British Academy Film Awards — 2 wins, 1 nominationAcademy Awards — 1 nominationKids' Choice Award — 1 nominationSaturn Award — 1 nominationAll 2 wins · 4 nominations on record
British Academy Film Awards: Best Special Visual Effects
Scholarship
Named in the title of 1 peer-reviewed work
Examples
Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex · Library of Congress. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Back to the Future Part II arrived in 1989 from Universal Pictures, riding the momentum of the original 1985 blockbuster into a darker, more ambitious sequel. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, it split its story across three timelines, including a dystopian 1985 and a stylized vision of 2015, while looping back to the franchise's most iconic setting: 1955 Hill Valley. The film expanded the mythology established by its predecessor and cemented the trilogy's reputation for tightly constructed time-travel logic, becoming a defining piece of late-eighties studio filmmaking and a cornerstone of science fiction cinema for the era.
This cell centers on the clock tower itself, the fixed point around which the entire trilogy's time-travel mechanics revolve. Lightning striking the tower is the film series' central image of fate and precision timing, the moment that first made time travel possible and that echoes throughout every installment. A cell built around this event, rather than a character, speaks to the mythology of the franchise more broadly, the machinery of the plot rendered as a physical, historical landmark. Collectors drawn to clock tower imagery are collecting the series' foundational symbol.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Back to the Future Part II (1989).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge; spacing appears even and the punched corners are rounded and cleanly cut throughout the visible strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, consistent with a dual bilateral or variable-area mono optical track.
Edge print
Edge print reads (mirrored as captured): 'EASTMAN', 'FUJI', 'FC13' — manufacturer codes printed along the top edge of the strip.
Base & colour
Base appears with a warm amber-sepia cast to the dye image; the clear areas of the base show a slight cyan-teal tint typical of Eastman color print stock.
Projection history
No visible splices; light vertical linear marks consistent with projection wear are faintly present across the frame area.
Picture
Positive color print image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the visual content is consistent with a release print of Back to the Future Part II (1989).
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, Eastman/Fuji dual-branded stock edge codes, and warm color dye profile are all consistent with a theatrical release print from the late 1980s.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000064230
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
