we got knocked out
by National Lampoon...
...some National Lampoon movie.
Our big concern was that we were going
to get clobbered...
...by the Mad Max...
...Road Warrior, Beyond the Thunderdome.
-Right.
-I remember. Oh, that was going to be it.
And we rolled right over them.
So we were really excited about that.
What's interesting about this movie was...
...I went to a couple of theaters to watch itplay...
...with the public.
And people, when Michael got back...
...and he did that thing with his family....
Everyone assumed that the movie was over,
and some people started to leave...
...and then they would come running back in...
...because the movie was still going.
Because we had so many different endings
on this movie...
...thatpeople were trying to guess the endings,
and, of course, they were wrong.
Can you explain how you stay in tune
with the popular culture, what's going on?
Is that awareness important to you
and is itpart ofyour creative process?
The awareness is
thatit's a constantsort of anxiety and fear...
...because you don't know why itis,
and when it's going to go away.
And you look around and see it happening
to other filmmakers all over the place.
And the landscape of everything...
...is changing so dramatically.
But Ijust keep asking myself
the two questions which are:
"Do I want to go see this movie?"
And, "Do I think anybody else wants
to go see it?"
Because that's the best I can do,
and it's really out of my control.
We find thatifyou try to second-guess
the audience too much...
...you're going to shootyourselfin the head.
There's plenty of movies where...
...you see thatsomebody in the studio
is saying, "Oh, this is hot right now.
"We've got to put Britney Spears in a movie. "
Or whoeveritis.
Whoever's hot, or whatever the big thing is
has to be in the movie.
And it's a bad idea...
...because it's not true to somebody's vision.
Yeah, one studio executive,
when we were trying to make this movie...
...going back to the early days, you know...
...again, I won't mention his name, but he said:
"Look. Time-travel movies never work.
"Theyjust don't work. "
That's what he said.
The Back to the Future trilogy
was a huge success, of course.
I'm wondering if there were any times
where you had creative differences...
...when you were working together on the films.
We truly respect each other's talent and opinion.
What happens when we'll have
a difference of opinion aboutsomething...
...instead of believing that one of us is right
and the other one is wrong...
...I'll say, "Whatis it about this
that bothers you?"
He'll start explaining it, so that I can try
to getinside his head and figure it out.
Generally what would happen is that
we would come up with something brand-new...
...that was better
than what my original idea was...
...or what his idea was. That's true collaboration.
You get a synthesis and...
...instead of two plus two equals four,
it equals eight.
There is something about that,
that I think a movie like Back to the Future...
...which is a movie that really benefits from...
...the writers being a team.
When you have a collaboration
like mine and Bob's, whatever thatis...
...because it does work.
Another thing thatit has is...
...there's no ego involved.
When one of us comes up with a greatidea...
...the otherperson says,
"That's a really greatidea. "
That goes rightinto the script.
Why I think it's good forpop movies
like this is because...
...we're able to temper
each other's own indulgences.
So we don't getself-indulgent,
like you can when you're writing.
You don't have somebody there
killing your darlings...
...or calling you on it.
It gets very self-indulgent.
You say, "This scene is going on forever.
Cut this stuff out. "
You're making mass entertainment...
...so you might as well be collaborating.
It's notsomething that's like a poem...
...where it's supposed to bejustyour...
-... emotional