This ‘Back to the Future’ Quiz Is Your Density!

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox, 64) stuns the 1955 crowd with an electrifying performance of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” — a song that wasn’t written until 1958. Backed by Marvin Berry and the Starlighters, Marty lets loose with guitar riffs and rock ’n’ roll moves that leave the audience wide-eyed and speechless. Marvin famously calls his cousin Chuck to let him hear this “new sound,” cheekily suggesting that Marty may have invented rock ’n’ roll. Of course, by the time he launches into full-blown guitar heroics, the teens are more confused than impressed. “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet,” he says. “But your kids are gonna love it.”

In 1985, Doc Brown’s faithful lab companion was a pooch named Einstein, played by a dog named Tiger. In subsequent films, Doc (played by Christopher Lloyd, 86) has dogs named Copernicus and Galileo, choosing to always name his dogs after famous scientists. But it almost wasn’t a dog at all. In an early draft of Back to the Future, it was a chimpanzee named Shemp. However, the studio wasn’t on board with it. Cowriter Bob Gale, 74, recalled in a 2010 interview with CNN that Universal executives shut the idea down hard, telling him, “No movie with a chimpanzee ever made any money.” So Shemp was scrapped and Einstein took his place, becoming the world’s first time-traveling canine instead.

Marty dons a yellow radiation suit and sneaks into George’s bedroom at night, blasting loud rock music through a Walkman. Posing as an alien, he claims to be “Darth Vader, an extraterrestrial from the planet Vulcan” and threatens to melt George’s brain unless he asks out Lorraine (Marty’s future mom, played by Lea Thompson, 64). The next day, a shaken George recounts the otherworldly visit and takes the warning to heart, proving Marty’s sci-fi scare tactic worked like a charm.

Biff Tannen, played by Thomas F. Wilson, 66, isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he is determined to make George McFly’s life difficult — at least until Marty steps in and shows his (future) dad how to fight back. (And it isn’t by pointing out Biff’s lazy metaphors.) Wilson, a comedian, reprised his role as various Tannen relatives throughout the Back to the Future trilogy. In 2005 he released a song called “The Question Song” based on questions that film fans would ask him.

The mall was originally named Twin Pines Mall, a nod to the twin pine trees that once stood on the site. However, when Marty travels back to 1955, he accidentally runs over one of Otis Peabody’s beloved pine trees. When he returns to 1985, the mall sign has changed to Lone Pine Mall — a subtle but brilliant example of the film’s attention to detail and time-travel continuity.