Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Elisabeth Shue
Running Time: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Theatrical Release Date: May 25, 1990
4K UHD Release Date: October 14, 2025 (Amazon.com)
BacktotheFutureIII
BacktotheFutureIII
Plot Summary
Stranded in 1955, Marty McFly learns about the death of Doc Brown in 1885 and must travel back in time to save him. With no fuel readily available for the DeLorean, the two must figure how to escape the Old West before Emmett is murdered.
(from IMDb)
Film Review
One, three, two. It’s probably an unpopular opinion, but that’s my official ranking of the Back to the Future trilogy. I have a beef with the heightened, more goofy tone of the sequels (and the over usage of characters saying the film’s title as often as possible), but it’s just nice to see Marty and Doc back together again, zooming through time in the Delorean and fighting to keep from messing up history — too badly.
So, after the surprisingly dark entry that was Back to the Future, Part II, the third and final film, Back to the Future, Part III wraps things up in a much different way. While there’s a little bit of romance between Marty and Jennifer, there isn’t a big romantic storyline in the first two films. If anything, it’s more of a buddy story between Marty and Doc. But for Part III, Doc finds a love interest while stuck in 1885. As it turns out, his very presence in the past saves school teacher Clara Clayton from an untimely death where her horse otherwise tossed her into a ravine, which was even named after her (Clayton Ravine) in 1985. He instead escorts the teacher from the train station to the town and it’s love at first sight for the inventor. While it’s weird to see Doc in love, it’s a twist on his beliefs and character because love is such a foreign idea to the scientist, who mostly knows how to think with his head, not his heart. This time, Marty becomes the level-headed one who has to remind Doc of the dangers of messing with history and the impact their time traveling has on it. While Part II shook up the present, imagined the future and revisited 1955, Part III shakes up the characters of Doc and Marty a bit more, giving them both different – and arguably satisfying – character arcs.
One such arc is Marty being provoked by being called a coward. It’s a character trait introduced suddenly in Part II (which was absent entirely in the original film), and it clearly got him in trouble each time. By the conclusion of Part III, Marty realizes what someone else says about him isn’t important and isn’t worth losing his senses over — and that’s a valuable lesson for us all. (Honestly? It’s something that has helped me not argue with petty Internet trolls over the years.)
Sadly, while I do like Part III, it suffers from a handful of the problems that Part II also has. The acting and performances are sillier at times (ugh, the visual magnifying glass gag is cringy – both times, as well as Doc’s horrified reaction at realizing Marty is back in 1955 – coupled with the dramatic piano music Doc accidentally creates as he recoils in fear). It’s like Zemeckis was catering more to the younger audiences this time — but in the wrong way (dialing up the silly and not dialing back enough on, say, profanity). Fox and Lloyd seem to be a bit more grounded with their performances this time, though, and their on-screen friendship feels warmer this time around. However, the fact they them say variations of “We have to go back to the future!” not once, not twice, but several times, is terribly corny. But, alas, these are rather minor gripes.
Seeing Hill Valley in 1885 is a lot of fun. Part II does tease events and characters from Part III, like introducing outlaw Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen, and dressing Doc in a train-themed shirt (which also becomes part of his mask when they steal the train in Part III), or having Biff watching a Clint Eastwood film (where he fashions a makeshift bulletproof vest, too), which all make the sequels feel more cohesive. But the fact that Marty’s ancestor Seamus is not only Fox in disguise again, but Seamus’ wife happens to be another version of Lorraine (Lea Thompson) makes very little sense (or it’s just gross when you think that Lorraine Baines could actually be related to the McFly’s. Ha!). In truth, I think it’s just an effort to keep Lea Thompson involved in the third film, and I suppose, in that case, it’s fine. Seeing Marty and Doc both as fish out-of-water in a time where characters practically live in saloons and settle disputes with gun duels is a fun treat. If you like westerns, Back to the Future, Part III is a blast, and serves as both homage and spoof to the genre.
The content for Back to the Future III is probably the most family friendly of all three movies. There’s still a handful of cussing, mostly from Marty, including 5 uses of the “S” word, 2 of “S.O.B,” 8 “h*ll,” 9 “d*mn,” and 2 “*ssh*le.” Surprisingly, there’s only one use of God’s name as an exclamation, making this the only movie of the three that doesn’t take Jesus’ name in vain multiple times. There’s some violence, but it’s never lethal, while the villain, Mad Dog, threatens to shoot Marty and Doc several times. The climactic duel between Marty and Mad Dog has Marty getting shot, but he ends up being fine. There isn’t really any sexual content, but a gag shows part of Marty’s bare butt when the flap of his long johns is partially hanging open.
While the first Back to the Future movie is a near-perfect film, the sequels are messy follow-ups at best. They’re charming for the most part, and offer fans more of what they loved from the first movie, but they never quite rise up to the quality of the first adventure. Again, Back to the Future, Part III is easily my second-favorite of the three, and while that’s an unpopular opinion among much of the fanbase, I personally stand by it.
Regarding its 4K transfer- I wasn’t too impressed with the 4K digital copy, but the 4K disc looks sharper and more vibrant. I’d say that this isn’t the most dazzling 4K transfer you can find, but it’s a nice little update for this 35-year-old film.
– John DiBiase (reviewed: 12/4/25)
Parental Guide: Content Summary
Sex/Nudity: Mad Dog forces himself on Clara to dance, and does so in a somewhat suggestively lewd way; You can see part of Marty’s bare butt cheek in the back of his open long john’s.
Vulgarity/Language: At least 5 “S” words, 2 “*ssh*le,” 2 “S.O.B,” 8 “h*ll,” 9 “d*mn,” 1 “G-d”
Alcohol/Drugs: A saloon bartender pours whiskey for Marty, but he doesn’t want it; Marty and Doc pour alcohol into the Delorean engine and it blows out part of the engine; Doc goes into a saloon where folks are drinking and orders whiskey and asks the bartender to leave the bottle; Doc drinks the whiskey shot and falls forward onto a table, breaking it and drink glasses on top of it.
Blood/Gore: When Marty walks into town, we briefly see a butcher chopping raw meat; It looks like Buford might have a little blood on his mouth after being punched several times.
Violence: In a recap of what happened at the end of Back to the Future, Part II, we see Doc hanging from the clocktower, ziplining down to the ground and getting electocuted by lightning when he tries to reconnect the cables by hand; When 1955 Doc sees Marty is back again, right after just having left, he passes out and falls over in the street; The next morning at Doc’s house, he freaks out when he sees Marty, having thought that seeing him again the night before was just a dream; 1955 Doc and Marty blow open a mine shaft with dynamite; Doc fires a gun in the air to signal for Marty to take off in the Delorean; When Marty speeds towards a drive-in wall that has a mural painting of Indians on horses. When he arrives in 1885, that mural flashes to a real row of Indians on horses. He freaks out and turns the Delorean around to escape them (as they shoot arrows at him); Marty gets out of the car and looks over a hill to see the charging cavalry. He then dives into the cave till they pass; Marty screams and runs away from a bear when he sees it inside the cave; While running, Marty stumbles and rolls down a hill, and hits his head when crashing into a wooden fence; When Marty walks into town, we briefly see a butcher chopping raw meat; Mad Dog tells Marty to “dance,” so Marty does the Moon Walk and ends by jumping on a board, knocking a spittoon into the air, which lands on, and pours out onto Mad Dog; In anger, they chase Marty out of the saloon, then rope him with a lasso and drag him through the dirt to the clocktower in the town square. They rope his throat and string him up. Doc shows up, though, and shoots the rope, freeing Marty; Marty and Doc pour alcohol into the Delorean engine and it blows out part of the engine in a mini explosion; Mad Dog forces himself on Clara to dance. She stomps on his foot and he throws her to the ground. Doc steps in and Mad Dog is about to shoot him when Marty throws a pie plate, knocking the gun shot out of the way of Doc, just shooting his hat off; Clara slaps Doc across the face; Mad Dog kicks his guys, who are sleeping around a campfire, to wake them up; Doc drinks the whiskey shot and falls forward onto a table, breaking it and drink glasses on top of it; After they make a “wake-up juice” cocktail and pour it into Doc’s mouth, he screams and runs out to a trough and drops face-first into it. The bartender and Marty pull him out; Mad Dog’s guys shoot at them as they try to escape through the saloon backdoor. Marty jumps into a room and stumbles into an iron oven; During the duel, Marty tries to tell Mad Dog they should talk it out instead of shooting each other. Mad Dog refuses and shoots Marty, who flies backwards onto his back;
Marty kicks the gun from his Mad Dog’s hand. Mad Dog punches him in the chest, but hits the iron stove door that Marty used as a bulletproof vest. Marty then takes it off and hits him in the face with it. Then Marty punches him several times till he falls over face-first into a grave headstone, splitting it in two; A small explosion on the train throws Clara backward; Clara falls from the side of the train and hangs off of it as Doc tries to reach her to help. Doc tries to help her when another explosion rocks them both; The train barrels towards the cliff’s edge. Doc catches her and gets to safety as the train crashes off the cliff in a firey explosion below; A train crashes through the Delorean, tearing it to shreds as Marty jumps out of the way; Needles tries to drag race with Marty, but he decides to drive backwards instead of forward, and they watch as Needles’ car narrowly misses hitting another car, and Marty’s car would have hit it for sure; A time machine entry energy burst blows Marty and Jennifer backward onto the grass.
Disclaimer: All reviews are based solely on the opinions of the reviewer. Most reviews are rated on how the reviewer enjoyed the film overall, not exclusively on content. However, if the content really affects the reviewer’s opinion and experience of the film, it will definitely affect the reviewer’s overall rating.
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