Action Superhero Film Review: Spider-Man 2

The second film in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy was more Peter Parker's story than Spider-Man. It also had a fantastic, realistic portrayal of Doctor Octopus that influenced the comics as much as it was influenced by them.

Peter Parker is having trouble balancing his real-world identity with that of his superhero identity as Spider-Man. He has trouble making appointments, such as classes at his university and his new job as a pizza delivery man. He loses the latter and is close to being expelled from the former.

On top of this, his best friend Harry Osborne is convinced that Spider-Man killed his father. Also, Peter and Mary Jane are still infatuated with each other, but Peter doesn't want to tell her that out of fear that she would be attacked by Spider-Man's enemies if they discovered his secret identity, as had happened to his Aunt May via the Green Goblin.

Peter tries to remain friends with MJ, but his time as Spider-Man is making that difficult as well. She is following her dream by acting in plays, however, Peter can't manage to make it on time due to his web-slinging alter ego. This isn't helped by the fact that an usher, played by Raimi's friend Bruce Campbell in his second cameo in the trilogy, won't let him in due to his tardiness.

All of this stress causes Peter to have, as he put it in No Way Home, a web block. This causes him to lose the ability to properly control his powers. This leads to a humorous scene where he has to use the elevator in costume since he can't swing through the city.

One of Peter's scientific idols, Otto Octavius, invented a device that gives him four extra metallic arms so that he can work in environments that human hands can't touch. He can control the device by thinking as he has a neural link to the device that is wired through his spine to his brain. The arms have sophisticated artificial intelligence, so he equipped a neural inhibitor to keep the AI from influencing him. 

Unfortunately, his inhibitor chip is burned out during a failed press exhibition. Octavius tried to control a ball of energy composed of an abundance of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen named hydrogen-3, or as Osborne put it, the power of the sun in the palm of his hand. Spider-Man manages to turn off the device holding the tritium, however, before he managed to pull the plug, Rosalie Octavius, the wife of Doctor Octavius is killed.

Doctor Octavius, himself, is injured during the aborted demonstration. He is taken to a hospital where the doctors try to cut his metal arms off of him. However, the AI resists and attacks the hospital staff. This scene is made in the style of a horror movie, with which director Sam Raimi is well acquainted having directed the original Evil Dead films.

After this, the arms gain control of Otto's mind. The AI takes Otto's pain of losing Rosalie as well as his life's work and magnifies the hatred he feels. He then becomes a villain which the Daily Bugle names Doctor Octopus.

The AI convinces Doc Ock to continue his experiment, even though the rational side of his mind thinks that the experiment as well as his mechanical arms should be away from humanity at the bottom of the ocean. Doctor Octopus uses his mechanical arms to break into a vault at a bank to gain money for his experiment. However, he is stopped by Spider-Man. Unfortunately, because Peter's Aunt May was screaming, Doc Ock chose her to hold captive in order to get the police to hold off on attacking him.

Peter eventually becomes frustrated with his double life, ditches his spider suit, and stops being Spider-Man. This has positive effects by allowing him to get to his university classes on time. He also makes it to Mary Jane's play. However, Mary Jane is betrothed so she isn't receptive to his attempts to get her to date him.

As for the visual effects, Doc Ock's AI-controlled mechanical arms look fantastic clawing up the side of buildings. It's amazing this was done with practical effects. In the versions that are 4K, or 3840 x 2160 pixels, even the computer-generated imagery in this film looks fantastic. My favorite scenes are the fire-damaged building where Peter, as himself, rescues a young girl, the scene where Doc Ock threw a car through the window of a cafe, as well as the final battle with Doctor Octopus.

The actors put in a fantastic performance. Tobey Maguire delivers a great performance as the struggling Peter Parker. Kirsten Dunst is also fantastic as Peter's love interest Mary Jane Watson, who is tired of him standing her up all the time. 

James Franco is also much better than he is credited for as Harry Osborn. He believes Spider-Man killed his father, so he is angry at Peter for taking pictures of, and defending the man he considers his enemy. His anger at Peter builds up throughout the film, as more of Harry's life falls apart, and I think Franco handled it well. He began with a friendly demeanor, then as he lost his family's money by funding Osborne's experiment he got angrier, then he bubbled over when he thought he was losing his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson to Peter. Like his performance as a grieving son in the first film, I found Franco's acting much better than I had originally thought before a rewatch.

Another that I originally disliked was how Aunt May, portrayed by Rosemary Harris, became cold to Peter after he told his aunt the truth about him letting the man who killed his Uncle Ben. However, like James Franco's performance at the end of the first film, I see this much differently now that I have suffered loss myself. Now I actually like that aspect, and I feel that Rosemary Harris once again put in a fantastic performance as a grieving widow who was dealing with a nephew that she felt was heading down a dark path. 

J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson and Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius are both standouts in this film. J.K. Simmons provides some much-needed comic relief in this otherwise serious story. His Jameson is so pitch-perfect that it feels just like the character so much that it is like J. Jonah Jameson himself jumped out of the comic books. In contrast, Molina delivers a fantastic performance, both as the friendly Otto Octavius and as the villainous Doctor Octopus. His performance was so good that his portrayal of Doc Ock is one for whom you feel sorry because he is a tragic villain with two personalities due to an invention he created to help humanity. Like the Green Goblin in the first film, I feel that Doctor Octopus was squandered in the trilogy as he was one of the characters who only appeared in one film. Also like the Green Goblin, however, this was thankfully rectified when Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2019.

This film is often considered not just the best Spider-Man film, but one of the best superhero films. I think I'd personally place this second to Spider-Man: No Way Home as the best Spider-Man film, but it definitely deserves its praise as one of the best superhero films ever. The actors are great, and the effects mix practical and computer-generated imagery really well. In particular, the scene where Spider-Man saves a subway train and the New Yorkers help the injured, maskless Spider-Man, is an iconic moment in film history. It advanced the philosophy of the first film, "when you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us". The film influenced Spider-Man films, and superhero films in general, and still does to this day. This is definitely a must-watch. Like the first film, I recommend the remastered and upscaled 4K Blu-ray and digital releases for both people who have never seen it before as well as those who see it as a rewatch.

Final Verdict:

5 out of 5

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Action Superhero Film Review: Spider-Man

It's been over twenty years since the first Spider-Man film that starred Tobey Maguire. However, this Spider-Man, who Marvel retroactively named the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to differentiate him from Tom Holland's Spider-Man, is getting a lot of publicity because he reappeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. Because of this, I thought it would be interesting to watch Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy to see where the twenty-first-century Spider-Man films began.

The storyline follows the comics for the most part, as a bullied teenager named Peter Parker gets bitten by a spider, gains spider abilities, and uses a red ski mask to hide his identity. He aims to make money wrestling as the Human Spider. However, the fight announcer, played by the incomparable Bruce Campbell, does not like that name and calls him Spider-Man instead. Peter is happy and more than a bit cocky when he wins the money until his Uncle Ben is killed by a man he let get away. After that, he follows Ben's advice that "with great power comes great responsibility" and designs a proper superhero suit to use his Spider-Man persona to help the people of New York City.

As was noted in No Way Home, this Spider-Man differs from the comics in a major way. Unlike any other version of Spider-Man that came before, the genetically-modified spider that bit Peter gives him the ability to shoot webs from his wrists. Other versions of the hero make the web fluid which shoots out of a wrist-mounted device called a web shooter. This leads to the iconic scene where Peter tries many wrist actions and verbal commands to learn how to shoot the webs, including a shout-out to the other Captain Marvel.

Spider-Man has two enemies in the form of a direct threat and an indirect threat. The first is the father of Peter's best friend, Norman Osborn, who owns a company that develops technology for the United States military. The second is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson, the man who buys photographs taken by Parker and uses them to print stories claiming Spider-Man is a menace.

When the board of OsCorp sells the company to a rival and fires Norman in the process, Osborn uses a jet-powered glider developed by his company and becomes the villainous Green Goblin. The Green Goblin has a suit and mask that still looks threatening today. However, it's a shame they gave him a mask as the man who plays Norman Osborn, Willem Dafoe, has a very expressive face that is squandered by covering it up. This is the main reason they chose to have Norman break the mask in No Way Home.

Both of the men, Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn and J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, are so good in their roles that Marvel didn't feature either character in Spider-Man films until the Tom Holland version of Spider-Man appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

On top of this, Peter Parker is in love with his next-door neighbor, Mary Jane Watson, who is played wonderfully by Kirsten Dunst. He is afraid to ask her out, so his best friend Harry Osborn asks her instead and becomes her boyfriend. Peter never loses his interest in her, however, leading to the wonderfully memorable and iconic moment where Peter, as Spider-Man, saves her life and then gives her an upside-down kiss in the rain.

There is another iconic moment with Mary Jane, where the Goblin drops a trolley with children and Mary Jane from a bridge. The Goblin did a similar thing with Gwen Stacy in the comics, however, things work out much better for MJ. The shot with Mary Jane falling reflected in the eyes of the Spider-Man suit still looks fantastic and gave me goosebumps even on a rewatch.

The New York citizens rallying behind Spider-Man and shooting rocks at the Goblin is something that is a common thread in the Raimi films and will be expanded on in great fashion in the next film in the trilogy. The words of one New Yorker sums up Raimi's Spider-Man philosophy well, "when you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us".

Raimi's films are the last, as of the time this review was posted, live-action films that portray Aunt May as an elderly woman, as she is in the comics. Rosemary Harris plays the part well, especially in the scene when the Green Goblin attacks her in the bedroom of her apartment when she prays to God to "deliver us from evil" as the Goblin laughs maniacally.

The shots that are done with practical effects still look amazing. Some that are done with computer-generated imagery, especially the part where the pumpkin bomb rips off half of Spider-Man's mask, still look great as well, except for the shots where Spider-Man is swinging from his webs quickly through the city. These have a bit of a dizzy-inducing quality, however, that has been alleviated in the versions that are in 4K, or 3840 x 2160 pixels. These transfers remastered and upscaled the film. Sony did a great job there, as the film has never looked so good.

When I first watched the film, I thought that James Franco, as Harry, showed bad, wooden acting at the end of the film. However, after suffering from many losses myself, I now see that this was intentional. Harry was grieving so he felt numb. He spoke completely without emotion because he felt that his world was ripped apart. This is the major aspect that I originally felt hindered the film, but looking at it with a fresh perspective, I see it as the cold, emotionless words of a man seeking revenge. Which, I'm sure, is exactly what Raimi was aiming to do.

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man still stands up remarkably well more than two decades later, except for a regrettable scene where Peter uses a homophobic slur when he taunts the wrestler Bonesaw McGraw, played by the late great Randy "Macho Man" Savage. While it does set up Harry's turn from friend to foe, Raimi's Spider-Man follows films like 1989's Batman, where a fantastic villain only appears in one film in a series. Thankfully this was finally changed when Dafoe's Green Goblin returned in No Way Home in 2021. I highly recommend watching this film for the first time or watching it again, especially in the fantastic 4K Blu-Ray and digital versions.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

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Animated Comedy Short Film Retrospective: The Cupcake Topper

I've been thinking about how to handle my projects, as I'm listing them in the Adventuress database. It wouldn't be right to do a traditional review, so instead, I'm going to do a critical retrospective for each project, listing the things I liked about them and the things that could have been done better.

The Cupcake Topper, the first short cartoon that I finished outside of shorts I made in Klik 'n' Play in high school, was released on July 14, 2009. It was created using Microsoft Paint, Paint Shop Pro, and Windows Movie Maker. The music was a waveform audio conversion of a tune in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, MIDI format. The MIDI was public domain as was the tune itself, the 1902 ragtime medley by Scott Joplin, "The Entertainer". Although it was released after YouTube's December 2008 addition of 720p videos, it was started prior to that addition. Thus, it was created in the original YouTube video resolution of 320 x 240. With the higher resolution, I would have also added things in the background to give it depth, as there was nothing in the background except whitespace.

Obviously, the first thing that would be different if this animated short were created today would be the resolution. The original resolution for YouTube videos was very small and incredibly restrictive. YouTube has since supported high-definition videos, so this animation would be created in an HD resolution.

It was also created with a restrictive paint program, Microsoft Paint. The rotated images were created with another paint program, Paint Shop Pro. This made each frame look very pixelated, with the exception of the frames with rotated images. The latter were blurred, which created a disconnect between those frames and the rest of the animation. 

On the positive side, I do like the way it turned out. The chef could have more expressions, but what is there works well as she gets upset at the bird. My mother couldn't tell what the original object was, a large pushcart with cherries on it, so I simplified it to cherries on a plate. That solidified the short and moved it toward the finish line. It works quite well, with each cherry being pecked away until there were none left. It is matched up with the music well, and The Entertainer is the perfect song for this short.

One of these days, I want to go back to this and make a high-definition remake of it. However, I'm still proud of the original. It does a lot with the technical limitations that were in place on YouTube when I first started the short.

Addendum: The short is still up on YouTube here. The short (not including any future remakes) is licensed under Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0. Basically, do whatever you want with it, as long as you credit me (and let me know, I'd love to see what people come up with). Have fun with it. :)

Animated Horror Film Review: The Tell-Tale Heart

This review was previously published on Jupiter Beagle on October 13, 2008.

The Tell-Tale Heart is a 1953 animated short film by Columbia Pictures, directed by Ed Parmalee. It is based on the famous short story of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe. This is a really spooky animated short, and it is the best adaptation of an Edgar Allen Poe short story I have seen in any medium.

The film is about a madman who kills an old man just because his eye irritates him. The murder eventually drives him crazy, and he thinks hears the beating of the man’s heart coming from where he buried him. 

The Telltale Heart is narrated with the dialog from Poe’s short story, and the narrator has a suitably macabre tone. I can understand why they decided to do this film in animation, as the visuals are stunning and really do a lot to convey the thoughts of insanity as the lead character goes farther and farther into madness. 

This short film is a brilliant adaptation of a brilliant short story, but since the subject matter is intended for mature audiences, please note that this is not a film for children. 

If you are not offended by spooky subject matter and disturbing images, do yourself a favor and watch this film as The Tell-Tale Heart is available on some streaming services. 

 Final Verdict: 

 5 out of 5

Musical Horror-Comedy Film Review: Little Shop of Horrors

This review was originally published on Jupiter Beagle on October 11, 2008.

For the next 20 days leading up to Halloween, I’m going to review some of my favorite horror-themed entertainment. To start the 20 Days of Halloween Celebration, I decided to review one of my all-time favorite films, Little Shop of Horrors. This film is based on an off-Broadway musical that itself was based on a low-budget cult-classic black and white horror film.

The film stars Rick Moranis, who plays a nerdy florist who works at a florist in a poor neighborhood. The owner, Mr. Mushnik, is about to close the shop due to weeks of little to no business when it is revealed that Seymour bought a strange plant to try to improve business. He names the plant Audrey II, after the other employee of the florist, a girl who Seymour has a huge crush on. The strange plant brings in a ton of business from curious people coming in to see it. 

Seymour soon has a problem, as the plant is slowly dying. He tries everything to make it healthy and pricks his finger on a thorn. The plant responds to the blood, and Seymour soon finds out that human blood will make the plant thrive. This is when the fun kicks in, and the horror plot soon unfolds as the plant gets larger and larger and needs more blood than Seymour can provide.

Remaking the film into a musical seems like a strange choice, but it works well. The movie is made very tongue-in-cheek with over-the-top acting, and unrealistic 1950s and 60s era American ideals. The musical actually makes all this campiness a lot of fun. The music was written by the famed musical duo of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who would later write the music for the Disney animated films Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. The music is written in the style of 1960s rock and roll and is incredibly memorable. A song sung by Steve Martin, who plays Audrey’s abusive dentist boyfriend, easily steals the show.

Fans of the original musical will be somewhat sad to know that the ending has changed here to something movie test audiences found more satisfying. In the process, one entire song from the musical is omitted from the movie and is available only on the movie’s soundtrack. However, if you want to see the original ending there are DVDs available with deleted scenes with the original ending on them. For most people, this won’t be an issue, as the new scene in question does work quite well to end the movie.

The music is wonderful and the casting is great. There are plenty of cameos of Saturday Night Live and SCTV alumni throughout the film. The movie is over-the-top and very campy, but as it is based on a low-budget horror film it works out well. If you’re a fan of musicals or horror comedies, you owe it to yourself to see this movie.

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Adventure Superhero Film Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

This review was originally posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on December 9, 2018.

The first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, chronologically, did an excellent job of maintaining an exciting story that never felt bogged down by the world-building elements. These elements, such as the Tesseract retrieved from Odin’s Vault and the shield made from vibranium, fit right into the story without feeling out of place.

The film follows Marvel’s oldest property for which they retained the film rights at the time. The film follows Steve Rogers, a sickly thin boy from Brooklyn in the 1940s. When the United States joins the Allies in World War II, Steve Rogers is a man, but his frail sickly body prevents him from being enlisted. He tries to enlist five times with five different addresses, but he is marked 4F – unfit to serve – at each examination. His childhood friend “Bucky” Barnes warns him to stop falsifying his information in trying to enlist, as it is a criminal offense that could result in prison time.

Steve ignores his friend’s advice and is caught during his next attempt to enlist. Thankfully, he was caught by a German scientist named Dr. Erskine who recognizes that Steve is a good man who wants to enlist, not for the satisfaction of killing, but to prevent the Nazis from bullying the world as he has been bullied his entire life. Steve becomes the second person to be given Erskine’s super soldier treatment after a Nazi soldier named Johann Schmidt was given the treatment prior to the point when Dr. Erskine fled to the United States. The treatment amplified what is inside people, turning Johann Schmidt into the villainous Red Skull and turning Steve Rogers into the virtuous Captain America.

Captain Rogers proves that he is more than a marketing tool when he saves his friend Bucky, and soldiers from other Allied units, from deep within enemy lines.

Red Skull has been building up Hydra within the shadows of the Nazis, an organization named after the Greek legend. The group is intent on taking over the world, including Nazi Germany, and imposing the Red Skull’s rule over all of humanity. To combat the Red Skull, Captain America forms an elite group named the Howling Commandos from a group of rescued soldiers, including his friend Bucky Barnes.

He also has help from Agent “Peggy” Carter, of the top-secret war agency the Strategic Scientific Reserve, or SSR, who develops feelings for Steve Rogers over the course of the film. Her character will later be further developed in her titular short film and television series, but Agent Carter already shows herself to be a fantastic asset to the SSR here, as she kills the driver of a car from many meters away.

The film is a fantastic adventure and a modern take on the adventure serials of the 1940s, much in the same vein as Raiders of the Lost Ark before it. It remains one of the best films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is well worth watching at least once, if not multiple times.

Final Verdict:
5 out of 5

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Making Sense of Back to the Future: Part III

The third film in the Back to the Future trilogy contains a lot of backstory for the game, so even though it doesn't include as many of the rules of the Back to the Universe as its immediate predecessor, it's still important to understand how this film works as well.

Like the second film, Back to the Future Part III begins immediately where the last film left off. Doc had sealed the DeLorean up in a cave, written Marty a note informing him that he is working as a blacksmith in 1885, and left it with the post office to be delivered 70 years into the future.

Marty enlists the help of the Doc from 1955, as the DeLorean from the cave is in bad condition and needs to be fixed with 1955 parts. However, Doc notes that the hover equipment is damaged beyond repair and the DeLorean will probably never fly again. Upon reaching the location, they find Doc's tombstone in the cemetery and are surprised to learn that the date of his death is only one week after he sent Marty the letter.  They go to the library and find a history book that proves that has a picture of Doc, taken in front of the clock of the clock tower, before it was finished being built, in 1885.  They take a picture of the tombstone, which states that Doc was "shot in the back by Buford Tannen over a matter of 80 dollars".  It also states that the tombstone was placed by Doc's "beloved Clara". Both of them have no idea who Clara is, but ultimately decide to proceed with the plan set up by the Doc from 1985, with one alteration.

The younger Doc and Marty decide to go against the wishes of the older Doc, who wanted Marty to go directly back to 1985 and leave him in the Old West. Marty instead intends to use the DeLorean to travel back to 1885 to bring Doc back home. Doc gives Marty his second silly disguise, and he takes the DeLorean time machine back to the old west. Of course, things don't work out as planned.

Upon arriving in 1885, the DeLorean winds up in the front of a group of Native Americans who are being chased by the United States Cavalry. Marty ends up driving the DeLorean into a cave before the Native Americans or the Cavalry can notice where he ended up. He finds that the gas line is leaking due to a strike by an arrow, but before he can attempt to fix it, he's chased out of the cave by a bear. Marty hits his head and is found by his great, great grandparents.

Upon entering town Marty takes the name of "Clint Eastwood", and then proceeds to embarrass Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, who chases Marty with his gang, catches him, and strings him up on a noose to hang him.  Marty is rescued by Doc, who shoots the rope from which Marty is hanging with a homemade sniper rifle.  Buford informs Doc that he owes him eighty dollars for a horse that he shot after the horse lost a shoe that Doc had put on the horse. Doc refuses to pay as Buford never paid to have the shoes put on the horse in the first place. Marty then informs Doc that he will be killed by Buford in a week due to the fact that Doc didn't pay him the money.

Doc also learns of the damage to the time machine, but Marty seems unfazed as he is under the mistaken impression that the Mr. Fusion nuclear reactor that Doc used to convert garbage to energy can be used to power the DeLorean. Doc corrects Marty, as he explains that the Mr. Fusion is only used to power the fusion generator of the time circuits in place of the plutonium that it previously used. The DeLorean itself still uses a standard combustion engine to run and needs gasoline in order to function.

Several test runs of ideas ranging from using alcohol to fuel the DeLorean, to pulling the DeLorean with horses, fail. Doc then decides to instead use a steam locomotive to push the DeLorean up to eighty-eight miles per hour. They learn that a train will be coming by the morning that Doc is supposed to die and decide that, although it is cutting it close, they should be able to make it if they head right to the train and avoid Buford.

However, Doc and Marty soon find a woman whose horses have been spooked by a snake and is about to head into the ravine.  Doc saves her and discovers that she is Clara Clayton, a school teacher. They fall in love at first sight, which Doc had originally passed off as an impossibility for his scientifically oriented mind. Marty tells Doc that the ravine is known in 1985 Clayton ravine. It was renamed from Shonash ravine after a teacher fell into it and died one hundred years earlier. Doc realizes that Clara was meant to die in that ravine, and is concerned that he had changed history.

In the previous timeline, before Marty went back to get Doc, Doc had volunteered to pick Clara up at the station. That gave them a week to get to know each other and led to Clara making the epitaph on Doc's grave when he died.  In this timeline, however, Marty's appearance caused Doc to forget to pick her up, which led to the snakes spooking the horses as they did before Doc traveled to 1885. However, Doc rescued her, leading them to fall in love as they had in the timeline before Marty arrived.

Clara tells Doc that she hopes that she'll see him at the Hill Valley Festival.  Doc states that she will, and both he, and Marty, as "Clint Eastwood", attend the festival.  While there, Mad Dog Tannen smuggles in a gun, which has only one small bullet that is said to take a week for the injuries to kill a man. Doc realizes that this is where he died, so he purposely keeps facing Tannen. As Mad Dog is about to shoot Doc, Marty uses a Frisbee brand pie tin to knock the gun out of his hand, causing the bullet to merely graze Doc's hat.

Mad Dog calls Marty "yellow", which gets at his weakness, which is to never allow anyone to call him chicken. He agrees to a duel on the day of the train's arrival, assuming that they will be out of there by then. However, Doc points out that it is possible that the train might be late. Marty's great-grandfather is disappointed in "Clint", and tells him the story of his brother Martin who was killed by a stabbing because he would always do foolish things simply because someone called him a coward.

Later, Marty points out that the picture of the tombstone no longer states that Doc died, so he assumes that their plan will work.  However, Doc points out that if the future was already written, it doesn't make sense for the tombstone and the date of the death, as well as for the picture itself, to still exist. Doc tells Marty that the future still is being written, and it is still possible that Marty will be the one to be killed on that day.

Doc and Clara fall even more in love when it is revealed that they both share a love of science, with him being a scientist and student of all sciences, and her loving science since her father gave her a telescope as a child.  They both also love Jules Verne novels, as his words were what inspired both of them to be interested in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.  Doc decides that he wants to take Clara with them, so he tries to tell her the truth.  She thinks that he is abusing her love of Jules Verne to make lies to break up with him, and tells Emmett that she never wants to see him again.

Doc gets depressed from his heartbreak and goes to the saloon to pour his heart out. The patrons at the bar find his stories of the future humorous, and when Marty arrives, on the day of the duel, he thinks that Doc is drunk. Marty convinces Doc that they need to go, and Doc drinks the whiskey in front of him.  He then passes out. The bartender tells Marty he only had one drink and is known for not being able to hold his liquor.

The bartender gives Doc a drink to make him sober, and everyone waits for Doc to wake up. Marty then hears Mad Dog Tannen outside and discovers that it is now "Clint Eastwood" who is stated on the photograph to die. He tries to sneak out the back, but Doc, who had awoken from his drunken sleep, is captured by Mad Dog. Doc tries to get Marty to leave and save himself, but Marty can't leave his friend behind.

Marty goes out to face Mad Dog but drops his gun telling him that he won't fight. Mad Dog then proceeds to shoot him and cockily walks up to what he thinks is "Clint's" dead body. However, Marty had taken a door from a stove, and used it as a make shift bullet proof vest, as he had seen in a Clint Eastwood film shown at Biff's Pleasure Paradise in Back to the Future Part II. Marty then knocks Mad Dog Tannen out, and the lawmen proceed to arrest Tannen and his gang.  At this point, the picture now just shows grass, which means that the future hasn't yet been completely written (possibly indicating that Doc plants the tombstone at some point in order to make sure that Marty arrives in the past to prevent a paradox).

Wearing bandanas over their mouths like outlaws, Marty and Doc hold up the train and claim that it is a science experiment.  They disconnect the engine from the other cars and drive it up to the DeLorean, which is already on the unused portion of the tracks. Doc has prepared his own type of presto logs, which are color coded to get hotter and make the train go faster once it reaches certain speeds. Marty is in the DeLorean from the start, and Doc plans on catching up once the logs reach a certain level.

However, Clara, who learned that Doc was torn up about their breakup, and discovered Doc's model DeLorean time machine in his workshop, had jumped from her horse to the moving train.  Doc is just moving to the DeLorean when he hears the whistle blow.  He sees Clara and goes back to rescue her. However, at this point, the DeLorean has passed the point of no return, and it's too late.  Marty slides the hoverboard back to Doc, and he safely glides away with Clara in his arms.  Marty then successfully goes back to 1985, as the train in 1885 crashes in the ravine.

The DeLorean crosses the now completed bridge across the ravine, which is now named "Eastwood Ravine". Marty hears a train whistle and jumps out of the DeLorean just before the collision.  However, the DeLorean is broken into pieces by the train.  Marty states that Doc has gotten his wish, as the DeLorean has been destroyed.

Marty then goes and gets Jennifer, who at first thinks that everything was a crazy dream.  However, once they reach Marty's classmate Douglas Needles, he tries to coax Marty into drag racing him by calling him chicken.  Marty then pretends to comply, but backs up, as, after the advice given by his great, great grandfather, he has learned to not be intimidated by bullies any longer.  Marty sees Needles narrowly miss a Rolls-Royce and realizes that he would have hit it. Jennifer then realizes that it wasn't a dream and pulls out the fax she took in the future.  She sees the message that Marty has been fired become faded until it is erased.

Marty and Jennifer go to the train track to look at the wreckage of the DeLorean, and they become sad that they will never see Doc again. At that moment, Doc appears in a steam-powered time train. He and Clara now have young sons, Jules and Verne. Doc had previously come back to the 1980s to pick up Einstein and had traveled to the 2010s to have the train hover converted. Doc and his family then leave to the past, and the original trilogy comes to a close.

However, the story is continued in Back to the Future: The Game, which takes place six months after Doc leaves Jennifer and Marty in 1985 in his time train.  The story is certainly a fun one, but it takes its cues from the second film in terms of confusing moments.

But first, we'll take a detour towards IDW's comics, as they explain a lot of mysteries from the films.

Back to Part II

Halloween Treats

Happy Halloween everyone!

As is tradition on most years, Dave Grossman has updated his Pumpkin House of Horrors with a new pumpkin monstrosity.  In addition, Graham Annable has released a brand new spooky Grickle short toon, The Webb.

Here's a bonus, as even though it's not Halloween related, it is October 2015 related.  Universal has released a brand new official Back to the Future short called Doc Brown Saves the World on the Back to the Future 30th Anniversary DVD and Blu-Ray film releases.  The short takes place in 'our' universe, as it explains why our October 2015 doesn't have the futuristic equipment seen in the Back to the Future trilogy, Telltale's game, and the animated series.  If you want to see the whole thing, you'll have to pick up the box set, but Universal released a teaser trailer on YouTube.