of their 1985 blockbuster. The sequel expanded the franchise's scope dramatically, sending Marty and Doc to 2015, an alternate 1985, and back to the events of the original film. Shot on 35mm by cinematographer Dean Cundey, the production remains a landmark of late-eighties studio filmmaking and a defining vision of how popular culture imagined the near future.

This cell captures Lorraine Baines in what appears to be an interior scene, warm practical lighting catching the reflective surfaces behind her. The voluminous hair is immediately recognizable, and the dramatic quality of the light suggests one of the film's more emotionally weighted moments. A subtle splice artifact between the second and third frames is a natural characteristic of 35mm exhibition prints, a quiet reminder that this strip of acetate once ran through a projector in a darkened theater.