National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Back to the Future Part II was released by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment in November 1989, arriving with enormous anticipation as the direct continuation of Robert Zemeckis's beloved 1985 original. The film pushed practical and optical effects to their limits while cementing the trilogy's place in popular culture. Its vision of 2015 has since become a cultural touchstone, studied as much for its imagination as for its storytelling ambition.

This cell, titled Jennifer, Marty and Doc, captures Dr. Emmett Brown leaning over Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker in the film's opening moments, Doc dressed in his distinctive yellow hazmat-style suit and red patterned shirt. The three consecutive frames preserve a single sustained instant from that charged scene, offering a quiet, intimate look at the moment the adventure begins.