MovieChat Forums > Back to the Future (1985) Discussion > Marty smacking his head after getting hi...

Marty smacking his head after getting hit by car


This looked real. Anyone know how they filmed this? Every time I watch this I cringe at the visual and sound of his head smacking the pavement

reply

I'm not sure about this movie but I know that in other movies they use heavy duty rubber blended into the surrounding terrain and edit in the bump. I don't like it either, one of my best friends had an aneurysm from the exact same thing.

We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow.

reply

It's gotta be rubber. I know they used some sort of padding that was painted to look like blacktop for the alley fight scene in They Live. It's just an issue of making it look like actual road.

I agree, it's painful to watch.

---
Can you believe it? My Harvard tie. Like oh, sure, he went to Harvard.

reply

It's one of the most painful things I have ever seen in a movie, and I have seen Fight Club and Mr. Bean's Holiday.

I know the sound is dubbed in after, but darn it's an effective scene, especially since he hits his head twice.

The only annoying part about it is that Lorraine pointing out the big bruise is wrong, considering where the bump should factually be.

reply

This idea, that I have heard around the internet, is that Fox, in order to achieve realism for that scene, ACTUALLY hit his head on the pavement. Not real hard, mind you, as it was filmed probably with Fox sitting on the ground and then rolling backwards.
But, what I have heard from some other sources on the internet (and we know how accurate they are!) is that the scene was an early contributor to his getting Parkinson's disease.

reply

I actually think I saw him doing an interview looooooooooong ago where he mentioned he was getting "twinges" in his hands every now and then even when filming Family Ties and BTTF, not realizing at the time that they were early symptoms of Parkinson's.

reply

Hmmm. That could very well be.

reply

It wasn't. Parkinson's disease starts in the brain a good five to ten years before the person starts experiencing obvious physical symptoms. The truth is, Fox would've already had Parkinson's at this time, he just didn't know it.

It wasn't until 1991 when the obvious signs hit him and he got a tremor in one of his hands but even in 1989 on the set of Back To The Future 2 he didn't feel right because he had to re-enact the Johnny B.Goode scene, and he said he felt exhausted even though it was just 4 years later and he was only 28/29. In fact, you can actually see one of his eyes twitching just before his other self hits him with the door when he confronts Biff. Then on Back To The Future 3, he nearly hung himself because he did that stunt himself where Buford tries to hang Marty but his slower/awkward movements meant he mistimed his reaction with the rope.

In his book Lucky Man he talks about how a building in Vancouver was been investigated by scientists where he filmed a show called Leo and Me as a teen. Apparently three other people in Fox's age group who worked with him in that building had also got young onset Parkinson's disease later in life so it was possibly been exposed to certain environmental pollutants such as pesticide.

reply

Interesting ...
Well, like I said my post, I had read that it could have been an early contributor to his Parkinson's disease, and of course, not everything posted on the internet is true (or accurate).
Anyway, I think that Parkinson's is an insidious disease that I would not wish on my worst enemy.

reply

BTW, that's not SMACKING. That's BUMPING.

reply

Agreed - the sound was a bit too real.

reply

Marty is sort of a klutz. He takes several bumps and pratfalls in the movie...I'm sure he was taken care of.

reply